Dramatic Literature for Children: A Century In Review (second edition)
Edited with introduction and essays by Roger L. Bedard.
Product Code: DC4000
Collection
Comedy | Drama
Rights and availability
Please note: The titles in this collection cannot be licensed directly from the collection book. If you wish to perform one of the titles in this collection, you will need to purchase separate scripts for that title.
* Please note the royalty rate listed is the minimum royalty rate per performance. The actual royalty rate will be determined upon completion of a royalty application.
Synopsis
Dr. Roger L. Bedard, noted theorist and historian of theatre for young audiences, has updated this classic anthology to offer contemporary perspectives on the growth and development in the field through the 20th century, featuring 14 benchmark plays by noted playwrights with commentary by Bedard. Building on the first edition and published in 1984, Bedard has selected several new plays and contributed new commentary, including a historical overview which considers the field in the contest of wider social and cultural issues. This second edition also includes a bibliography of anthologies of plays for young audiences compiled by Katherine Krzys, curator of the Child Drama Collection at Arizona State University. An important anthology; the first to trace the evolution of child drama across the last 100 years in dramatic works and commentary.
Details
- Status In stock
- Type of Show Collection
- Product Code DC4000
Categories
- Target Audience Young Audiences | Middle School | High School
- Performing Group Middle School | High School
- Genre Comedy | Drama
- ISBN(13) 9780876020388
Included Titles
The Highest Heaven By José Cruz González.
The Highest Heaven is intended for families and young audiences. The play's themes explore the Depression, butterflies, hobos, Mexico, growing up and conservation. The Highest Heaven premiered with Childsplay Inc., Arizona, and was subsequently presented at the Mark Taper Forum's P.L.A.Y.
- Product Code: H78000
- Genre:
- Cast Size: 3m., 2w. (some doubling.)
- Approx. Run Time: 55 min.
Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available
Tomato Plant Girl By Wesley Middleton.
Bossy has forbidden Little Girl to touch her precious tomato plant. But if the plant doesn't get watered soon, it will die. When Bossy leaves to visit her grandma, Little Girl uproots the plant in a valiant rescue, and a messy girl-creature springs out of the earth. Soon, Little Girl is playing games with Tomato Plant Girl. Maybe Little Girl has found a new Best Friend. But what will they do when Bossy returns?
- Product Code: TD4000
- Genre: Comedy,Drama
- Cast Size: 3w. (May be expanded with "stagehand" roles.)
- Approx. Run Time: 80 min.
The Wrestling Season By Laurie Brooks.
Using only the setting of a wrestling mat, eight young people struggle with the destructive power of rumors and how others see them. The action is overseen by The Referee, who comments from inside and outside the drama with hand signals and commands. Using images, movement and sound, cast members function as a chorus and as individual characters whose stories are interwoven to create a theatrical event that challenges and reveals their search for identity.
- Product Code: W89000
- Genre: Drama
- Cast Size: 4m., 4w., 1 either gender.
- Approx. Run Time: 70 min.
Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available
The Ice Wolf Adapted by Joanna H. Kraus.
From the East Coast Hudson Bay Inuits comes an exciting, authentic tale of a pale-haired child, exiled by her own people because she was "Anatou—the different one." In a village ruled by spirits, shamans, superstition and myth, such a different one has no place. When her parents disappear in a storm, and Anatou is cast out by the community. She seeks out the forest, into which no Inuit goes, and begs the Wood God to turn her into a wolf.
- Product Code: I99000
- Genre: Drama
- Cast Size: 8m., 7w.
- Approx. Run Time: 60 min.
Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available
Androcles and the Lion Book by Aurand Harris. Music by Glenn Mack.
Refreshingly antic, this irreverent version of Aesop's fable is written in the style of Italian commedia dell'arte. Using authentic staging and stock characters of commedia—the miserly Pantalone, the bragging Captain, the romantic lovers, the trickster Arlequin, plus an endearing lion—this fable becomes a colorful theatrical experience with zany comedy and the warmth of friendship.
- Product Code: AE3000
- Genre: Comedy,Drama
- Cast Size: 5m., 1w.
- Approx. Run Time: 90 min.
Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available
The Arkansaw Bear By Aurand Harris.
Saddened by her grandfather's death, Tish runs to her special tree and meets the world's greatest dancing bear. He is old too and is running away from death. In trying to help him, she begins to understand the meaning of both life and death, which helps her to cope with her own sadness.
- Product Code: AE8000
- Genre: Comedy,Drama
- Cast Size: 1w., 5 either gender.
- Approx. Run Time: 50 min.
Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available
The Ghost of Mr. Penny By Rosemary G. Musil.
Playing with her friends in the abandoned stable of the old Penny estate, Sally discovers an easygoing tramp. Her nimble imagination conceives him to be the long-lost Mr. Penny.
- Product Code: G93000
- Genre: Comedy
- Cast Size: 4m., 2 boys, 2 girls.
- Approx. Run Time: 60 min.
Jack and the Wonder Beans Adapted by Larry Snipes. From the book by James Still.
In an Appalachian setting, the classic Jack and the Beanstalk is enhanced by traditional folk melodies and audience participation.
- Product Code: J49000
- Genre: Drama
- Cast Size: 6m., 3w., or 5 minimum (3m., 2w.) with doubling.
- Approx. Run Time: 60 min.
Reynard the Fox Developed from legends by Arthur Fauquez. Translated from French by Marie-Louise Roelants.
Reynard cannot resist an opportunity to trick his fellow animals. He accumulates a long list of misdeeds and is brought to trial. The bear and wolf have a noose around his neck when hunters start to close in, trapping all the animals.
- Product Code: R96000
- Genre: Satire
- Cast Size: 6m., 1w.
- Approx. Run Time: 100 min.
Rumpelstiltskin Adapted by Charlotte B. Chorpenning. From the story by the Brothers Grimm.
From the story by the Brothers Grimm, this is a play of intrigue, showing that greed can never master the world.
- Product Code: RA6000
- Genre: Drama
- Cast Size: 8m., 7w.
- Approx. Run Time: 75 min.
Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available
The Yellow Boat By David Saar.
This play is based on the true story of a boy, who was born with congenital hemophilia and died at the age of 8 of AIDS-related complications. A uniquely gifted visual artist, Benjamin's buoyant imagination transformed his physical and emotional pain into a blaze of colors and shapes in his fanciful drawings and paintings. Benjamin's remarkable voyage continues to touch audiences around the world.
- Product Code: Y29000
- Genre: Drama,Tragedy
- Cast Size: 4m., 3w.
- Approx. Run Time: 75 min.
Limited Streaming Rights Available
Step on a Crack By Suzan Zeder.
In Step on a Crack, Ellie Murphy lived happily with her widowed father, Max, bowling, eating TV dinners and playing with junk. But now, suddenly, life is different. Max has remarried, and Ellie has a stepmother. Ellie and her imaginary friends launch into a fantasy world as Ellie seeks to escape real-life problems. Only by running away and discovering what it is really like to be alone does Ellie begin to come to terms with herself and her own need for a mother.
- Product Code: S1G000
- Genre: Comedy,Drama
- Cast Size: 2m., 4w.
- Approx. Run Time: 90 min.