Plays and Musicals
CROSSROADS (MUSICAL)
It’s 1914 at the Potter home in the rural community of Crossroads, which serves as family residence, doctor’s office, boarding house, and telephone exchange. For Grandpa, a crusty, retired hellfire-and-brimstone minister; his daughter, Miss Eva, widow of a country doctor who’s practicing medicine without a license; Eva’s imaginative and restless teenage daughter Nell; trusted handyman Lomax; and schoolteacher/switchboard operator Lavinia, life is pretty humdrum. That is, until a train carrying Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show derails nearby. Suddenly there are buffaloes in the cornfields and cowboys and Indians roaming through the neighborhood. A handsome refugee from the wreck arrives at the Potter home and quickly turns things upside down, leading all to confront their dreams.
Cast: 3 male, 3 female. Unit set. Fifteen original songs. Scored for four-piece musical ensemble. Optional accompaniment CD available. Approximate running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes. Premier: June-July, 2003 at Blowing Rock Stage Company, Blowing Rock, NC.
For information and performance rights, contact Dramatic Publishing Company, PO Box 129, Woodstock, IL 60098. www.dramaticpublishing.com
THE CHRISTMAS BUS
It’s Christmas Eve Day, and Miz Frump, the frazzled, warm-hearted director of the Peaceful Valley Orphanage, is setting off in a rickety old school bus to give her kids some magic – Christmas with families she has recruited across the county. The problem is, she hasn’t asked permission from the Busybodies who run the orphanage board of trustees. A simple bus ride becomes a harum-scarum adventure as Frump and her orphans are pursued by the Busybodies and the suspicious Sheriff Snodgrass. Along the way, they pick up a traveling folksinger who’s on the way home to see his girlfriend, who may not be very happy to see him. “The Christmas Bus” is a holiday story of love, laughter, serendipity, and family.
Cast: 3 males, 5 females, 9 children (expandable). One int./one ext. set. Approximate running time: 65 minutes. Premier: December, 2003 at Blowing Rock Stage Company, Blowing Rock, NC.
For information and performance rights, contact Dramatic Publishing Company, PO Box 129, Woodstock, IL 60098. www.dramaticpublishing.com
DAIRY QUEEN DAYS
16-year-old Trout Moseley is having a hard time. His father, a 300-pound minister going through a crisis of theological angst, rides away on a motorcycle on Easter Sunday morning. His mother, Irene, is hospitalized in Atlanta with severe depression. And now he’s abruptly moved to Moseley, Georgia – a town and textile mill his family founded decades earlier and still controls. As Trout tries to discover who he is and deal with parents coming unglued, he also has to face the burden of the Moseley family’s extended history. He finds refuge behind the counter at the local Dairy Queen, where his life is made alternately crazy and hopeful by Keats Dubarry, daughter of an angry mill activist. Trout finds that growing up is a bittersweet experience, and that his salvation must ultimately come from within. Adapted by Robert Inman from his novel.
Cast: 4 male, 3 female. Approximate running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes. Premier: October, 2006 at Blowing Rock Stage Company, Blowing Rock, NC.
For information and performance rights, contact Buddy Thomas, International Creative Management, Inc., 40 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019. BThomas@icmtalent.com.
THE CHRISTMAS BUS: THE MUSICAL
Miz Frump, the bumbling but dedicated director of the Peaceful Valley Orphanage, wants her kids to experience an extra special Christmas with a real family – and no one will stop her! Not the law-abiding Sheriff Snodgrass, not the gossipy town Busybodies, not even a broken down old school bus that’s seen better days. Add a hitchhiking troubadour with a few dreams of his own, and you have a rollicking Christmas musical for the whole family. Fifteen original songs turn Miz Frump and her orphans into a singing, dancing busload of adventurers. Premier: December, 2006 at Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, Charlotte NC.
Cast: 3 males, 5 females, 8 children (expandable). 1 ext./1 int. set. Scored for five-piece musical ensemble. Approximate running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.
For information and performance rights, contact Buddy Thomas, International Creative Management, Inc., 40 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019. BThomas@icmtalent.com.
