Possible plays for a big group

Well my Thesbian Society needs a play but there's like 30 of us. Double-casting can be done but we only got Bad Seed and Our Town.

Any other suggestions? And only plays no musicals.

If it's ok that some of the roles are really small, there's The Man Who Came To Dinner. Let's see, there's the five members of the Stanley family; Whitestone; and Nurse Preen (that's 7); Banjo; the doctor; Whiteside's secretary; the reporter; Beverley; and Lorraine (13 so far); the Stanley daughter's boyfriend; the maid and the butler; the radio technicians (1 or 2); the luncheon guests/convicts (3 of them) for at least 20 characters so far; the expressman (or -men), the policeman, and I know I'm forgetting a bunch. At any rate, the Wikipedia page lists the original Broadway cast, and there are thirty characters. Whoever plays Beverley has to sing a short bit of a song, but he doesn't have to do it particularly well.

Shakespeare is a good bet for large casts, but in my experience there's never enough female parts to go around. For an all-female cast, I like to recommend La Casa De Bernarda Alba (10 woman ensemble, plus at least 6 extras), but for mixed companies there's obviously the opposite problem.

Other possibilities: Lysistrata, The Trojan Women, Havel's The Memorandum (12 + extras), Odetts' Paradise Lost (12 person ensemble + 11 or so GREAT bit roles.)

I'll come back with more a bit later.

YAY!

Actually they decided to do musicals anyways.

Yes I did feel like a moron after that.

Ah, the obvious one I forgot was O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh (16+) my least favorite O'Neill but ymmv. Might also want to consider some Restoration Comedy possibilities- Behn's The Rover (a pet favorite of mine), Wycherley's The Country Wife, something alone those lines. Also they're in the Public Domain- hooray!

Musicals obviously tend to have larger casts. Consider Ragtime if you have a good percentage of minority actors. Or either version of The Wild Party.

We're lacking minorities. Period.

Do Anyone Can Whistle. That one isn't done enough.

Musicals are in play?

Hmm, that opens up lots of opportunities.

edited 4th Aug '11 1:15:54 PM by Madrugada

Hehehehe...I see Our Town in the OP, therefore I have an obligation to recommend Wilder's other play, The Skin Of Our Teeth. The one (life-changing) time I saw it done, it was with a pretty small cast that reused several actors for the small parts, but with the amount of people you've got, you could vary it up quite a bit more.

That is, if you can stand the length and sheer weirdness of it all...

Damn it, this is what happens when I Thread Hop. A musical? Ummm...I dunno? Urinetown? (No idea why I suggested that...) I got nothing here, really...

edited 4th Aug '11 3:09:15 PM by frog753

The issue is that our whole budget is around 4000 dollars. Realism must be applied.

Ooh, Urinetown's good. And that one's done in the style of Brecht - you could totally get away with a very cheap set.

The rights though. Could we get that cheap?

I dunno. I imagine it's the same rate as any musical on MTI.

I hope so. That'd be nice.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat isn't a hard play, but it's short (a little over an hour or so). If you cast everbody in one role, you get 28 people, but you can split up the role of the Narrator (we did), and play with harmonies and things. We did a non-profit program where we used photocopied scripts. I'm not sure if that's an option for you, thoug...

To Kill A Mockingbird?

Edited by PatchworkSpace on Jul 5th 2020 at 3:44:16 PM