Erin Dealey

What’s an “Our Play” Birthday, you ask? Think #BookBirthday (Publication Day) for a stage play.

So “Our Play” is a stage play? For theater kids?

Huzzah!

From Idea to Pub Day:

Some of you know that when I’m not writing #kidlit, I write full-length plays like “Our Play.” as well as one acts for high school theater groups to take to festivals and showcases. You can find them here at Uproar Theatrics (FREE perusals.).

My world has come full circle, combining many years as a high school theater teacher, director, and actor with playwriting!

Inspiration

The idea for “Our Play” began at Sugarloaf Fine Arts Camp, where I head the Theater Dept. each summer, For every session, we need a script for 40 talented kids that gives them optimum stage time and a fun but meaningful challenge, so we write them ourselves. Actually, I think Beyonce’s song, Who Run the World? was at the top of my playlist as I gave Little Red a chance to tell her story on stage. And yes, the Sheriff of Nottingham running for re-election (again) was in the original script way back when.

But that was just the beginning.

Process

Cut to present day, with school theater groups licensing my one acts at Uproar Theatrics.. (Thank you!) I decided to revise Little Red’s story for them. Once I had the revised scipt, the next step was a series of table reads with local high schools (Thanks Studio 81 and Theatre at the Mine) after which there were more revisions. “Our Play” was on its way!

The path to publication for a play doesn’t just mean applying for copyright and formating the script. (More edits!) To be published, a script must have a live performance before it is considered for a theater catalog like Uproar’s. In this case, the amazing theater teacher/director Heather Brooks Freer at Theatre at the Mine chose “Our Play” for a semester-long, scene study intensive and character work in her Advanced Theater class which culminated in a production. (See original cast list below.)

I’m beyond grateful and excited to share this blast that Uproar Theatrics sent out to announce the release of “Our Play.”

Our Play A two-act comedy by Erin Dealey 110 minutes | 3f, 3m, 4 any, ensemble 5+ (pronouns may be changed to meet casting needs)­

Forest folktale characters—your Robin Hood, your Little Red, etc.—collide with Shakespearean characters who have lost (and found) themselves in the woods in Our Play.

In this madcap romp through the forest, familiar literary characters finally get to speak their minds and move forward from the stories that made them. Woven throughout is a whisper of an homage to a famous Thornton Wilder play, with its bare stage and simple settings.

Oh one more thing. It’s a play-within-a-play. A dress rehearsal goes off the rails when the actor playing the Damsel skips out on the last rehearsal for a dentist appointment (?!) until a newcomer steps in last minute and chaos ensues.

Flexible casting makes tailoring Our Play to your program’s strengths simple. Have some great singers? The minstrel material can be sung. No? Speak it ’gainst the stringed instrument of your choice. Heightened language feels accessible, stage combat abounds, and a delightfully active ensemble provides laughs galore.

En garde!

Add it to your script library. Links:

Ingram/ Spark *** Barnes & Noble *** Amazon

@uproartheatrics ********** @erindealey

Special thanks to Team Uproar,

Heather Brooks Freer, and her Advanced Theater class.

“Our Play” was first produced by Theatre at the Mine, Union Mine High School in El Dorado, California, directed by Heather Brooks Freer; Assistant Director – Alison Lenoil. 

The original cast was as follows: 

Sam: Marley Kimbrough 

Zella: Jillian Klein 

Sheriff of Nottingham: River Rowell 

Minstrel: Alexander Armstrong 

Bottom: Zoey Laird 

Little Red: Kylie Dormandy

Orlando: Zachary Colgan

Herald: Vann Lussier 

Guy of Gisborne: Amelia Campbell Winn 

Rosalind/Ganymede: Brianna Emmons 

Company: Aryanna Childers, Keelyn Cumings, Saige Friedberg, Lyndon Garel, Layla

Geller, Jack Harris, Kya Hewitt, Dakotah Michaud-Linton, Reagan Nielsen, Alexis Wheeler 

Shared with permission from Uproar Theatrics & Theatre at the Mine / Heather Freer.

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