ERNEST SHACKLETON LOVES ME is a critically acclaimed new musical comedy with a tongue-in-cheek script by Tony Award®-winner Joe DiPietro (MEMPHIS and ALL SHOOK UP). In this wildly inventive and romantic adventure, a sleep-deprived single mom who makes her living as a video game music composer is contacted across space and time, via a crossed connection on her mobile phone, by the famous early 20th century polar explorer Ernest Shackleton while he is stranded on an iceberg in the Antarctic in the early 1900s. Inspired by her music, he shares his epic journey with her and, together, they overcome the odds in a timeless, and very funny, musical romance for the ages.
Length: Full-Length
A full-length play or musical, in one act or two, that is 75 minutes or longer.
Monty Python presents Monty Python’s Edukational Show: School Edition
MONTY PYTHON’S EDUKATIONAL SHOW School Edition is the only authorized collection of Monty Python sketches and songs available for performance. This brand new show is the genius of Monty Python in a hilarious 80 minute musical revue, written for performance by young actors. Featuring “Cheese Shop,” “Argument Clinic,” “Lumberjack Song,” “Dead Parrot,” “Galaxy Song,” and many more Python gems are included, with a decidedly irreverent ‘edukational’ theme.
The music and light choreography are a breeze and your authorized performance materials include, scripts, scores, sound effects and…the real Terry Gilliam animations, easily projected or sent to monitors in full color HD! These animations are available only for use in licensed productions of the show and no other use of any kind is permitted.
MONTY PYTHON’S EDUKATIONAL SHOW School Edition has been adapted from the original production. The School Edition has been carefully edited, with additional director’s notes throughout, to make the show more producible for high school groups. Song keys have been adjusted to sit more comfortably in the range of high school performers. In some cases problematic language has been changed, while in others an alternate choice is offered at the discretion of the director.
The Unbelieving
We often see stories of people who go from non-believer to believer. We seldom see the opposite journey. The Unbelieving takes a penetrating look into the lives of practicing clergy members—Mormons, Catholics, Jews, Episcopalians, Muslims, Fundamentalists—who have stopped believing in God. Using their actual words, obtained during a groundbreaking study by philosopher Daniel C. Dennett and qualitative researcher Linda LaScola, the play explores the struggles, courage, and great humor of these “unbelievers” as they face the hardest decision of their lives—whether to continue living in secret or to risk everything by telling the truth.
The Scarlet Letter
A visceral exploration of “original sin,” Kate Hamill’s highly-theatrical, vital reimagining of The Scarlet Letter follows strong-willed, intelligent Hester Prynne as she tries to find her own moral compass and raise her daughter in a society that harshly punishes women for independent thought, sexuality, or defiance. Hester and the other Massachusetts Bay colonists—including her guilt-ridden lover and her estranged husband—struggle with their own deeply-ingrained shame, as they debate what transgressions might truly be “unforgivable”… and learn how violence, superstition, repression, and uncomfortable truths may shape the land that will become America.
The Past, A Present Yet To Come
An ambitious young family man plans an elaborate trick on his old miser of an uncle, Ebenezer Scrooge. To help, he enlists a sarcastic and morally suspect female theatrical producer, and a mumbly writer, who hasn’t had a hit since Nicholas Nickleby.
Possessing Harriet
In 1839, Harriet Powell, a young, mixed-race, enslaved woman, slips away from a hotel in Syracuse, New York, and escapes from the white Southerner who owns her. With the aid of a worker at the hotel, a mysterious free black man named Thomas Leonard, Harriet finds temporary safe harbor in an attic room at the home of impassioned abolitionist Gerrit Smith. With the slave catchers in pursuit, Harriet spends the hours before her nighttime departure on the dangerous journey to Canada in the company of Smith’s young cousin Elizabeth Cady, an outspoken advocate for women’s equality. Confronted with new and difficult ideas about race, identity, and equality, and with confusion, fear, and desperation multiplying, Harriet is forced to the precipice of radical self-re-imagining and a reckoning with the heartrending cost of her freedom.
A Texas Carol
The Dinkel family is headed to Mee-Maw Jane’s East Texas ranch for what might be her last Christmas. The only problem? When the first two grandchildren arrive, they discover that Mee-Maw is already gone! Now how to keep that fact (and her body) from a family on the edge and salvage what remains of Christmas? A TEXAS CAROL is a hysterical and heart-warming take on all things Christmas and all things Texas.
The Happiest Man On Earth
Eddie Jaku’s story is one of unimaginable grief and tragic loss, yet it is also a testament to the indomitable spirit of the human soul. Defying all odds, he declared himself “The Happiest Man on Earth,” a testament to his resilience and determination to find light even in the darkest circumstances.
Bridge
Frances, Mary Todd and Janie, intelligent, sociable ladies, learn that Sally, the urbane new “fourth” in their bridge club, is transgender. The revelation prods Frances to address painful memories. Mary Todd, wrestling with moral issues, is challenged by her specially-abled son J-Pat. With wisdom and wit, Janie puts it all in perspective. And J-Pat provides a poignant unexpected insight. The bridge club survives: the three remaining members must search for a “fourth”—again. BRIDGE is a compassionate dramedy, that examines how people react when they encounter the new, the unknown or the misunderstood.
Apostrophe
At a prominent private high school, in the wake of a problematic encounter between a legendary teacher and her star student, what’s “best” for the girls is a matter of debate. One father believes in the healing power of dialogue, while the Headmistress is hell-bent on protecting the vulnerable with silence. Meanwhile, two friends lurch toward adulthood, interrogating the absent, searching for healing, and asking the question: How can we protect ourselves from the people we love?
Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground
Summer 1962, and Dwight Eisenhower, two years out of office, discovers that The New York Times has published the first historians’ ranking of American presidents in order of greatness—relegating him to the “Mediocre” class. Furious, but fearful they may be right, he looks back on the lessons of his Kansas youth, his military life, and his presidency, to question their definition of political and American greatness—and his own. A human and often humorous solo drama, EISENHOWER: THIS PIECE OF GROUND is a highly entertaining piece of theatre, and a compelling reminder of what lies at the heart of democracy.
The Night Climber
When a #metoo op-ed piece about his affairs with female students goes viral, a beloved ivy league college professor faces an impossible dilemma: save his job by coming clean, or save his relationship with his daughter, whose future is at risk over his admission of one particular long ago affair—her mentor.