Good Heavens!

Poile Sengupta

Description

Seven thought-provoking and fun plays for children The stage is a magical place, where the ordinary transforms into the extraordinary and imagination rules supreme. Discover the wonders of the stage with Good Heavens!. The seven plays in this collection will help you explore different aspects of theatre. While some require interesting sets, props and costumes, others demand imaginative choreography, music, and stage lighting. Good Heavens!, No, Not I and Stone Soup will have the audience doubling up with laughter; Hamsadhwani and A Christmas Miracle will make them ponder and debate; and The White Elephant and The Monster Night throw up unusual problems that children resolve! In the detailed introduction, the author discusses theatre, its origins, and how to prepare for a production. Meticulous, with step-by-step details on auditions, rehearsals, props, set design, sound, music, costumes and lighting, it acquaints you with the stage and its requirements. Written by one of India s most exciting playwrights for children, Good Heavens! is invaluable for all who are interested in children s plays, and especially those involved in children s theatre productions.

Informations

• Publié par: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 08 juin 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789351182481
• Langue: English

Extrait

Poile Sengupta
Good Heavens!
One-Act Plays for Children
PUFFIN BOOKS
Contents
About the Author
Introduction
Good Heavens!
Hamsadhwani
No, Not I
The White Elephant
The Monster Night
Stone Soup
A Christmas Miracle
Acknowledgements
Copyright
About the Author
Poile Sengupta has written several books for children. Her published works include Vikram and Vetal (Puffin), The Exquisite Balance, The Way to My Friend s House, Story of the Road, How the Path Grew (CBT), Waterflowers (Scholastic), Role Call and Role Call Again (Rupa). Her stories have appeared in various anthologies like The Puffin Treasury of Modern Indian Stories, Sorry, Best Friend, One World (Tulika) and The Best of Target. Her column, A Letter to You , ran in Children s World for nearly three decades.
Poile is also a playwright. She has written several plays for adults, of which Mangalam has been published by Seagull Books, Calcutta. She has also written one full-length musical, Yavamajakka, and a number of short plays for children.
She has been a teacher at school and college and is a well-known theatre person in Bangalore, which is her home. Poile has recently moved to Delhi to be with her husband who is a senior civil servant.
Introduction
The theatre is a place of magic, of enchantment. It is a place where the ordinary is touched with sparkle, and for a little while, the world of the imagination becomes real. Has this not happened to you? You are in the audience, perhaps with your family and your friends, people are settling down in their seats all around you, there is some talking, a few giggles, somebody coughs and then the lights begin to dim. You sit there in the half darkness, the conversations, the giggles fade away and as you hear the opening announcement, your heart beats a little faster. In a few moments you will be carried to a place you have never seen and into the lives of people you have never met. You sit spellbound as the stage comes alive, moved to tears or to laughter by what you know to be an illusion. That is what theatre can do. That is its magic.
Theatre brings together people with different interests and talents. Like television and cinema, theatre combines literature with art and science and so it needs writers, as well as actors, directors and crew. Science? I hear you ask. Yes. The production of a play requires some knowledge of how stage lights work, how they can be used to get the picture you want, how sound effects are created, what colours to choose for the sets and the costumes and how the acting space is to be managed. In fact, as you learn more about theatre and the entertainment industry, you will realize how much the logic of science is used by both cast and crew. You will then appreciate those boring physics and chemistry laws!
How is theatre different from television and film? Well, unlike film and television, theatre makes the audience a part of the show, in a way that is difficult to explain. Theatre people will tell you that a good response from the audience gives them the energy to give their best. This also means that no performance is identical to any other, even if it is the same play with the same cast and crew, and has been done just the day before. Actually, if you think about it, theatre is much like a cricket match. There are good days, and then there are better days.
This book is in two parts. The first part introduces you to theatre and takes you through the process of choosing or writing a play and staging it. The second part contains a set of one-act plays, each very different from the other, which offer you opportunities for experimenting with stage management, lights, sound, sets, music and acting.
This book is for all of you who love theatre and also for those of you who would love it if you knew a little more about it. Remember, you do not need any special talent or learning to get into theatre. You only need to be interested. Come, let s explore the world of theatre together.
Beginnings
How did theatre start? You will find that most great civilizations of the world had a tradition of theatre. It may not have been theatre as you and I know it now, but something like a religious tale told with music, dance and special costumes, quite probably around a place of worship. Initially, dramatic performances were probably held in the open, in sunlight. Later, perhaps evening shows were staged and oil lamps or candles were used for lighting the acting area. You can imagine the dramatic effect of those flickering flames! The actors too must have needed powerful voices to be heard. Even though theatre is different now, we continue to borrow ideas from what we know of traditional theatre. For instance, the Greeks used a group of people, the Chorus, who had much the same role as the Sutradhar or the narrator, in ancient Indian theatre. The Greek Chorus and the Indian Sutradhar were usually singers who linked together the events of the plot and commented on the behaviour and attitude of the main characters. Even today, some playwrights use modified versions of the Chorus or the Sutradhar because they find it a valuable theatrical device.
The Script
The script is the core, the centre from which theatre takes its many shapes. When choosing a script, you need to remember that whatever is put on stage must be engaging enough for the audience to watch, to hear, and not want to leave.
The expression of thought in dramatic action is the primary challenge for all playwrights each time they begin writing a play. The writers of other forms of literature, like poetry and fiction, do not need to think in terms of performance. But the dramatist s work is meant to be performed and so it must have the ingredients needed for a show. So, what are some of these ingredients?
A good story
This may seem obvious to you, but if you look at drama that has endured, you will find that most plays have a strong narrative or storyline. A good storyline will help keep the audience interested throughout the show, which is what we all want. Apart from that, a good story usually has energetic characters and plenty of action, some expected, some totally unexpected. You will find, in fact, that the unexpected has great theatrical value!
Your story does not have to start with a Once upon a time kind of line. For instance, the Cinderella story in a dramatized form could begin with the clock striking twelve at the palace and Cinderella running out in panic. Her story could then be told through a flashback. Or the entire plot could be narrated from the point of view of the prince or of one of the nasty stepsisters. Making a strong story dramatic is what script writers aim to do.
Visual excitement
The stage must be exciting to look at. This of course can be done through sets and props but these things are still, they do not move. It is the script that must provide movement and action for the actors, so that the stage stays alive throughout the show. This does not mean physical movement alone. Drama deals with human emotion; a strong script helps actors react to each other in a natural way and to get the desired responses from their audience. A serious play with a weak script may have the audience laughing! Ouch!
Aural excitement
Sound is another important element of theatre. This could come about through music and sound effects but these are really add-ons. To create the best dramatic effect, the dramatist must use what is in every writer s command: words. It is the words of the playwright that transform the stage into a magical place.
A creative writer uses the same words as you and I do in our everyday lives, and yet is able to give great power to these ordinary words. Words are elastic and take on various levels of meaning, depending on the context in which they are used. For instance, the words I m fine can have a different meaning when spoken by a patient to a doctor in a hospital, than when spoken at a bus stop by friends greeting each other.
Another important aspect of a script is that the characters must speak in a language suitable to their age, gender and position in life. An eighty-year-old man would hardly speak like a DJ, would he? The dramatist has to know how people speak to each other in different situations and use that kind of language in the script. Only then will the play sound natural.
Pace
A play may have memorable dialogue, it may provide a terrific visual effect but if it does not have pace, it will collapse. The pace of the play is the way it progresses. A conversation between seated actors is all right for a while, but if it goes on for too long, the audience can lose interest. Hectic prolonged action can be equally boring. The trick is to have contrast, much like what you see in a painting. A dramatist tells a story using words as well as silences, through action as well as through moments of stillness. A tragic play has points of lightness and humour, and a comedy often contains a nugget of serious thought.
Writing a script
A script can be written by one person or by a group of people who work well as a team. Sometimes, a dramatist discusses his idea for a play with his theatre group, who would be part of his cast and crew when the play is staged. In whichever way it is done, the first point to clarify is the length of the play. Are you thinking of a short one-act play or a full-length play? The number of words or pages in a script does not give a complete idea of the running time of the play itself. After all, when the play is staged, it will also have action, movement, pauses, music, all of which use up time. One of the ways to find out how much you have to write, is to script a few pages and then see how long it takes to read the pages out aloud with pauses for the movement.
A one-act play usually has a running time that ranges from fifteen minutes to about an hour. But I have seen even shorter plays that are just a minute or two in length! A one-act play i