The Playhouse Apprentice E-Book

Jessica Swale

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Serie: Multiplay Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 45

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

An exhilarating and hilarious story about theatre, bravery and how a little voice can make a big difference. 1597, Bankside Theatre. A crisis is underway. The Lord Chamberlain has closed the playhouse and banned the theatre company from the stage. The livelihoods of hundreds of artists are suddenly in jeopardy. There's only one thing for it: somebody must face the terrors of Blackfriars and travel through London to deliver a petition directly to the Queen of England herself. But who'd be brave (or foolish) enough to take on the task? Enter an unexpected hero… Jessica Swale's play The Playhouse Apprentice was first performed at the Globe Theatre, London, in a production by the students of Dulwich College. The Nick Hern Books Multiplay Drama series features large-cast plays specifically written to be performed by and appeal to young people. For more information, visit www.multiplaydrama.co.uk.

Leseprobe

Jessica Swale

THE PLAYHOUSE APPRENTICE

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Introducing Multiplay Drama

Original Production

Characters

The Playhouse Apprentice

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Introducing Multiplay Drama

Every year, many original plays are commissioned and performed by drama schools, educational institutions, and youth, student and amateur-theatre companies. Reading them, talking to their writers, seeing them in production, we are often struck by the ambition of their themes, the invention of their storytelling and the calibre of their playwrights.

Some of these plays have gone on to be revived in professional productions – for instance, Blue Stockings by Jessica Swale was first seen at RADA in 2012 before being professionally produced at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2013 – but most don’t usually have further life. It seems like the very raison d’être of many of these plays – the creation of large-scale original pieces for young, large casts – has meant theatre companies, hamstrung by ever-shrinking budgets, haven’t been able to find a way to give the plays the continuing existence that they deserve.

That’s why Nick Hern Books created Multiplay Drama – a series aiming to bring back to the fore some of the best plays for large casts we’ve read. We first launched the series in 2019, with ten high-quality plays that had originated with various drama schools and youth-theatre companies, providing a selection of complex, dramatic and theatrical works with one common factor: large casts of rich, exciting characters for teenagers and young adults to perform.

Launching the series was something of an experiment. Would there be an appetite for this kind of work? Gratifyingly, it has been a huge success. Hundreds of drama schools, youth theatres, student-drama societies, sixth-form colleges and amateur-theatre companies have read, studied and performed the plays we published in the first ‘season’ of Multiplay Drama, and the initiative was nominated for a Music and Drama Education Award.

Now, four years after we made these first plays available, we’re expanding the series with ten more brilliant and imaginative pieces of work. As we sought out this new set of plays, we had a few goals in mind. We wanted to offer more work that would appeal to younger performers, so that a wider group of schools and amateur companies could benefit. We wanted to diversify the forms and genres of the pieces, so that there was a range of theatrical styles available – from naturalistic drama to period comedies, from sci-fi adventure tales to plays packed with music and song. And we wanted to continue to preserve and share work by some of the best and boldest writers working today.

So, if your performance group is looking for a play that builds a post-apocalyptic world and focuses on a large group of identifiable characters navigating through a dystopian vision of Britain – we have the play for you; if you prefer a play where a chorus comes and narrates across time zones and locations, splitting up voices to tell a fragmented story – we have the play for you; if you want to wonder what it’s like to spend every day in a psychiatric unit; traversing London to deliver a message to the Queen herself; or even what it’s like to metamorphose into an animal – we have the plays for you…

Multiplay Drama is a great way for plays with large casts to find even larger audiences. Commissioned by some of the most renowned educational and youth groups in the country, and featuring playwrights whose work has been seen on the most celebrated of stages, the twenty plays now available offer rigorous storytelling, thoughtful and theatrical explorations of the issues that matter to young people, and rich opportunities for big ensembles looking to experiment and play. They are ideal for companies with a lot of performers looking for fresh, exciting work, and we can’t wait to see them staged far and wide.

October 2023

Big new plays for great big casts, specifically written to be performed by and appeal to children, teenagers and young adults.

Season One

Season Two

BlisterLaura Lomas

As We Face the SunKit Withington

BlueJoe Ward Munrow

A DreamChris Bush

katzenmusikTom Fowler

HORIZONKwame Owusu

LandminesPhil Davies

The Multiverse is Gay!Lewis Hetherington

The Real EstateFreddie Machin

The Playhouse ApprenticeJessica Swale

The Red HelicopterRobin French

Sea ThingsHassan Abdulrazzak

SkunkZawe Ashton

smallHolly Robinson

Spooky Action at a DistanceEve Leigh

Space GirlHelen Stanley

THREESophie Ellerby

The VillageAbi Falase & Tatenda Shamiso

VS09Hayley Squires

Wellington 24Rachel Harper

www.multiplaydrama.co.uk

The Playhouse Apprentice was first performed by the students of Dulwich College at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London, in May 2016, directed by Kathryn Norton-Smith and Emma Prendergast.

Characters

ALLEYN/DR DEE ACTOR PLAYING QUEEN ELIZABETH ACTORS LORD CHAMBERLAIN BEN JONSON FANNY WILL PORTER PYGGE PASSERSBY ZEALOTS MAGICIAN SELLER GIN SELLER

Scene One

The Isle of Dogs

London, 1597. Bankside Theatre.

A play, The Isle of Dogs, is mid-performance. The audience (actors sitting amongst the real audience) is loud and responsive. Onstage, the spooky magician DR DEE (played by ALLEYN) is casting a spell in front of QUEEN ELIZABETH (played by a man)