The Poorly-Written Play Festival
Just Possibly the Worst One-Act Ever Written
Paperback (Published by Concord Theatricals)
eBook
The Aqua City Actors Theatre of Waterville, Maine
- 2024,Festival of European Anglophone Theatrical Societies, Antwerp, Belgium, and also Strasbourg, France.
- 2021, Maine Playwrights Festival Fundraiser (Zoom) (One of five "Best of the Maine Playwrights Festival" across a 20-year span)
- 2020 Sussex University Drama Society, Brighton, UK
- 2018, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
- 2018, Tulane University Performing Arts Society, New Orleans.
- 2018, Wilmington Drama League, Wilmington, DE.
- 2018, The Leatherhead Theatre, productions in Leatherhead and Reigate, UK
- 2017, Aqua City Actors, Waterville, ME.
- 2017, Androssan Community Theatre, Androssan, Canada.
- 2016, Published by Samuel French
- Winner, Maine Literary Award in Drama, Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance.
- 2009, International CringeFest, New York Artists, NYC.
- Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival, NYC (Acorn Productions of Maine).
- Maine Festival of One-Act Plays, Acorn Productions, Portland.
- Finalist, George P. Kernodle One-Act Competition, Univ. of Arkansas.
- Open Book Players, Gardiner, ME. (reading).
Synopsis:
Graphic from Victoria, BC Production
“Absolutely the BEST of the "insider" plays about community theatre we have read. A satire exposing whilst exemplifying all the elements of bad playwriting.”—International CringeFest, NYC.
Five members of a play selection committee have gathered in the Green Room to choose the plays for their Festival of Poorly-Written Plays. The artistic director begins with a review of the more common criteria for a bad play: blatant exposition and contrived names for the characters. He then suggests that they all go around the table and introduce themselves and say a little something about themselves—blatant exposition if ever there was. As he calls on Hedda, the literary manager, and Mrs. Bracknell, the benefactress, it becomes obvious that the folks around the table all have contrived names.
And so it goes—the committee enacts every broken rule of playwriting in the course of their wrangling over their selections of bad plays. These broken rules include the use of asides, characters who unaccountably reverse their positions, overly-complicated relationship histories, unrealistic set requirements, mysterious strangers, phony disguises, implausible explanations, significant action that takes place offstage, reference to scenes that have been cut from the script, and the setting up of the expectations of the audience only to disappoint them.
This is a hilarious “actors nightmare” for playwrights, guaranteed to delight audiences, whose attempts to follow the action are constantly frustrated by the dramaturgical liberties of this “poorly-written” play. The incoherencies and inconsistencies build to a frantic climax, as the artistic director, faced with a plethora of plot difficulties, resorts to the cheesiest playwriting device of all.
Three females, three males
30 minutes
Single set
Five members of a play selection committee have gathered in the Green Room to choose the plays for their Festival of Poorly-Written Plays. The artistic director begins with a review of the more common criteria for a bad play: blatant exposition and contrived names for the characters. He then suggests that they all go around the table and introduce themselves and say a little something about themselves—blatant exposition if ever there was. As he calls on Hedda, the literary manager, and Mrs. Bracknell, the benefactress, it becomes obvious that the folks around the table all have contrived names.
And so it goes—the committee enacts every broken rule of playwriting in the course of their wrangling over their selections of bad plays. These broken rules include the use of asides, characters who unaccountably reverse their positions, overly-complicated relationship histories, unrealistic set requirements, mysterious strangers, phony disguises, implausible explanations, significant action that takes place offstage, reference to scenes that have been cut from the script, and the setting up of the expectations of the audience only to disappoint them.
This is a hilarious “actors nightmare” for playwrights, guaranteed to delight audiences, whose attempts to follow the action are constantly frustrated by the dramaturgical liberties of this “poorly-written” play. The incoherencies and inconsistencies build to a frantic climax, as the artistic director, faced with a plethora of plot difficulties, resorts to the cheesiest playwriting device of all.
Three females, three males
30 minutes
Single set
