short plays – Author Mark W Sasse

drama

Short & Sweet Penang 2016: The Runaway Slave

November 17, 2016by sassevnLeave a Comment

My play “The Runaway Slave” is at the Short & Sweet Festival Penang starting last night and running through Saturday. Here’s the signage:

The story is set in 1852 and a teen slave girl runs across an evening meadow on Christmas Eve and stumbles upon a house. Desperate for food, she meets the widow Beatrice who invites her in and shows her love while the sheriff is on her tail. It’s a touching story of protection and shelter in an unfair world.

Here’s the awesome young cast. These are three of my senior actors, Aaron (sheriff), Kimberly (Beatrice) and Lilian (Elly). Of course, there’s me trying desperately to figure out how to take this photo. They gave a terrific performance last night, and I’m so proud of each one of them.

Here’s Aaron, showing off in front of the signage.

This is my fifth festival here I’ve been a part of, and it’s been a lot of fun.

Runs through Saturday at the Penang Performing Arts Centre, starting at 8:30 each night.

This play will also be part of my upcoming show, “RLT Players present: Tales of Wonder 2” on December 1-3 @ penangpac. Hope to see you there!

10-minute play, drama

My Play in Short & Sweet Kuala Lumpur: This Week!

October 25, 2016October 25, 2016by sassevnLeave a Comment

A brand new short play of mine will be one of the featured plays this week at the Short & Sweet Theatre Festival Kuala Lumpur.

It’s a gritty piece called “Alone in a Bar,” about a desperate man in a bar, who comes in each day and drinks himself into oblivion. He never speaks a word, and he’s always distraught. On this particular day, another man and woman comes into the bar, and there seems to be some sort of abusive relationship going on, which brings some interaction with the silent man in the bar. It’s high tension and drama time!

Director, Vinna Law, decided to go a little different route with the piece and made it into a type of experimental theatre, with the voices pre-recorded, and a sound-scape to set the mood for the choreographed actions. I haven’t seen it yet. You can get a sneak-peek glimpse at a rehearsal video on the Facebook link below.

I’m flying down Friday to be there for evening show, and I can’t wait. It’s the third fifth time one of my plays or musicals have been in Short and Sweet KL, and I’m looking forward to it. Pictures and comments to follow this weekend.

FACEBOOK PAGE

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Rejected! But excellent feedback.

June 29, 2016June 28, 2016by sassevnLeave a Comment

For the past couple of years, I’ve been entering plays in one of regional one-act play festivals which happen in the United States. For this particular festival, my works haven’t been selected yet. But what I like about this festival is that each entry (and there were 350 of them this year) is read by judges who give some excellent feedback about the script and end by either recommending or not recommending the piece to be produced.

Last year, both judges recommended my piece “A Writer’s Satire” – giving it high marks – though it still wasn’t chosen for production. That shows you how difficult it is to get in.

This year, my piece also was not chosen, but I still received some excellent feedback from the judges, one who recommended the piece and the other who did not. Both of the comments were positive and constructive. I especially liked the comments from the judge who did not recommend the piece because I agreed with him and his criticism. The judge said that the overall framework of the piece was good, there needed to be more development on the characters. The judge was exactly right. I agree 100%.

So why didn’t I develop the characters further in this play? Simple, I wrote it as a 10-minute play, but this festival accepts plays up to 45 minutes long. I didn’t write this play for this festival, but for another 10-minute festival, but I decided to enter it here just to see what they would say.

I was right. It’s a good 10-minute play. Of that I’m quite confident, especially after one of the judges agreed with me. It would be an even better 20-30 minute play because there would be time to delve deeper into motivations and create a more heightened experience. I simply didn’t have time to re-write it.

Maybe I will re-write it for next year.

Getting feedback on one’s writing is great. It’s not always satisfying, but it is always helpful. It reinforced the idea that I’m on the right track in my play-writing. Just have to keep plugging away.

10-minute play, drama

Now Available: Theatrical Duets

May 20, 2016May 19, 2016by sassevnLeave a Comment

Drama directors, forensic coaches, drama teachers, or any lover of theatre. Here’s a great collection of duets which can be used for a variety of settings. It includes 4 award winning scripts, and 12 other unique, engaging, socially relevant scripts for all different settings. All of these have been theatre-tested in one way or another. I’ve used them in the drama classroom, for award-winning performances in forensics competitions, and as a part of serious theatrical performances.

Versatile, fun, meaningful. Please check it out and pass on the link to the drama folks in your life! Thanks.

Amazon Link HERE!

The Book Depository

10-minute play

My Script Chosen! Top 10 finalist in Davenport 10-Minute Play Contest!

April 29, 2016April 28, 2016by sassevnLeave a Comment

I was happy to see my brand new script “Safe Spaces” was chosen as one of the Top 10 finalists in the 4th Annual Davenport 10-Minute Play Contest!

And now, you can help! Besides being judged by Broadway insiders, it will also be judged by readers. So the readers’ choice could help make or break a script.

So please, head on over to the contest’s website and read this brand new script. It’s a satire about political correctness on college campuses. I had a lot of fun writing it two weeks ago on April 16. Yes, I wrote it in one day. I do things like that. The contest due date was April 17, so I may have cut it a little close.

But hey, I made the top ten, so that’s cool!

The contest site with all chosen scripts is HERE!

I’d love to here your thoughts on my script! Thanks.

drama

Two New Sketches

October 30, 2015October 30, 2015by sassevnLeave a Comment

I want to highlight some of the new sketches which will be part of our first Christmas show. First up: “Christmas in the Trenches, 1914.”

This sketch is based on a real event during WWI when, on Christmas Eve, a spontaneous truce broke out between the Germans and British as a Christmas carol wafted in the air. What I’ve tried to do is to make three British soldiers (their stories fictitious) frail and human, trying to survive in the freezing trench when they hear a song from the other side.

This next one, “The Spies & Mrs. Claus” couldn’t be more different. This is a pure piece of comedic delight, with clever lines, and a sneaky double meaning. The spies were hired by Santa to find out what Mrs. Claus got her for Christmas, but Mrs. Claus has her own ambitions. It’s a lot of fun. That’s two of 10. I’ll highlight the others at another time. It’s going to be a really fun show.

drama

The Difference between a Skit and a Play

September 15, 2015September 13, 2015by sassevnLeave a Comment

One might think that the main difference between a skit and a play is its length – skits being short and plays being long. But I contend that is not the distinction at all. I write short plays all the time, and they can be quite short, even just a few minutes in length. I believe that length is not a good indicator of their difference.

What about subject matter? Are skits silly and funny, while plays are more serious? Perhaps in one sense, which I’ll mention in a minute, yes, but plays can also be silly and funny. And short, as we’ve already established.

In my view, the difference is the context and preparation which separate skits from plays. Let me explain.

Skits are often meant to augment a very specific event or situation. Perhaps a church service in order to illustrate a point. An awards ceremony to roast an honoree. A school assembly to get everyone thinking about a certain topic. Skits are rarely written without a specific purpose in mind. At our school, the honor society prepare skits each year to help introduce the new inductees. They also use them in chapels, at banquets, or for classroom activities. In this way, skits do not translate well into other settings, because they are specific to a certain event. Plays, on the other hand, must stand on their own. Anyone who picks up a play script should be able to understand it and its themes, regardless of where it is performed. Skits typically are not like that.

And that leads us to our second point, preparation. While people in skits do prepare for their roles, the preparation is much less intense than that of a play – even a short play. Skits do not care with character development or even a cohesive plot, they are meant to entertain or make a point. A play, even an extremely short play, must have clear character development, even if its only one character. And while skits may have scripts, often time those scripts are just guidelines. Plays have precise language. The dialogue cannot be ad libbed or changed unless that specifically is the playwrights intention. Even short plays must be memorized completely, and the action, set, tone of the play may be well prescribed by the playwright.

Can all of these items really be addressed in a short play of only 5 minutes? Absolutely!

The next time you see a short performance, ask yourself, did I just witness a mini-play or a skit? I think you’ll be able to tell the difference.