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Silver Spring Stage is very excited
about our upcoming season. It is packed with wonderful opportunities for actors, designers and directors, and
we are eager to build on our reputation for engaging, creative and compelling theater. The Stage presents
a season of 7 full-stage productions. (We are also planning a holiday production; a separate call for directors will go out for that later.) We are currently seeking directors for 5 of the regular season plays:
Private Lives (Comedy)
by Noel Coward
Tentative Production Dates: September 18 - October 9, 2010
Scripts available from Samuel French
Elyot and Amanda, once married and now honeymooning with new spouses at the same hotel, meet by chance, reignite the old spark and impulsively elope. After days of being reunited, they again find their fiery romance alternating between passions of love and anger. Their aggrieved spouses appear and a roundelay of affiliations ensues as the women first stick together, then apart, and new partnerships are formed. Eventually there is a knock-down, drag-out fight which opens the eyes of Elyot and Amanda, who then steal off together a second time. We are looking for a director who understands the "Coward Style" and can bring that out in the actors and in the overall design of the production.
Wait Until Dark (Thriller)
by Frederick Knott
Tentative Production Dates: Oct. 29-Nov. 20, 2010
Scripts available from Dramatists Play Service
A Broadway hit, this masterfully constructed thriller moves from one moment of suspense to another as it builds toward an electrifying, breath-stopping final scene. A sinister con man, Roat, and two ex-convicts, Mike and Carlino, are about to meet their match. They have traced the location of a mysterious doll, which they are much interested in, to the Greenwich Village apartment of Sam Hendrix and his blind wife, Susy. Sam had apparently been persuaded by a strange woman to transport the doll across the Canadian border, not knowing that sewn inside were several grams of heroin. When the woman is murdered the situation becomes more urgent. The con man and his ex-convicts, through a cleverly constructed deception, convince Susy that the police have implicated Sam in the woman's murder, and the doll, which she believes is the key to his innocence, is evidence. She refuses to reveal its location, and with the help of a young neighbor, figures out she is the victim of a bizarre charade. But when Roat kills his associates, a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues between the two. Susy knows the only way to play fair is by her rules, so when darkness falls she turns off all the lights leaving both of them to maneuver in the dark until the game ends. The director of this show will need to know how to create and sustain a slow build-up of tension and suspense.
Blackbird (Drama)
by David Harrower
Tentative Production Dates: Jan. 7-29, 2011
Scripts available from Dramatists Play Service
This intense work was commissioned by the Edinburgh International Festival, where it received its world premiere. Two people who once had a passionate affair meet again 15 years later. Ray is confronted with his past when Una arrives unannounced at his office. Guilt, rage and raw emotions run high as they recollect their relationship when she was twelve and he was forty. Without any moral judgments, the play never shies away from the brutal shattering truth of the abandoned and unconventional love. Ray, 56, after years in prison and subsequent hardships, has a new identity and has made a new life for himself, thinking that he could no longer be found. Una, 27, has thought of nothing else, and on finding a photo of him, sets out to find Ray. She is looking for answers, not vengeance. Nevertheless, the consequences are shattering. We want a director who will maximize the provocative nature of this drama without stooping to histrionics.
Three Days of Rain (Drama)
by Richard Greenberg
Tentative Production Dates: May 13-June 4, 2011
Scripts available from Dramatists Play Service
A year after he disappeared on the day of his father's funeral, Walker Janeway returns to New York. He takes up temporary residence in the unused space where 35 years earlier, his father, Ned, and Ned's late partner, Theo, both architects, lived and designed the great house that would make them famous. Sleepless and emotionally jangled, Walker scours the old empty space for clues, evidence or keys to the tortured family history. Discovering his father's journal hidden under the bed, he finds it as unforthcoming as his nearly silent father had been. Walker is joined by his sister, Nan, and their friend from childhood, Pip, Theo's son, to hear the reading of Ned's will. It is there that Walker forces the confrontation that the others need. After an evening of harrowing and sometimes comically inadvertent revelations, Walker disappears once more. This time he returns later that evening with a surprising, but to him, definitive solution to the family puzzle. In Act Two we travel back to 1960, when Ned's journal begins. We meet the parents at the same age their children are in Act One: Ned, who seems very different from the cold monster the children conjured; the charismatic and putative genius, Theo; and Lina, Walker and Nan's mother, the delightful, troubled "Southern woman who admits to thirty." In the guise of a love story, we are offered all the information needed to devise an alternative reading of the sad, unexpectedly romantic family story. The director of this play must be able to help the actors create multiple characters while evoking two distinct time periods, while ultimately uniting the two acts into one harmonious piece.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Comedy-Drama)
by Dale Wasserman, adapted from the novel by Ken Kesey
Tentative Production Dates: June 24-July 23, 2011
Scripts available from Samuel French
Kirk Douglas played on Broadway as a charming rogue who contrives to serve a short sentence in an airy mental institution rather than in a prison. This, he learns, was a mistake. He clashes with the head nurse, a fierce martinet. Quickly, he takes over the yard and accomplishes what the medical profession has been unable to do for 12 years: he makes a presumed deaf and dumb Indian talk. He leads others out of introversion, stages a revolt so that they can see the World Series on television, and arranges a rollicking midnight party with liquor and chippies. For one offense, the head nurse has him submit to shock treatment, but the party is too horrid for her and she forces him to submit to a final correction... We are looking for a director with a compassionate eye who will ensure that these are all fleshed-out characters, fully human.
Submission Requirements
In your submissions to the Stage we request the following:
- A resume of your directorial and other theatrical experience.
- A proposal that features:
- Themes you believe important or relevant in the play.
- Your concept/vision for a production; e.g., period, style, etc. (Please note that we are not looking to “update” any of the shows.)
- Ideas on production elements; i.e., set, costumes, lighting, sound or other special effects (we do not require actual set drawings or lighting plots).
- Any other items, including how you might address any particular challenges you see in staging the piece in our unique space.
Director interviews will be scheduled following the submission deadline.
You can submit proposals for up to 2 shows. Please send either a Word document or PDF by email to David Dubov at ddubov@gmail.com.
Deadline: April 6, 2010
For your information:
Silver Spring Stage offers an intimate, flexible and unique performance space. The stage dimensions are 23 feet x 22 feet for a total playing area of 506 square feet. If you have not seen the stage, we recommend you make a visit to help yourself to visualize a production. Physically, it is laid out in a diamond shape, with the two lower sides of the diamond facing the audience featuring a support pole at the tip. The upper sides of the diamond have backstage areas behind them.
Silver Spring Stage presents 7 full stage productions, a holiday show and an annual one-act festival. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 PM, Sunday at 2 PM over a four-weekend run. The house seats 120. A distinct advantage at Silver Spring Stage is we have our own rehearsal studio with a space that matches in dimension the actual performance stage. Also, we have our own set construction area, storage, costumes, props and other set pieces.
And finally, please note that Silver Spring Stage is an all-volunteer organization.
For information or questions, please contact Director Interview Coordinator David Dubov by e-mail at ddubov@gmail.com. Thank you.
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