Psychology of Everyday Life: What are some good thrillers that can be made into a one-act play?
I disagree that any thriller would work as a one act play, or any live production. You need the story to work in only a few locations, without a lot of special effects, and actions that were visibly broad enough to be seen by an audience from a distance. Here's my nominations...The Usual Suspects - The movie has become well known enough that most movie people know who Keyser Soze really is. However, the story could be tweaked a bit so that Keyser's identity would change from show to show, with the audience left to work out which character is actually him.Resevoir Dogs - The majority of the story takes place in one location. Most of the violence is only discussed, and the action that does take place is easily visible from a distance.Identity - A group of people stuck in a motel (minimal sets), being murdered by an unknown killer, and a major twist to the story involving a psychotic killer. Yeah, this would work.The Departed - Some might consider this a drama, but action and suspense are certainly thriller hallmarks. Think of the complexity of the interactions between the characters and how that would come out on the stage. This one I would love to see live.
What is the best horror or thriller themed play you have seen?
There’s really not a lot out there, huh? Horror is already a difficult thing to execute well, but on stage it seems it’s even harder. Currently, my number one horror themed show is the horror comedy musical “The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals,” which is on Youtube in its entirety. If you enjoy musicals and like “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” I can’t recommend it enough.Another show I’ve seen that I enjoyed was “Carrie The Musical,” based off the Stephen King book. It premiered on Broadway in the 1980s and is widely considered one of the biggest musical flops of all time-I believe it only ran for 5 performances. I didn’t know it existed until a local theatre did it a few years ago, and I was actuallyreally impressed with it! As I said before about horror, though, it’s a very difficult thing to get right and do well, and that’s the vibe I got from it: it was a very good show and it was done really well, but it’s clear a lot of work was put into it and it could’ve very easily gone badly.Last one I’ve got isn’t a musical, it’s the play “The Woman in Black,” and yes, it’s based on the same book that the film with Daniel Radcliffe was based on. The version I saw (there might be more than one adaptation, I’m not sure) only had two actors playing all the parts, one being a young man and the other was a middle aged man. It starts with the older man coming to the younger man in a theatre asking for help in how to tell his story of the Woman in Black. Once they get into the actual story, they begin acting it out with the younger man playing the part of the older man (as when the story happened, the older man was a young man) and the older man playing literally every other character, like the owner of the inn he stays at and so on. It’s probably a bit less outright horror than it is more of a thriller, but the suspense was great and there were moments of genuine dread.
Any scary/thriller one act stage plays?
I'm going to be a director of a theater class next year, and would really be interested in trying to do a scary/thriller play, since we usually do comedies or dramas. The play, however, is required to be a one act, but I've had no luck finding any. I saw a version of 'The Bad Seed' condensed into a one act, but was unable to find the script online. Does anyone have any that they've seen or heard of, and possibly know where I could find the script? Thank you so much. :)) Please also consider this is a high school class, so the content should be fitting for the age group haha.
What is the song that plays during the red circle club in John Wick?
keanu reeves latest flick. when he tries to kill the kid in the "red circle" club. real cool song playing. woman vocalist, if i recall. good stuff. thanks!
What are some great plays that feature just one or two characters?
Zoo Story by Edward Albee is the story of two strangers who run into each other in the part and utterly change each other's lives. Male, male.Oleanna by David Mamet is the story of a war between a student and a teacher. Male, female. Mamet has some other two-handers worth checking out, including Duck Variations and A Life in the Theatre.The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter is about two hit men, stuck in a rundown apartment, waiting for their next assignment. Male, male.Turn of the Screw by Jeffrey Hatcher. Two actors play all the characters in this adaptation of Henry James's ghost story. St. Nicholas by Conor McPherson is a one-man show about vampires.Krap's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett is a one-man show about an old man listening to recordings of himself when he was younger. I second the recommendations of Marsha Norma's "Night Mother" and Sam Shepard's "True West."
What's the name of the scary film w/Bette Davis, who plays an old witch who lives near a corn field?
1978's Return from Witch Mountain? Also, In 1974, at the age of 66, Davis took on the starring role in Miss Moffat, a stage musical adaptation of the play The Corn Is Green. What you are probably looking for is "The Dark Secret of Harvest Home" (1978) starring her and Rosanna Arquette...This vapid television production is based on Thomas Tryon's complex and suspenseful occult thriller Harvest Home, delving into the forbidden rituals of the small New England township Cornwall Combe, whose residents offer annual human sacrifices to pagan gods in return for a bountiful corn harvest. The production is notable mainly for the participation of Bette Davis, who hams it up royally as the powerful Widow Fortune, the town's leading practitioner of the black arts, and a very young Rosanna Arquette as one of the new kids in town. Originally an overinflated miniseries, this film is available on video mainly in a drastically cut version that makes almost no sense at all.