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Light Years, The

CRITIC'S PICK! "A theatrical cabinet of wonders. A wistful, cockeyed play that celebrates American dreamers. Four stars!"

Time Out New York

More information

Description

  • Full Length Play
  • Dramatic Comedy
  • 120 minutes

  • Time Period: 1930s, Victorian (British and American)
  • Target Audience: Adult
  • Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings

  • Performance Group:
  • College Theatre / Student, Blackbox / Second Stage /Fringe Groups, Large Stage, Professional Theatre
Behold the Spectatorium: an audacious, visionary 12,000-seat theater designed for the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 by Steele MacKaye, the now-forgotten theatrical impresario around whom this haunted, forty-year love story spins.

The Light Years is an epic, intimate tale of two families struggling to meet their future, and a spectacular tribute to a man's indomitable spirit of invention.
REVIEWS:

CRITIC'S PICK! "A theatrical cabinet of wonders. A wistful, cockeyed play that celebrates American dreamers. Four stars!"

 Time Out New York

"Sparks fly! A gentle meditation on dreams and disappointment, but electricity crackles throughout."

 TheaterMania

"Bound and threaded by a belief in creativity and wonder; a wide-eyed pleasure in all that we don't know, and then bamboozle ourselves trying to invent."

 The Daily Beast

Premiere Production: The Light Years was originally produced as a part of the Powerhouse Season at Vassar College with New York Stage and Film in the summer of 2015. The show premiered at Playwrights Horizons in New York City in March 2017 under the direction of Oliver Butler.

Characters

  • Casting: 5M, 1F
  • Casting Attributes: Role(s) for Asian Actor(s), Roles for Children

  • 1893
    STEELE MACKAYE (M - Late 40s/Early 50s) - A famous (but now forgotten) late 19th century theater impresario known for his acting, directing, writing and inventing. He has designed and is building a theater at the 1983 World's Fair.
    HILARY (M - Mid 30s) - An electrician who works for Stelle Mackaye.
    ADELINE (F - Early 30s) - A turn-of-the-century spitfire. From a wealthy family. Married to Hilary.
    HONG SLING (M - Mid 30s) - A Chinese laborer working with Hilary.


  • 1933
    RUTH (F - Early 30s) - Bears a striking resemblance to Adeline.
    LOU (M - Mid 30s) - Ruth's husband. A jingle writer at the 1933 World's Fair.
    CHARLIE (M) - Ruth and Lou's 11-year-old son.

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Light Years, The Script This is optional. Order Now

    Behold the Spectatorium: an audacious, visionary 12,000-seat theater designed for the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 by Steele MacKaye, the now-forgotten theatrical impresario around whom this haunted, forty-year love story spins.

    The Light Years     is an epic, intimate tale of two families struggling to meet their future, and a spectacular tribute to a man's indomitable spirit of invention.

    		$24.95

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