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Social Darwinism

  • Angela Gant
  • Full Length Play, Comedy, Present Day, 1950s, New Millennium/21st Century, Contemporary
  • 5M, 5F
  • ISBN: 9780573700637

"Gant finds new comedic ways to bare a number of societal sins..."

Lubbock Avalanche Journal

More information

Description

  • Full Length Play
  • Comedy
  • 90 minutes

  • Time Period: Present Day, 1950s, New Millennium/21st Century, Contemporary
  • Target Audience: Adult
  • Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings, Bare Stage/Simple Set, Opportunity for Spectacle
  • Cautions: Alcohol, Strong Language, Mild Adult Themes

  • Performance Group:
  • Large Stage, Community Theatre, Professional Theatre, Outdoor, Shoestring Budget, Reader's Theatre, Blackbox / Second Stage /Fringe Groups, College Theatre / Student

  • Accolades:
  • Winner! 2006 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival National Student Playwriting Award
    Winner! 2006 Paula Vogel Award Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival
From the author: "To anyone who has ever gotten a beat down for looking like a woman, being a woman, looking like a queer, being a queer, not being manly enough, being too manly, or having the audacity to be any race other than Caucasian, here's the last laugh!"

Social Darwinism is a socio-political absurdist comedy that follows a familial group: an Alpha Male, Alpha Female, Second Banana (Subordinate Male), Subordinate Female, Adolescent Male, Adolescent Female, Outside Male, and Outside Female as they move through several different social classes as viewed by a Field Scientist and his Assistant:

Chimpanzee
Redneck (ends with a wrestling scene)
Very 1950’s Middle Class (ends with a racist game show)
Upper Class (ends with a court scene)
and back to Chimpanzee

The play looks at racism, homosexuality, and the subjugation of women, which changes as the play evolves.
REVIEWS:

"Brilliant Social Darwinism inspires many laughs while making points... Gant finds new comedic ways to bare a number of societal sins... makes her statements in consistently entertaining fashion, and... form[s] a real-life evolutionary chart on stage [that] is a stroke of brilliance. There is no shortage of laugh-out-loud moments within playwright Angela Gant's original adult comedy Social Darwinsim."

 Lubbock Avalanche Journal

Premiere Production: Social Darwinism was first presented by Texas Tech University's Lab Theatre in Lubbock, Texas, on October 3, 2005. It was directed by Jeffrey Wells.

Characters

  • Casting: 5M, 5F
  • Casting Attributes: Ensemble cast, Minority casting, Parts for Senior Actors, Strong Role for Leading Woman (Star Vehicle), Strong Role for Leading Man (Star Vehicle)
  • Casting Notes: The FIELD SCIENTIST and JANE can be any ethnicity or age; the OUTSIDE MALE and OUTSIDE FEMALE can be an ethnicity other than the family unit. The rest of the characters are written to be Caucasian, but it might make just as powerful a statement if the core family unit were played by a ethnicity other than Caucasian. Additionally, the ages of the Alpha's could be as young as their 30s or as late as their 60s. The subordinates and adolescents should scale down to be age appropriate.

FIELD SCIENTIST - a male scientist studying different classes of primates; a cross between Jane Goodall and Mutual of Omaha
ALPHA MALE (JASON) - the strongest and oldest male; rules by fear, money, or stature; often cheats on his wife with the OUTSIDE FEMALE
ALPHA FEMALE (ELIZABETH) - the oldest and strongest female
SECOND BANANA (CHARLIE) - the homosexual stepbrother of the ALPHA MALE, who is always striving to move up
SUBORDINATE FEMALE (KATE) - the most headstrong and outspoken of the women
ADOLESCENT MALE (ISAAC) - an awkward teenager who has few social skills; often spurned by ALPHA MALE
ADOLESCENT FEMALE (JESSIE) - a cheerleader-type of adolescent; is not very bright but is her father's favorite
OUTSIDE MALE (AUSTIN) - the sometime lover of SECOND BANANA; an ethnicity other than Caucasian
OUTSIDE FEMALE (MARY) - the other woman; is an ethnicity other than Caucasian
JANE - Female assistant to the FIELD SCIENTIST who does the Field Scientist's grunt work and the tagging of the animals; interacts with the subjects throughout the play, and is always on stage

Available Material

Name Price
Social Darwinism Script Order Now

From the author: 'To anyone who has ever gotten a beat down for looking like a woman, being a woman, looking like a queer, being a queer, not being manly enough, being too manly, or having the audacity to be any race other than Caucasian, here's the last laugh!' Social Darwinism is a socio-political absurdist comedy that follows a familial group: an Alpha Male, Alpha Female, Second Banana (Subordinate Male), Subordinate Female, Adolescent Male, Adolescent Female, Outside Male, and Outside Female as they move through several different social classes as viewed by a Field Scientist and his Assistant:Chimpanzee
Redneck (ends with a wrestling scene)
Very 1950’s Middle Class (ends with a racist game show)
Upper Class (ends with a court scene)
and back to ChimpanzeeThe play looks at racism, homosexuality, and the subjugation of women, which changes as the play evolves.

 $24.95

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