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Elephant's Graveyard (Full Length Version)

  • George Brant
  • Full Length Play, Drama, 1910s / WWI
  • 10M, 3F
  • ISBN: 9780573698156

A theatrical masterpiece.

Columbia City Paper

Deeply moving...has the audience in stitches at the open and tears at the close.

TheSunCoast.com

More information

Description

  • Full Length Play
  • Drama
  • 75 minutes

  • Time Period: 1910s / WWI
  • Target Audience: Teen (Age 14 - 18), Adult, Senior
  • Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings, Bare Stage/Simple Set
  • Cautions: Alcohol, Strong Language, Mild Adult Themes

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

  • Accolades:
  • Winner! 2008 Keene Prize for Literature
Elephant's Graveyard is the true tale of the tragic collision of a struggling circus and a tiny town in Tennessee, which resulted in the only known lynching of an elephant. Set in September of 1916, the play combines historical fact and legend, exploring the deep-seated American craving for spectacle, violence and revenge.
REVIEWS:

The script—based on a true story about a traveling circus that, in 1916, stumbled into gory disaster in a muddy Tennessee town—is, like the best art, microscopically specific with echoes that radiate outward across time. It conjures a world with its own atmosphere and terrible internal logic. It's mesmerizing... symphonic in its emotional variations on a tragic theme. Elephant's Graveyard buzzes with truth about the consequences of misunderstanding, the invisible but enormous gap between artists and their audiences, and the infernal beauty of vaudeville.

The Stranger
Premiere Production: Elephant's Graveyard was first produced by the University of Texas at Austin at the Oscar Brockett Theatre in Austin, Texas on November 16, 2007. The director was Laura Kepley. Elephant's Graveyard had its non-Equity premiere at the Trus

Characters

  • Casting: 10M, 3F
  • Casting Attributes: Ensemble cast, Minority casting, Flexible casting, Room for Extras, Cross gender casting, Expandable casting, Color blind casting
  • Casting Notes: Non-speaking musicians may be added to the production, particularly a Drummer and Guitarist. Roles may be played by any race or gender except when specified.

  • RINGMASTER - obsessed with the bottom line
    TRAINER - loves his work
    BALLET GIRL - a showgirl in control
    TOUR MANAGER - bit of a bully
    STRONGMAN - a proud muscleman from Europe's far-off shores
    CLOWN - a comedian with an inferiority complex
    DRUMMER - keeps the beat
    HUNGRY TOWNSPERSON - African-American, a steel-trap memory
    MARSHAL - keeps the peace
    MUDDY TOWNSPERSON - a haunted widow
    PREACHER - doggedly hopeful
    STEAM SHOVEL OPERATOR - looking for escape
    YOUNG TOWNSPERSON - excitable dreamer
    GUITARIST/HARMONICA PLAYER - sets the rhythm
    ENGINEER - confident Time is on his side

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Elephant's Graveyard (Full Length Version) Script Order Now

    Elephant's Graveyard is the true tale of the tragic collision of a struggling circus and a tiny town in Tennessee, which resulted in the only known lynching of an elephant. Set in September of 1916, the play combines historical fact and legend, exploring the deep-seated American craving for spectacle, violence and revenge.

    		$24.95

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