Origin
Sign In My Cart
Search
alphabetical author index
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Childhood

  • Thornton Wilder
  • Short Play, Dramatic Comedy, 1960s
  • 2M, 3F
  • ISBN: 9780573620775

Admirers of Thornton Wilder's virtuouso short plays will be glad to hear he has returned to the form in which he excels.

Irving Wardle London Times

More information

Description

  • Short Play
  • Dramatic Comedy
  • 30 minutes

  • Time Period: 1960s
  • Target Audience: Adult, Pre-Teen (Age 11 - 13), Teen (Age 14 - 18), Children (Age 6 - 10), Appropriate for all audiences
  • Set Requirements: Bare Stage/Simple Set
  • Cautions: No Special Cautions

  • Performance Group:
  • Community Theatre, Jr High/Primary, High School/Secondary, Professional Theatre, Shoestring Budget, Reader's Theatre, Blackbox / Second Stage /Fringe Groups, College Theatre / Student
In this provocative, sometimes chilling comedy, Wilder renders a child's-eye view of the grown-up world, as a father, a mother and their three children play a revealing game of make-believe in which the children pretend to be orphans. Startling truths emerge on both sides, as pretense challenges the family to discard the traditional roles of parent, spouse, child, and sibling--blurring the lines between perception and reality, artifice and innocence.
REVIEWS:

Admirers of Thornton Wilder's virtuouso short plays will be glad to hear he has returned to the form in which he excels.

Irving Wardle London Times

We often hear the phrase, 'a winning child.' Winning children (who appear so guileless) are children who have discovered how effective charm and modesty and a delicately calculated spontaneity are in winning what they want.

Thornton Wilder in The Paris Review Interviews
Premiere Production:

Childhood was first produced at the Circle in the Square Theater in New York January 10, 1962, as one of three plays grouped as 'Plays for Bleecker Street. It was televised by the CBC in 1966 and 1969, and by an educational television channel in 1966 and 1970.

Characters

  • Casting: 2M, 3F
  • Casting Attributes: Ensemble cast, Features Teens, Features Children, Color blind casting, Roles for Children
  • Casting Notes: This play can also be cast with 2 Girls, 1 Boy, 1 Male Adult Actor and 1 Female Adult Actor.

  • CAROLINE - the oldest daughter, 12
    DODIE - her sister, 10
    BILLEE - her brother, 8
    MOTHER
    FATHER

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Childhood Script Order Now

    In this provocative, sometimes chilling comedy, Wilder renders a child's-eye view of the grown-up world, as a father, a mother and their three children play a revealing game of make-believe in which the children pretend to be orphans. Startling truths emerge on both sides, as pretense challenges the family to discard the traditional roles of parent, spouse, child, and sibling--blurring the lines between perception and reality, artifice and innocence.

    		$24.95

    Related Works