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Agnes Under the Big Top

  • Aditi Brennan Kapil
  • Full Length Play, Dramatic Comedy, Contemporary
  • 3M, 3F
  • ISBN: 9780573700880

Rich in feeling, wide in scope, teeming with poetry and sprinkled with Bulgarian.

The New York Times

More information

Description

  • Full Length Play
  • Dramatic Comedy
  • 90 minutes

  • Time Period: Contemporary
  • Target Audience: Teen (Age 14 - 18), Adult, Senior
  • Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings, Bare Stage/Simple Set, Opportunity for Spectacle
  • Cautions: Alcohol, Smoking, Strong Language, Drugs

  • Performance Group:
  • Large Stage, Community Theatre, Professional Theatre, Shoestring Budget, Reader's Theatre, Blackbox / Second Stage /Fringe Groups, College Theatre / Student
Agnes Under the Big Top: A Tall Tale explores the intersecting lives of several immigrants in a US city. It is a magical tale of hope and disappointment, identity and reinvention, narrated by an itinerant subway busker. 

Against the subterranean rhythms of a subway train, a Liberian home care worker, a former Bulgarian ringmaster and his wife, an Indian call center escapee, and a bed-ridden American woman, find and redefine themselves in today’s America.
REVIEWS:

Rich in feeling, wide in scope, teeming with poetry and sprinkled with Bulgarian.

The New York Times

...a tough and tender play...that is as graceful and evocative as trapeze artists flying through air with the greatest of ease.

Variety

#ffffff' style='color:#ffffff;'>'...Kapil has created a masterly matrix for what are essentially first-person short stories told by the five main characters...this lyrical, bittersweet play is a spirit-soaring experience.

Hartford Courant
Premiere Production: Agnes Under the Big Top was commissioned by Mixed Blood Theatre, and selected as a NEA Distinguished New Play Development Project as part of the NEA New Play Development Program. The play was presented in a National New Play Network rolling world premiere at Mixed Blood Theatre (MN), Long Wharf Theatre (CT), and Borderlands Theatre (AZ). The play opened at The Mixed Blood Theatre, under artistic director Jack Reuler, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on February 18, 2011. It was directed by the author. The play opened at Long Wharf Theatre, under artistic director Gordon Edelstein, in New Haven, Connecticut, on March 9, 2011. It was directed by Eric Ting. The play opened at Borderlands Theatre in Tucson, Arizona, on February 9, 2012. It was directed by artistic director Barclay Goldsmith.

Characters

  • Casting: 3M, 3F
  • Casting Attributes: Ensemble cast, Minority casting, Parts for Senior Actors, Strong Role for Leading Woman (Star Vehicle), Strong Role for Leading Man (Star Vehicle)

  • AGNES - 30s; Liberian immigrant; Ella's home care worker; tough and funny.
    ELLA - American; white; a rheumatoid, bedridden woman; deformed and wooden, her fingers trapped in claws; prematurely aged.
    ROZA - 40s; Bulgarian immigrant; speaks Bulgarian; Ella's home care worker; silent except when addressing birds.
    SHIPKOV - 40s; Bulgarian immigrant; Roza's husband; drives a subway train; former ringmaster.
    HAPPY - 20s; Indian; recently immigrated con artist; training as subway driver; smiles a lot.
    BUSKER - plays an instrument on the subway platform; is all other voices/voiceovers; moves freely through time and space.

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Agnes Under the Big Top Script Order Now

    Agnes Under the Big Top: A Tall Tale explores the intersecting lives of several immigrants in a US city. It is a magical tale of hope and disappointment, identity and reinvention, narrated by an itinerant subway busker. Against the subterranean rhythms of a subway train, a Liberian home care worker, a former Bulgarian ringmaster and his wife, an Indian call center escapee, and a bed-ridden American woman, find and redefine themselves in today’s America.

    		$24.95

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