Drama Anthologies (multiple Authors)
Things That Go Bump
Volume 2, Plays for Young Audiences
- Publisher
- Signature Editions
- Initial publish date
- Sep 2009
- Category
- Anthologies (multiple authors)
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781897109410
- Publish Date
- Sep 2009
- List Price
- $24.95
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
These six recent Canadian plays for elementary school age audiences is a companion volume to 2009’s Things That Go Bump, Volume 1.
Lig & Bittle by Elyne Quan and Jared Matsunaga-Turnbull:
The story of Lig, who is big, and Bittle, who is little, as they embark on a funny, wild and adventure-filled journey to a place called Perfeckt Phitt, in hopes that they’ll find somewhere to belong.
A Giraffe in Paris by Mark Haroun: When the young Prince of Egypt sets out to bring a giraffe to the King of France in Paris, blistering heat, crocodiles, a scheming circus ringleader and growling wolves are just some of the adventures that mark their cross-continental journey.
The Secret Life of the Octopus by Clem Martini: When Leah and Willis are forced to serve their detentions in their school’s gloomy science room they reluctantly meet and then become attached to the mysterious eight-legged occupant of the corner aquarium.
Bluenose by Emil Sher: Three bumbling, colonizing, red-nosed pirates get more than they bargained for when a blue-nosed captive punctures their assumptions and beliefs.
The Incredible Speediness of Jamie Cavanaugh by Chris Craddock: All her life, people have told Jamie Cavanaugh to “Slow down!” Jamie knows she is developing Super Speed, but her parents suggest the culprit might actually be ADHD.
Under the Big Top by Jan Derbyshire: About to be heads over heels in love, ZooZoo hesitates; why did her happy-go-lucky clown parents divorce, when they were all under the big top and living the happy dream?
About the authors
Kit Brennan was born in Vancouver and grew up in Kingston, Ontario. She currently lives in Montreal where she is a faculty member and coordinates the playwriting program at Concordia University’s Department of Theatre. Her plays have been produced across Canada and include Spring Planting (Winner of the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild 1993 Literary Award), Magpie (Winner of the 1992 Grain Drama Award), as well as new plays Hunger Striking and Having. Her latest book Two Hands Clapping (Signature Editions), is a volume of plays written by playwrights from coast to coast and most regions in between.
Jared Matsunaga-Turnbull's profile page
Clem Martini is an award-winning playwright, novelist, and screenwriter with over thirty plays and nine books of fiction and non-fiction to his credit, including Bitter Medicine: A Graphic Memoir of Mental Illness, winner of the Calgary Book Award, and his most recent anthology of plays, Martini with a Twist. He has served on the boards of numerous writing organizations including the Alberta Playwrights Network, the Playwrights Guild of Canada, and the Canadian Creative Writers and Writing Programs. His texts on playwriting, The Blunt Playwright and The Greek Playwright, are used in universities and colleges across the country. He is currently a professor in the School of Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Calgary.
Emil Sher
a grandi à Montréal. Il a enseigné dans une école secondaire au Botswana et
aujourd'hui, il écrit des livres pour enfants, des scénarios, des pièces de
théâtre et des livres documentaires. Son premier roman, Young Man With Camera, a été mis en nomination pour le Prix du
Gouverneur général. Il a adapté au théâtre l'oeuvre à succès de Karen
Levine, La valise d'Hana. Cette pièce a été jouée dans toute
l'Amérique du Nord et en Israël. Emil vit à Toronto avec sa famille.
EMIL SHER writes prose and plays for the young and the once-were-young. His first novel, Young Man with Camera, was published by Scholastic in Fall 2015 and has received numerous awards and honours. Emil is a laureate of the 2014 K.M. Hunter Artist Award in Literature. His picture book Mittens to Share, illustrated by Irene Luxbacher, was published in 2016. Emil has written the stage play adaptations of Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine and The Boy in the Moon by Ian Brown, and the script and lyrics for a stage musical of Roch Carrier’s The Hockey Sweater. He was also the writer for The Book of Ashes, inspired by the true story of an Iraqi librarian who saved tens of thousands of books in the midst of war, which premiered at the International Children’s Festival in St. Albert, Alberta, in spring 2016. Emil lives in Toronto, Ontario. Visit him at www.emilsher.com.
Chris Craddock
Chris Craddock is an Edmonton-based actor, producer and writer. His theatre work has been recognized with four Sterling Awards and two Dora Mavor Moore Awards, and his film Turnbuckle was nominated for two Ampia Awards. He is the proud recipient of the Enbridge Emerging Artist award, the Centennial Medal for his contribution to the Arts in Alberta and the Alberta Book Award for his collection of plays for teens, Naked at School. Craddock graduated from the University of Alberta’s BFA Acting Program in 1996 and since then he has worked on stages all across Canada.
Nathan Cuckow
Nathan Cuckow is an award-winning actor, producer, playwright and a co-artistic director of Edmonton’s critically acclaimed theatre company Kill Your Television. Born and raised in Calgary, Cuckow moved to New York City at the age of nineteen and studied at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. Upon graduating, he worked as an administrator in the Education Outreach program for Tony Randall’s National Actors Theatre for the Broadway production of The Sunshine Boys. Cuckow returned to Canada in 1998 and has since then called Edmonton home. In 2007 he received, with Chris Craddock, the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding New York Theater (BASH’d).
Excerpt: Things That Go Bump: Volume 2, Plays for Young Audiences (edited by Kit Brennan; by (author) Elyne Quan, Jared Matsunaga-Turnbull, Mark Haroun, Clem Martini, Emil Sher, Chris Craddock & Jan Derbyshire)
from foreword by Kit Brennan
Things that Go Bump, Volume 2 : Plays for Young Audiences is a collection of recent Canadian plays for elementary school age audiences; it is a companion volume to Things that Go Bump, Volume 1: Plays for Young Adults.
These six plays are road and audience-tested, seasoned by professional and touring productions covering most of Canada’s provinces and into the United States. Through humour and great characters, the scripts explore large issues with an entertaining verve.
Three of the plays (Lig & Bittle, Bluenose and Under the Big Top) employ the art of clowningâ��in various ingenious manifestationsâ��to explore large themes of longing and belonging. Two of the plays (The Secret Life of the Octopus and The Incredible Speediness of Jamie Cavanaugh) take place in the child’s real-life world of school and home, but follow them beyond and into the world of imagination and exploration. A Giraffe in Paris is based on a real event in the early nineteenth century, and whisks the audience into a travel adventure. Cast size for the plays varies from two to four actors.
The playwrights reside in Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver; as well as writing for young audiences, they also write for film and television, they are directors and actors, they teach at universities and other professional training schools. The theatre companies which workshopped, commissioned and/or produced and toured the plays are based across Canada; these fine companies include Black Theatre Workshop (Montreal), Carousel Players (St. Catharines), Citadel Theatre (Edmonton), Concrete Theatre (Edmonton), Geordie Productions (Montreal), National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Neptune Theatre (Halifax), Persephone Theatre (Saskatoon), Quest Theatre (Calgary), Roseneath Theatre (Toronto), and Theatre New Brunswick (Fredericton).
Everyone involved in theatre for young audiences will speak of the wonderful sense of fun it generatesâ��and also of the exciting honesty of the audience. If they love it, they’ll tell you so; if they’re bored, you’ll know it. I asked each writer to talk about their experience writing this play, why and how it came about, what happened in the play’s evolution, and how it has been received by the young people for whom it was created. These notes by the writers can be found at the end of each script.
