2020 Winter Performances
Join us for Traveling Players’ inaugural One-Act Play Festival, featuring the creative output of our Fall Acting Classes.
Unfortunately, due to licensing restrictions, please note that recordings of the performances will not be available after the festival! While we’re disappointed that we won’t be able to tape the shows for you all, we’re looking forward to the opportunity to bring our community together again for a synchronous virtual event.
Sunday, December 13th
- 2:00 – 3:15: Beowulf (and the Bard)
- 3:30 – 4:45: The Thief Lord
- 7:00 – 8:30: Dust
Beowulf (and the Bard)
Beowulf (and the Bard) is a fun, frenetic and freewheeling farce that updates the Old English poem about the warrior Beowulf, who must rescue the mead hall from a hideous ogre (and his even more hideous mother). Told through the eyes of the epic’s writer—a character known simply as “the bard”—the comedy’s events unfold much differently than the familiar story passed down through the ages. In reality, Beowulf is an out-of-shape prince hoping to fulfill the heroic code, while the bard is a desperate poet struggling with a nasty case of writer’s block. This retelling also introduces a new female character: the bloodthirsty warrior princess Gunborg, whose quest to reach her heroic destiny is ignored by her overprotective father, the king. Beowulf (and the Bard) is a comedy about friendship, duty and what it means to be a hero.
The Thief Lord
Two orphaned brothers have run away to Venice, where crumbling canals and misty alleyways shelter a secret community of street urchins. The leader of this motley crew of lost children is a clever, charming boy who calls himself the Thief Lord. And he has a dark secret. Something from a forgotten past that poses a threat to the boys’ freedom: a treasure so enchanted, it can spin time. Adapted from Cornielia Funke’s New York Times bestselling novel, The Thief Lord is a dazzling adventure about growing up and the families we create for ourselves.
DusT
In Dust by Sarah Daniels, a high school drama field trip to London goes awry when they discover an unclaimed bag on the underground. Everyone evacuates the subway train, except for one girl – the girl being taunted by the bullies. She is let off the train at an ancient tunnel that has no electricity to walk her way to safety with just a flashlight.
Big explosion – flashback to… Roman Londinium! It’s now the 1st century, when London was being occupied by Rome. The play becomes an Alice-down-the-rabbit-hole adventure of our poor outcast student encountering major heroes (Queen Boudicca!) and everyday folks around the Londinium Amphitheatre – gladiators, gladiator wannabes, prisoners, guards, lion tamers, food vendors, make-up sellers, and fortune readers. Written by one of England’s most celebrated female playwrights, Dust brings present day teens into collision with the past, clarifying what courage looks like.