Drama Circle at the White Elephant - A Good Time was Had by All!

Entrance to the White Elephant
19 East Main Street, Orange, MA

Drama Circle at the White Elephant...
The August 13th Drama Circle which featured two plays, “My Two Sons,” a musical based on the biblical parable of the Prodigal Son, by Hawaiian playwright Raji Abuzalaf  and “The Mermaid and the Sailor” by Barbara Cortez-Greig was a wonderful foray into two exciting scripts.  The White Elephant Yoga Studio, 19 East Main Street in Orange, Massachusetts proved to be the perfect venue.  

We hope to remain at the White Elephant  - thanks to Connie Pike’s generous support by lending her facility for the readings – until the weather gets too chilly to continue there without cranking up the heat which can get expensive, and then we’ll be moving into our winter quarters...still to be determined.

Unfortunately, the CD of the music for “My Two Sons,”  got damaged in the mail, but the script contained the lyrics.   This gave those attending the Drama Circle a rare opportunity to make up their own music... So we all sang our parts and created a chorus that was surprisingly in tune.  This script is available for church groups and others to perform.  If interested, the Drama Circle will contact the author on your behalf. (The musical score is also available upon request.)

Marie MacDonald and Barbara Cortez-Greig

Barbara Cortez-Greig’s “The Mermaid and the Sailor” was a delight to read.  The visuals presented by the script – if properly handled by a theater company – would make this a crowd-pleaser – very evocative and multi-layered.  It would delight a younger audience while appealing to adults too.  Cortez-Greig has been a performing and teaching artist with Enchanted Circle Theater, a children's educational theater, since 1999 and is a member of the Lisa Leizman Dance Company.  She also works as a clinical social worker and creative arts therapist.  

Julie Graziano

The Saturday, September 10^th Drama Circle will feature a full-length play,  “UNSPEAKABLE’ by Gardner playwright Matt Richardson.  The play’s subject matter, human trafficking, and its effect on both the perpetrators and the victims, is for adults only.  The venue will once again be at the White Elephant, 19 East Main Street in Orange, MA.  The time: 2:00 – 5:00 pm.

Evie Dumont will be returning to Adelphi College
where she is a performing arts student

The Drama Circle is sponsored by the performing arts division of the non-profit organization, Art for Life.  Readings are scheduled for the second Saturday of each month.  If you are an actor or interested in participating in a reading or having an original play or screenplay read, please contact the artistic director Genevieve Fraser at Tel. (978) 544-1872, or email: FraserGenevieve@gmail.com.  For further information, see the website: http://www.thedramacircle.blogspot.com

The White Elephant floor is made from locally harvested North Quabbin wood

Genevieve Fraser and Will Johnson

Ellen Blanchette

Musical “My Two Sons” and “The Mermaid and the Sailor” Featured Saturday, August 13 at the Drama Circle

Musical “My Two Sons” and “The Mermaid and the Sailor” Featured Saturday, August 13 at the Drama Circle

Mayer Company stained glass (1907)
Charleston, South Carolina

Saturday’s August 13th Drama Circle will feature two plays, “My Two Sons,” a musical based on the biblical parable of the Prodigal Son, by Hawaiian playwright Raji Abuzalaf  and “The Mermaid and the Sailor” by Barbara Cortez-Greig.   
The Drama Circle is dedicated to original works of the stage and screen and is open to the public free of charge.  Saturday’s readings are scheduled from 2:00 - 5:00 pm. at the White Elephant Yoga Studio, 19 East Main Street in Orange, Massachusetts. 

“My Two Sons” offers a practical reason why the ‘prodigal’ decided to leave home. It also illustrates the challenges that the older son may have encountered. The playwright has provided a recording of the various songs featured in the drama.  A sample includes “The First Born” with lyrics such as “Let’s have no distortion, I get the first portion of our father’s inheritance. Let’s make no mistake, I get the first take...”

The Mermaid and the Sailor is a light-hearted ten-minute play where the action moves from the Mermaid's idyllic rocky cove and grotto to a shady beach across a strait to the bay where the vessel of the Sailor is moored. It is about coming of age, self-realization, gender and aesthetic sensitivity. One reader described the play as "Hans Christian Anderson's 'Little Mermaid' turned upside down." The play is appropriate for an audience of all ages as the writing portrays the subject metaphorically with fanciful and poetic multi-media staging.

Barbara Cortez-Grieg

Playwright Barbara Cortez-Greig has been a performing and teaching artist with Enchanted Circle Theater, a children's educational theater, since 1999. She was a member of Western Mass Social Action Theater (2006-2008) and performed with the U. Mass Renaissance Center Theater Company all during the 2009-2010 season. She is also a member of the Lisa Leizman Dance Company and is a clinical social worker and creative arts therapist. 

The Drama Circle is sponsored by the performing arts division of the non-profit organization, Art for Life.  Readings are scheduled for the second Saturday of each month.  If you are an actor or interested in participating in a reading or having an original play or screenplay read, please contact the artistic director Genevieve Fraser at Tel. (978) 544-1872, or email: FraserGenevieve@gmail.com.  For further information, see the website: http://www.thedramacircle.blogspot.com