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The nights are drawing in and it's getting cold, but there's plenty here to keep you busy and warm. In the run-up to the anniversary of the First World War, we are featuring My Boy Jack by David Haig as Play of the Month. We are thrilled to announce the release of the performing rights for Vivienne Franzmann's excellent Mogadishu, as well as Ioanna Anderson's Six Acts of Love, and for those looking for a women-only play, Chalet Lines by Lee Mattinson. If that is not enough to be getting on with, do have a look at our November supplement to the Guide to Plays for Performance. Before our 25 anniversary year is out, we want to give you the chance to win five royalty-free performances of a NHB play of your choice, or to win £100 worth of scripts and books from our website. We have also just published a book by Lucy Kerbel (100 Great Plays for Women) which I'm sure will prove useful for finding new (and rediscovering old) plays with a predominantly female cast.
Tamara von Werthern, Performing Rights Manager
tamara@nickhernbooks.co.uk
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My Boy Jack
by David Haig (2f 5m, doubling)
Set: Flexible set
With the anniversary of the First World War coming up, My Boy Jack has been picked up as the play of the moment by many drama groups out there. It tells the poignant story of how Rudyard Kipling sent his son to his death in the First World War. Haig's acclaimed stageplay was filmed for television in 2007, with Daniel Radcliffe as Jack and the author himself as Kipling. The year is 1913 and war with Germany is imminent. Rudyard Kipling's determination to send his severely short-sighted son to war triggers a bitter family conflict which leaves Britain's renowned patriot devastated by the conflict between his own greatest passions: his love for children - above all his own - and his devotion to King and Country.
Amateur rights: £69 per performance, plus VAT where applicable
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Mogadishu
by Vivienne Franzmann
Cast: 4f 8m
Set: can be simply staged (various interior and exterior settings)
Mogadishu was the joint winner of the 2008 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting and won the George Devine Award in 2010. It is a gripping and urgent play about a well-meaning teacher who intervenes on behalf of a troublesome student, with terrifying consequences. When white secondary-school teacher Amanda is pushed to the ground by black student Jason, she's reluctant to report him as she knows exclusion could condemn him to a future as troubled as his past. But when Jason decides to spin a story of his own, Amanda is sucked into a vortex of lies in which victim becomes perpetrator. With the truth becoming less clear and more dangerous by the day, it isn't long before careers, relationships and even lives are under threat.
Amateur rights: £69 per performance, plus VAT where applicable
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Chalet Lines
by Lee Mattinson
Cast: 7f
Set: Can be simply staged
A shockingly funny journey through five decades of birthdays, weddings and hen-dos, with plenty of hilariously lewd dialogue. We're in Butlins, Skegness, Chalet Number 12 - where the Walker women have holidayed since 1961. It's Nana Barbara's 70th, but the celebrations are unravelling. Loretta's had too many cocktails, Jolene's fallen tits-over-teeth for a redcoat, Abigail's got more than knickers and hairspray in her suitcase, and the one guest that Barbara is waiting for, her daughter Paula, is more than overdue...
Amateur rights: £69 per performance, plus VAT where applicable
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Six Acts of Love
by Ioanna Anderson
Cast: 3f 2m
Set: Minimal staging requirements
A bittersweet play about the rich complexities of life, love and death. Katherine's life has come to a standstill. Her husband, Tom, has left her for a younger woman, and her once-glamorous mother Dorothy is slowly losing her mind. As Dorothy's condition worsens, Katherine's stepfather and a new nurse rally to support her. Then Tom appears with a sudden announcement that sets them all off on an unexpected journey deep into rural Ireland.
Amateur rights: £69 per performance, plus VAT where applicable
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Guide to Plays for Performance
November 2013 supplement
Contains detailed information, including a summary, an extract, cast and staging details for the following plays:
Blue Stockings by Jessica Swale * Ciphers by Dawn King * Crime and Punishment by Dostojevsky, ad. by Chris Hannan * The Empty Quarter by Alexandra Wood * Fishskin Trousers by Elizabeth Kuti * Fleabag by Phoebe Waller-Bridge * The Herd by Rory Kinnear * Holes by Tom Basden * Home by Nadia Fall * Liolá by Pirandello, trans. by Tanya Ronder * Override by Stacey Gregg * To Sir With Love by Braithwaite, ad. by Ayub Khan-Din * The Three Lions by William Gaminara
You can download the supplement to the Guide free of charge from our website here or read it in your browser. To download the individual sheets, please visit the title's entry on our website. Or if you would like the pdf supplement sent to you electronically, please email me.
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News
Win 5 performances of an NHB play of your choice, royalty-free
We are celebrating 25 years of Nick Hern Books this year, and want to give you the chance to win up to five performances of your favourite play royalty-free. Two lucky runners-up will receive their choice of £100 worth of scripts and books from our website. All you have to do is write a short paragraph (up to 200 words) on why you want to stage your chosen play, and submit it to us alongside your production details (venue, number and dates of performances, correspondence address and name of company) by email to tamara@nickhernbooks.co.uk. Full article with details here.
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Lucy Kerbel's 100 Great Plays for Women
This inspiring guide to a hundred plays that put women centre stage, with a foreword by Kate Mosse, is the very book you've been waiting for. Many directors working in schools, drama schools, youth theatre and the amateur dramatic community are asking me again and again - where can we find good plays for large female casts? Where are all the good roles for women? Here, is our answer. We're offering a generous 25% discount if you order your copy of 100 Great Plays for Women by 31 December 2013 on our website www.nickhernbooks.co.uk.
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New Acquisitions
Plays newly acquired by Nick Hern Books - keep an eye out in this newsletter for release of rights.
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nut
by debbie tucker green
Cast: 3f 2m (1 boy, plus the voice of an 11-year-old girl)
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