# Play Playwright Character Gender Synopsis

1 A Chorus Line DIANA MORALES Female A Chorus Line examines one day in the lives of seventeen dancers, all vying for a spot in
(Have play) the “chorus line” of a Broadway musical. After the first round of cuts, Zach, the
director and choreographer, asks each dancer to speak about themselves. Discomfort
opens into revelation, confession leads to redemption, and within the bright,
outwardly homogenous chorus, the audience begins to see each dancer’s individuality.

2 Arcadia Tom Stoppard THOMASINA Female In a stately home in the British countryside, poets, tutors, academics and lovers roam
(Have play) the corridors some 200 years apart, each uncovering their own particular mystery. In
April 1809, bright young Thomasina and her tutor Septimus are inventing chaos theory
a century too early – or perhaps they are simply falling in love? Two hundred years
later, two scholars try to piece history together from the puzzling fragments that
remain. Along the way, there will be indiscrete affairs, mistaken identities, hermits,
duels and … horticulture.
3 On the Wallaby Nick Enright MARGARET Female Nick Enright's ebullient musical play, inspired by the stories of homeless men 'on the
wallaby' who roamed Australian roads during the Great Depression, races the
misfortunes of the O'Brien family, waterside workers in Port Adelaide. The effect upon
the family and the nation of eight years of unemployment, birth, separation, strikes
and subsistence, are seen in the light of the political strategies of the time.
Intermingled with this story in song and dance is the death of the old music hall
theatre and the rise of the age of mass communication.
4 Blithe Spirit Noel Coward MADAME ARCATI Female The play concerns the socialite and novelist Charles Condomine, who invites the
eccentric medium and clairvoyant, Madame Arcati, to his house to conduct a séance,
hoping to gather material for his next book. The scheme backfires when he is haunted
by the ghost of his annoying and temperamental first wife, Elvira, after the séance.
Elvira makes continual attempts to disrupt Charles's marriage to his second wife, Ruth,
who cannot see or hear the ghost.
5 Sylvia AR Gurney SYLVIA Female The subject is "Sylvia", a dog, the couple who adopts her, and the comedy that results.
6 A Midsumma’s Night Dream Shakespeare TITANIA Female It portrays the adventures of four young lovers and a group of amateur actors, their
(have play) interactions with woodland fairies and a duke and duchess. Taking place in a mythical
Athens and an enchanted forest, there is a handsome fairy king, a misguided parent,
star-crossed lovers, a weaver who's transformed into a half-donkey, wood sprites and
elves. This work is widely performed around the world, and no wonder - it's about the
world's most popular pastime, falling in love. But as Puck knows, falling in love can
make fools of us all.
7 Drowsy Chaperone MAN Male It is a parody of American musical comedy of the 1920s. The story concerns a middle-
(Have play) aged, asocial musical theatre fan; as he plays the record of his favourite musical, the
(fictional) 1928 hit The Drowsy Chaperone, the show comes to life onstage as he wryly
comments on the music, story, and actors.
8 Arcadia Tom Stoppard BERNARD Male In a stately home in the British countryside, poets, tutors, academics and lovers roam
(Have play) the corridors some 200 years apart, each uncovering their own particular mystery. In
April 1809, bright young Thomasina and her tutor Septimus are inventing chaos theory
 a century too early – or perhaps they are simply falling in love? Two hundred years
later, two scholars try to piece history together from the puzzling fragments that
remain. Along the way, there will be indiscrete affairs, mistaken identities, hermits,
duels and … horticulture.
9 Children of the Black Skirt Angela Betzien HORROCKS Male Three lost children stumble across an abandoned orphanage in the bush. They become
trapped in a timeless world, haunted by spirits from the past.
10 Metamorphosis Mary Zimmerman PHAETON Male
(Have play)
11 A Midsumma’s Night Dream Shakespeare OBERON Male It portrays the adventures of four young lovers and a group of amateur actors, their
interactions with woodland fairies and a duke and duchess. Taking place in a mythical
Athens and an enchanted forest, there is a handsome fairy king, a misguided parent,
star-crossed lovers, a weaver who's transformed into a half-donkey, wood sprites and
elves. This work is widely performed around the world, and no wonder - it's about the
world's most popular pastime, falling in love. But as Puck knows, falling in love can
make fools of us all.
12 Melon Thief Uri Nusubito MELON THIEF Neutral
13 The Burial at Thebes Seamus Heaney TIRESIAS Neutral

Scripts:
1. A Chorus Line: The Book of the Musical, Michael Bennett et al., Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, New York, 1995 ISBN: 978-1-55783-364-8
The vocal score, book and libretto are available in electronic form.
2. Tom Stoppard, Arcadia, Samuel French, New York (Ebook)
3. Nick Enright, On the Wallaby, http://australianplays.org/script/CP-1966
4. Noël Coward, Blithe Spirit, Methuen Drama, London ISBN: 978-0-413-77197-1 This title is available as an ebook.
5. AR Gurney, Sylvia, Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York ISBN: 978-0-8222-1496-0
6. William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, London, 2013 ISBN: 978-1-903436-60-8
7. The Drowsy Chaperone – A Musical within a Comedy, www.scribd.com/doc/265506350/The-Drowsy-Chaperone-Script
8. Angela Betzien, Children of the Black Skirt, Currency Press Pty Ltd, This title can be obtained from www.australianplays.org/script/CP-135
9. Mary Zimmerman, Metamorphoses, Northwestern University Press, Evanston, 2002 ISBN: 978-0810119802.
10. The Ink-smeared Lady and Other Kyogen, Shio Sakanishi (trans.), Charles E Tuttle Company, Tokyo, 1960 This title is available as an ebook.
11. Seamus Heaney, The Burial at Thebes, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2005 ISBN: 978-0-374-53007-5 This title is available as an ebook.