Up The River without a Cocktail: Three Classic Stories Adapted for Audio Theater

By Elaine A. Powers

This collection of audio theater scripts contains adaptation of three classic tales. A full-length play of Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology has history students discovering the stories of the occupants of the cemetery. The one act length version of O’Henry’s The Ransom of Red Chief tells the tale of a kidnapping gone awry. With a running time of approximately fifteen minutes, Robert Service’s The Ballad of the Ice-Worm Cocktail tells of false bravado revealed during the Yukon gold rush. The scripts require multiple actors and are well-suited for presentation by school and community theaters. Performance rights are included with script purchase.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elaine A. Powers
• Release date: Sep 17, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311072900

Elaine A. Powers

I’m a native of Peoria, IL. I enjoyed the opportunity to grow up in the theater community made famous during vaudeville days: "will it play in Peoria? During my life, I have been involved in a great deal of theater and singing as well as being a biologist Eventually, I progressed to writing short scripts for the stage and full-length scripts for radio theater. Several of the radio scripts were produced in NJ and NY by various theater companies and one has been recorded and released.The greatest inspirations for my writing are my iguanas, my personal pets and the iguanas who passed through my iguana rescue in NJ. I am currently writing children’s stories as well as murder mysteries. So many stories, so little time.I live with my iguanas (4 species), tortoises, tegus, and turtle.Other books include Conversations with Dudley Dewlap: The World from a Lizard Point of View (audio theater scripts), and Curtis Curly-tail and the Ship of Sneakers. Both are available in print on Amazon.com.

Book preview

UP THE RIVER WITHOUT A COCKTAIL

Three Classic Stories Adapted for Audio Theater

by Elaine A. Powers

SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY

Edgar Lee Masters

THE RANSOM OF RED CHIEF

O'Henry

THE BALLAD OF THE ICE-WORM COCKTAIL

Robert Service

Up The River without a Cocktail

Adaptations by Elaine A. Powers

Published by Elaine A. Powers

Copyright © 2014 by Elaine A. Powers.

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1311072900

NOTICE: These scripts may be performed with the purchase of a copy of this book for each performer and participant in the production, and with proper credit to the author. The scripts may be performed in combination or individually. They may be performed as radio/audio theater, reader’s theater, or staged with costumes. The scripts must be performed as written.

Table of Contents

Production Notes

Spoon River Anthology

Spoon River Anthology, Act I

Spoon River Anthology, Act II

The Ransom of Red Chief

The Ballad of the Ice-Worm Cocktail

PRODUCTION NOTES

These scripts may be performed with the purchase of a copy of this book for each performer and participant in the production, and with proper credit to the author. The scripts may be performed in combination or individually. They may be performed as radio/audio theater, reader’s theater, or staged with costumes. The scripts must be performed as written.

The sound effects and music cues are capitalized in italics with underlining. Some punctuation has been eliminated to assist in the flow of the reading. Acting suggestions are given in italics within parentheses with underlining.

Definitions

BITE CUE: This line interrupts the previous line.

WALLA WALLA: background crowd noises.

OFF MIC: off microphone, sounding as if from a distance and not projected directly into a microphone.

(Return to the Table of Contents)

SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY

Characters

Kim, girl in the cemetery

Brad, boy in the cemetery

Various actors portraying the residents of Spoon River Cemetery

Note: The names Kim and Brad may be changed. It is best to use as many actors as possible for the people in the cemetery.

Location

Spoon River Cemetery, central Illinois

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was the result of a collaboration of Oldwick Community Players and Hunterdon Radio Theater. I am grateful for the cast and crew who brought the cemetery’s inhabitants to life.

ACT I

☺

MUSIC: TAPS

KIM: This is an adaptation of Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology.

BRAD: Join us as we visit the fictional town of Spoon River in central Illinois.

SFX: OUTDOOR NOISES

BRAD: I can’t believe I let you drag me out here to this graveyard.

KIM: It’s a cemetery, and we’re here to do our homework.

BRAD: The assignment was to research the history of our town, not poke around a bunch of dead people. I thought we’d be hanging out at the library with everyone else.

KIM: But the real history of Spoon River - people’s stories - are here. These are the people who lived that history.

BRAD: So? Are we going to interview them? Hold a séance?

KIM: No, silly, the stories are here on the tombstones.

BRAD: What d’you mean?

KIM: See, look here. The tombstones have all sorts of information: name, birth and death dates, whether they were married, who their parents and kids were, sometimes what they died of, or what they did for a living.

BRAD: Really?

KIM: Yeah, look at this one: Marie Bateson. What a beautiful carving. I bet she was a spiritual person.

MARIE BATESON: You observe the carven hand with the index finger pointing heavenward. That is the direction, no doubt. But how shall one follow it? It is well to abstain from murder and lust, to forgive, do good to others, worship God without graven images. But these are external means, after all, by which you chiefly do good to yourself. The inner kernel is freedom, it is light, purity – I can say no more: find the goal or lose it, according to your vision.

KIM: Oh how sad.

BRAD: What?

KIM: These graves here. Here’s one of a child.

BRAD: And the mother, Elizabeth Childers, died too.

ELIZABETH CHILDERS: Dust of my dust, and dust with my dust, o, child who