The Myrtle: a funny fairy tale one act play: Fairly Obscure Fairy Tale Plays, #3
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About this ebook
Looking for a large cast comedy play script with plenty of female roles for your next festival or drama competition? You'll find a winning combo of slapstick and sentimentality in The Myrtle!
When a trio of sneaky suitors steal a beautiful myrtle tree and gift it to the prince, they don't know it transformers into a fairy maiden at sundown. But now the prince must right the wrong and reunite myrtle and mother at the risk of losing the woman he loves. A weird and wacky romantic comedy about family and flaws inspired by the Italian fairy tale.
Love blooms in this modern adaptation of The Myrtle from Giambattista Basile's The Tale of Tales (Il Pentamerone, Lo cunto de li cunti).
- Comedy / Fantasy
- 5 m 8 w (5-20+ performers possible)
- 30-40 minutes
Demographics
Ideal for middle school to high school teen performers through adults
Features
- Simple, flexible staging.
- Large cast with majority female roles.
- Opportunities for physical comedy, masked commedia dell'arte and improvisation.
- Great length for drama competitions and classroom study.
Fairly Obscure Fairy Tale Plays
Looking for some crowd-pleasing, funny fairy tale plays that aren't the same old standards? Playwright Hillary DePiano presents the weirdest and wackiest lesser-known folk and fairy tales as family friendly stage adaptations perfect for schools and community theatre. From large cast, one-act comedies to commedia dell'arte scripts with a modern twist for classroom use, there are plenty of options to help your group live happily ever after!
Want to combine any of the plays together to make an evening's entertainment? Interstitials and connecting scenes are available upon request.
Read more from Hillary De Piano
The Fourth Orange and Other Fairy Tales You've Never Even Heard Of Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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The Fourth Orange: Fairly Obscure Fairy Tale Plays, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGoosed!: a funny fairy tale one act play [Theatre Script]: Fairly Obscure Fairy Tale Plays, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Myrtle: a funny fairy tale one act play: Fairly Obscure Fairy Tale Plays, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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The Myrtle - Hillary DePiano
About The Tale of Tales project
Giambattista Basile (1566–1632) wrote and compiled the 60 fairy tales within The Pentamerone (Lo cunto de li cunti in Neapolitan or The Tale of Tales in English) in Naples, Italy in the early 1600s. His sister, Adriana, published it in two volumes in 1634 and 1636 after his death. While not widely known, it's important historically because the Brothers Grimm later used it as the source for their far more famous fairy tale collection. The Tale of Tales contains the earliest known versions of fairy tales such as Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Puss in Boots, Hansel and Gretel and more.
But I'm not interested in the stories everyone has heard of. I like the obscure ones, the weird ones lost to time. Why do we obsessively retell the same dozen fairy tales when there are plenty of other great ones we ignore?
It bothers me. So, since early 2013, I've been adapting these lesser-known tales for modern audiences to bring these stories back into circulation. I've modernized them with today's audiences in mind while still staying true to the spirit of the originals. Wherever possible, I also preserved the names from the original fairy tale and, where characters were unnamed, I've named them within the historical context and often with names from elsewhere in the Tales themselves.
This project is still ongoing. For the latest list of all the tales I've adapted from The Tale of Tales and what I'm working on next, visit HillaryDePiano.com.
Bibliography
Basile, Giambattista (2007). Giambattista Basile's The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones
. Translated by Nancy L. Canepa, illustrated by Carmelo Lettere, foreword by Jack Zipes. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8143-2866-8.
Standalone One-Acts
There are standalone one-act versions of every fairy tale I've adapted from The Tale of Tales.
The Myrtle
30-40 minutes, 5 m 8 f (6-20+ performers possible)
A prince discovers his myrtle tree turns into a fairy maiden at sundown.
Goosed!
(based on The Goose)
25-35 minutes, 2 m 6 f 8 any (11-20+ performers possible)
Two poor sisters rescue a golden goose but their sneaky neighbors want it for themselves.
Arm Candy
(based on Pintosmalto)
35-45 minutes, 2 m, 4 f (5-7+ performers possible)
When a brilliant inventor builds the perfect husband out of sugar, he's stolen by a queen who wants him for herself.
The Fourth Orange
(based on The Merchant with