The Fourth Orange: Fairly Obscure Fairy Tale Plays, #1

By Hillary DePiano and Basile Giambattista

Looking for a large cast comedy play script with plenty of female roles for your next festival or drama competition? The Fourth Orange is a zany fairy tale mash-up with a modern citrus twist!

 

There were only supposed to be three oranges.

 

All Franceschina had to do was deliver one measly basket of sausages to the witch and go on her way. But, no, she had to play the hero and ended up cursed and forgotten, caught in the crossfire of someone else's fairy tale. Well, from now on, she's minding her own business and leaving the action to the real heroes. But when a dragon is destroying the kingdom and nobody will do anything about it, it'll be up to Franceschina to decide what part she really wants to play. 

 

A mash-up of the Italian fairy tale, The Merchant, from Giambattista Basile's The Tale of Tales (Il Pentamerone, Lo cunto de li cunti) with characters from Carlo Gozzi's The Love of Three Oranges, The Fourth Orange is a wacky commedia-style fairy tale adaptation for all ages.

• Comedy / Fantasy
• 20-30 minutes
• 4 m, 6 f, 5 any (7-20+ actors possible)

Demographics

Ideal for middle school to high school teen performers through adults

 

Features

• Flexible staging.
• Large cast with majority female roles.
• Ensemble with plenty to do that can expand based on your casting needs.
• Opportunities for physical comedy, masked commedia dell'arte, improvisation and puppets.
• Great length for drama competitions and classroom study.

Both prequel and sequel to Hillary DePiano's adaptations of Carlo Gozzi's The Love of Three Oranges and The Green Bird. Perform all three one-acts back to back for an evening's entertainment!

 

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hillary DePiano
• Release date: May 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781944909116

Book preview

The Fourth Orange

by

Hillary DePiano

Based on The Merchant from The Tale of Tales collection by Giambattista Basile with characters from Carlo Gozzi's The Love of Three Oranges

Copyright 2017, 2020 Hillary DePiano

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

ISBN: 978-1-944909-10-9 (paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-944909-11-6 (eBook)

For inquires, requests for permission, to secure rights for performance or other needs, please contact Hillary DePiano through her website at HillaryDePiano.com. Discounted acting editions are available for schools and groups ordering in bulk for performance or classroom needs.

CAUTION: Professional and amateurs are hereby warned that this play is fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion pictures, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, and the rights of translation into foreign languages are strictly reserved. In its present form, the play is dedicated to the reading public only.

The author controls all rights, including the amateur live stage performance rights,. The right of performance is not transferable.

Copying this play either in print or electronically without written permission of the author is strictly forbidden by law. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, performing, or otherwise, without written permission of the author.

Due authorship credit must be given on all programs, printing, and advertising for the play.

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,