THE ANIMAL TALES
These plays for audiences 6-12 years old take on big subjects like grief, displacement and climate change through the lens of animals on big adventures finding family, saving home and protecting each other.
RAJPURR: TALE OF A TIGER
Jaime Nebeker as Rajpurr. Photo by Julia Bennett, 2017.
1W, 1M, 1 Any Gender
65 Minutes. When Rajpurr loses the world as she knows it, she heads out with her bunny friend Bhampo and tag-a-long caterpillar Carl to find her father so he can teach her how to hunt. This play about friendship, adventure and transformation asks big questions about loss on a quest to reunite this young tiger with her family. Commissioned by Boise Contemporary Theater. Staged Reading: Children's Reading Series Boise Contemporary Theater 2017, Boise, ID Reading: National Winter Playwrights Retreat HBMG Foundation 2017, Creede, CO |
SLAP! A BEAVER TALE
Working on the play on the Smith-Corona at Bown Crossing Library Residency, 2018.
3W, 2M
50 Minutes When a construction company starts building on her family's pond, young beaver Thistle rallies her marshland friends to help her protest -- peacefully. But when everything gets out of paw, what will happen to her home and all the creatures who live there? A play about nature. About family. And our nature. About building walls, tearing them down…and beaver tails. Commissioned by Boise Contemporary Theater. Staged Reading: Children's Reading Series Boise Contemporary Theater 2018, Boise, ID |
POLAR OPPOSITES: AN IMPOSSIBLE TALE
Maria Tzompa, Tracy Sunderland and Jennifer Stockwell-Fortner in rehearsal for the staged reading at Boise Contemporary Theater, 2019.
3W, 1M, 1 NB
50 Minutes About ice. And melting. And drowning. And saving. A play featuring animals of the Arctic and Antarctic trying to save their homes and two children much closer to the equator who help them – who are brave enough to try. If we all work together, do we have a chance at making it through? Commissioned by Boise Contemporary Theater. Staged Reading: Children's Reading Series Boise Contemporary Theater 2019, Boise, ID Reading: National Winter Playwrights Retreat HBMG Foundation 2019, Creede, CO |
The below plays could also be considered part of the animal series, but directed more toward middle-grade audiences. They both focus on their main characters finding themselves through difficult times by caring for more-than-human beings who need their help -- be they wolves or abandoned dogs.
WOLF/GIRL
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ARK
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Natalia Vasquez as Maddy/Matsi in Wolf/Girl at Boise State University. Photo by Jonathan Collins Photography, 2024.
3W, 3M.
Transgender, non-binary and gender fluid identifying actors are welcome in any role. 65 Minutes. Tired of being a misfit, Maddy runs away from her hometown bullies and joins up with a wolf pack. The longer she stays, the more she identifies with her new family, becoming a wolf at ease in her skin for the first time. But in order to find true peace, she must face her past and return home. Wolf/Girl reconstructs the werewolf story and explores how we find ourselves through difficult times. Staged Readings: The Liberty Theatre Company 2025, Hailey, ID Children's Reading Series Boise Contemporary Theater 2022, Boise, ID Excerpt Reading and Residency: Surel's Place 2021, Boise, ID University Premiere Production: Boise State University February, 2024 |
Photo by Jason Wong on Unsplash
6-12 Actors
2F, 2M, 2-6 Chorus Any Gender. Transgender, non-binary and gender fluid identifying actors are welcome in any role. 90 Minutes. This adaptation of Elisabeth Sharp McKetta’s poetic book for middle grade audiences looks at the early days of Covid-19 through the eyes of a girl who lives in a tiny house and wants to do big things. Arden’s year starts out terrible when her parents move the family into a tiny house, her best friend moves across the country and she has to let go of everything she loves about her life. When the pandemic hits, it’s all too much – until she finds renewed purpose by rescuing all the abandoned dogs in her neighborhood, squeezing the small space to its limits and pushing their home’s sanity to the brink. In this play about a girl finding herself through difficult times, Arden discovers what’s important in big and tiny ways. Reading: Chaotic Acts of Theatre Rediscovered Books 2023, Boise, ID Excerpt Reading and Residency: Surel's Place 2021, Boise, ID |