Upcoming: "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland": 
A New Adaptation for the Radio

"The Scarlet Letter": 
A New Adaptation for the Radio 

Lean and Hungry presents its first non-Shakespearean audio play with the American classic, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. The novel so many dreaded in high school is given new life as we explore Hester Prynne's story through the eyes of Hawthorne himself as he questions Ruby, Hester's great-granddaughter about the events which took place in Puritanical, Colonial Massachusetts. When the town discovers that Hester is pregnant, she is punished for her sinful affair with a scarlet letter 'A' emblazoned on her chest.  Hester refuses to name the father, and her shame isolates her and her daughter, Pearl. The scarlet letter affects Hester's relationships with her community, with her impish daughter and with her guilt-ridden lover.  When her fiendish husband turns up, and dedicates the next seven years to his calculated vengeance, Hester must choose to stay in her settlement and bear her torture, or flee Massachusetts with her lover and their child.

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Full text available upon request. 

"The Comedy of Errors": 
Adapted for WAMU 88-5

Yeehaw! Lean & Hungry Theater be presentin’ its very own Wild Bill Shakespeare Show, The Comedy of Errors, set in ficitionalized Ephesus, a coastal Wild West town. The yarn tells of  two sets of twins, one set both named Antipholus and the other both called Dromio. Their story is a real tear jerker, each twin separated from his match in a shipwreck. One Antipohlus and Dromio went to live in Syracause, while  the other two went to make their way in Ephesus. Wonderin’ about their past, the pair from Syracuse trots over  to Ephesus to see what they can dig up. No twin knows  he’s in the same burg as his match. That sure creates a mess of hullabaloo:   from unpaid debts, to madder ‘n a hornet wives, to confused “ladies of the evenin” and quacky doctors! All the mayhem takes place in a single day and it takes the whole town to sort out the flusteration.

Pity, Love, nor Fear: A Henry VI Adaption

An adaption of William Shakespeare's Henry VI cycle. It combines the three plays into one play which focuses on Margaret and Richard as well as the journeys of minor characters such as Jack Cade. The adaptation is designed to work as a preface to Richard III, although it can also stand alone. 

Samples and full text available upon request. 

"You Have Made a Mess of Your Life Up to Date": 
Talking to Girls in Juvenile Court in Post-World War I Los Angeles

Abstract 

 This thesis analyzes juvenile court hearing transcripts from original case files of the Los Angeles Juvenile Court in 1920, paying special attention to cases involving a famous juvenile court “referee” (i.e., judge,) Miriam Van Waters. The1920s was a particularly interesting time for adolescent girls, as industrialization led to increased personal freedom and the development of an active nightlife for youth. Adults were still very invested in maintaining traditional standards of morality for their daughters, however, and moral breaches were generally what girls were brought into juvenile court for: sex, curfew violation, disobeying guardians, etc. Van Waters would delve into the girls’ family life, psyche and aspirations in order to decide on a suitable place for the girl to be sent or whether to supervise the girl in her own home, on probation. My research focuses particularly on the transcripts of conversations between Van Waters, the girls, and her parents in order to understand how juvenile courts decided what to do with “delinquent” girls in the post-World War I period.

Samples and full text available upon request. 

The Playiest Play

The Playiest Play takes the hypothetically perfect structure of a play that is taught in basic theater theory classes and takes it as literally as possible (the protagonist climbs a mountain during the rising action and then orgasms at the climax [while having sex with his mother] and then descends during the falling action). The play is also a tribute and a satire of popular theater tropes (for instance we have stylized movement pieces to aggressively hipster music, an Elizabethan bed trick, and the male gaze.) It is a celebration and a mockery of centuries of theater. 

Samples and full text available upon request.