Chip Deffaa's scripts can be licensed by any school, community theater, regional theater, or commercial producer that wants to do a production....
Here are scenes from a recent production of "YANKEE DOODLE BOY" at the Harvey School in Katonah, New York. This high-spirited Little Fig Stage / Young Actors Company production featured cast members ranging in age from 7-14.
Chloe Coletta and company.
Although the original New York production of "Yankee Doodle Boy" featured just six actors, this youth-theater production featured eleven actors. Director Marci Schein decided to have six different kids (including Mickey Stein, at right, and Ryan Low, below) portray Cohan at different ages. The idea worked quite well.
Margot Hughes, Mikhyle Stein
Ryan Low, age seven (in the photo below) is the youngest actor to have played the role of Cohan, thus far, in a production of one of Deffaa's shows. (Seymour Peterman, age 83, is the oldest actor to have played the role of Cohan in a production of one of Deffaa's shows. For pictures of the production that he was in, please visit the page on this website titled "A Senior-Theater Production.)
Zach Stuckelman, Maddie O'Brien, Ryan Low, Margot Hughes
Flexible casting--in terms of both gender and number of cast members--is always an option. In this youth-theater production, for example, some roles originally played in New York by males, were played by females. Which is fine. We're always happy to see talented performers get opportunities.
Ryan Low, Alexander Craven, Taina Padilla, Eve O'Brien, Avery O'Brien, Maddie O'Brien, Erik Picone
Director Marci Elyn Schein (center) with Taina Padilla and Chloe Coletta
When you license a script for a production, you're provided with everything you need to get started--script, score, and demo recordings. And you bring your own imagination, which makes it YOUR production.
Director Marci Schein, for example, made use of slide projections to help set the scenes. And she and choreographer Melodie Wolford obtained variety by presenting some of the action in front of the stage or in the aisles, not just on the stage.
Choreographer Melodie Wolford and Music Director Michael Ficcocelli work with the cast.
To purchase the script of "YANKEE DOODLE BOY (or Young George M. Cohan)" directly from the publisher, Drama Source,
Mickey Stein, Erik Picone, Alexander Craven, Eve O'Brien, marching down the aisle to "You Won't Do Any Business If You Haven't Got a Band."
If you do a production of any of Chip Deffaa's shows, the main thing is to have fun. And the kids sure seemed to be having a good time in this exuberant production at the Harvey School by the Little Fig Stage Young Actors Company. For more info on the Little Fig program, go to: www.littlefigstage.com.
There's even talk about them possibly presenting their production someday in New York City--a production by kids, FOR kids (and their families). We're all for it! These kids did a super job.
One young actor from this production, Alexander Craven, made such a vivid impression that he wound up being cast in the New York premiere production of Chip Deffaa's full-length musical, "The Seven Little Foys." The photo at left shows Alexander Craven in a scene from "The Seven Little Foys." For more photos and info on on that production, please go to the page on this website titled "Foys at the Fringe."
Alexander Craven, in a scene from "The Seven Little Foys" at the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival.
For more information on licensing any of Chip Deffaa's shows, contact:
CHIP DEFFAA PRODUCTIONS LLC 50 Quartz Lane Paterson, NJ 07501-3345
Mickey Schein (backed by Maddie O'Brien, Margot Hughes, Zach Stuckelman, and Erik Picone) performs Cohan's signature number, "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy."
Music director Michael V. Ficcocelli, choreographer Melodie Wolford, director Marci Elyn Schein, and playwright Chip Deffaa, with the entire cast: Avery O'Brien, Margot Hughes, Erik Picone, Maddie O'Brien, Mikhyle Stein, Zach Stuckelman, Taina Padilla, Ryan Low, Eve O'Brien, Alexander Craven, Chloe Coletta
