The Puppets' Ire OR How I Learned To Love Barbed Wire - A Comedic Play of the New Old West in Iambic Verse for 13 Actors and Others (Paperback)

This is a comedy in two acts for 13 actors (7 men/6 women) and 8 to 16 non-speaking dancers and extras. It takes about 2 hours to perform including an intermission. It is written in iambic verse (i.e., rhyming couplets, triplets and quatrains). The script includes stage directions, props and set designs. The play is set in the present but invokes images and themes of the Old West. It begins with a country-western line dance. The story is about a widow (Sally Starr) who owns a ranch in the southwestern United States. The widow's late husband (Abe) narrates the play as a ghost and offers a prologue and frequent guides. Then the protagonists are joined. While rolling out barbed wire, Sally is interrupted by a grifter (Jehovah Smith) who offers to turn her ranch into a resort if she will give him the deed to it. Sally is tempted by the promise of cash and invites him into her ranch house to talk. There the grifter meets Sally's three puppets which Abe carved from a magic tree. The puppets can talk but only by telling jokes. This makes it hard for them to be clear. The puppets conclude Smith is a con man and, once the grifter and Sally leave, they decide to throw a wrench into the works by sending a letter to the town sheriff (Butch Able) in which they accuse Smith of being a murderer and drug mule. Meanwhile a Puerto Rican Buddhist monk cowboy (Joe de la Paz) comes to town and, in search of a job, he introduces himself to the sheriff. After a comedic dialog punctuated by wisdom from the Buddha (offered by the monk throughout the play), the sheriff writes a letter to Sally recommending that she hire the monk to work at the ranch. There follows a hilarious scene in which the grifter Smith meets a barmaid (Mabel) who agrees to accompany him to a dance that night. Meanwhile the monk meets Sally and her puppets at the ranch, and having made a good impression and learned from Sally that the tree from which Abe made the puppets was "enchanted by space aliens," he persuades Sally and the puppets to go to the tree and explore. After more narration this ends Act 1. Act 2 begins with a square dance. Thereafter Smith and Mabel become romantic again only to be interrupted by Smith's Chicago lawyer, Sophie Bannisher, who chases off Mabel. We learn that Smith cheated Sophie out of a share of the booty when she last assisted him with a scam. Smith assures his lawyer that she would "get what she deserves." The sheriff arrives, and Smith invites him to accompany them to the ranch the next day. After Smith and the sheriff depart, Sophie's jealous husband, Josh, surprises her and accusers her of being unfaithful. Sophie reassures him that his doubts are unfounded, and they agree that he will keep an eye on things and protect her if Smith turns aggressor. Thereafter the five principals and three puppets travel to the tree from which Abe carved the puppets. The monk discovers a space ship beneath the tree. Two aliens emerge from the ship and explain their peaceful purpose for coming to the Earth. The puppets --- who now come alive as people --- learn that they are the children of the aliens, and a riotous reunion ensues. But Smith is not impressed, and he gets the drop on the sheriff and threatens to kill everyone including Sophie so he can get the ranch for himself. Josh then appears surprising Smith. Everyone is relieved. Josh gives his gun to Sophie while he ties up Smith. He also says that he has found gold nearby, at which point Sophie turns the guns on Josh and the others, tells Josh that she is leaving him, and gives Smith a gun, in exchange for which she insists that Smith give her the gold. He agrees and threatens to kill everyone again. But before he can do so, the aliens fire their ray guns at Smith and Sophie and freeze them. Everyone is relieved again. The aliens invite the monk to wrap things up by sharing the nature of life, and Abe (the narrator) concludes the play with an epilogue that describes what happens to everyone in the futu

General

Imprint:	Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	July 2013
First published:	July 2013
Authors:	Larry Epstein
Dimensions:	229 x 152 x 4mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Trade
Pages:	70
ISBN-13:	978-1-4974-7313-3
Categories:	Books > Arts & Architecture > Performing arts > Theatre, drama > General
LSN:	1-4974-7313-6
Barcode:	9781497473133

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