Old Silent Movie

by Marie Starr

Comedy in one act with 9 men, 8 women (doubling possible). 1 set, 25 minutes. Middle/High School . $ 6.50

A short play can be just the ticket--to pair with another short piece, or by itself for a contest on a classroom. This 25-minute play is in the comic mode--slapstick, even--but nonetheless serious in its intent to share an important cultural heritage--the days when movies were silent and comedy was physical and inventive. Marie Starr's mother directed movies in Hollywood in the days when they were silent, and as a child she sat on the set and took it all in. By dramatizing these moments of inspired madness, she brings the era alive for children who know only the paler television imitation--and when you perform it, you train young actors in the disciplined techniques of physical and visual comedy arising out of the Commedia del'Arte.