Burston Drum

by Ellen Dryden and Don W. Taylor

Published 1 April 1989
On the 1st April, 1914, in the village of Burston, a group of children went on strike to protest at the unfair dismissal of their teachers, Kitty and Tom Higdon. The Burston Drum tells the story, in musical form, of the events leading up to this historic first school strike, and of Kitty's battle to provide a comprehensive and enjoyable education for all the village children and Tom's fight to organize the villagers into a more democratic rural community. With simple staging and a large cast (either all children or mixed children and adults) this musical offers the opportunity for an enjoyable and entertaining community or school production.11 women, 13 men

Summer in the Park

by Don W. Taylor and Ellen Dryden

Published 1 March 1992
A derelict park is threatened by developers and a group of young people try to rescue it by writing and performing a play. But the project soon falters: the developers hover, the cast bicker and the hot weather breaks with a violent storm. But the park exercises a strange hold over them.-Large flexible cast

The Roses of Eyam

by Don W. Taylor

Published 1 June 1977
A remarkable and true story of a village stricken with plague through the arrival from London of a box of clothing; of the villagers' determination, under the persuasions of the present and former Rectors, to prevent its spread by remaining within the village and containing the disease at the certain risk of their own lives; of the human tragedies and even comedies that ensued; of the idealism and the courage required to live with that idealism.-Large flexible cast

Daughters of Venice

by Don W. Taylor

Published 1 March 1992
Written for Chiswick Youth Theatre, this play of rich comedy and powerful drama has a large cast, with a preponderance of good female roles. The daughters are the young girls taken in as orphans and cared for by the'sisters of the Piet . The convent is famous for its girls' orchestra under the direction of Vivaldi and the play follows the fortun's of three of the girls about to enter the harsh commercial world.13 women, 9 men

The Exorcism

by Don W. Taylor

Published 1 February 1981
Dan and Margaret have come to spend Christmas with Rachel and Edmund in their renovated seventeenth-century labourer's cottage. Later, as Rachel plays the piano, she suddenly gets a sinister feeling of d j vu. Shortly afterwards, the electricity fails and the phone is out of order too. It is the start of a series of macabre events which mount relentlessly to a bizarre and terrifying climax culminating in a tragic report coming from the TV into an empty brightly-lit room.2 women, 2 men


Anna's Room

by Ellen Dryden

Published 1 January 1985
To escape from the restraints of a suffocating relationship, Anna moves into a flat with a friend, Prue. In the old attic room which she adopts as her study, Anna is presented with a ghostly series of women through the ages - women who, like Anna, have not conformed to the usual roles of wife and mother - a Victorian spinster, a nun, a nurse who worked with Florence Nightinglae during the Crimean War and a young wife who dies childless.3 women, 2 men

Harvest

by Ellen Dryden

Published March 1982