The Playwrights Database
SUSAN GAYLE TODD (1955 - )
Nationality: USAemail: Click here to contact Website: Click here
Literary Agent: n/a
Susan Gayle Todd (not to be confused with British playwright named Susan Todd) typically writes dramatic adaptations of canonical works. Her plays include The Weird Sisters, Hand in Hand (2005) a female-centric adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, and Sycorax (2007), a period prequel to The Tempest. Most recently, Susan Gayle Todd has written a contemporary musical theater version of The Three Little Pigs (2012) and a contemporary dramatic version of Jack and the Beanstalk (2012). With a PhD in theater history and an MA in Women's and Gender studies, Susan Gayle Todd has produced, studied, taught, performed, and directed Shakespeare and drama since 1994. She lives in Austin, Texas where she directs the Weird Sisters Women's Theater Collective and teaches at St. Edward's University. Susan Gayle Todd also teaches Shakespeare in the Huntington Library Summer Shakespeare Program in Pasadena, California.
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below is a list of Susan Gayle Todd's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Jack and the Beanstalk Sycorax Three Little Pigs: A Musical Weird Sisters, Hand in Hand, TheJack and the Beanstalk
Synopsis:
During the current economic crisis, Jack's mom has been laid off, so now they have to sell their good, old car. Jack helps out by posting an ad on Craigslist. Before Jack can put away his laptop, a strange person named Bernie shows up and convinces Jack to trade the car for magic beans. Although Mom is furious when she finds out, Jack faithfully plants the beans in his back yard according to Bernie's specific instructions. When he wakes in the morning, he makes his first trip up and up through the clouds where he meets a living violin! The story is similar to the classic in many ways, but Jack is NOT rewarded for stealing the giant's possessions, and he certainly doesn't kill the giant; instead he learns that it's wrong to take what doesn't belong to him-even from mean people like the scary giant! Suffice it to say, they all live happily ever after.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Scottish Rite Theater--Austin, Texas 07 Jul 2012
Organisations:
Scottish Rite Theater
1st Published:
- -
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Theater for Youth
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: Cast of 4: Giant/Bernie; Mom; Jack; Violin
Further Reference:
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Top of PageSycorax
Synopsis:
Based on the sketchy history related by characters in Shakespeare's The Tempest, this play fleshes out the story of Sycorax, a young healer. Her constant companions are Ariel, a spirit that only Sycorax is aware of, and Clare, her lover and life partner. Through benevolent trickery, Sycorax rises to power, but after a devastating storm destroys the city, Sycorax and Clare come under scrutiny for their lesbianism, are scape-goated, and are punished for witchcraft. Sycorax is banished and pu5 on board a ship. After being brutalized on the ship, she is left by sailors to die on an island where she gives birth.
Notes:
The inclusion of Sycorax in The Tempest is what Abena P. A. Busia calls an "invocation of the native woman, embedded as it is in the narrative of colonial authority and recalling once again a conflation between sexuality and bestiality or the subhuman, [which] serves as a precise reminder of the place, within the narratives, of the incarceration of native women who have no recourse to any countertext." This play provides a countertext for Sycorax. It also provides a significant title role for a black female actor, who, Busia notes, "are seldom present as billed players on the stage, and when they are, they do not speak coherently" (94). Sycorax is almost never absent from the stage, and her subjective narrative drives the play from beginning to end. The play has been produced twice with different directors, first with a mixed-gender cast and subsequently with an all-female cast.
1st Produced:
Cohen New Works Festival, University of Texas 12 Apr 2007
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Drama
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: 7-15 varied
Further Reference:
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Top of PageThree Little Pigs: A Musical
Synopsis:
The Three Little Pigs are elated to be graduating from Pig School! After Professor Bacon sings a rousing keynote address, the piggies bid their teacher farewell and toss their mortarboards into the air. The trouble is, rather than building sturdy homes, Domy would rather play video games all day, and Desiree prefers to shop for sparkly princess-y clothes and shoes. AJ labors alone while the other two quickly toss off flimsy structures made of cardboard boxes and balloons. Meanwhile, the Big Bad Wolf lurks and fantasizes about all kinds of food, but especially PORK!
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Scottish Rite Theater of Austin, Texas 26 Apr 2012
Organisations:
Scottish Rite Theater
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Theater for Youth
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: Cast of 4: Professor Bacon/Big Bad Wolf; Domy; AJ; Desiree
Further Reference:
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Top of PageWeird Sisters, Hand in Hand, The
Synopsis:
This female-centric adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth opens with nobles attacking "the Coven," common women going about their business. Within the castle, Lady Beth gives birth to yet another stillborn child. Alongside the common women, Lady suffers as her husband blames her for her inability to bear a viable heir. She fears being "beheaded, hanged, or put away / For failing to produce her husband's seed" (1.6). Motivated, therefore, to provide Macbeth with the ultimate substitute she plans the assassination of King Duncan and usurpation of the throne for her. The plot develops as Lady's attempts to compensate for barrenness fail, and Macbeth becomes more bloodthirsty and paranoid, using the accusation of witchcraft to justify murder and tyranny, and carrying out political revenge on the bodies of women.
Notes:
My quest to centralize women in Shakespeare through adaptation, collaboration, and all-female production culminated in this feminist adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth. The Weird Sisters, Hand in Hand re-imagines Macbeth as it interrogates and exposes historic misogyny in Shakespeare's text. The king for whom Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, James VI of Scotland and I of England, hunted, tried, and tortured witches and launched the witch craze in Scotland. Shakespeare's portrayal of witches reinforces James's agenda and the entrenched cultural beliefs of that period: females were easily swayed to join the ranks of Satan, particularly those who were poor and old, and witches were mischievous and powerful. Here I equate King James with Macbeth by making the character a witch hunter. On the other hand, I humanize the "weird sisters," giving them legitimate motivation for their vengeance. I also present the bridge misogyny forms between classes, as women of all ranks in the play are connected through oppression. The words in this play come from the original Macbeth and other Shakespeare plays, scholarship about the European witch hunts, documents from witch trials, and my own imagination inspired by descriptions and images from the period.
1st Produced:
Waller Creek Chapel, Austin, Texas 08 Apr 2005
Organisations:
The Weird Sisters Women's Theater Collective
1st Published:
- -
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Drama
Parts:
Male: 17 Female: - Other: all parts may be played by women
Further Reference:
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