Cariani, John. Almost Maine . New York : Dramatists Play Service , 2007. Print.
Almost Maine is a series of short vignettes all taking place in the same town and on the same night. Although these scenes do not contain the same characters, they know each other and are mentioned in other stories. Each of these stories is surrounded by some type of love story- whether it be between two strangers, two men, or a married couple. Although it could be criticized for being too fluffy or light, there is some deep pain inside of some of these characters. One example that comes to mind is Daniel, who was rejected in his proposal, literally became half the man he was. I think discussing this play as a text in a theatre class would be a bit difficult for the sole fact that these characters are only in one scene of the play. It is hard to get clear intentions and I feel as though you would have to spend most of your time getting a more in depth character analysis and ignore the tone, lighting aspect, and mysticism of the play. I do feel it would work absolutely wonderful on the stage with a high school drama group though. Right now it is the most popular stage play for high school theatre and I am not surprised. Not only does it have a large cast, but the characters are interesting, yet easy enough to understand to play them on the stage. The use of the Northern Lights and multiple settings gives a tech crew many interesting aspects to explore and create to make their production their own.
Almost Maine is a series of short vignettes all taking place in the same town and on the same night. Although these scenes do not contain the same characters, they know each other and are mentioned in other stories. Each of these stories is surrounded by some type of love story- whether it be between two strangers, two men, or a married couple. Although it could be criticized for being too fluffy or light, there is some deep pain inside of some of these characters. One example that comes to mind is Daniel, who was rejected in his proposal, literally became half the man he was. I think discussing this play as a text in a theatre class would be a bit difficult for the sole fact that these characters are only in one scene of the play. It is hard to get clear intentions and I feel as though you would have to spend most of your time getting a more in depth character analysis and ignore the tone, lighting aspect, and mysticism of the play. I do feel it would work absolutely wonderful on the stage with a high school drama group though. Right now it is the most popular stage play for high school theatre and I am not surprised. Not only does it have a large cast, but the characters are interesting, yet easy enough to understand to play them on the stage. The use of the Northern Lights and multiple settings gives a tech crew many interesting aspects to explore and create to make their production their own.