SINDICATION – AMERICAN ONE ACT PLAY THAT BREAKS THE FOURTH WALL
This experimental, short comic drama is a thought-provoking, Ionescu-like political play that mars the line between Man and Media. The fourth wall becomes especially dynamic in this amusing drama, in its role as a television screen, flashing across the eager, dumbed-down faces of a seemingly typical American family waiting for dinner, on a Sunday, after church in a small town we’re all somehow familiar with. Here they sit, this seemingly typical American family, each making wild accusations about the audience—who unwittingly takes on the role of the Media in all its forms—as this family tries, like they do every Sunday, to talk to each other by talking about everything else in this American one act play that breaks the fourth wall.
Sindication was an Official Finalist at the 2018 Manhattan Downtown Urban Arts Festival.
FURTHER PRODUCTION HISTORY
Canby High School, Troupe 632, OR, USA – 2021
Author: T.K. Lee
Type: One act play
Genre: Drama, poignant comedy, satire depending on how it is played
Cast: 2M 2F and four voices 2F 1N
Ages of the actors: The four mains are middle aged and old and the voiced vary from a young girl’s to an adult reporter and an old woman
Suitable for: Older teens up to watch and perform. This play is an ideal play for drama students as it explores the concept of the Fourth Wall.
Length: Fifteen to Twenty minutes
Set: A den with couch, recliner, and rocking chair. Dressed as any typical, southern, middle-class household might appear. Though we do not see an actual TV, the lighting should have the effect of a flashing TV screen of any nondescript channels across their faces.
Level of difficulty: 8/10 – showing the detachment of the characters to the sometimes awful events they describe which mirror everyday life.
Read a Sample of the Script
Contact Off The Wall Plays with any queries about Sindication
Copyright © March 2019 T.K. Lee and Off The Wall Play Publishers
Like this play? Other plays you may enjoy:
Dislocations – a drama about an African American man caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Final Conversations – award winning drama about a mother and son’s final conversations
