Janet Munsil
playwright
PLAYS
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The Ugly Duchess
Paul Terry as Margaret Maultasch
1992
THE UGLY DUCHESS Synopsis
The story of Margaret Maultasch, 14th Century ruler of Tyrol during the Black Death. The perfect scapegoat in a troubled time, The Maultasch was a monsterously desirable political bride. The role of Margaret is to be performed by a man.
60 minutes / 1 Male Actor
Production History
October 2007 - Phoenix Theatres, University of Victoria, Victoria BC
Since 1993: Victoria BC, San Francisco, Toronto, Prague, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vancouver, Limerick Ireland
Emphysema
(a love story)
Thelma Barlow as Louise,
Peter Eyre as Ken in West Yorkshire Playhouse Production, 2000
1995
EMPHYSEMA (A LOVE STORY) Synopsis
Obsessed by his lifelong erotic fantasies of silent movie icon Louise Brooks' amoral character Lulu in the 1928 film Pandora's Box, legendary theatre critic Kenneth Tynan spent three days with the then-aging star to gather material for a New Yorker profile, as The Girl in the Black Helmet was set to launch the actress once again into the limelight after decades of anonymity.
UK title: Smoking with Lulu
90 minutes / 1 Male , 2 Female
West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds; Soho Theatre, London; Citizens Theatre Glasgow, Alberta Theatre Projects playRites '97, Calgary,; Tarragon Theatre, Toronto; Belfry Theatre, Victoria; Edmonton Fringe Festival; Open Space New Theatre Series, Lulupalooza (Staged Reading)
Be Still
1999
BE STILL Synopsis
Victorian photographer Hannah Maynard is adrift in grief over her drowned child. Immersing herself in work in her studio and refusing comfort, the spirit world intervenes, and Hannah begins to see her own double.
75 minutes / 2 male + 4 female
Co-produced by the Richmond Gateway Theatre and Belfry Theatre
Circus Fire
2002
CIRCUS FIRE Synopsis
On a scorching summer day in 1944 in Hartford, Connecticut, the Ringling Bros. travellling bigtop burns to the ground with thousands of spectators inside. Acts of heroism, daring, and animal instinct leave the centre ring and errupt in the audience in this text for physical theatre.
65 minutes / 2 male + 2 female
Prague Fringe, Phoenix Theatres, University of Victoria, Victoria Fringe, Winner: Victoria Critic's Choice Award, Monday Magazine M Award
Sideshow
2003
SIDESHOW synopsis
Distasteful! Shocking! Vulgar! Degenerate! Step up! Step up! The sideshow pitchman and his faithful assitant Buglov lure the audience into their chamber of anatomical curiosities. Mother taught you that you are special and unique. But how unique are you, really? Are you special enough?
Would passersby on the street give you a second glance? Step right up, don't be shy. Buglov will sell you a ticket.
15 minutes / 2 actors
A site-specific outdoor performance at the Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival, 2003-2004
that elusive spark
Trevor Hinton as Phineas Gage
and Melissa Bates as Helen Harlow
UVic Phoenix Theatres 2005
2005
THAT ELUSIVE SPARK Synopsis
Helen Harlow, a once-promising young neuro -psychologist vexed by the mysteries of her own brain, takes an unsuitable job in a small college teaching Psych 101. Meanwhile in 1848, railway construction worker Phineas Gage survives the passage of an iron rod through through his head, and a dramatic change in personality. Those affected include Helen's ancestor, Dr. John Harlow.
2 hours / 3 women, 5 men
Commissioned and first produced by University of Victoria Phonenix Theatres, professional premiere Alberta Theatre Projects Endbridge playRites '08, Calgary
Influence
Daniel Arnold as John Keats
photo: Tim Matheson
2008
INFLUENCE Synopsis
In 1817, a battle of gods and mortals rages in the halls of the British Museum, when ebullient history painter Benjamin Robert Haydon takes his protégé, John Keats, to view the statues of the Parthenon. As Haydon tries to awaken his young friend's appreciation of these treasures of antiquity - the goddess Pallas Athena arrives to reclaim them.
2 hours / 4 male + 1 female
Commissioned and first produced by Touchstone Theatre, Vancouver BC - 2008
I have seen
Beautiful
Jim Key
quite soon
I HAVE SEEN BEAUTIFUL JIM KEY Synopsis
A play for young audiences that tells the story of former slave Doc Key, and his educated horse Beautiful Jim Key, who could read, write, calculate, and who became a symbol in the early days of the humane movement, as well as the top-grossing entertainer of his day - told by the educated equine wonder.
45 minutes - 1 actor, 1 musician
In Development for 2011
Short Plays
GORGEOUS MAUVE MOTHER OF
BRIDE DRESS< SIZE 18 NEVER WORN
10 minutes - 2 men, 1 woman
Public speaking can be hard.
For the 24 Hour Play Project
HEADBUTT!!
10 minutes - 1 actor
Finesse subject master Ari the Ram hopes this guy Jason isn't fleecing him.
For the Uno Fest Zodiac Project 2002
HEADBUTT YOUNG LOVERS!!
Single adventurous funloving Aries, Ari the Ram has a totally romantic evening planned for one of you! Amour de cosmos!
For the Uno Fest Blind Date
Project 2003
EXQUISITE CORPSE
10 minutes - 2 men/ 3 women
A Grand-Guignol for 4 1/2 actors and just 11 letters of the alphabet: EXQUISTCORP
For the 24 Hour
Play Project
EAT ME
Physical Theatre Text
10 minutes - 2 women
A woman fights a bag of cookies to the death.
I REALIZED I HAD TORN THROUGH SOME NEW DIMENSION
10 minutes - 5 actors
A concussed tourist gets a lecture in string theory from Emily Carr's pet monkey, Woo.
For the 24 Hour Play Project 2004
GREEN MAN
10 minutes - 1 M, 1 F
A Victorian gardener struggles with the landscape and her desire For Victoria's Secrets 2005
Bio (2009)
Janet Munsil's plays include Influence, The Ugly Duchess, Emphysema (a love story) (UK title Smoking with Lulu), Be Still, Circus Fire, and That Elusive Spark. Her plays have have been produced across Canada and the UK, including Touchstone, Tarragon, ATP, Univeristy of Victoria Phoenix Theatres, and The West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, and the Soho Theatre + Writers Centre, London. Her self-produced works, Circus Fire and The Ugly Duchess, have toured North America and overseas, most recenlty to Ireland and the Czech Republic.
She is currently working on a new monologue about civil and humane rights in the early 20th century, I Have Seen Beautiful Jim Key.
Munsil is a graduate of the University of Victoria Phoenix Theatre program, where she studied directing and design. Since 1992, she has been the Artistic Director and Festival Producer of Intrepid Theatre in Victoria, BC, where she produces the annual Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival and Uno Fest: Canada's Singular Live Theatre Event.
Request Scripts
Please send an email requesting any of the scripts on this website, and you will be sent a free, pdf version that you can print off - except for Emphysema / Smoking with Lulu - which you can buy online HERE.
If you request a script, tiny donations to cover the cost of the website are very welcome - a buck or two would be just dandy.
PAYPAL
CONTACT
jmunsil(at)shaw.ca
wk. (250)383-2663
Victoria BC Canada
thats all she wrote.
