Dark of the Moon

by Howard Richardson and William Berney

Book Overview

As the tale unfolds, a witch boy tarries in a mountain community in love with a beautiful girl named Barbara Allen. The superstitious townspeople resent their happiness and their subsequent meddling... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0878305173
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Routledge/Theatre Arts Books
• Length: 98 Pages
• Weight: 0.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.2" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

I am glad to have found this.

I am very glad to have found this play and in such good condition. Thank you.

A fun read

As plays go Dark of the Moon is very enjoyable. The written accents become very engrossing, only helping the story along. The dark mood of the play, the great characters, setting, and songs make it a pleasure. Covering lost love to peer pressure. I would love to be a part of this play.

A treasure revisited.

This is one of the lost treasures of the American Theater. Once one of the most produced plays by high schools and colleges it has lost stature and is only produced occasionally. The reasons for this are a mystery to me. As an actor's exercise it offers performers (particularly young ones) a chance to stretch and discover different cultural types. Based on the ballad "Barbara Allen" the play about a love affair and marriage between a Witchboy and a beautiful young woman is highly theatrical and filled with a mystical and earthy quality. Appalachian characters and traditional mountain songs add to the color and whimsical nature of the story.

"Look at the moon"ÿ

It all started in the mountains. John the witch boy climbs up conjur mountain. Tired and out of breath, he beg's conjur man to change him to human. All for the love of of the the mountain gal Barbra Allen. He finally gets what he go's after.Althought there are a few catches. When John come into town durning a dance he finds his Barbra and her date Marvin, the town stud, he desides that he will cut in. Marvin doesn't like that too much, but john still has a little of dark power inside of him... While performing cut from this play, the charater loss all sense of acting and truely became there parts. Judges told us that they could not look away from the stage, to ever write comments down they had to wait untill it was complete. We enjoyed it so much that we'll never forget the love story of John the witch boy and his love for Barbra Allen.

Great story of love/loss. Good use of appalachian dialect.

This is a passionate yet tender look at love. The story of the Witch Boy (John) who gives up his magic for the love of Barbara Allen, and the consequences, points up predjudice and fear of the unknown. The play is well written for the characters and has many opportunites for cameo roles in the casting. It is an ideal play for small theatres to consider producing. There is a wonderful use of appalchian dialect in the characters and ample chance to add ballads and rousing dance to make it a musical as well. The Opera version doesn't yet do it justice. I have had the joy of doing several productions of this work (one with Mr. Richardson) and feel it is a great piece to represent American theatre.