Almost Shakespeare

20 pages

2 m, 2 w

Four high school students report to the school auditorium for play rehearsal only to find out the director is not coming. To add to the confusion, one of the cast members has dropped three rehearsal scripts, of which all the pages are unbound and unnumbered. The pages fly everywhere. No problem! - unless the scripts are "Macbeth," "The Taming of the Shrew," and "A Midsummer Night's Dream." As one of the students quips, "We don't know anything about Shakespeare, but it all sounds the same anyway, so grab some pages." The mayhem that results will have you wonde...

25 pages

5 m, 8 w, 8 flexible

Cinderella (that isn't her real name!) labors away for her wicked aunt and evil cousins, sneaking free moments whenever she can to read. Her aunt believes learning just monopolizes the time a woman can spend being beautiful and burns all the books in their cottage. Cinderella manages to save a copy of "Romeo and Juliet," but eventually even that is burned. With a little help from a silly fairy godmother, Cinderella attends a palace ball and impresses the Prince with her intellect. After she flees the ball, the Prince pursues her, looking not for a woman who c...

45 pages

7 m, 8 w, 5 flexible

Finding a prom date is tough in a normal world, but in a world dominated by the Queen and King of Teens and all their teen spirits, it's nearly impossible. In this side-splitting send-up of the Shakespearean classic, four teenagers only want to attend the prom with the teen of their dreams. Mia wants to go with Lyle but her father insists she go with Dean. Mia detests Dean but her best friend Helen adores him. Yet Dean wants nothing to do with Helen. Mia and Lyle decide to sneak off to attend another school's prom but to do so must sleep in the woods overnigh...

60 pages

4 m, 4 w, extras

This richly-textured play weaves the dark energy of one of Shakespeare's most intense plays with compelling, current-day characters and problems. Andreya, a selfish student who gets what she wants by being manipulative and cruel, is affronted when she doesn't get the lead female role for the school's production of "Othello." Instead, the part of Desdemona goes to Miranda, a quiet but talented teen whose dysfunctional family has kept her out of many school activities. The part of Othello goes to Aaron, a well-rounded and popular student. As the rehearsals prog...

48 pages

14 speaking roles, extras

Here's Romeo and Juliet, along with Hamlet and Ophelia, updated as today's high school campus personalities! Written in couplets, the ferocious rhymes create much of the humor. With its nice mix of characters, the high school faculty will even want to join in the performances. The script also includes many opportunities to insert local information and take jabs at rival schools, making your performance unique to your school and magnifying the fun. Split stage and pantomime scenes help keep the play moving, and there's room for creative staging and slapstick. ...

27 pages

5 actors

“Reading Shakespeare in class is akin to going to a restaurant and eating the menu. Shakespeare is meant to be acted and attended, not just words on a page.” With this belief in mind, playwright Rosina Mason Whitfield created this lively and shortened version of the Bard’s classic. It is specially designed to be played by 5 actors as a touring show to introduce middle and high school students to the wonder of Shakespeare in a way that is enjoyable and accessible. The show did in fact tour for two years to schools in Pennsylvania where students always loved th...

26 pages

2 m, 2 w, 1 flexible, doubling possible

In spite of Dr. Winona Smedlap's repeated warnings to her team of lab assistants not to go near the Time Mobile until it was "totally, thoroughly, and undeniably ready," she forgot to mention that it also applied to responding to strange noises coming from inside of it. That's exactly what Bill was investigating when he mysteriously disappeared, his friend Pemberton nervously explains. As if Bill's unexpected trip into time weren't alarming enough, it seems he has managed to trade places with none other than England's most famous playwright, William Shakespea...

41 pages

2 m, 2 w

This play is a gathering of some of the most clever characters ever written! It provides examples of the clownish, comic characters written by William Shakespeare in many different kinds of productions through the ages. Far from circus clowns in face paint, these are clowns in the broadest sense, varying in sizes, shapes, ages and types. A few of the characters include the rude Mechanicals in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Constable Dogberry in “Much Ado About Nothing,” the boastful Sir Jon Falstaff in “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” the boisterous sisters Bianca...

35 pages

2 m, 2 w

This show is a lively compilation of the many face of love, taken from the works of William Shakespeare. Selections range from the ridiculous to the sublime: excerpts from A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM, ROMEO AND JULIET, THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, and LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST alternate with some of the Bard's most beautiful sonnets in this very funny and moving show. This is an entertaining and accessible tribute to Shakespeare and his most irritating muse, Cupid. 30 - 40 minutes.

42 pages

Approx. 9 m, 6 w, 3 flexible, extras which can be audience members

With graduation fast approaching, two groups of students of Bellefonte High confront each other in an attempt to influence the next year’s curriculum of the school. With recollections of past bullying, revealed secret lives, hinted-at romances, and numerous quotations from Shakespeare’s most famous plays, these teenagers set up a mock trial to decide if Shakespeare should be studied next year. Like current day Montagues and Capulets, the students do plenty of verbal fencing -- with a little Romeo and Juliet romance thrown in -- to ultimately decide if the Bar...

29 pages

5 m, 3 w, 1 flexible

William Shakespeare retired at about age 48. Why did this prolific genius stop writing? How did he get along with his long-neglected wife, Anne, once he gave up the stage? “The Shakespeares” imagines what The Bard’s last years were like in Stratford-upon-Avon. The play is full of inside jokes for Shakespeare fans. But even for those unfamiliar with his plays, there are laughs (and a few tears) as we watch this profoundly mismatched couple try to make a go of it. Shakespeare’s confidante, daughter Susanna, realizes that her father’s creative spirit is being cr...

41 pages

5 m, 3 w, 2 flexible

Mayhem and comedy are guaranteed when a small troupe of animal actors perform "The Taming of the Shrew" for King Louie, a lion, and Queen Marie, a lioness. Bartholomew, a fox, and Cassandra, a cat, are the leaders of an acting troupe consisting of a sarcastic crow, a bumbling bear, a young rabbit, and a sleepy dog. Include a diva cat opera singer, Miss Bianca, and the fur is guaranteed to fly! As the stage story of "The Taming of the Shrew" unfolds, we see that the actors are like the characters they portray. We also see how much can go wrong when performing ...

46 pages

21 characters; 10 m, 11 f, extras, doubling possible

A high school drama teacher directs her students in rehearsing a version of Romeo and Juliet. A creative writing teacher encourages her students to compose poems that reflect their personal lives. And a man, the narrator, weaves these school experiences –and his own– into a play he has written. The result is a beautiful mosaic of the familiar lives of students and culture inherent in high schools. The play deals with tragedy, bullying, sexuality, grieving, and perseverance with vital sensitivity. A mix of ...