Children's Theatre Plays

22 pages

1 m, 2 w, 1 flexible

Here's a perfect play to entertain young children and encourage them to read. Shusha wants an adventure like the one in her new book. Then the Story Snatcher, with his flapping ears and honking nose, grabs her story and descends to his underground lair. Shusha’s doll, Shareen, comes to life and gets the audience to help, acting as trees or a tunnel onstage, or providing wind and hooting owl noises from their seats. After magical and comic adventures they recover Shusha’s book. An ideal play to present during right-to-read week, national library week, or any o...

35 pages

3 m, 2 w, flexible cast of 25, doubling possible

Deep in the forest on a cold winter's night, an owl tells his friends about another winter's night when a shooting star lit up the sky, fell to the ground, and left a human child in a hollow tree. A woodcutter, who sees the shooting star, finds the child, takes him home, and rears him as a member of his family. The Star Child grows up to be a very handsome young man, but he doesn't have compassion or kindness. He mistreats the poor and the sick, he hurts the animals of the forest, and he shows no love for the family that raised him. Eventually he loses his ha...

55 pages

Flexible cast of 14 or more

Timeless Tales: A Hans Christian Andersen Quartet weaves together four of Hans Christian Andersen's best-known stories in an exciting and flexible format. Narrated by Andersen himself, the play introduces us to the master storyteller from Denmark, providing background information on his childhood and the circumstances leading to the publication of his plays. After the "Prologue," the actual dramatization of the tales begins. They include: "The Princess and the Pea," "The Little Mermaid," "The Emperor's New Clothes," and "The Ugly Duckling." This last...

35 pages

5 m, 15 w, extras

The King, his court, and all the villagers are enjoying a festival when the comic captain and his guards rush in to announce that the princesses have again slept through the day, and their shoes have been mysteriously worn out during the night. Distraught, the King orders that no one in the kingdom shall be happy until the riddle is solved. A young beggar comes into the kingdom and the princesses' matron sends him to the enchanted forest where he sees the princesses dancing the night away. We find the beggar is a prince in disguise and the matron explains her...

50 pages

9 w, 24 flexible

It's a media moment! Little Red Riding Hood has come to tell her story on Terry Tellus' talk show but is rudely interrupted by her Grandmother and the Wolf. It seems Red Riding Hood's version is nothing but a fairy tale! The Grandmother and the Wolf insist on equal air time. Henny Penny, Chicken Little and Turkey Lurkey appear as insurance agents, and the Three Little Pigs and the Three Little Kittens are present, too, as we make our way through the twists and turns of the different versions. Decide for yourself if Red is the heroine, the Valley Girl or every...

62 pages

Flexible casting

Design your own evening of entertainment from these four enchanting tales filled with charm, imagination, and a quirky sense of humor. With lots of small, easily learned roles, all of which are fun to play, these comedies are enjoyable for young actors, onstage and off. In "You Call That a Bed Monster?" Princess Julia wakes up one morning to discover that her beloved bed monster, Humphrey, is missing. Her bumbling guards drag in an assortment of critters, all mistaken for Humphrey, much to the chagrin of the King and Queen. In the title tale, "The Magic Harmo...

71 pages

4 m, 2 w, 9 girls, 2 boys

During the last years of his life, Mark Twain, entertained a group of young girls that came to be known as the Angelfish Club. Twain told his young friends stories, provided snacks for them, and seemed to have become a grandfather who loved to share his home with the group. Several years before, when Twain was living in New York City, Albert Bigelow Paine was selected to take dictation as Twain recalled the events of his life for his autobiography. Twain often became a bit cantankerous, making Paine shoot billiards, or eat with him before he would dictate. Th...

28 pages

2 m, 8 w, 2 flexible parts

In this 40-minute frumpled version of Lewis Carroll's story, Alice comes face to face with a Jaberwocky who could be Fonzie's twin! The Jaberwocky cons Alice into stepping through the looking glass. Then he steals her book so he and his four supremely cool Jaber-Babes - Daphne, Daisy, Dimples, and Delli - can get into the real world. Alice must quickly find them before they use the book or she'll never get back home. She gets lots of confusing "help" from the Messenger Rabbit, Tweedle Dum and Dee, and the Red and White queens.

50 pages

Approx. 8 m, 8 w (doubling possible)

Travel back in time as the real story of "The Elves and the Shoemaker" unfolds in a flurry of magic and mayhem. It begins when seven zany Elves - not just two as Mr. Grimm wrote - end up lost at the shop of Hans, the shoemaker. They need to perform three good deeds to get back, and no one could use help more than poor Hans, who has just enough leather to make one pair of shoes. The trouble is, elves don't go around wanting to do good deeds. They have to be coaxed! But one pair of perfectly made shoes leads to another and then, after Mr. Grimm tells Hans' stor...

67 pages

11 m, 13 w, doubling possible

Bring the exciting, inspiring story of the most famous Native American woman to life on your stage. This play is filled with challenging characters who played important parts in a turbulent, fascinating life - Powhatan, the chief; John Smith, the fearless adventurer; Capt. Argall, the greedy sea captain; Governor Gate's three lively daughters; and Pocahontas, the princess who longs for a world beyond the forest where her people live. The story is woven through the memories of an old woman who takes her granddaughter on a walk in the forest. The representation...

35 pages

5-15 actors.

Four spellbinding stories from Native American lore. In the first, the Raven, great trickster bird of all the Northwest Native American tribes, creates the world and the creatures in it. When Man complains about the darkness Raven fills the sky with the sun, the moon and the stars. Soon the new inventions are stolen by the greedy Ganuk. Raven turns himself into Ganuk's infant grandson to return the lights to the sky. In the second story, Raven disintegrates a giant, blood-thirsty cannibal into all the mosquitoes of the world. In the third story Raven's tragic...

34 pages

Flexible cast of 19

An evil computer virus - named Virus - invades a disk containing children's beloved fairy tales, stories, and nursery rhymes. He causes all of the story characters to become mish-mashed together. Imagine Little Red Riding Hood's confusion when the Wolf in the woods asks about Three Little Pigs instead of the way to Grandmother's house! Byte and Bit are computer chips who try to set things right and defeat the evil virus before he infects other computers. Things look so bad, even the witch of Hansel and Gretel and the evil queen of Snow White help out against ...

37 pages

5 m, 7 w

Young Peter devises a plan to capture a "fearsome" wolf who apparently has a rather large "sweet tooth," or teeth, in this case! Despite warnings from Grandpa, Peter enlists the help of his two girl friends aided by their animal friends, Natasha, a vain bird Olga, a practical duck Pavlov, a lovable dog and Catrina, a sly cat. In a hilarious scene, the wolf swallows Natasha - who gives him hiccups and a terrible tummy-ache - and he's caught by Peter and the girls. Feeling sorry for the wolf, everyone agrees to keep his cravings a secret and to return him to th...

30 pages

Ensemble cast of 5 to 22 actors

Some of the gentle, humorous, and well-loved characters from the writings of Beatrix Potter come alive in this gem of a story theatre play for young audiences. The play consists of adaptations of three Beatrix Potter stories: “The Tale of Benjamin Bunny” (one of the Peter Rabbit tales); her renowned Christmas story, “The Tailor of Gloucester”; and “Grasshopper Belle and Susan Emmet,” Potter’s adaptation of the Aesop fable. Also included are two poems from the “Apply Dapply Rhymes” and a third inspired by them. The pieces are short, the action continuous, and ...

60 pages

11 m, 17 w, 22 flexible, much doubling possible

This sparkling adaptation of one of the most beloved tales from "The Arabian Nights" will take you aboard a dazzling, fun-filled, theatrical voyage. All of Sinbad's adventure-filled travels come from his desire to win the caliph's daughter, Minerva. In the land of Hashmona he presents the perfect present to its insatiable queen and is rewarded with gold and jewels for a dowry. But when he returns to Bagdad to claim the princess, his rival, the despicable Semitar, kidnaps Minerva. Sinbad sets sail to rescue her, but finds himself stranded on Paradise Island, w...