Children's

55 pages

Ensemble cast of 6 to 27

The magic of theatre now weaves three tales from around the world together into more than an hour of captivating entertainment for young audiences. In a Chinese play, Little Red Maiden and her older brother learn that riches do not always bring joy. Too bad the selfish dragon learns the hard way! In a native American play, the Cinderella story is retold as Little Burnt Sand endures the cruelty of her sisters before becoming the bride of the new Micmac chief. In a delightful English fairy tale, we find that too much curiosity can be a mite unhealthy. Show the ...

41 pages

5 m, 7 w, 1 flexible

In this variation of the classic fairy tale, two human-sized dwarves, Beryllium and Boron, must help handsome Prince Suave find a bride. The sometimes sharp-tongued, but often wise Mirror helps Beryllium deal with his mischievous brother. Boron is a clever rascal who ends up tricking the mirror and involving the two inept Wong brothers in his schemes. The Prince speaks fluent medieval English which adds to the charm of the play. Now he must choose one of the White sisters for his bride: Snow White, the eldest; Egg White, the brain; Bleached White, the airhead...

39 pages

5 m, 6 w, 2 flexible

Here’s unconventional, humorous, and easy-to-stage treatment of the famous fairy tale. Rather than one huge ball to find his future Princess, the Prince has met eligible ladies of the kingdom at smaller, separate gatherings called “Choose a Princess Parties.” Now, after 118 parties, where the Prince has danced with “364 clods,” the Zanzibany family has finally received its invitation. The formidable sisters Wartzella and Bageena, along with their domineering mother, go to the party escorted by Cinderella’s meek father and their clumsy farmhand. Cinderella is ...

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...

23 pages

6 m, 8 w

Christine's in big trouble. Her mother warns her not to open the old book of fairy tales, but Christine breaks the rules and opens it anyway. Now the pages are strewn across the stage. The book just happens to be magic, and the characters from the stories inside soon appear in Christine's family room. Chaos ensues as Cinderella kisses the Frog Prince, and the evil Queen from Snow White falls in love with Rumpelstiltskin. Hansel and Gretel are eating the aluminum siding off the house, and the Miller's Daughter convinces Rumpelstiltskin not to kidnap her baby, ...

37 pages

Cast of 20 or more, doubling possible

Lots of small, easily learned roles plus narrators make this 45-minute version of the story of Aladdin a breeze to rehearse and tour. The sultan wants to marry off his four beautiful daughters to neighboring princes and when the daughters object, he sends them on a journey. Ali Baba and his band of thieves kidnap the daughters to get a king's ransom, but luckily Aladdin, a poor young man, comes to the rescue. With a little help from the Genies of the Lamp and Ring, Aladdin saves the day. Simple staging yet lots of action and adventure to enchant children's au...

37 pages

Flexible cast of 10

From the story "Kaa's Hunting" by Rudyard Kipling.  Deep in a jungle in India in the middle of the 19th century a tribe of monkeys come chasing in with the boy Mowgli in their midst. In the middle of their play, Kaa, the great python, terrifies them as well as Baloo, a great bear, and Bagheera, a panther, who are Mowgli's friends and protectors. Once out of harm's way, the two scold the boy and teach him how to make himself safe in the jungle. They fall asleep. The monkeys, eager to get Mowgli to make them huts like his, wake him and drag him off. Baloo and B...

36 pages

2 m, 2 w

Four commedia dell’arte actors perform all roles in this fast-paced, hilarious play. The rats of Hamlin (dressed with black ball caps) are hungry and demand the Mayor “set things rat, rat now!” And so you can see how poor pronunciation of a simple word created a terrible disagreement between the rats and the citizens of the clean little hamlet. The Mayor, portrayed by Punchin, the dell’ arte character with the big, proud nose, asks the Queen of the Cats, the Duke of the Dogs, the Earl of the Eagles, the High Prince of the Possums, and even the Countess of Cat...

29 pages

4 m, 7 w, and 7 flexible. Extras and sound effects/musicians for ensemble.

The drama club members assemble to perform “The Complete Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales,” but realize there isn’t enough time to do the whole collection and still eat the cookies waiting in the lobby for after the show. The actors condense the tome down to their favorite parts, mixing, matching and mashing up characters, while a clever casting director challenges stereotypes to meet the demand for princess roles among the girls in the company. With the help of a group of musician-dwarfs to play and punctuate the story, the characters head out on a quest to find t...