Children's

59 pages

Flexible cast of 16 or more

The pirates are stealing everything and the town council is helpless until the Sutton children, acting as spies, find out where the goods are being hidden. Ten rousing, original songs plus lots of opportunity for fun as colonial townspeople, pirates, serving maids, sea men, and militiamen, roles unique to this colorful period of American history. Performance time is 60 minutes. 

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...

52 pages

9 m, 9 w, 8 flexible, doubling possible

Seeking comfort from her miserable life and an easy ticket to the prince's ball, our heroine Ashenputtel cries out for her Fairy Godmother. The magical matriarch who arrives, however, is a no-nonsense narrator who works her magic by giving lesser-known folktales a playful yet empowering twist. This Fairy Godmother offers no magical pumpkin carriages, but rather spins three separate tales of women from around the world who make their own happily ever after. Story one, from Ecuador, is "The Search for the Magic Lake," which features a peasant girl who must bold...

67 pages

5 m, 8 w, 23 flexible, doubling

Alice has accidentally discovered a strange new world and she's convinced her two friends to explore it with her. They meet the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, and Tweedledee and Tweedledum, all on their way to the castle for the Princess' homecoming from college. But the Princess is now a tattooed tough girl who has brought home some very unsavory friends. The Queen has them all arrested and the King allows them one phone call. They call Monstressa, an opportunist who wants to turn Wonderland into an amusement park. Alice and her friends must...

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 ...

49 pages

3 m, 3 w, 2-4 flex

The Hero Squad of Metro Valley, Iowa—a team comprised of superheroes 3-D, Lindy, Iron Lung, and Slapshot—are enjoying a bit of a peace in their home city. All that changes when their archnemesis, the ever-scheming Nikolai Oshgoshbgoshnikov, gets a visit from his teenage niece Veronica. Veronica is a supervillain-in-training with a knack for robotic henchmen and a devious plan to destroy the Hero Squad from the inside out. Posing as a super-fan, Veronica infiltrates the Hero Squad’s HQ and begins to plant seeds of dissension among the four friends. Things come...

44 pages

3 m, 5 f, 5 flexible, many extras

An optimistic and friendly Grévy’s zebra sees a reward poster for a rhino horn nailed to an acacia tree. She quickly hatches a plan and convinces a feared lioness and a hesitant, red-billed oxpecker to sneak out of the wildlife conservancy and save the endangered black rhinos. Soon these three endangered species and unlikely friends head into the perilous bush, which is filled with poachers hiding behind every tree. With the help of the lioness’ old friend, a puff adder and her snakelets, they save not only a herd of rhinos but a tigoni reed frog, a mama elep...

38 pages

4 m, 2 w, plus extras

Pantalone and his company are traveling the countryside sharing their plays with anyone who will listen. It has been a long journey and the patience of the company is starting to wear thin. They finally take a rest and Pantalone decides to share some of his favorite stories from Aesop. Unfortunately, he is constantly interrupted by the squabbles and needs of the other company members. If he could only get everyone to work together, Pantalone could finish telling his story!

Join us as our troupe of players presents some of ...

39 pages

2 m, 3 w, 1 flexible

Based on the Grimm Brothers Folktale. Queen Ysabel of Oldmark sends her daughter, Princess Jorinda, to marry King Ferdinand of Eastphalia in order to seal an alliance between the two kingdoms. Elsa, an ambitious and devious maid-in-waiting, leads Jorinda to believe that her future husband is ill-tempered and ill-favored, and convinces the princess to trade roles: Elsa poses as the bride, and Jorinda is given a position as a lowly goose girl. Ferdinand, of course, proves to be neither ill-tempered nor ugly. In fact, there is a definite attraction between Ferdi...

49 pages

Flexible cast of 8-10. (5 m / 1 w + 2-4 flexible)

Arlecchino, the crafty trickster, always has his head in the clouds. He doesn’t want to do any work or take any responsibility. He would rather pretend he’s an adventurous pirate on the high seas or on a remote island looking for buried treasure. Today he is leading his commedia friends to the Kingdom of Isola del Tesoro to present their play. Unfortunately, he’s lost the map! Now they are lost and only have a few hours to get to the kingdom. While the company sets up camp for the night, Arlecchino stumbles upon a treasure map to Stromboli Island. Now Pantalo...

29 pages

4 m, 3 w, 2 flexible

Here is a classic children's tale told with Japanese Kabuki theatre techniques. Gosho-no-Goodo, an evil Samurai, has stolen the sword of Subi-Sumo, the good Samurai. Subi would not care that much because he'd rather paint than do battle, but unfortunately, he must retrieve his sword at all costs. To a member of the Samurai, a stolen sword is a disgrace. If he doesn't recover it, Subi cannot marry his love, a princess named Kyo-no-Imi. As Subi and his two servants go on a quest for the sword, they meet a witch posing as an old woman. They help her and she thanks Subi with a potion which s...

60 pages

3 m, 3 w, 3 flexible, and chorus

"Rumpelstiltskin, A Medieval Musical Fairy Tale" takes place during a May Festival, somewhere centuries ago. two traveling minstrels visit a small community where, with the help of the townspeople, they stage a production of the strange tale of a small man who steals children and sells them -- Rumpelstiltskin. It just so happens that they cast a real evil magician in the title role. Music, romance and magic weave together as the townspeople unite to outwit the man who sells children, both in the imaginary tale and in real life. We invite you to join with us a...

31 pages

1 w, 6 flexible

The Empress of China learns about a wonderful bird in her garden and demands the bird perform that evening in court. When Miss Nightingale appears, everyone is disappointed by her drab, gray appearance. However, she makes up for it with her beautiful birdsong which even moves the Empress to tears. She decides to have a silver cage built, to keep the bird forever. Just then a gift is received from Japan -- a marvelous, jewel-studded mechanical bird which sings its own mechanical tune. With the attention on the new gift, Miss Nightingale steals away, back to th...

36 pages

4 m, 4 w, 1 boy, 1 girl, and extras

The people in the Apple Kingdom live on apples: apple soup, apple salad and, of course, apple pies. Jonathan and Blossom are two fun-loving but not so innocent twins who play a trick on the townspeople that backfires. They say that an “applephoon” is coming that will destroy all of the apples in the kingdom’s orchards. The villagers, all being selfish, immediately run to the orchards and begin picking all the apples and carrying them home by the buckets full. After all the apples are picked the villagers find that they are stricken with a strange case of “app...

52 pages

Flexible cast, approx. 10 m, 4 w (or 7 actors with doubling)

A one-set operetta about the 1880s Colorado mining town of Dead Dog Gulch - oops, we mean, Columbine Valley. You see, the ladies of the Beautification Society have purtied the town - the general store is now a pink "emporium," and even the jail - well, crime is down because no man would be caught dead in it! Now the miners are always fighting, that is, until the cowboys arrive and start shooting and making fun of this sissy town. The kids and ladies solve the problem but pretend the miners did it all. Unison songs. About 60 minutes.