Children's

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...

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...

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...

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.

56 pages

7-13 actors

The Hero Squad literally stumbles across a plan by the nefarious criminal mastermind Nikolai Oshgoshbgoshnikov that involves a mysterious kidnapped princess. Once the princess learns the heroes' true identities, she is determined to join their cause fighting for justice. Meanwhile, Oshgoshbgoshnikov blackmails the city's established and arrogant hero, the Good Knight John-Boy, to help re-kidnap the princess and vanquish the Hero Squad. John-Boy has grown pretty tired of the four heroes stealing his spotlight. So with the help of a couple of bank-robbing bottl...

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...

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 ...

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...

24 pages

4 main characters, additional cast of 13 or more.

In this new version of the fairy tale, all the characters are likable - the greedy king is now a kind ruler looking for money to save endangered species and the passive young woman who must spin straw into gold is resourceful and self-reliant. Even the funny little character, whose name reflects his rap-style speech, is likable, just lonely. Luckily, the Hunters-of-the Perfect-Wave help the play have a happy ending.

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

Approx. 3 m, 4 w, 3 flexible

Little Red loves playing in the forest with all her animal friends and doesn’t want any responsibilities—like taking food to Grandma’s house. But a hungry wolf changes that! Posing as an injured sheepdog, he’s able to trap her forest friends into a cave and con Red in to telling him where Grandmother lives. Once there he eats Grandma and Red! Luckily, the ever-cautious Sammy the Skunk saves the day with his brains and his “perfume.” Grandma and Red are rescued from the Wolf’s tummy for a happy ending, including a more responsible Red! A "country and western" ...