Children's
Miss Nightingale
Classic by Walter Vail
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...
Little Red Riding Hood
Classic by Sidney Berger Rob Landes
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" ...
Appley Ever After
Comedy by Carol Lynn Pearson
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...
The Saga of Dead Dog Gulch
Musical Theatre Youth by Wayne Simpson Joy Kurtz
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.
Puss in Boots
Fairy Tale by Noah Smith
34 pages
3 m, 3 w, extras
When young Guy discovers that his inheritance consists only of a cat and a pair of boots, he is highly distressed, until he gets to know the cat. Saucy and one-of-a-kind, Boots the cat vows to help Guy achieve his goal of marrying the beautiful princess from next door. Boots also helps free the town from the clutches of Ugolin, an evil ogre who has magical powers to turn himself or others into any animal he chooses. Guy and Boots trick the king and queen into thinking Guy is the "Marquis of Carabas" and also trick the ogre into turning himself into an insect ...
The Magic Machine
Musical Theatre Youth by Berger and Landes
40 pages
Approx. 6 m, 5 w, 6 flexible, extras. Much doubling possible
Calvin is a slight youngster who can’t compete with the more athletically-inclined kids in the neighborhood. A wise magician lends him an old “Magic Machine.” Through its erratic powers Calvin, his best friend Jenny, and a lost dragon drop into odd versions of three fairy tales. In "The Three Little Bears" Calvin stops the bears from eating them for dinner and teaches the bears how to be happy. In "Rumpelstiltskin" Calvin helps the miller’s daughter by shouting out the evil little man’s name, and in the third story, "Alice in Wonderland," Calvin stops the cou...
The Kids From Camelot
Musical Theatre Youth by Joseph Kochiss
0 pages
Large, flexible cast (minimum of 15)
Four timid page boys in the Court of King Arthur will soon become squires by performing acts of courage and skill. The girls of the court chide them for their fear and lack of ability. Merlin the Magician helps the boys in adventures that include rescuing their teacher, Lady Katherine; subduing the Grouchlinks, the evil slaves of Morgan LeFey; and slaying a dragon. Very clever lines with comedy situations. Some 13 songs including "I Don't Want to Go," "Knock! Knock!" "The Wishing Song," and "Dragons in England."
In the Middle
Musical Youth by Madeline Rossettini
36 pages
Large, flexible cast (approx. 17 boys and 19 girls)
If you want to know what really goes on in middle school, join these students as they perform insightful songs highlighting their monologues and scenes. "Doing the Tag" introduces friendships and rivalries, "Hanging in the Hallway" finds a girl longing for the boy of her dreams to notice her, and "I'm Hot/I'm Not" shows us all about popularity. "America" tells the troubles facing a foreign-born student, while "Cambiata" deals with the challenge of the unchanged male voice in chorus class. "Hormonal Blues" finds a boy in the throes of first love with a girl he...
Happy Prince and Other Storytelling Tales
Storytelling by Evan Guilford-Blake
43 pages
From 2 to 12
There’s nothing like real, live storytellers to catch the imagination of youngsters. With these six tales, each told by a pair of storytellers, students can go on an enchanted voyage, whether they’re in a classroom, cafeteria or theatre. Let your young audiences, from grades 2 through 9, connect, learn, and be entertained through these inventive scripts in one of the oldest forms of entertainment -- storytelling! Running from 6 to 12 minutes each, they include: "Anansi and His Children,” the classic African folk tale of a man and his unusually named children;...
Gretel Was a Princess
Comedy by Patti Veconi
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...
The Commedia Pied Piper of Hamlin
Commedia by Lane Riosley
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...
Cinderella
Classic by Vern Adix
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 ...
Princess and the Pea
Classic by Vern Adix
51 pages
6 m, 6 w, 1 flexible
This beloved tale from Hans Christian Andersen gets an original spin when set in the kingdom of Pilsenferfer! The King and Queen think it’s high time their son Prince Albert found a bride and settled down. But shy Albert can’t stop collecting butterflies for his conservatory long enough to find and woo a royal maiden. And really, who needs to go to all that trouble when the lovely Anne, one of the Queen’s maids, shares his passion for butterflies AND sews the buttons on his coat. If only she were from royal linage like the other candidates, including the food...
Cinderabbit
Musical Theatre Youth by C. Michael Perry Mimi Bean
45 pages
8 m, 8 w, numerous flexible roles
A wonderful musical adapted from the classic Cinderella story with animal characters. Prince Richard--the Rabbit-Hearted and Princess Tabitha of the Blue Mountain Grove are the center of this adaptation. It seems that when the Grove burned down years ago, Tabitha's parents left her on the doorsteps of the Bugmerks, a family of toads on the edge of a swamp. Life is only bearable for her by her close friend and confidant, Mercedes, a mouse. When the night of the ball comes, the Bugmerks leave poor Cinderabbit behind. And who appears? Gracie--Cinderabbit's Jewis...
Raven's Tale
Folklore by Will Huddleston
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...