Community Theatre Full Length

78 pages

3 m, 3 w, 2 flexible roles

Valerie Simpson, a suburban housewife, has begun seeing visions of murders, kidnappings, suicides and even family members threatened with impending accidents. But the most incriminating vision may concern someone close to Val herself. She hesitates to go to the police because her husband works for a conservative firm ("Wall Street and psychic phenomena don't mix"), and because she has spent some time in a mental institution. Val's brother, a caring neighbor, and a psychic researcher, all offer support and understanding. But why is her husband so violently aga...

74 pages

3 m, 2 w

In this award-winning farce, famed philosopher (and very self-important!) Voltaire has fled from the court of Frederick II, King of Prussia, with a stolen and highly sensitive manuscript of the King's poems. Determined to embarrass the monarch before the world, Voltaire finds his journey to France halted in the city of Frankfurt by Baron von Freytag, representative of the Prussian King. Before too long, the Baron’s over-eagerness to obey his master’s wishes and the enormity of Voltaire’s ego combine to create utter chaos, which becomes...

50 pages

5 m, 6 w (2 m, 2 w, with doubling)

These three short plays all involve crime and they feature people so rotten, you don't care if they come to a bad end.

In “What It Looks Like” (2 m, 2 w), a trio of thieves sets out to rob a place where one of them is house-sitting. They hope to get away with the theft by arranging the scene to make it tell the story they want it to tell—that somebody from outside broke in. But none of the three is trustworthy, and, it turns out, neither is the owner who hired the house-sitter. Nothing is really what it looks lik...

45 pages

3 Actors or 3-8 Actors

The play tells the story of Davey Herold, a co-conspirator in the Lincoln assassination who accompanied John Wilkes Booth during the ensuing manhunt. It asks if Davey Herold had a choice in taking part in the assassination and whether or not he actually committed a crime. It moves fluidly from his jail cell where he speaks to his lawyer, to a series of locations during the planning of the assassination, to the history-changing execution, to Davey and Booth fleeing authorities.  Approximately 70 minutes.

63 pages

3 m, 4 w

In 1949, mystery writer Cornelia Sherwood’s book, Act of Murder, is adapted to the stage by the Bakersfield Playhouse in California, Cornelia plans a visit, taking her faithful secretary, Eunice Sparks, along. Eunice’s cousin, newlywed Rick Winslow, also resides in Bakersfield, so the ladies stop by to meet Rick’s new bride, the very beautiful and wealthy Tracy Bennett Winslow. They soon discover that Tracy is missing. But when she returns, safe, sound, and in the company of the amiable Father Hennessy, Rick insists Tracy is not really his wife. Corn...

56 pages

5 M, 7 W

Control freak Amber is getting married to easygoing Scott, and she's going nuts trying to organize the perfect wedding. Her goofball siblings Keith and Frankie aren't helping, and her pushy mother won't listen to her. Then Mom comes up with an inspired idea: a double wedding with Amber and Scott, and with crabby Grandpa and his slightly senile girlfriend Bonnie. Keith, entrusted with finding musical entertainment for the wedding, mistakenly hires two exotic dancers (and accidentally proposes to beefy bridesmaid Donna along the way). Amber's frustration mounts...

51 pages

4 to 5 M, 5 W

“Reading Between the Lies” is a noir farce set in the world of 1940s Broadway. The first read of a new play becomes a crime scene when one of the participants unexpectedly drops dead. In a room filled with old vendettas, jilted lovers, blackmail victims and one loony former child star, it’s anyone’s guess who the killer is, who the intended victim was, and who, if anyone, will save the day! Hilarity and fast-paced whodunit antics ensue.

“The witticisms escalate into over-the-top wacky...

68 pages

7 m, 2 w

At the height of WWII with a frantic need to produce food, yet faced with a critical shortage of labor, American farmers were compelled to accept help in their fields from prisoners of war. While farmers’ sons fought men just like them in trenches and tanks in Europe, the presence of these POWs in rural America led to plenty of emotional conflict at home. Isabelle Hunt knows her husband Fred needs help with their beet crop, so he grudgingly allows German POWs from a camp nearby to work the family’s fields. Fred is furious over the food and privileges the POWs...