Community

37 pages

4 m, 4 w, 10+ ensemble

This dramatic play follows three powerful brothers as they try to navigate honor, responsibilities, and love in their daily lives. The oldest, Santiago, is forced into an arranged marriage to a woman who yearns for a child, but he is keeping a secret from her that will ultimately destroy their marriage. Meanwhile, the middle brother creates an unforeseen situation with his philandering ways, while the youngest brother pursues a love long denied. This play is filled with sorrow, joy, laughter, and a final choice that leaves the audience gasping. Loosely based ...

55 pages

3 m, 6 w, 1 flexible

It's 1986 in rural Mississippi and the ladies of Teterboro Trailer Park are in quite a jam after slacker Bobcat is served his just desserts. Meals and motives abound, and alliances with a nosy neighbor and a six-toed cowboy are forged. What follows is a nonstop madcap cover-up full of hilarious hijinks, witty retorts, a church play gone haywire, and "bunco!"

60 pages

2 m, 3 w, and offstage voices

Robert is a retired foreign correspondent and journalist who has returned to his hometown for the first time in fifty years. Mary is retired from the restaurant business, having gone blind late in life. It’s Robert’s first day at the upscale retirement center and it’s Mary’s last, as her son is taking her to live with him in Florida the next day. Over cups of spiked lemonade on the sun-drenched patio they come to the realization that they were high school sweethearts, on their way to matrimony.  Through a series of flashbacks, some touching and some searing, ...

28 pages

3 m, 4 w, 4 flexible, doubling possible

Chad's got a problem. Every time he goes on a date with a girl, he gets so nervous he has no idea what to say. So, his friend Steve gives him some advice: pop in an earbud and let Dia-Logic, a great new AI app, tell him everything to say. Of course, not everything goes as planned... Awkward moments and raucous laughter abound in this one act comedy that examines what it means to really connect with someone in the 21^st century.

28 pages

1 m, 1 w, 3 flexible

When our darling couple finds their newly purchased house haunted, they call in an expert, Harper Davidson, Ghost Exterminator. Little do they know that Harper has plans to remove more than just ghosts from their house. She is attempting to rob their house in their absence when the real ghost of the house appears. Harper must face not only the supernatural, but her own conscience. This dark comedic ghost story explores the hilarity of the supernatural and the horrors of capitalism. It asks what makes a “perfect home,” and unpacks how loss attaches itself to p...

60 pages

5 m, 9 w

   Clarise and Daphne Montague have just inherited the Center Stage Theatre which their uncle founded years ago. It closed three years earlier but they plan a grand reopening by restaging the first play ever performed there, a funny but cheesy melodrama. The sisters have contracted a famous acting couple for the starring roles while local talent fleshes out the cast.

   The players quickly learn the Center Stage Theatre has a reputation of being haunted by a Phantom. Most folks think it is the ghost of a young actress who ...

63 pages

5 m, 4 w

A widow, Naomi, and one of her daughters-in-law, Ruthie, have moved to Naomi’s hometown following the death of her two sons in WWII, one of whom was Ruthie’s husband. Although Ruthie is the daughter of a wealthy and prominent family in another city, she wants to stay with Naomi out of love for her late husband and Naomi herself. Naomi accepts her Cousin Julius’ offer of a place to live, and Ruthie accepts a job at his laundry and dry-cleaning shop. At her new workplace she meets Beau, a young Army veteran. Finding himself attracted to Ruthie, he tries to gent...

47 pages

2 m, 3 w

Hurricane Kate is set along the Gulf Coast in 1994. The show explores generational trauma, suicide, and the constant search for belonging, with the most dysfunctional kind of family. Tinka doesn’t want to be here. After the fight she and her mother Kate had a couple Christmases ago, she swore that she would only come back to her family home to haunt the place. However, one of the many hurricanes to hit the Gulf Coast every year has come and taken her mother with it. Her three estranged siblings are here too. Ellen, the eldest, is struggling to stay c...

51 pages

2 m, 2 w, 1 flexible, 2 kids, plus a yeti

Two yeti hunters arrive at an abandoned cabin in the middle of the mountains. They believe the legendary yeti will cross through this very spot this very night, Christmas Eve. Once they finish settling in, and laying out their assortment of yeti hunting tools, they go out into the wild for their first scouting expedition. Meanwhile, a family arrives at the cabin, completely exhausted from a Christmas vacation gone awry. Albert, the father, has dragged the family on this whirlwind trip but his incompetence has not only bleached all their clothes white, but has...

32 pages

12 Actors

The best and brightest young adults and college students are invited to apply for their dream job. Applicants for this government job are tasked with seemingly simple games in order to advance to the next round. But they soon find out failure has severe consequences. Dr. Kellas explains what is being asked of them and the large reward that awaits the lucky one. What will each applicant do in order to secure their promising future? This show requires very little set, few costumes, and is entirely gender flexible. It is perfect for one-act competitions. About 3...

30 pages

5 m, 4 w, 5 flexible (4 m, 3 w, 3 flexible w/doubling)

   Based on a real-life 1977 incident in which three oddball characters tried to steal the late Elvis Presley's body out of the cemetery, "Law & Elvis" is also a screwball parody of the long running "Law & Order" TV series.

   Caught red-handed in the graveyard with picks and shovels, Leroy, his dimwit cousin Billy Joe and an odd Cajun character named Zydigo plead their innocence while detectives Olivia and Elliott interview an audience pleasing line up of colorful characters to gather evidence for the no-nonsense ...

60 pages

7 m, 5 w

Inspired by the screwball movie comedies of the 1930s and ‘40s, Don’t Give Up Because tells the story of Faye Burntwhistle, a cocktail waitress who is determined to marry a wealthy man. Faye falls in love with the heir to an Italian family fortune, but because he fears that women only love him for his money, she concocts a fiction that she is also an heir to an enormous family fortune. She is surprised when she gets the news that he’s coming to visit her “mansion” in Indianapolis and meet her well-to-do “family.” So Faye recruits several members of t...

54 pages

5 m, 4 w, 2 flexible, extras

’Tis the night before Christmas, and the employees at the local Shop Smart are forced to work a double shift. Soon a no-good Secret Santa with questionable intentions shows up to pay off the layaway. Will greed win out or will he get put on the naughty list? Throw in a live broadcast with a disgruntled local news anchor, a once in a lifetime mystical fog, and Santa’s giant energy weapon powerful enough to destroy Earth (Pew! Pew!), and you have a superstore full of workers ready to take down the capitalist machine and ultimately help everyone celebrate the ho...

19 pages

5 w

In a sunny suburban living room, circa 1960, five women gather for tea. Hostess Bettie has sent friends Bonnie, Bunnie, and Bootie out to see her garden – a ploy which allows Bettie to share a juicy tidbit of gossip with the fifth woman, Darla. It seems that the “man-crazy” Bonnie once again disgraced herself at the bridal shower which all five recently attended. Darla listens obediently but is plainly reluctant to be made the keeper of secrets. The others return, and now Bonnie button-holes Darla and relates a similar tidbit concerning the “sweet but dumb” B...

62 pages

2 m, 5 w

It’s July 3, 1956 and the jockettes of WHER, America’s first "all-girl" radio station in Memphis, Tennessee, are having one heck of a day: the copywriter has run off to elope, they have just found out that the Elvis Presley is coming to the station to be interviewed on-air and their star DJ Bettye has shown up… in pants! When Elvis’s record promoter arrives and is none other than Bettye’s former flame Benjamin, sarcastic zingers fly, sisterhoods are forged, and secrets are exposed. Approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes.  Pulitzer Prize Nominated Play 2...

68 pages

3 m, 5 w, plus one offstage female voice

Meet the residents of Moonshadow Apartments: Irene and two of her favorite tenants—Henry and Shake. Henry is secretly in love with longtime friend and content creator Emma. When she invites Henry to accompany her to a distant tropical paradise, he must choose between his comfortable, controlled existence or the intimidating world outside his door. Advising Henry is his elderly, still-a-hippie landlady Irene. She’s at a crossroads in her life as her guardian niece Sloane and her lawyer Miss Penny are plotting to oust Irene and take control of the building. Ire...

48 pages

3-4 m, 3 w, 3 flexible, extras

Electra is a young woman who mourns—and ultimately avenges with the help of her brother Orestes—her father Agamemnon’s murder. The story is based on a lost epic of ancient Greek literature, set in a period between Homer’s Iliad and his Odyssey.

This show explores the psychological costs of resisting evil in a society bent on ignoring or even sustaining that evil. Written in blank verse, the language is conversational despite its formality. Poetry best expresses that ...

22 pages

10 gender flexible roles

Hannah has less than an hour to convince a group of young adults that the world is about to end and their only hope for survival is to travel to the future. Her answers are brief, and they only lead to more questions. The others try to process what she is saying. Ultimately, they must decide what’s important and what matters the most to themselves and to the survival of humanity.

20 pages

1 m, 1 w, 1 child, 6 - 16 flexible roles

When Thomas hurriedly flushes the deceased family goldfish down the toilet to replace it with a new one while his young son, Lewis, is at school, he receives a knock on his front door. Greeting him is a golden-clad warrior claiming that he and his Viking-like associates knew and fought alongside the deceased Stanley (the goldfish). With his living room now invaded by these unusual warriors demanding to have the funeral in his house, Thomas must make them leave before Lewis and his mother come home. All just because of a dead goldfish. About 35-minute runtime....

60 pages

4 m, 3 w, 1 flexible

Stern patriarch Chester Dumbrosky has decided to make amends. Unfortunately, he waited for the day of his wake to do so. Lots of angst and laughs as his dysfunctional family tries to heal old wounds. Approximate run time 1.5 hours.

"For many, as funny as this play was, it was also introspective and probably hit home for many in the audience."

--Jay Pateakos, Broadway World R.I.

"Dark comedy The Viewing Room a must-see performance" - Th...

60 pages

3 m, 5 w

Six current-day ghost hunters set out to find the truth in the murder legend of Vinney Keller, a naïve teenager who was found dead in her farmhouse cellar in 1903. Historical opinion places the blame on the Keller’s hired hand: Enos Patchett, a lumbering, illiterate man in his 40s, who was with the Keller family for years. But there were other suspects as well. The ghost hunters hope to contact Vinney’s spirit to find out the real story. But for some of the hunters, truth is secondary to hyping their methods and results to increase their media popularity and ...

16 pages

2 m, 1 w

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse gather in a park to usher in the start of Armageddon. But Famine's running late and isn't answering his cell phone. Should the other three kick off the end of the world anyway? What will happen if they do? Or do they need to wait for their fourth member to maintain proper symmetry? Well, at least there are chicken fingers... 

About 30 minutes. This show contains adult language.  Substitutions are permitted.

56 pages

2 m, 2 w, 2 flexible, extras

60 pages

2 m, 2 w, 2 children

Life hasn’t been easy for Alexis this year. After divorcing her husband and setting her alimony payments, he won the lottery. Her children are running her life and her job as a Chicago-area publishing editor is in dire jeopardy because she hasn’t found a new author in some time. But things are finally looking up!  She has been in contact with a Russian self-help author who she is hoping will allow her to publish his books in English. So, when he demands an advance of seventy-five thousand dollars, Alexis approves the advance, only to have him run off with her...

44 pages

5 m, 4 w - 1 optional

Detective Vic Torious is called to the Broken Leg Theatre where the leading lady has suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. The theatre’s Christmas extravaganza was her return to the stage after a long hiatus. Clearly, she did not disappear of her own volition, but where is she and who is responsible? From a visiting Hollywood producer, to a jealous understudy, to an ex-fiance, to an opportunistic scriptwriter, eight different suspects remain at the theatre awaiting detective Vic Torious’ arrival. His pun-filled inquiries take the audience on a hilarious seri...

28 pages

1 m, 6 w, ensemble of 15 or more actors

Set in Madame Claudette’s Shadow Circus of 1915, this stirring play follows the life of a foundling infant who grew up to be known as the “Prince of Clowns.” Alfie’s life is narrated by the Bearded Lady, who offers us an insightful philosophy of life. Meet dynamic characters such as the Fortune Teller, Madame Claudette herself, and the refined young woman, Nedda, who is running away from a dark past. Nedda and Alfie become a popular circus act and live peacefully. However, Alfie’s family is threatened ten years later by the villainous mobster Olympia.  Nedda’...

36 pages

2 Actors

David Radman, a young journalist, must write a story about The Vaudeville Theatre, which has recently been designated for destruction.  He reluctantly arrives at the building for an appointment with the President of the Theatre Rescue Society, but is instead greeted by Charles Grimm, the janitor.  Grimm shows Radman the magic of theatre.  During a series of theatrical explorations—in which they dance a soft-shoe, eat lunch on the backdrop, explore the props cabinet, and fence—Grimm and Radman peel away years of heartache and ang...

38 pages

4 or 5 m, 4 w

Psychologist Dr. Henry Valentine is unexplainably late for an open house demonstration of his innovative group therapy ideas. Anna-Lee Silverstein, a temp stepping in due to Dr. Valentine’s secretary’s maternity leave, has never met the doctor. Learning this, a would-be patient, Elliot Noodleman, decides to impersonate the psychologist. As other potential patients arrive, Elliot creates his own “innovative” ideas for emotional therapy. Add in Lydia Bedford, a woman suffering from sinistrophobia (the fear of objects to her left); a community theatre director, ...

23 pages

2 m, 4 w, plus 3 optional roles for the flashback scenes

The play opens with a typical living room scene: a good, old-fashioned dad sitting in a comfy chair reading a good, old-fashioned newspaper. However, things quickly take a turn for the absurd when Mrs. Wright, a professional and serious-looking person, enters the room and is subjected to a barrage of cheesy jokes and puns from the dad. As the rest of the family enters, it becomes clear that they've called Mrs. Wright in for a "Dad-Joke Intervention." But will she be able to help? Or is this family doomed to be forever subjected to the dad's endless supply of ...

54 pages

4 m, 3 w

Hailed by George Orwell as “the wittiest play” G.B. Shaw ever wrote, Arms and the Man is a true classic in the history of theater, blending social commentary, romantic comedy, fun and lively characters, and crackling dialogue that leaps off the page! We are in the 1880s, and Raina Petkoff is a young Bulgarian woman, worried about the war her father and fiancé are currently fighting. No sooner is she warned that enemy soldiers may be nearby, than Captain Bluntschli, a war-weary enemy, breaks in and holds her hostage. To their surprise, and the audienc...