Community

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...

63 pages

8 m, 7 w, 1 boy, 1 girl, extras

Jack Thompson's kids are fighting non-stop this Christmas. Yet the season holds wonderful memories for Jack. He relates the story of his family's magical Christmas back in 1965 when life could not be worse. The stage comes alive with Jack, now 13, with his dad about to lose his business. Mom is worried about the two girls they are sheltering from an abusive home. Grandma, newly widowed, has come to live with them while irresponsible Aunt Hilda and her over-pampered son, Little Claude, arrive for an extended visit. Jack's older sister, Corrie, has a boyfriend ...

48 pages

6 m, 6 w, some flexibility

What could go wrong when a group of patients at the Sunnyvale Insane Asylum decide to put on an evening of Edgar Allan Poe works for the public? A lot. With tongue-in-cheek comedy, and a host of kooky characters, this wild romp provides a uniquely theatrical take on such Poe classics as “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Raven,” and many more. Beware, though, there are surprises within, and things may not always be what they seem. Muhahaha! Running time: 60 minutes

38 pages

3 m, 5 w, 5 flexible, ensemble, doubling possible

It’s the final stages of a television talent competition. The show’s immoral and unscrupulous presenter and executive producer Jools wants a particular contestant to win, and he goes to great lengths to influence the public into thinking his way. However, things do not go according to plan. With the pressure mounting under the harshest of spotlights, an unexpected twist shows that in the cutthroat television business, few can be trusted. The play explores how the media can manipulate public opinion, an important theme in today’s unpredictable world. The show ...

33 pages

8 w, 6 flex, extras, doubling possible

This is the story of a killer, her relationship to the family of the victim and her relationship to her own conscience. The play opens in a courtroom with the murder victim’s blind sister, Whitney, giving a family impact statement. Her personal sentence seals the fate of Cheek, the defendant, far worse than any court punishment of “life in prison” could ever do. “I sentence you...to see the image of my sister's face in your hands. I want your hands to be the constant reminder of the horror you saw in her face as you squeezed the life out of her...I want this ...

61 pages

3 m, 6 w, 1 flexible, 2 girls doubling possible

You ever get a Christmas letter?  You know, one of those notes inserted into a Christmas card tell you way more than you ever wanted to know about the senders?  Karen Brookshire loves writing them. With a boy-crazy daughter, a smarty-pants son and a klutzy husband she has her hands full. So Karen has to write their Christmas letter by herself recalling such events as their daughter's first date, which unfortunately occurred at the same time as two overly-adoring aunts were visiting, and their son's high school graduation where he not only won the embarrassing...

32 pages

2 m, 3 - 4 w, 1 flexible

Joel Pulley, a struggling comic book artist, has his narrow world turned upside down when an over-eager stray dog shows up at his door… repeatedly! This excitable canine is unwavering in his pursuit to be Joel’s best friend. And Joel, not exactly an animal lover, is just as unwavering in his attempts at getting rid of the dog, especially after a messy fiasco between the dog and Taylor, Joel’s shallow new girlfriend. It isn’t until the escape-artist canine is almost run over in the street by Monica, a vet, that things change… for everyone. She convinces Joel t...

65 pages

5 m, 5 w, 7 flexible

Ernestine Webb is overwhelmed by the day-to-day pressures of managing the $77 million Webb fortune. When her slightly senile friend, Miss Pomfrey, visits bemoaning the loss of her beloved gerbil, and the heirs think it's Mother Webb who has died, Ernestine realizes that death is one way to get out from under all the hassles. She cooks up an elaborate plot to fake her demise. To see how much they've inherited, her greedy children fall all over each other in an attempt to find their mother's will and when they can't find it, they simply make up their own. Wild ...

62 pages

4 m, 5 to 6 w, 2 extras

London. On a rainy evening in 1913, linguist Henry Higgins has a fateful encounter with an impertinent Cockney flower seller. When the girl shows up at  his laboratory the following day, the haughty and impulsive Higgins makes a bold wager with a colleague: employing his mastery of language he will transform Eliza Doolittle from a rough street urchin into an aristocratic lady in just six months’ time. And so begins Eliza's halting metamorphosis … but what will become of the poor girl once this “experiment” is over?

George Bernard Shaw's classic h...

72 pages

7 m, 12 w

How could a box of cornflakes almost start a world war? Writing an ad campaign for Hampton’s Medicated Cornflakes is tough, especially when you have to get paid immediately to not get evicted! That’s what faces Rosie, Max, and Sid, who hit upon the idea of quarantining their own office to keep out their demanding landlady. But when a man stumbles in, stabbed in the back, it’s a whole new ballgame. Now, nobody can leave since it’s become the scene of a crime. More police show up along with a legal secretary, a Russian travel agent, a handsome doctor, and worst...

58 pages

3 m, 3 w

It's a few minutes to eight, New Year's Eve, 1940, at a radio studio and a group of beleaguered employees are desperately trying to put on a live show. It's the most important episode ever of "Invitation to Danger," but everything is going wrong -- the organist and the sound effects man have eloped, the director is missing, one of the cast has passed out on the sofa and the script has arrived at literally the last moment! Will our heroes Steve, Blackie and Pete finally uncover the true identity of the Hooded Terror or will he escape them again? Will our pluck...

33 pages

2 m, 4 w, 2 flexible, extras, doubling possible

Here is a hip, contemporary adaptation of O'Henry's famous short story. Bonnie, Bridget and Billy Driscoll are living in a dumpy apartment, their credit cards charged to the max, trying to make it on their own in New York. When Bridget brings home Dolly, a seemingly sweet lost little girl, (perhaps a bit "high strung"), the siblings soon realize that she is the daughter of an extremely wealthy New Yorker. While Billy plays cowboys and "indigenous people" with Dolly, the sisters jokingly write a ransom note on the computer for the modest amount of $25,000, eno...

51 pages

4 - 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...

59 pages

4 m, 4 w

The Midville Community Theatre is financially strapped again! Big Earl, the director, and Bitsy, a longtime volunteer, agree they must find a hit play from the annual contest entries to fund their upcoming season. This year’s finalists include plays from a New Yorker with a big-city attitude; a nerdy, first-time playwright from Wisconsin; and a nameless but supposedly famous published playwright. But there are problems: the elderly Carlsson sisters, with their infamous hot tub history, are on the final judging committee again, and Juleelee, the mayor’s daught...

32 pages

7 m

Jabez Wilson is a pawnbroker whose store is located on Coburg Square next to a bank. He consults Sherlock Holmes about the "League of Red-Headed Men." He had been told by his employee, Vincent Spaulding, that it is a group established by a red-headed American millionaire, now dead, who had left a large amount of money for men with such hair color. Spaulding introduced Wilson to Duncan Ross who is also red-headed and the manager of the operation. All Wilson needed to do to earn the money was to spend four hours a day at an office, copying out the Encyclopedia ...