72 pages
5 m, 6 w, extras as campaigners
Politics can be murder! It's election night and all the friends and supporters of mayoral candidate Matthew Kensington are throwing him a surprise birthday/campaign party. But there's one surprise no one suspects. An aide is found stabbed in the back with the birthday cake knife! Clues and suspects abound in this frenetic political satire that leaves the audience wondering just who they CAN trust. Great fun for all, with campaigners canvassing the audience as to whom they'll vote for. Not only can the audience question the suspects, but they even get to vote ...
36 pages
2 m, 7 w, 3 boys, 2 girls, optional extras.
Two ladies in a rest home are arguing. Florence, who has never had a real family Christmas, fantasizes that a family would come along and take her in for the holiday, but of course no family would put themselves out that way. Yes, they would, says her roommate Myrna who has had years of storybook Christmases with her five children. To prove their differing viewpoints, they invent the fictitious Genevieve, a little old lady in a rest home near Myrna's children in Idaho. If one of them will agree to take “her” in, Florence will really believe in Christmas. Dram...
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...
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...
36 pages
5 m, 4 w, 1 flexible
Follow the adventures of two Victorian street urchins—annoyingly enthusiastic and melodramatic—who still await with joy the return of their missing father after many years. As they gratefully and cheerfully accept their circumstances of foraging and freezing, Pip and Mimsy, accompanied by friend Fimm Bimbles, have a chance encounter with an evil and hypnotic puppet named Begeloits, who draws the unwitting children into his nefarious plan to kill the Queen. Coincidence and fate lead Pip and Mimsy to Court where they are reunited with their miserly Uncle Scroog...
59 pages
5 m, 4 w
Adapted by Pat Cook From the short story by Oscar Wilde. Hiram and Lucy Otis can't wait to move into their pastoral English manor house...just as soon as the ghost moves out. That's right, Canterville Hall comes complete with a howling, green ghoul, but only if Sir Simon (the ghost) can remember to bring the green mist with him. This classic Oscar Wilde tale spins the Otis family through a maze of dithering maids, blustering bosses and an English realtor who's always looking for a free lunch. The mystery unfolds amid flashes of thunder and disappearing guests...
77 pages
4 m, 5 w, 2 flexible parts
Lt. Kenneth Paris must discover who poisoned TV actress Linda Parker during the final dress rehearsal of the play in which she was to star. But this play has as many laughs as it does suspects! When the actors and crew repeat their backstage movements at the same time as the "on-stage" actors perform the very melodramatic "Kisses to Die For," the whole play turns into a farcical three-ring circus! Almost everyone had good reason to want to kill Linda, but which one had the opportunity? With so much action on stage, it won't be easy to tell. Paris enlists the ...
63 pages
7 m, 3 w
Molière’s comic masterpiece centers on the character of the French courtier Alceste and the beautiful young widow Célimène he hopes to marry. But the two have radically different personalities: Alceste is a snob who insists on telling everyone the truth as he sees it, and Célimène’s instinct is to tell people - and particularly attractive men - only what they are dying to hear. So Célimène flirts and gossips with the courtiers who come to her house while Alceste fumes in jealousy. A virtual menagerie of other characters seek to intervene, either to bring the ...
69 pages
6 m, 5 w
Two young innkeepers, Alex and Rolly, are struggling to make a success of a once-elegant hostelry in the Hamptons, but it's tough, especially with the owner Lucinda Pickle breathing down their necks. Of course it doesn't help that the hotel's permanent resident, Mrs. Prescott, collects pet mice; that the hotel chef, Cookie, is given to bursting into tears and resigning; and that a petty criminal, Willis the pickpocket, is looking for a place to hide out. When Hollywood horror movie producer Julian K. Silverblatt checks in with his vain bodyguard and his sneez...