Community

29 pages

3 m, 4 w.

Janie wants a real old-fashioned Christmas, one that brings back the spirit of the old days, but her boyfriend is too busy working at the mission to help her. As hard as she tries, everything goes wrong - the popcorn balls are too sticky, the homemade candles collapse, and the live Christmas tree falls over. Janie thinks Christmas is ruined, but it's only the display that's failed. With the help of her family and boyfriend, Janie rediscovers that the Christmas spirit is in each of us, giving and sharing all year long.

35 pages

2 m, 2 w

This show is a lively compilation of the many face of love, taken from the works of William Shakespeare. Selections range from the ridiculous to the sublime: excerpts from A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM, ROMEO AND JULIET, THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, and LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST alternate with some of the Bard's most beautiful sonnets in this very funny and moving show. This is an entertaining and accessible tribute to Shakespeare and his most irritating muse, Cupid. 30 - 40 minutes.

57 pages

2 m, 3 w

Martie's idyllic memories of a poet from her college years rise again when he reappears, willing and able to continue the romance. Her regular-guy husband, who'd rather bowl than read poetry, seems a poor match against the dashing, artistic Brook Oliphant. Martie's best friend Janice, who also knew the suave poet when he was a teaching assistant, is drawn to Brook again as well, especially now that she is recently divorced. Suddenly, their nostalgic used-to-be's contend with the ordinary here-and-now -- until the women meet one of the professor's current stud...

47 pages

20 parts (Can adjust from 15 to 30)

The Soda Springs Junior High School choir has almost completed their holiday singing tour when their bus breaks down in a snowstorm on the back roads of Idaho a few days before Christmas. The students and the injured teacher find refuge in a closed-up lodge where the conflict is heightened when we learn that Treat, a bitter and troubled 14-year-old, knows how to fix the bus but won't. Naturally this causes a few problems among the kids, including Chuck and Eric, two wise guys; Holly, who is reliable but a bit dramatic; Bobby, a follow-the-rules man; and Lotti...

32 pages

4 m, 4 w, 3 boys, 2 girls

Freely adapted from Eliza Lee Follen's 19th century American play. Poor Widow Peck struggles to raise her youthful brood. Though out of money, food and places to turn for help, she is determined to have a Christmas pudding. As every effort ends in disappointment, she grows increasingly desperate until a mysterious stranger appears. This is a charming play with delightful characters and colorful dialect. The youngsters' ages are flexible.

23 pages

4 m, 3 w

Investigator Keith Schwartz has been sent to look into the alleged suicide of Mr. Nazareth, a patient at the Fallen Oaks Correctional Facility for the Criminally Insane. But there are complications: The body has disappeared from the morgue, staff and patients are hiding something, and even the head psychiatrist seems reluctant to talk. Schwartz interviews the patients to discover what really happened that night. This one-act, single set drama is both a whodunit mystery and a retelling of the gospel for a modern audience.

15 pages

6 w

Six alert and active senior ladies go on vacation and rent a condo with only one bathroom. From trying to get all of their luggage into one minivan, deciding who sleeps where and what to eat, to finally selecting the activities, life gets wild and silly, all intensified by lack of sleep. About 20-25 minutes.

Also join the ladies in these other comedies: "Ladies at Lunch" (#1648) "Ladies at Poker" (#1816)

28 pages

1 m, 2 w

Katherine Bourgeois, a senior at college, has flunked algebra, a course she needs to graduate. She complains to Dr. Hoffmann, the chairwoman of the math department, who tells Mr. O'Leary, Katherine's instructor, to go over the final exam and give her another test. Mr. O'Leary tries to do this, but Katherine evades the work - she apparently has something else in mind. What is she really offering him for a grade? When Dr. Hoffmann returns, a sobbing Katherine accuses Mr. O'Leary of sexual harassment. Dr. Hoffmann offers Katherine an incomplete, but she’s not in...

76 pages

5 m, 5 w, 1 girl

“Who IS that guy?” That’s what they’re asking each other at the local police station when Santa Claus shows up handing out gifts. This Santa seems to know them all so well…but they haven’t a clue who he is. It’s not like they haven’t seen people dressed for the holidays, especially since Earlene visits costumed first as an elf and then as a big bunny. Even Chief Culpepper has been known to don the Santa suit. As if this weren’t enough to keep them guessing, state investigator Russell Brooks arrives to check on some irregularities. It doesn’t take long for Bro...

33 pages

1 m, 2 w

This play deals with the heartache and the trauma of being old, being alone in the world and forgotten. Mrs. Delmonico, a former actress, lives in a tenement building in New York. She exists mostly in her imagination and takes her torment out on her neighbor, Mrs. Quinn. They are unable to get along in any way until this Christmas Eve when Mr. Gartch, one of the roomers whom they have never met, happens upon the scene. He becomes their catalyst - motivating them to look at things differently. Because of his being so positive and hopeful, and because he is ano...

46 pages

7 m, 5 w, 11 teen girls, 3 teen boys.

The Davies’ house is a picture of confusion and complications this Christmas Day with the arrival of various extended family members and guests. No one can find Uncle John, there’s body glitter all over Kelly’s room, Sandy and her daughters have been doing something with feathers in the kitchen, and nobody knows what Nana Jane might do this year! But then a stranger appears who might be Sandy’s new boyfriend, Phil’s old friend from college, or (if we believe Grandpa) the mysterious Uncle Don from the Amazon. The stranger says nothing, and yet his soft smile i...

56 pages

Flexible cast of about 30

This delightful adaptation updates the action to 20th century New Orleans Mardi Gras celebration! It has been edited for time and archaic expressions, but otherwise the language is the same. The through-line is still very evident as Shakespeare's comment on the classes and pastoralism. Included in the oversized script are four original songs, New Orleans jazz style, which use Shakespeare's poems as the lyrics, with the suggestion of a grand finale of "When the Saints Go Marching In." The costumes are modern day but still very much in the style of Shakespeare ...

69 pages

21 m, 2 w, 1 g, 1 b, extras

African slaves being transported by the Cuban schooner Amistad were inspired by their leader, Cinque, to rise up and seize the ship. Instead of gaining freedom, however, the slaves are imprisoned on land where their lives are in balance during the following trials. A tour-de-force in character study focusing on Cinque, the enigmatic leader of the slaves; Lewis Tappan, the world-renowned abolitionist; ex-president, John Quincy Adams, who eloquently defends the slaves in the landmark Supreme Court case; and Margru, who turns from an innocent slave child into a ...

44 pages

6 m, 2 w

Sweet and spunky Betsy Green takes care of her sister Gertrude as they eke out a living hunting mushrooms in the forests of the Northwest. It isn’t easy, especially since Gertrude lost her vision in the terrible fireworks explosion which killed their parents in Hong Kong years earlier. Since that time, a mad scientist, apparently under the spell of a mysterious Oriental cult, has been trying to kidnap Gertrude. When Betsy is momentarily distracted talking with Maurice, a handsome fruit vendor, Gertrude disappears! The lost Gertrude rings a bell to indicate he...

34 pages

6 m, 5 w, 1 flexible, doubling possible

Based on the story by H.H. Munro (Saki). Wealthy Uncle Lulworth eagerly awaits the next meal from his uncommonly skilled, but foul-tempered cook, Mrs. Sebastian. His niece, Ellen, visits him shortly before dinner after their aunt's funeral. As executor of the estate, Ellen has run across a series of letters to the aunt from another relative, Uncle Peter, who died years earlier under mysterious circumstances. Through re-enactments based on the letters, we learn Uncle Peter was a despicable human being and was probably killed by a "common" criminal, perhaps som...