Community

67 pages

2 m, 2 w or 8 m, 8 w

All four of the these plays involve a woman and man who are strangers to each other until happenstance causes them to meet in a confined space. Through self-disclosure their lives touch and perhaps change. Each play uses the stage “gimmick” of being able to hear the characters’ thoughts as well as their spoken words. Although the themes are on the serious side there is much humor. In "Ducks At Thirty-Five Thousand," a young man who is planning a suicide and a young woman who is planning an abortion meet on an airliner. As he finally reveals his plan, her reac...

62 pages

Interracial cast of 4 m, 3 w, 2 flexible, 1 child

Cole, a slave, struggles with the prospect of escaping--the personal struggles and danger it would mean for his family. Escape would also mean forgoing all the trust and faith his “owner,” Mr. Jones, had invested in Cole. After much thought, and arguing with his wife, Cole agrees that an opportunity for freedom is worth sacrificing his fairly contented life as a slave. Their plan of escape, however, is found out. Cole must come face to face with Mr. Jones and suffer the consequences. The cost is great. The slave gives his life for individual freedom. The slav...

62 pages

2 m, 3 w

Janine, the temperamental half of a totally unmatched set of twins, arrives at her sister's house in the middle of the night, making good on her endless threats to leave her husband. When Arlene and her husband try to explain it isn't a good time for a houseguest, Janine is surprised to find their mama has left their daddy on the very same night. Chaos ensues as Mama and Janine each stubbornly refuses to return to her own home. To add to Janine's problems, Red Jennings, a mysterious figure from her past, returns to town. In an emotional outpouring, Janine rev...

56 pages

4 m, 3 w

Lord Liverpool, a chauvinistic proprietor of a 19th century London newspaper, must deal not only with a wife who’s a suffragette and a daughter who seeks own career, but an old school rival out to embarrass him. The plot concerns a series of dispatches being penned by an adventurer in Africa, which have made the Herald a popular newspaper. Unbeknownst to Lord Liverpool, however, the dispatches are actually being written by his wife Athena, who seeks a literary career. Their daughter Calliope, suspecting something is amiss, goes to work for the rival newspaper...

64 pages

3 m, 1 w, 2 flex, 1 young adult

Jobie King, well known and loved in his rural area of West Texas for brewing delicious - albeit unlicensed - beer, has become a target. His greedy Yankee sons-in-law plan to swindle his illegal brewery away from him and turn it into the newest internet fad. Adding insult to injury, the dastardly duo seek to put Jobie, recently widowed, out to pasture, abandoning him at a nursing home. As avarice and technology threaten to ruin his rustic yet pleasant way of life, the fiercely independent and unrepentant Jobie is determined to take back what is rightfully his....

80 pages

17 roles (approx. 8 m, 9 w)

A "melodrama plus," this play cleverly intertwines a classic "losing the homestead" plot with a realistic subplot in which high school drama students are putting on (what else?!) a melodrama. The Colonel and his daughter Belle are trying to keep the family restaurant (and Belle's heart) from the clutches of the villain I.C. Blizzard, a fast food franchiser. The hero, Beau, suffers from a perpetual crisis of confidence that he deals with by cooking and obsessive psychoanalysis. The student characters trade insults that imperfectly hide a budding romance. Holdi...

78 pages

2 m, 2 w, 1 male teen

An emotional, heart-opening journey about love, friendship, family, sacrifice, and what it truly means to give begins with an enormous Christmas tree wrestled into the warmth of a Colorado cabin. The Britton family, Brad and Tina and their son Nick, are eagerly anticipating the joy of a fun-filled holiday vacation spent with their close friends, Kyle and Jan, who arrive bearing gifts of sentiment, sarcasm, and sass. The two couples merrily begin to share their laughter, their affection, and their memories of the good ol’ days, but too soon Jan begins to quest...

22 pages

2 m, 1 w, 2 flexible.

Here is a dark, suspenseful play that follows the life of Tiburtius Gerhardt, the gravedigger. As the cemetery he has worked in all his life fills up and comes to its end, Tiburtius tries to cope with his demanding and demeaning boss; his deceased uncle; and two other denizens who should or should not really be there. It’s enough to drive a man to his grave. Approximate running time is 35 to 45 minutes.

78 pages

8 m, 6 w

A pushy mother, a nervous father, a whiny bride, a younger brother too busy eating to ever say a word, and countless other small town characters make this one of the most hilarious weddings you'll ever attend. Gilbert, the young owner of the local grocery store, proposed to Tina right in front of a display of Wheat Wedgies while looking for weevils that the town gossip insists she saw. But pulling Wheat Wedgies off the shelves, which causes Father to lose his job at the bakery, is the least of the problems. As a pregnant bridesmaid goes into labor at the wedd...

64 pages

3 m, 2 w

Eleanor Random is a Pulitizer Prize-winning playwright who has not had a hit in 25 years. Her husband, J.C., has directed all of her plays to date and now is directing her latest, "A Life Forgotten," in a final, desperate attempt to recapture some semblance of their past glory. Unfortunately, they have been teamed up with Alexis, a soap queen and B-movie actress, and her husband, Kirk, the star of multimillion-dollar ninja movies, both hoping to earn credibility as serious actors. In Eleanor's play, Kirk and Alexis portray James and June who yearn for profess...

20 pages

4 m, 3 w, 1 flexible

Al Trainor hates selling cars. The former high school football star can only dream about what might have been – an exciting college football stint filled with glory and girls, and then on to a lucrative professional career. Unfortunately, a fateful knee injury ended his dream. And fate has more cards to play. The man whom Al holds responsible for his life-changing injury, Parker Robinson, his high school football coach, is walking into the dealership. Propelled in large part by Al’s gridiron greatness four years ago, Parker Robinson’s career has rocketed skyw...

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...

29 pages

3 m, 4 w

A Confederate soldier, transporting a Yankee prisoner, stops off at his fiancee's home in hopes of arranging a quick wedding. But the women of the home fall under the spell of the prisoner. Is the Yankee lying when he tells the fiancee, Lisbeth, he has fallen in love with her? The would-be groom challenges the Yankee to a duel. They go outside to settle the matter of honor. There is a single gunshot. Lisbeth, in her wedding dress, waits to marry. The door opens, but who's there?

74 pages

5 m, 6 w, 6 boys, 4 girls

Emily Ainsley, an idealistic young lady, is trying to provide a home to young orphans, and that's not an easy task in London in 1867. She rents space from a greedy businessman, Aloysius Penningham, but gets behind in the payments. He proposes marriage to her (so that he can manage her future inheritance) or threatens eviction if she refuses. Harrold, an angel in the guise of a gentleman, starts to work on Penningham, while other well-meaning folk attempt to help Mrs. Fritzroy-Palmer locate her long lost daughter. A ragtag band of pickpockets creates havoc and...

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...