Community

43 pages

Flexible cast (minimum 15 actors)

"The Christmas Café" is set in a restaurant where Betty, the waitress and cook, serves customers from three different familiar holiday stories: "The Night Before Christmas" by Clemet Clarke Moore, "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, and "The Nutcracker" by E.T.A. Hoffman. In "All of the Other Reindeer," Blitzen is burned out and upset that he's always last on the team. The other reindeer have suggestions: Cupid thinks he needs a love life; Donder suggests a good stock portfolio, Prancer thinks an exercise regime is the answer. Baffled, the other reindeer ...

53 pages

Flexible cast of 10 to 34

Meet a theatre troupe whose Christmas spirit sparkles far more than their acting talent! In this two-act collection of comedy scenes, amateur thespians are preparing a Christmas Eve production at the community center, but nothing is working right. Meet Jordan, who demands fresh flowers in his dressing room (the broom closet); Nicky, whose Christmas monologue is "enhanced" with all the wrong sound effects; and Red who's more than a little worried that Marley's ghost haunts the backstage. Boss, the director, is about to lose his mind! And it doesn't help that L...

55 pages

1 m, 3 w

Two sisters, Claire and Dora, are opposites when it comes to just about everything, and this night is no exception. Claire has spent her day at a funeral, while Dora has been at a wedding. But while Dora complains of not being able to meet anyone at the wedding, Claire admits to running into an old fling, Peter, at the funeral. The two sisters are in the middle of a fight when Peter calls and says he must see Claire right away. Claire hurries to get ready for his arrival when their eccentric mother unexpectedly arrives ready to cook a roast. The two sisters b...

34 pages

Flexible cast from 18 (with doubling)

The stage comes alive with passengers and crew of the Titanic, speaking to us directly about the disaster. We see the magnificent vessel through the eyes of both the first class passengers and the third class. When Frederick Fleet spots the iceberg, all the officers are called upon to carry out the most dreaded command Capt. Smith ever had to issue: "Get the lifeboats ready!" The ending is an emotional powerhouse as the cast recites name after name of those who survived à and those who did not. Representational sets. (Excerpted from the full-length play, "Tit...

62 pages

4 m, 3 w

What do you do to prepare for a visit from your parents? Plenty, when you're the daughter of strict Italian Catholic parents who expect to meet your female roommate, who is actually a guy. John was hoping to celebrate his and Maria's two-year anniversary as housemates by proposing to her. Instead he finds himself as "Suzanne" wearing a dress and trying to cope with Maria's cranky father, her overbearing mother and her wild younger sister. Then there's Maria's old childhood friend who tries to make his move on Maria as well as "Suzanne." Add John's trouble-mak...

24 pages

3 m, 3 w

Pat White and Pat Gray have come to the local television set of Rise and Shine, a morning news/entertainment show, to tape a public service announcement for their groups' national convention of crocheters, called the Happy Hookers. When an accident knocks the young, ambitious and somewhat egotistical news anchors out of commission just after the show begins, the two elderly Pats are called on as emergency replacements. Laughs abound as they struggle to read the news, discuss their passion for hooking, and deal with the two anchors whose inhibitions have been ...

57 pages

Flexible cast and performance time

Here are four plays tailor-made for traveling with minimal props and scenery. In "The Christmas Caper" (9 parts), Santa is kidnapped by a little-known fairytale character who just wants to be popular. In "The Night of the New and Improved Christmas" (9 parts), a Madison Avenue public relations firm wants to update Santa and the whole holiday tradition. In "Christmas With the Cratchits" (8 parts), Tiny Tim's family is ecstatic when they think they've won the lottery. In "Million Dollar Christmas" (11 parts), three of the most miserly people ever known must giv...

49 pages

2 m, 4 w

The hit TV game show "Stop, Shop, and Bankroll" has come to your town to tape a few segments, bringing its dashing host, Benny Sharpe, and the lovely hostess, Loreli Lawless. As usual, the director is worried about her temperamental stars, but between Loreli's new feather dress and Benny's vanity, trouble is guaranteed. Contestants from the audience participate in the shopping part of the game, until Benny cashes in his chips - poisoned by person or persons unknown! Miss Peabody, the cookies-and-cream librarian who's no stranger to murder, attempts to keep or...

50 pages

3 m, 3 w, extras as desired

Ahoy, mystery fans! Book passage on the Titan, a cruise ship headed for the grave of the Titanic, where it hopes to bring up artifacts for auction. But when romance goes sour and the very wealthy and demanding Blake Witherspoon is murdered, a new course must be chartered. The social director tries to steer passengers back to having fun, but Tara Dawn DePue, a detective and antique dealer, decides to solve the crime. With the captain too sick to help, the audience and crew must try to find out who killed Witherspoon before the killer strikes again. Audience me...

52 pages

3 to 4 m, 3 w

This drama is based on the true story of the well-known artist Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, who brought hope and beauty to thousands of children at the concentration camp of Terezin. It’s World War II and the Nazi juggernaut is running full-time, forcing Jews and other “undesirables” into concentration camps. At Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia, one woman prisoner tries to make life bearable for the children. Using her passion for art and teaching, Friedl Dicker-Brandeis encourages them to draw pictures, often of home and family, trying to bring comfor...

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 ...

74 pages

5 m, 6 w

"I wasn't expecting anything to happen," intones detective Ace Baxter, "and that's just when anything CAN happen!" And happen it does, as Ace finds himself in a locked room standing in front of the only exit with a murder victim who was shot in the back ... and with Ace's own pistol. Shadows loom large when you're on the lam, as Ace finds out, whether he's disguising himself as a cleaning woman to inspect the scene of the crime, or ducking Sergeant Flint, who's chomping at the bit to clamp the cuffs on Baxter. The Professor helps out when he can, vowing to al...

75 pages

4 m, 5 w, 1 flexible, optional 1 boy

Armed with a sharply judgmental attitude and a pair of binoculars, homeowner Leona Crump is consumed with anxiety over her new neighbors. Will they be California beatniks? Or paroled drug pushers? Or more frightening yet, perhaps someone with children?! Her worst fears are realized when an odd-ball "hill-folk" family move in across the street. She quickly realizes that neither God, nor her favorite telephone psychic, has prepared her for the series of showdowns set to take place in her living room. Gafina Hambefferschmidt, an obnoxious, gum-chewing woman, tog...

45 pages

2 m, 4 w

It's 1975 - disco and polyester are in. Your audience is attending the 20-year reunion of the Class of 1955. Twenty years has brought about some drastic changes. Will everyone recognize the promiscuous Mitzy as Sister Mary Martha? Or how about that wallflower turned soap opera diva, Veronica West? Reunions are great for reminiscing. It's too bad the evening is dampened by the unsolved murder of the prom queen. Flashback in time to that fateful year and participate in solving the mystery. A sweet, nostalgic blast from the past that's great for all ages, "Flash...

76 pages

7 m, 6 w, 3 flexible, doubling possible

After being part of the richest family in Boston, the adult Webb kids try to adjust to sudden poverty when crazy brother Elwood is given total control of the fortune. But they just don't know how to be poor. They try everything from renting rooms in the mansion to taking a job as a clown for children's parties. Their luck changes with the reappearance of their mother, whom they thought dead; their cranky butler, Fenwick; and the surprise introduction of Fenwick, Jr. Junior is a boorish, obnoxious lout, but is also now the sole heir to the Webb fortune. The ex...