Full Length (11-20 Actors)

75 pages

7 m, 6 w

Have you ever wanted to stay in an old, drafty English manor with a serial murderer and a ghost running loose in the dark? Who hasn't? Houndstooth Manor simply abounds with atmosphere. "We're lousy with it," the butler intones as he casts a suspicious eye over the paying guests, wondering who is next to be murdered. Will it be the pompous, retired Major who's always going on about how he stopped some uprising "with just a few well-chosen words and a flame thrower." Or maybe the honeymooning couple who know more than they'd like you to believe. Or maybe the fo...

58 pages

4 m, 9 w, 1 flexible

Katherine and Jonathan Prescott are hysterical when their cousin Lino, a famous Italian botanist, cancels his visit at the last minute. Katherine had planned for him to be the guest speaker at an important flower society fund-raising dinner. Her brother, Jonathan, had wanted Lino to impress his upper-crust girlfriend. So when Jonathan's long-lost but quick-witted friend Robert shows up, Jonathan convinces him to play Lino. Trouble is, Robert's Italian (limited to pizza menus) and knowledge of plants (they're green) could torpedo this sophomoric plan. Of cours...

72 pages

6 m, 11 w, extras

Sanders is very upset. The budget for his opening show of the new theatre season is being cut by eighty percent. This particular play is to be an epic retelling of the timeless classic, "Cinderella," an expensive show that includes grand costumes, elaborate sets, and high-priced special effects. But how is he expected to pull off such a spectacle with practically no money? To add insult to injury, Sanders learns that the reason his budget is cut is because Mrs. Brakes, the executive director of the theatre, and her pal Bonnie, the president of the board of di...

64 pages

8 m, 9 w, extras

A mysterious phantom, who inhabits the depths of a TV studio, creates murder and mayhem to seize a beautiful soap opera heroine, for whom he has an obsessive love! Laid-back police detective Digby Wright does little to allay the fears of the troupers, somewhat of a shaky group to begin with! There's Daphne Davis, a haughty actress whose career is moving fast --downhill; Quentin Harris, a former football hero who drops the ball when it comes to his lines; Lily Ponds, a scatterbrained secretary who can't remember the director's name; Addison Meriwether, the upt...

62 pages

Widely flexible cast of 32. (Minimum: 2 m, 1 w, 2 flexible.)

Ever wonder why your cat acts like he's king of the world? Or why flamingos stand on one leg? Have you ever imagined what a spider would have to say to a fly just before devouring him, or what "small talk" sounds like when a cannibalistic female praying mantis goes on a date with a naive male praying mantis? Well, Bryan Starchman has given the animals of the world a voice in this hilarious comedy. Focusing on simple costumes and sets, a large flexible cast, and ten whacky scenes, your audience will get to see and hear what animals really think about us humans...

42 pages

Flexible cast of 45 (minimum 12)

Miss Crandall and her junior high students are returning home late one night from a field trip when their bus breaks down and they are forced to seek shelter in an old abandoned house that legend has is haunted. While Miss Crandall goes for help, the kids keep up their spirits by telling spooky stories -- stories about a teacher who is really a vampire, a rude girl who is turned into a doll, a mummy that is sent as a gift and two others. The stories raise lots of goosebumps and lots of laughs. With easy staging, simple props and performance time of only an ho...

63 pages

5 m, 7 w

World-famous author Charles Dickens falls asleep during an interview with London Times reporter Edwina Drood. He dreams a variety of his characters as passengers aboard a ship heading to England, but they are now in a future he doesn't quiet understand. Miss Havisham and her adopted daughter Estella are luring Uriah Heep into a trap. Mr. McCawber is running from Madame Defarge, to whom he owes money. Captain Fagin tries to avoid the crewman Oliver Twist, who has become very adept at pickpocketing. Nancy, the barkeep, and Belle, the barmaid, are hiding secrets...

63 pages

7 m, 11 w

Not many people like Sam Slaughter, the world's most successful but most reclusive mystery writer. He's just fired the aging star of his radio mystery show, "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night," and he's two-timing another star with a brainless showgirl. He's also yelled at his butler, his agent, and the show's producer. To make matters worse, a woman from his past shows up with some incriminating evidence. But before Sam can pay off the blackmail she demands, he is kidnapped and shots are fired in the night. It all happens at his isolated mansion where the radio...

65 pages

8 m, 9 w, doubling possible

"All we want is a simple wedding," agree Mark and Colleen as they get engaged. And their simple wedding stays simple, for about two minutes. Then the families get involved. There's the McMasters, who think the Frobishers are a bunch of snooty dudes, and the Frobishers, who picture the McMasters as a crowd of hillbillies. The bride's father keeps offering the soon-to-be-wed couple thousands of dollars to elope, "No questions asked!" The bride's mother decides to call in her sister, who is a sweet, lovely woman, until she becomes "The Coordinator, " a drill ser...

68 pages

7 m, 6 w, extras. Doubling possible.

The classic story of two emotionally-stunted children who discover, through their love for a garden, and the teachings of a boy of the English moors, that the key to happiness lies in caring for others. The story opens as two British officers in India discover 10-year-old Mary Lennox alone, her parents having just died in the cholera epidemic. She is sent back to England to live with an uncle, Archibald Craven, whom she doesn’t know, in the foreboding Misselthwaite Manor. His son Colin is sickly and bedridden and his cries can be heard echoing down the dark h...

43 pages

9 - 22. (7 m, 9 w, 6 flexible. Minimum of 9 actors with doubling)

Welcome to present-day Sleepy Hollow. This famed little town now has traffic lights, modern plumbing, even a Dunkin’ Donuts – but traces from its past remain. A troupe of actors takes us on a tour of Sleepy Hollow, but the participants begin to suspect that there is perhaps more truth to the legend than they realized. This inventive adaptation delivers a faithful retelling of the classic short story within a contemporary framework. The past clashes with the present, as the young square off with the dead, and the Headless Horseman is thrust into a 21st century...

74 pages

7 m, 10 w, 1 flexible, extras

Mrs. Brown has moved to Hoke's Bluff to study rural school life. She's used to schools equipped with state-of-the-art computer labs and up-to-date technology. At Hoke's Bluff, however, high tech is an intercom system consisting of an aluminum can with a piece of string attached. On the first day of school, the sheriff shows up looking for leads to cow-tipping pranks. Her study of "these people" may be more than she bargained for. But as relationships are built, Mrs. Brown not only teaches her students a few lessons, but she learns a few of her own. And when C...

58 pages

9 – 46 performers possible

We all know the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle," but when you stop to think about it...how can a cow jump over the moon? If a cat could play the fiddle, wouldn't it be all over the internet? Why is a dish running away with a spoon? What’s the little dog actually laughing at? And how do they all connect with each other? This family comedy offers seven different outlandish tales speculating about what might be “The True Story of Hey Diddle Diddle.” It has a completely gender-flexible cast of 9-46 actors and runs about 55 minutes in length. Its target audience...

67 pages

Widely flexible cast (5 -14 m, 9 - 31 w)

Horror movies can be lots of fun! Join producer C.C. Bellows as he meets five directors whose movie pitches come alive onstage. Of course, C.C. knows that audiences only really like what they’ve seen before, so each of the directors has tweaked a famous horror film. “The Calamityville Horror” tells the story of a family who move into a house that’s haunted by circus animals. In “Saturday the 14th,” a group of college kids hope to find the famous ghost, Jacob Voorbees, a hockey player who fell through thin ice. In “The Extortionist,” a young girl is possessed ...

52 pages

2 m, 2 w, 10 flexible, optional washboard band and townspeople

The little Western town of Possum Trot has been under a gypsy spell for two hundred years, a spell that turned the whole village into nincompoops who are so clueless they sweep with the wrong end of a broom and put themselves in jail. They've never been smart enough to progress with the rest of the world. Seymour Justice, the guilty gypsy's great-grandson (seven generations later), wants to break the spell once and for all. His perseverance pays off when he and his best friend, Edmund, finally stumble upon the lost village. The secret to breaking the spell is...