75 pages
Large, flexible cast
Six separate stories of the macabre will test your goosebump factor. In "Effigy," members of a high school football team learn a gruesome lesson when school spirit is carried too far. In "Voices in the Attic," a sleepy father tries in vain to assure his kids that the sounds they keep hearing are only in their imagination. But can the boys' imaginations make an attic stair creak or turn a doorknob? In "Night-Screamers," why do the children who live in the ancient apartment complex on the edge of town have so many nightmares? One tale makes use of sign language...
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...
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...
71 pages
13 m, 12 w, 8 flexible
In this adaptation of Frank L. Baum's book, "Tik Tok of Oz," the Queen begs her old friend Dorothy to take the mechanical man, Tik Tok, and rescue the Wizard of Oz who has been kidnapped! The journey will be long and perilous, but Dorothy will do anything to save her old friend. Along the way, Dorothy and Tik Tok meet other colorful characters, all of whom decide to find the Wizard in the hope that he might be able to solve each of their problems. But even after the kidnapper, Ruggedo, is defeated, the fearful group must enter the Metal Forest to find the Wiz...
80 pages
8 m, 11 w, 6 flexible, extras.
A hog farmer has three smart sons but absolutely no money to send them to college. A rich, snooty, old maiden aunt has a fortune but years ago she made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with the farmer’s family. What to do? The three boys don wigs, dresses, heels and even Wild Pink fingernail polish for a challenging weekend visit with their estranged aunt. Their desperate mission: to convince her she has three beautiful nieces who are worthy of her millions. And worthy they are when the boys discover someone is embezzling their aunt’s money. Switching b...
56 pages
23 or more
The immortal tale of the star-crossed lovers finally comes to the stage in a manageable adaptation. All of the romance, action, suspense, comedy, drama and beautiful imagery is here, condensed without affecting the enjoyment of the Bard's original masterpiece. An exciting and beautiful adaptation, this version is a wonderful resource for all high school and college drama departments, as well as community theatre productions. The condensed text is easy for even the novice actor or audience member to understand, features very simple settings and still thunders ...
68 pages
13 m, 13 w, and Bear, Time Chorus & Musicians
A beautiful adaptation especially written for secondary school students to perform. Here is the story of good versus evil and the power of time to heal all wounds. Leontes, without warning, suddenly believes his visiting boyhood friend, Polixenes, is in love with Leontes' wife Hermione. Leontes even goes so far as to order his friend poisoned and Hermione thrown in jail where she has a baby girl. It never occurs to Leontes he could be wrong, even though the Oracle of Apollo showed the couple's innocence. Sixteen years later the child, Perdita, who has been ra...
73 pages
11 m, 13 w, 4 flexible, much doubling possible
Adapted from the novel by Wilkie Collins. It's the late 1800s and young Walter Hartright, on his way to a new teaching position, meets a mysterious woman dressed in white. Terrified, she asks him the way to London and mentions that she once was very happy at the very house Walter is going to. Later, Walter meets his pupils: Marian Halcombe and her half-sister Laura Fairlie, the latter who strongly resembles the woman in white. Walter soon falls in love with Laura, but his happiness is dashed when he finds out her engagement to Sir Percival Glyde has been arra...
58 pages
Large flexible casting
From the first anxious day of high school to the hopefulness of graduation, these scenes recount the good times and bad - the awkwardness and joys of dating, going to the prom and just hangin' out, to the pain of breaking up or having a friend die. We get some glimpses of life from those who are experiencing newfound freedom with wide-eyed wonder. There is a joke that teenagers should "leave home now while you still know everything." But we see these teens also realize that they are nowhere near being complete and have quite a daunting but wonderful road ahea...
54 pages
Flexible cast of 20 or more
In Jujuba, it really is a jungle out there! The veerry English Prof. Schmoo is on safari to find an ape named Dr. Teecha. Teecha is studying a purple wild man of the jungle, Zartan, the Grape Man. The discovery of the yodeling Zartan could provide the missing link between man and ape! But it's not easy finding a missing link in a jungle filled with cannibalistic natives or a bunch of loony pirates hunting for treasure. The safari party itself is pretty weird, including Schmoo's whiny daughter; Jungle Guide Clyde, who keeps getting lost; the reporter who is al...