Holiday

50 pages

2 m, 2 w

In this faithful 1-act adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic, a traveling troupe of commedia del arte players re-create the Victorian world of “A Christmas Carol” on a bare stage. All of the many wonderful characters are played by these four actors with cleverness, skill, and comedy. Dickens, an actor, playwright, and enthusiastic theatergoer, used many theatrical characters in his novels, especially characters from the commedia del arte tradition. The most notable of these is Ebenezer Scrooge, who is played in this adaptation by commedia’s big-nosed Punc...

17 pages

2 m, 8 w (doubling possible) 1 b, 1 g, and carolers

This turn-of-the-century Christmas is going to be a white one for bachelor Robert Kelley: white because his white lie has caught up with him! His boss, who only hires family men, wants to meet Robert's wife and kids. Robert decides to rent a family but has to disqualify several zany applicants. He is desperate until he spies sweet Mary O'Riley selling fruit. This one-act play is lighthearted, easy-to-stage and includes suggestions for favorite carols as well as one new song.

48 pages

Flexible from 16 to 33+ including some speaking roles for children

In this modern reimagining of Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol," a struggling theatre company is rehearsing a Christmas show. Carol, the hard-driving real estate agent who owns the building, interrupts, demanding rent. Later, in the empty theatre, deceased business partner Marlene appears to Carol, foretelling that three spirits will appear. Throughout first two, a sage child who speaks in Victorian slang and a gregarious game show host who forces Carol to play along, Carol still remains unmoved. It isn’t until she is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Future that ...

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...

69 pages

11 m, 4 w, 2 flexible, 1 girl, 1 child, and large chorus

Gather ‘round with the ghosts in the graveyard who will show you the real story of Ebenezer Scrooge! This rousing new adaptation of the beloved novel by Charles Dickens has up-tempo songs of melody and memory. With three actors playing Ebenezer Scrooge, we go back to see Ebenezer through young boyhood, young manhood, and finally to the character we know. In “This Christmas,” Ebenezer’s family is left homeless thanks to his father’s well-intentioned but unrealistic gift giving. When his mother sells the young, gentle boy into servitude, fellow child laborers p...

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...

64 pages

5 m, 4 w, 3 girls

"Dear Editor, is there a Santa Claus?"- a question innocently asked by 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon. Christmas was coming and all was right with the world ... until her friends mischievously fill her in on the "facts" about Old Saint Nick. Who could tell her the truth? Not her father, a doctor who is always fighting against old world cures. Not her teacher, who is already fed up with Christmas even though it hadn't arrived. So Virginia writes a letter to the editor of The New York Sun, for her father always said, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Virginia'...

17 pages

Flexible cast of 13

We are in the control room of Santa’s Elves on Christmas Eve—our view is exactly what Santa sees on his sleigh monitors. Santa is about to take off, and we are getting an inside look at how that happens from the control room monitors. Papa Elf is retiring next year after 108 years in charge. Spark is in the lead this year, and if all goes well, he/she will be the next Chief Elf. But a disaster awaits that just might cancel Christmas...

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40 pages

Very fluid cast. Minimum: 7 m, 5 w.

“The Gift of the Magi” is probably one of the most beloved stories for Christmas. It, along with two other tender stories by O. Henry, “The Last Leaf” and the lesser known “Christmas by Injunction,” are dramatized here, set in the framework of O. Henry’s life which in itself is a story. In the early 1900s he was one of the most widely read authors in America. O. Henry, whose real name was William Sydney Porter, was known, however, to have spent some time in jail for allegedly embezzling from an employer, and it is believed that he started writing there in ord...

36 pages

2 m, 7 w, 3 boys, 2 girls, optional extras.

Two ladies in a rest home are arguing. Florence, who has never had a real family Christmas, fantasizes that a family would come along and take her in for the holiday, but of course no family would put themselves out that way. Yes, they would, says her roommate Myrna who has had years of storybook Christmases with her five children. To prove their differing viewpoints, they invent the fictitious Genevieve, a little old lady in a rest home near Myrna's children in Idaho. If one of them will agree to take “her” in, Florence will really believe in Christmas. Dram...

24 pages

1 w, 1 flexible

This is the story of two displaced people: Esther, an escapee from a nursing home, and Nathan, a young runaway who is fresh to the streets. They break into an apartment and she feeds Nathan a meal he will never forget. Together they create memories, making up events that they each wish would have happened, from merry Christmas holidays to lazy summer days at baseball games. The more they pretend, the more we see that Esther misses her family members who have passed away and that Nathan is deeply hurt by his divorcing parents. The memories they create will tak...

26 pages

2 m, 5 w, 3 flexible

This time it's not Ebenezer Scrooge but his grandson, Engelbert, who is "bah humbugging." The fun begins when the first ghost, a lovely young lady, pops in, intent on showing the crotchety old executive a grand tour of Christmases past. Add to this merry melange another two ghosts, a snippy secretary, and carolers, and the result is a hilarious situation that Dickens couldn't possibly have foreseen. One act.

34 pages

4 m, 10 w, 3 flexible

Holiday cheer is driving Queen Malvinia crazy! The former evil stepmother of Snow White’s story is now somewhat reformed, and rules over the kingdom of Happily Ever After. But ever since all the traditional fairy tale characters began getting along, demand for the Queen’s various potions on her website have fallen off drastically. So she’s thought of a new way to boost sales. With the help of Cinderella’s stepsisters, and Wolfgang Amadeus Toothful, alias the Big, Bad Wolf, she throws a Christmas Eve party. Though the Three Little Pigs try to keep the mood hap...

17 pages

6 m, 6 w, extras

Poor Santa is being tried in court for breaking and entering, unfair interstate trade practices, illegal parking, unfair wages, and flying with no flight plan. Witnesses are cross-examined by the attorneys and the jury takes very little time to reach a verdict. One act.

56 pages

15 m, 6 w, extras

This dramatic comedy tells the story of a Christmas in 1938 in the small town of Comfort Falls: population 603. The cream of society is getting ready for their out-of-doors holiday extravaganza at the town bandstand until they find out that the local church is planning a "competing" program, their annual Christmas Eve pageant, also at the bandstand on the same night! The society set, lead by the Widow Jeffries, and the church drama troupe, defended by her long-suffering son-in-law Mayor Hoshpepper, are joined by a hilarious group of eccentric townspeople, inc...