One-Act Plays

30 pages

Flexible cast of 12 or more actors.

While on a school trip to the local museum, three high school friends find themselves in a restricted area. In this room the students discover a statue of Pandora and her famous box. The box is opened and three creatures - Famine, War, and Disease - are released into the world. With the help of a mysterious guide, the three friends must fulfill the wish of the creatures to return everything back to normal.

28 pages

5 m, 5 w, some doubling possible

Welcome to "Avoiding the Pitfalls of High School Dating," a seminar for high school students who have trouble going on dates. Your hosts for the evening are Lucky Daye and Starry Knight, two people who have invested their entire life savings into creating this simple system of five "never-fail" rules for dating success. Lenny and Matilda, two outcasts, have been brought in to demonstrate the system by going on a series of speed-dates to bring the five simple rules to life. Through a series of humorous and humiliating scenes and hilarious one-liners, we will s...

40 pages

6 m, 9 w, and ensemble of 10, doubling possible

Eight diverse candidates who are running for student body president have two minutes to present their platform and to convince fellow Roosevelt High students to vote for them. From the narcissistic varsity cheerleader, to the disdainful brainiac, and from the star quarterback to the tongue-tied farm boy, every candidate is unique. Their speeches veer from the serious to the hilarious and, with several mimed action scenes, even reach the absurd! During the question-and-answer segment of the forum, however, one student asks the candidates to do something about ...

43 pages

6 or more flexible characters

Twelve short scenes depict events in the life of Edgar Allan Poe -- or how his life might have been in today's world! Some of the more popular tales are represented: "The Tell-Tale Heart" is a police investigation; "The Cask of Amontillado" is a Jerry Springer-type TV show; and "The Masque of the Red Death" has a group of Hollywood types hiding out in a castle. In "The Fall of the House of Usher" Poe himself pitches the story to a producer for a horror film. Other scenes depict Poe as he might have been in elementary school; seeing a psychiatrist; trying to w...

22 pages

5 m, 5 w

Norma Starr, one of the last great silent screen stars, made her share of enemies during her career and she's gathered all of them for her birthday celebration - her director, a rising starlet, her shifty agent, a handsome matinee idol, her costume designer, her maid, and her oldest friend, who carries a dangerous secret. As they all watch, Norma relishes a chocolate- covered cherry from a box given anonymously. At that moment, she dies. Det. Larry Stark, L.A.P.D., and his tactless assistant, Roscoe, invite all the suspects to a "reunion" party during which s...

26 pages

8 characters: 1 m, 5 w, 2 flexible

It’s Marcus’ first day on the job at The Twilight Cone, an unusual ice cream shop owned by his Great-Aunt Diane. Marcus has already been trained on the milkshake machine and scooping ice cream when suddenly his eccentric aunt needs to run to the store. She reluctantly decides to let him open the shop but makes him promise not to serve any flavor but vanilla. When five young women come in to the shop, Marcus’ promise is quickly forgotten. Little does he know that each unique milkshake flavor causes an unusual reaction. The Narrator, unnoticed by all, enters an...

25 pages

4 m, 6 w

Just as the stage manager is getting ready to call "Places" for the start of the school's play, everything comes to a screeching halt. Brandy has discovered that her cell phone is missing and refuses to go on until she finds it. The other actors try to help her re-create her every move to find the exact moment the phone was misplaced, and what follows is not only the quest for a cell phone but a trip through a tangle of who said what to whom. From secret boyfriends, pet nicknames, and the confusion between Tony the boy to Toni the girl, we get a very funny lo...

41 pages

7 m, 16 w, 5 flexible, extras

It's the 1960s, a big nuclear blast to the past! School's out for the summer, and the teenagers of Ocean View High are ready to surf, sun and have some fun. Their favorite hangout is Barnacle Betty's Surf Club, which happens to be right next door to the evil Ivana Ratnik's nuclear power plant. But ooops! Cindy Sue, the head cheerleader, accidentally gets some nuclear slime on her hot dog instead of pickle relish, and soon the beach is overrun with pom-pom wielding zombies! Her all-American boyfriend, the beatniks, the nerds and a tough girl gang named the Bar...

52 pages

4 m, 4 w

Waiting in line? Waiting your turn? You don’t have time! Here’s a comedy in six scenes for those who are time-challenged. In the first scene a desperate woman has only 20 minutes to get to the airport to catch her flight and no matter what her beleaguered taxi driver says or does, they remain stuck in a traffic jam. In a different scene, things start to get physical at a restaurant when a couple with dinner reservations (and theatre tickets!) see others entering and being seated before them. In another scene, a jumpy hypochondriac is forced to wait in a docto...