One-Act Plays

40 pages

5 m, 5 w

Dramatized by Dave Brandl From the story by Mark Twain. It's the 1800s and two wealthy British siblings, Annabel and Edward, make a bet between them whether a destitute man can survive a month in London if they give him a million-pound bank note. Because the man cannot account for the note being in his possession, he cannot cash it at the bank, yet he must be able to live on it for thirty days and keep out of jail. If he succeeds, they will offer him a high-paying position. They find the perfect candidate in Henry Adams, an American whose wits not only enable...

30 pages

With doubling 3 m, 7 w

Adapted by Burton Bumgarner From the short story by H.H. Munro (Saki). Here is a delicious tale of conventional manners and expectations turned topsy-turvy. When an upper-class family goes to meet their new English governess, they mistakenly bring home Lady Carlotta. Her eccentricities at first delight the parents, whose four children have been the cause of past governesses' psychological breakdowns. The mother likes the idea of education being interesting and relevant to children; the father prefers discipline. Carlotta claims to teach by the "Schartz-Metter...

25 pages

4 m, 3 w, 1 flexible

In this audience-pleasing comedy, Aristotle, the dentist's son, and Jennifer, the habitual screwup, are fighting over the last copy of a self-help book that they are sure contains all the answers to their problems. He just knows "Success in Excess" will help him avoid a bleak future of looking into people's mouths, while she is equally desperate, thinking it will help her avoid a future of always putting her foot into her mouth. But other patrons at the bookstore, including the clerk with an attitude, create amusing situations leading up to the moment when Ar...

28 pages

4 m, 4 w, 3 flexible

In this rowdy farce, the ambitious, but foolish, Monsieur Jourdain wants to socialize with the nobility, even though he knows nothing of proper language or social graces. From his highbrow music, dancing, and philosophy teachers to his obsequious tailor, Jourdain makes a fool of himself with his ludicrous attempts to be important. His behavior even allows him to be exploited by an unscrupulous friend who continues to borrow money. Happily, Jourdain’s weakness is played to full advantage when, after an elaborate masquerade, he finally gives his daughter’s hand...

26 pages

5 m, 3 w

"Along with success comes a reputation of wisdom." But all the wisdom that Sally has learned from her school successes don't prepare her when her life seems to fall apart. After she gets an F on a paper, is harassed by the school's popular jock, and learns her parents are getting a divorce, she contemplates suicide. Her thoughts about dying are revealed in familiar quotations she repeats - quotations other students think she is writing for an English paper. But then the most unlikely person helps Sally find that "Everything is possible, including the impossib...

21 pages

3 m, 3 w, 3 flexible

What fun jogging can be! Think of all the people you can meet! Here's a spoof on America's biggest health habit. Jill and Nathan have stopped jogging for a moment for him to gasp for breath. Soon Jill is off again with a spring in her step while Nathan tries to recoup on the park bench. Before long Ralph appears, who, in between his panting and wheezing from running, is vicariously plotting the demise of his physician who ordered him to start exercising. Edna, sobbing and exhausted from her half block run, makes her appearance, and soon other runners, happy a...

28 pages

4 m, 4 w

The room is a refuge, a rather undefined space with no pressure from the outside world. But how long do you need to feel safe before stepping out? Each character must make that decision himself: Ben, the abused child; Cherelle, acerbic but filled with apathy; Tony, who hides his shortcoming with a smart mouth; Sandi, whose pushiness covers low self-esteem; Jon, who has a real edge of menace, and others. An intriguing drama with no set requirements.

21 pages

3 m, 3 w, 4 extras

Adapted from the tale by Guy de MaupassantAn arrogant hunter shocks his dinner guests by showing them his prized trophy, a human hand chained to a board and mounted on the wall of his library. The next morning the hunter's mother demands he make amends to the guests and remove the hand. But the police have now heard about it and plan to check it out. The hunter wants to hide the hand but admits to his maid he feels safer keeping it in sight. The hand is the only thing he fears because the person it used to belong wants it back. That night the hunter finds the...

44 pages

4 m, 4 w, extras

Sam and Billy are two wheelchair-bound kids who have been mainstreamed into a regular high school. Billy is a poet who, under under the pseudonym of "Minotaur" for half man, half beast, exchanges romantic e-mails with Miranda, one of his classmates. Sam is a rebel with devastating wit, who fights against the double standards that excludes them from some activities. When Billy reveals who he is to Miranda, she is stunned at first, but they become friends, and he asks her to the prom. Sam attends with a teacher. But when Sam goes to the chem lab to smoke a ciga...

37 pages

4 m, 6 w, 1 flexible

Adapted from the short story by H.H. Munro (Saki). When an old friend invites Jake, a science writer for a newspaper, to spend a weekend at a gathering of prize-winning scientists, he sees a way to write an impressive article and move on to being a sports writer, his real goal. At the gathering we meet a botanist, who has invented a rapidly growing vine that the Defense Department can use as a weapon of mass destruction; a systems engineer, who has invented a new software language only engineers can learn; a physicist, who has written a textbook that is a com...

32 pages

2-3 m, 6 w

Okay, these housewives may not be real, but they are desperate. Shakespeare has been manipulating and twisting their lives for six plays now, and they desperately want to escape his evil machinations. But are they desperate enough to commit murder? Shakespeare has been found dead: stabbed, poisoned, starved, choked, bitten by an asp, and even turned into a baardvark. Lady Macbeth, Juliet, Kate, Rosalind, Cleopatra, and Titania all had the means and the motive to kill Shakespeare, but who really did it? This comic tragedy (or is that tragic comedy?) has all of...

30 pages

2 m, 5 w

The high school girls’ softball team has one last shot to make it to playoffs.  However, that doesn’t seem likely since Wacy and Emma can’t seem to stop fighting, and Riley and Kylie are so inseparable that they don’t work with the rest of the team.  So instead of scheduling extra practice hours before the game, Coach forces the girls to participate in team-building activities. That’s perfect for Professor Diabolical, as he has been rehearsing his evil laugh and is ready to have customers in his Escape Room.  Unfortunately, his assistant Brad is more focused ...

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...

28 pages

1 m, 3 w, 5 flexible, extras

Wait—start worrying! No wait—don’t worry. Let Crisis, Inc. worry for you. This farce takes place in the lobby of a business which provides the service of panicking for people. When you have a panic situation and you can’t focus on what to do next, you hire Crisis Inc. to do the panicking so you can move along and get your work done. Two business people come to the company's office – and each of them responsible for the other's crisis situation. Realizing the potential for fireworks should the two meet, the receptionist tries hard to keep them apart. Classic f...

40 pages

4 - 5 m, 4 w

Edgar Allan Poe’s famous short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” gets turned upside down in this sequel ... of sorts! Far from the Gothic mood of the original story, this is a broad comedy-mystery with a little bit of the macabre thrown in for fun. Some characters from the original story, as well as a few new ones, are now trapped in a different mansion. They’ve been called together on this dark and stormy night by a mysterious host for a reading by Poe. The guests are unknown to each other, yet there must be a connection because one by one they disapp...