One-Acts

36 pages

7 m, 4 w, plus ensemble

Here is a retelling of Shakespeare's tale of the decline of an honorable man into darkness, a study of how far an individual is willing to go in the pursuit of power. This adaptation includes new scenes between Lord and Lady Macbeth and uses an interactive ensemble to play a variety of roles. Only the director’s imagination will be the limit for this piece. It can be staged as elaborately or as simply as desired. The truth is in the words. It was written to be performed at any venue, any time period, and with a multi-cultural cast. Movement, music, and passio...

41 pages

6-16 m, 5-15 w, flexible casting, some doubling possible.

This one-act version of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth maintains the Bard’s original dialogue but changes the setting to a post-apocalyptic world affected by nuclear fallout. The setting allows for many opportunities for creative staging, props, music, and lighting. Three witches arise from piles of mannequin parts, looking as if they were just pieced together. Use of a shadow scrim intensifies the violent and edgy nature of the play. About an hour.

28 pages

1 m, 2 w

Katherine Bourgeois, a senior at college, has flunked algebra, a course she needs to graduate. She complains to Dr. Hoffmann, the chairwoman of the math department, who tells Mr. O'Leary, Katherine's instructor, to go over the final exam and give her another test. Mr. O'Leary tries to do this, but Katherine evades the work - she apparently has something else in mind. What is she really offering him for a grade? When Dr. Hoffmann returns, a sobbing Katherine accuses Mr. O'Leary of sexual harassment. Dr. Hoffmann offers Katherine an incomplete, but she’s not in...

17 pages

2 m, 4 w

Clayton Hill is an escaped convict who cherishes his independence. Mabel Pulver is a strong-willed, elderly lady who above all cherishes her independence. And no down-on-his-luck, on-the-run convict is going to make her call for help, which is the first step to a nursing home. Thrown together, this odd couple creates a laugh riot, especially when Clayton must dress up like a lady to pose as a long-lost cousin at Mabel's birthday party AND baby-sit the state trooper's children.

22 pages

2 m, 3 w, 2 flexible

After a car accident that killed her best friend, Lucy Taber is trapped in a coma. In her hospital bed Lucy hears her family discussing the severity of her situation. Unable to distinguish reality from fever dreams, Lucy must maneuver her very own purgatory in hopes of uncovering the truth. Luckily, she does not have to face it alone. A visiting ghost or a figment of her imagination, Lucy’s best friend Milo aids her in overcoming his death, and then accepting her own. With family and friends by her side, Lucy will face reality and exit purgatory. Approximate ...

20 pages

2 m, 1 w

Part of The Half-hour Classics Series. This adaptation of "The Marriage Proposal" shows how hilarious and ridiculous a situation can become when the excitable and "ailing" Lomov comes to propose to the attractive, but equally excitable, Natalia. They soon enter into rowdy quarrels about land boundaries and hunting dogs. Will they marry? Will they fight their way through life? This adaptation has been created especially for high school students.

30 pages

2 m 2 f (can be expanded)

Martin Luther King and Malcolm X are forever linked in the history of the Civil Rights movement. This play featuring four actors playing different roles from history and present day examines the legacy of these two men and attempts to judge where we are today in terms of realizing their dreams. Utilizing the spoken words of both Dr. King and Malcolm X, "How Long Must We Wait" looks both backward and forward in coming to grips with race in America. This is the last in a series of plays that includes "Freedom Riders" and "No Easy Road to Freedom" and is intende...

36 pages

2 Actors

David Radman, a young journalist, must write a story about The Vaudeville Theatre, which has recently been designated for destruction.  He reluctantly arrives at the building for an appointment with the President of the Theatre Rescue Society, but is instead greeted by Charles Grimm, the janitor.  Grimm shows Radman the magic of theatre.  During a series of theatrical explorations—in which they dance a soft-shoe, eat lunch on the backdrop, explore the props cabinet, and fence—Grimm and Radman peel away years of heartache and ang...

19 pages

Approx. 8 m, 5 w, numerous flexible roles and chorus

"Mary Jane of Whitechapel" is set during the Autumn of Terror of 1888 when London was haunted by the spectre of a killer which, even now, we know only by the name of Jack the Ripper. Alternating between the investigation into the killings and the life of Mary Jane Kelly, the Ripper’s final victim, the play re-creates the dark atmosphere of a city horrified by blood and violence. Most of the play is based on real people and incidents: the frantic officers on the case, the scores of suspects, the vigilantes who attack foreigners, and ordinary people, scared of ...

24 pages

3 m, 3 w, 6 flexible

Tomorrow is opening night at The Grand Old Theatre and Mastermime, a notorious criminal who distracts audiences with entrancing mime routines and then disappears with their valuables, has defaced the theatre marquee and is terrorizing the stagehands. Will hard-boiled detective Stanton Ovation and his earnest sidekick Deputy Hammet Upp capture this mute but expressive villain before he steals self-absorbed celebrity actress Ima Starr’s diamonds? Or is there more to this case than it seems? Ima’s talkative assistant Roberta, who was a forensic scientist before ...

24 pages

18 roles any gender. Doubling possible.

It appeared without warning on a Monday, its origins shrouded in mystery. A week later, it had vanished without a trace. But across the days between, it changed cafeteria life in ways that no one could have imagined. It was a microwave oven, so ancient and decrepit that some believed it to have come from an Egyptian pyramid. Now, in a series of hilarious monologues suitable for stage or online presentation by a gender-flexible cast of 1 to 18 performers …its story will finally be told.

24 pages

3 m, 3 w, 6 flexible, extras

Terry Barker, an ambitious newspaper reporter, agrees to spend the night alone in a wax museum to write a Halloween feature. The small, family-owned museum is facing tough competition for tourists dollars from other local attractions, so this publicity is critical. But before the sun rises on the following day, there is a dead body and an unusual list of suspects. Could the murderer be the owner himself or his brother, who never speaks because he has a "condition"? Perhaps the two over-zealous young employees are guilty. Everyone, it seems, has a secret...per...

37 pages

4 m, 3 w

Monsieur Harpagon is a miser, through and through. Although he has his beloved treasure buried in the garden to protect it from thieves, he abhors waste such as warmth and food! He tells his children, Elise and Cleante, they may only marry with his consent, and he looks for spouses for both of them with the help of Madame Frosine, a matchmaker. She quickly finds a future spouse for everyone, including Monsieur Harpagon. Little does he know Cleante has fallen for Marianne, who Harpagon himself plans to marry, and Elise has fallen for the penniless Valere. The ...

31 pages

1 w, 6 flexible

The Empress of China learns about a wonderful bird in her garden and demands the bird perform that evening in court. When Miss Nightingale appears, everyone is disappointed by her drab, gray appearance. However, she makes up for it with her beautiful birdsong which even moves the Empress to tears. She decides to have a silver cage built, to keep the bird forever. Just then a gift is received from Japan -- a marvelous, jewel-studded mechanical bird which sings its own mechanical tune. With the attention on the new gift, Miss Nightingale steals away, back to th...

16 pages

4 m, 1 w, 2 flexible

This play is written in the tradition of the great Marx Brothers movies and plays of the ‘30s and ‘40s. The not-so-famous lawyer Julius P.Milksop (Groucho) is defending Luigi and Adolph (Chico and Harpo) in court. They turn the courtroom into a circus of hilarious gags. The two are on trial for stealing jewelry from the famous Buckwalter estate. (Mrs. Buckwalter is a Margaret Dumont-type.) The stage directions for this play could never be complete, so it is up to each production to come up with business, bits, gags, etc., to fill in the gaps, thereby making e...