One-Acts

22 pages

2 m, 6 w

High school senior Kimberly is the founder and president of the school’s undefeated all-girl math team. She expects nothing but the best from her mathletes, especially since it’s her senior year and her last opportunity to compete and secure her legacy. Unfortunately, things don’t always go as planned. One of their members is suddenly forced to sit out the rest of the season, so their first alternate — Monica H. — must step up and compete even though she longs desperately to join the drama club instead. A possible solution presents itself when Mr. Roberts tri...

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...

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...

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...

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...

56 pages

With doubling: 4m, 4w, plus ensemble to play various small roles

When Mandy Kate, a young slave girl, overhears a threat to sell her brother-in-law Robert, she rushes to warn her sister Sarah. The family plans to escape together, but Mandy Kate is inadvertently left behind when trying to help another slave, Old Job. Together the old man and young girl must set off on their own. They disguise themselvesOld Job as a woman (Josephine) and Mandy Kate as a boy (Abe)and are initially helped by a clever country boy and his eccentric elderly aunt. Mandy Kate and Old Job are later guided through several stops on the Underground Rai...

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...

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...

46 pages

4 m, 3 w, 2 flexible

A cantankerous grandfather, ill-tempered and paranoid, is determined to think that his grandkids, three young adult siblings, are trying to kill him for their inheritance ($642 and a postcard collection). Grandpa doesn't mind shouting it down the halls of his apartment building to alert whatever neighbors he can. So when Grandpa suddenly slumps forward, face down in the birthday cake at his surprise party, the grandkids realize it looks like murder and they're the suspects. What follows is a fast-paced series of charades, plot twists, off-beat humor and one-l...

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...

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...

52 pages

3 to 4 m, 3 w

This drama is based on the true story of the well-known artist Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, who brought hope and beauty to thousands of children at the concentration camp of Terezin. It’s World War II and the Nazi juggernaut is running full-time, forcing Jews and other “undesirables” into concentration camps. At Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia, one woman prisoner tries to make life bearable for the children. Using her passion for art and teaching, Friedl Dicker-Brandeis encourages them to draw pictures, often of home and family, trying to bring comfor...

25 pages

5 m, 2 w, extras

Jack Sprat is a peeper, a gumshoe, a bloodhound for rent, a freelance flatfoot, a man on the case, a hired nose -- a detective, actually, and the only detective in Fairyland. So when femme fatale Red Riding Hood hires him to find Grandma, he knows something is up (well, actually his secretary Tinkerbell figures it out first). Red has teamed up with Prince Charming in order to trick Jack into learning the password for the fairy godmother's magic wand. In the end, Jack figures it all out with the help of his friends, Mr. X, really Rumpelstiltskin; Humpty Dumpty...

14 pages

2m, 6w

Six alert and active senior ladies meet for lunch each week. Between their arranging chairs, sharing OTC medications, discussing mammograms and men, they give a waiter and his manager a really bad day. This is a hilarious play, full of opportunities for clever business. One Interior. About 25 minutes.

Also join the ladies in these other comedies: "Ladies at Poker" (#1816) "Ladies on Vacation" (#1649)

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...

27 pages

3 m, 4 w

When Chris, a high school student, isn't able to attend the funeral of his best friend, James, he decides to hold a farewell party at the gravesite. Attending the party with Chris are six of James' closest friends: Katherine, an intelligent but "ditzy" girl; Sarah, the new kid at school; Betty and Larry, soon to be married; Lisa, James' ex-girlfriend; and Tillman, the class brain. The group quickly discovers that they don't know each other very well - James was the common bond between them. As the play progresses, each person reveals what he meant to them. To...

21 pages

2 m, 4 w, 2 flexible

Have you ever been in the middle of a boring job and suddenly found yourself fantasizing about that great-looking person across the room? That's what happens to Tom Algren one night in the library when he spies a girl named Rhonda, the woman of his dreams! Laugh with Tom as his daydreams come to life on stage - as he becomes the cool Bogie, the tough Rambo, and the all-American superman. Some fantasies involve Rhonda with her two roommates, one stunningly beautiful and one super tough. Here's a play that's packed with humor and opportunities for fun acting.

25 pages

7 - 9 plus an ensemble group

It is final exam time—again!—at Standardized Testing Senior High School, and Christie is feeling less than solid about her English final. Her friends, Bobby – a snack-o-holic, and Val, her BFF, are much less concerned until Christie’s vision of the horrible outcome of the test (shown in a slow-motion action sequence which uses “unseen” black clad stagehands) causes her to flee, taking her friends with her. Unfortunately, that is just the beginning. Can you really escape your destiny, or as the creepy school custodian warns “Testiny”? Bobby and Val struggle wi...

34 pages

Widely flexible cast, minimum of 7 actors

This is a whirlwind tour of many of the famous and infamous urban legends we’ve grown up hearing and fearing. It then delves deeper, dramatizing in chilling detail, “The Survivor.” The sole survivor of a plane crash, a man has lost his only love, but while the other bodies have been retrieved, hers will never be found. After leaving the show you will definitely feel the need to check the back seat of your car and look under your bed before going to sleep; but beware of your dreams because these spooky tales will stick with you for quite some time. (This one-a...

23 pages

3 m, 4 w

Join Michelle, Bonnie, and Jake as they bumble through getting the high school yearbook together. As senior editor, Michelle wants "her" book to be perfect. Unfortunately, Bonnie, the copy editor, can't spell, and Jake, the photographer, is a little too laid back for deadlines. A core group of four actors portray every organization from the French club to the pep squad as they come to have their pictures taken. The fast-paced photo sessions and accompanying "captions" earn an A on the laugh scale. See how Bonnie and Jake finally create a "yearbroke" too funny...

28 pages

3 m, 6 w

During the wait for the next subway train, the assembled characters think only of their own plights. There's Estelle, an eccentric woman who sits in the station doing cross-stitch and talking with Grover, a street person; Julia, a wealthy woman whose expensive car has just broken down and who is in a hurry to meet her husband; Calvin, a spoiled brat who is supposed to be meeting business associates of his father's at the airport; Marta, a recent immigrant on her way to a new job in a sweatshop; a novice nun with doubts about her vocation; Jan and Jill, musici...

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

1 m, 6 w

The ladies meet at Suzie's home for a game of poker which they know little if anything about. Suzie's husband, Willoughby, sticks his two-cents-worth in and the game disintegrates into a sharing of make-up and poker-bridge. As usual men are a part of the discussion!  Also join the ladies in these other comedies: "Ladies at Lunch" (#1648) "Ladies on Vacation" (#1649)

28 pages

6 m, 5 w doubling possible to 4 m, 3 w

This powerful one-act is based on the first pages of Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables." The year is 1815 and Jean Valjean has been imprisoned nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving family. Now, after being released, Valjean finds it impossible to find lodging or food. Society has treated him like an animal and he feels like one. Finally he finds refuge at the Bishop's home. The clergyman welcomes him with kindness and even trust, using his best silver candlesticks at the evening meal, much to the dismay and warnings of the susp...

44 pages

4 m, 3 w

Two married couples pool their resources to buy a diner in the middle of the desert. Excited and enthusiastic at first, they come to realize their dream isn’t turning out to be the success they wanted. Unable to afford to fix the diner’s broken sign or pave the dusty parking lot, the hoped-for customers continue to drive by without stopping. Inside the diner, with failing equipment and dwindling funds, the two couples discover they can’t even sell the building for a portion of what they paid for it. They are about to give up in desperation when a handsome, ch...

24 pages

5 m, 4 w, extras if desired.

Inspired by a true story, "Carl" tells of a young man's experience with being teased and bullied throughout school. The play opens with a 10-year reunion, then flashes back to his high school days, episodes in the lunchroom and classroom. We even see a brief bit of Carl's home life. Through the moving portrayal of Carl's life and ultimate suicide, members of the audience are compelled to examine their reactions to people who may be different. "Carl" is the winner of Minnesota's "Arc of Excellence Community Media Award."

29 pages

3 m, 3 w, 1 flexible

Stumbling onto their perfect home is a dream come true for newlyweds Jim and Clara. Keys in hand, they bring a picnic into the house and begin to plan a bright future together… when in come Chris and Allison who also have keys in hand and a picnic basket! Of course the real estate agent is long gone with the money. Just as the two competitive couples think they might have a plan that will allow them all to stay, in come Roger and Lucy with - you guessed it - a picnic basket.