School

71 pages

10-15 m, 10-18 w, doubling possible

It's the 1950s and you're all set for a big night at the drive-in movie! Roll down your car window, hook up the speaker, and hear the movie manager, Mr. Gleason, announce the rules to enjoy yourself, "in the comfort of your own car!" Upcoming attractions are acted out onstage, including "Time Travelers in Space Suits," as is the latest installment of a Western serial "The Adventures of Rocky Rhode." But not all the drama is coming from the big screen. Young lovers Tony and Gloria are arguing about the main feature, the scary "The Vampire's Hickey," and countr...

74 pages

5 m, 6 w

When Letha Gordon keeps an appointment with her ex-husband, she suddenly finds herself the prime suspect in his murder. But who would want to kill the headmaster of a prestigious New England prep school? Perhaps it's his neighbors, who have had their eyes on his property. Or maybe it's the embittered housekeeper whose son was expelled from the school, the same son who is now hiding out there because he hasn't anywhere else to go. What about the music teacher who lives in a dream world of fear and fantasy? Or could it be the victim's second wife, Letha's own s...

60 pages

4 m, 4 w, extras

This richly-textured play weaves the dark energy of one of Shakespeare's most intense plays with compelling, current-day characters and problems. Andreya, a selfish student who gets what she wants by being manipulative and cruel, is affronted when she doesn't get the lead female role for the school's production of "Othello." Instead, the part of Desdemona goes to Miranda, a quiet but talented teen whose dysfunctional family has kept her out of many school activities. The part of Othello goes to Aaron, a well-rounded and popular student. As the rehearsals prog...

71 pages

5 m, 5 w, many extras

Ashley, a freshman sprite, makes her first visit to Mt. Olympus to meet the powerful pantheon of gods and goddesses of Ancient Greece. She is overwhelmed by the way the Great Olympians live and the power that they wield, and wants to grab a little of the glory for herself. She becomes friends with Persephone, the goddess of spring who is running away from her brooding husband, Hades. Together the women set off on an ambitious odyssey to steal Zeus' lightning bolts, Poseidon's trident, and Hades' helmet of invisibility and take over Mt. Olympus! They are pursu...

45 pages

2 m, 4 w

It's 1975 - disco and polyester are in. Your audience is attending the 20-year reunion of the Class of 1955. Twenty years has brought about some drastic changes. Will everyone recognize the promiscuous Mitzy as Sister Mary Martha? Or how about that wallflower turned soap opera diva, Veronica West? Reunions are great for reminiscing. It's too bad the evening is dampened by the unsolved murder of the prom queen. Flashback in time to that fateful year and participate in solving the mystery. A sweet, nostalgic blast from the past that's great for all ages, "Flash...

87 pages

6 m, 8 w, 4 flexible

Julie, an event planner, has been tasked with organizing a soccer conference at her uncle's run-down hotel. However, no one has registered, so Julie faces being fired. Dan, who has a crush on Julie, asks his sister Effy to pretend to be a world-famous soccer player at the conference to help sell registrations and save Julie's job. Effy is a wannabe actress who looks just like the person she is asked to portray, but she knows less than nothing about soccer. As Dan tries to keep Effy's identity secret, interference from an uptight bellhop, a bitter rich lady, t...

58 pages

3 m, 3 w

It's a few minutes to eight, New Year's Eve, 1940, at a radio studio and a group of beleaguered employees are desperately trying to put on a live show. It's the most important episode ever of "Invitation to Danger," but everything is going wrong -- the organist and the sound effects man have eloped, the director is missing, one of the cast has passed out on the sofa and the script has arrived at literally the last moment! Will our heroes Steve, Blackie and Pete finally uncover the true identity of the Hooded Terror or will he escape them again? Will our pluck...

58 pages

5 m, 7 w, 2 flex

This modern retelling of the Austen classic places the entire story in an upper-class restaurant. The Bennett sisters are now four waitresses whose world is turned upside down by the arrival of the restaurant owner, a very rich but unlikeable man who seems to bring doom with him. As Piper fights for those she believes in, she comes to realize that she may have been prejudiced against the wrong characters and too proud to admit that she has misjudged nearly everyone. The modern setting allows for easy costuming and props, and focuses on the major relationship ...

59 pages

6 m, 9 w, extras

Based on the story by Mark Twain.  The small town of Hadleyburg is world famous for its honesty, but it is a reputation that has never faced real temptation...until the day a stranger arrives. He leaves a large sack containing gold coins and a note with the last words spoken by an unknown local citizen who had once helped the stranger. Now he wants to find and repay his benefactor. The citizens of Hadleyburg had long boasted that they were incorruptible; however, greed, suspicion, and lying quickly surface. In Twain's true Americana style, the social and mora...

81 pages

Flexible cast, approx. 9 m, 9 w, extras

Jane, a nerdy-looking new student, is all but ignored by the in-crowd. They're too involved with trying to get parts as extras for the movie that's going to be filmed at their school. Little do they know Jane is really the pampered, glamorous teen soap opera star, Tiffany! She's undercover to prove she can act and earn the lead in the movie. In drama class, Jane is teamed up with Tim, the class bookworm. They look like losers ... until they play the parts of Romeo and Juliet! That threatens posse leaders Clarissa, Shelley, and Mary, and everything explodes! O...

54 pages

4 m, 6 w

Faced with losing the Last Chance Inn once again, Ma and Pa Culpepper turn to glamorous Sahara Hartburn. Sahara pays off their loan with money from a "well-heeled admirer" and promptly takes over the inn. Transformed into the Hartburn Hotel, the place becomes a residence for young ladies with a "no men allowed upstairs" policy. Sahara schemes to find a scandal that will give her new venture some publicity, and finds it when the new schoolteacher, Polly Sincere, is paid a visit by her dapper and devoted boyfriend, Jasper Jones - in her room! To escape, Jasper ...

53 pages

5 m, 5 w minimum (up to 30 maximum)

When their teacher doesn't show up, a group of students in a theatre arts class decide to practice their final scenes and monologues. The result is a montage of teenage fears, fantasies, dreams and yearnings. From cheerleader to class nerd, from star athlete to former runaway, each performs a piece for the others. We witness the pain of breaking up, the ups and downs of life with parents (and without), escapist fantasies into the simpler life of a '50s sitcom, role reversals, and more. Presented with humor, honesty and powerful emotions, the scenes reveal the...

56 pages

2 m, 7 w

Act I is a play rehearsal at the home of one of the characters, while Act II represents the high school stage with all scenery reversed so that the audience sees only what normally would be back stage. All sound effects are visible; prop table, prompters, stage braces, etc. About every problem a director has ever had is encountered. Comedy abounds as each character has his own particular problem with his part. Grammie in particular never speaks a line, but her presence is felt in more ways than one! A plot around and about high school students.

60 pages

Flexible cast (minimum 6)

Ever wonder why people whistle in a graveyard? Because it scares away the bogeyman. Here's a little gang of stories that, far from scaring the bogeyman away, invites him in and sets a place for him at the table! Listen, gentle reader, while the Caretaker introduces spooky tales from the haunted graveyard that will have you sitting on the edge of your seat and sometimes have you laughing out loud when some of the spectres don't behave exactly as they should. Watch as one couple decides what to do with an old uncle who vowed he'd come back from the dead, and wa...

74 pages

With doubling 4m, 5w, 2 flex

Kira, the little mermaid, longs to see life on the surface. When she realizes her overprotective father will only show her a deserted island and has promised her hand in marriage to nerdy Duke Dorsal, she takes matters into her own hands. She sings for the Sea Witch who takes her voice, with the knowledge that she must win the heart of a human or be turned into sea foam. While on land, she saves the prince who falls for her cousin, and finds true love in the end. Jellyfish telling knock-knock jokes, a kingdom with a yoga instructor, a magical triton that can ...

72 pages

7 m, 11 w, doubling possible

Hawthorne's masterpiece comes vividly alive in this adaptation which begins at the gallows as Colonel Pyncheon greedily steals the land of Matthew Maule to build a magnificent house. But with his dying words, "God will give you blood to drink," Maule curses the Pyncheon family for generations. A hundred and fifty years later, Hepzibah Pyncheon, an aging old maid, is forced to open a cent shop in the now decrepit house to keep herself and her child-like brother from starving. It seems all hope is lost for the family. But that's precisely when pretty, 17-year-o...

59 pages

10 m, 15 w

There are a few little obstacles with the prom this year. First, it's taking place at an abandoned inn, which not only needs to be fixed up (with a bulldozer!) but is inhabited by the ghosts of a gangster and his moll who are not happy about being disturbed. Next, the kids on the prom committee have dates with all the wrong people and can't stop playing dating roulette. And finally, the love-starved janitor who has been dreaming for 20 years to marry Miss Gray, their teacher, is holding everyone hostage. And you thought not knowing how to dance was a problem!...

68 pages

3 m, 11 w

As the Nazi noose tightens around the neck of the common German, the effects are felt even in a classroom at the Scholoss Strasse School for Girls. Dorchen Werth, a young teacher just beginning her career, sees her students as a microcosm of society. Eleanore is in love with the local Hitler Youth leader; Hilde is a hard worker who strives to protect her young sister, Gertrude; Lilli is desperate to find a man who will show her affection; Paula has aspirations to attend the university; Renita is afraid because of her heritage; Annabelle is torn by divided loy...

70 pages

17 m, 22 w, 8 either, doubling possible

Geoffrey Chaucer introduces us to a group of 14th century pilgrims preparing for their journey to Canterbury the next day. He proposes that each tell a story going to and from the shrine, but the group is so anxious they begin immediately. The Physician begins with the tale of a wicked judge who desires his scribe's sweetheart for himself. Can the young scribe save her from the unwanted marriage? The Pardoner tells the next tale of three thieves who plan to find Death and kill him, but their greed leads them directly to him. The Nun tells the story of Chantic...

67 pages

13 m, 15 w, and extras

The women of Blue Butte are worried that their men are too ready to feud and fight. In an effort to stop them, the women go on strike, refusing to cook, clean or kiss them unless they sign an agreement to stop carrying guns! The men are reluctant and try to convince their women to go back to things as before. The women, in an effort to stay strong, decide to stay together at Colleen’s restaurant. Soon the deputy and his friends find out Custer Tarnation, a dangerous villain, is headed their way. They get an idea: one of their buddies will dress up as the infa...

64 pages

3 m, 9 w, 1 voice.

Miles off Northern California's rugged Mendocino seacoast, St. John's School for Girls is located on a small island: it is an exclusive private academy which caters to troubled rich girls. However, it seems that a series of grisly murders occurring on the mainland are now taking place on this nearly deserted campus during Spring break. With the "storm of the century" quickly approaching, the eight girls who remained, as well as three faculty members, find themselves cut off from communicating with the outside world, and only have hours to find the killer befo...

73 pages

9 m, 11 w

Several guests go to a remote ski lodge for a mystery weekend during which actors, posing as other guests, simulate a murder which the real guests try to solve. The event is barely under way when the host is murdered, the cable car is sabotaged, and the phone lines are cut, stranding everyone with a killer. Suddenly, a thrilling weekend becomes the height of danger. Among the guests are a famous mystery writer, a former TV detective and his starlet girlfriend, a Texas millionaire and his beauty queen wife, a couple on their honeymoon, and a mysterious bandage...

60 pages

5 m, 5 w

No one could be more meek than poor Henry Jeckyll, scampering to and fro to the whims of both his fiance and his mother. So when he invents a potion to make weak men brave (well, it started out curing seasickness), what better subject to use it on than himself? It not only makes Jeckyll more aggressive, but allows him to grow a lot more hair. After only one treatment of his potion, he soon finds himself dodging the police and explaining just how that horse got in his surgery. Throw in a wise-cracking servant, a whining fiancee, an overbearing mother and a man...

51 pages

4 m, 8 w, 2 flexible

When Chris, a popular, straight-A student, suffers the loss of his younger sister in a hit-and-run accident, he is left to struggle through the remainder of his high school career. But Jake Simmons, the star quarterback and class bully, won’t leave him alone and begins to torment Chris about his personal tragedy while taking bullying to a whole new level. Haunted by his sister and reeling in his pain, Chris decides to take matters into his own hands. In Our Own Backyard tells a story of profound loss, personal tragedy, teen angst and violence amongst a group ...

64 pages

Widely flexible cast, from 12 to 40+

You ever have a "Big Day"? We all have. Not quite like this group, however. Take the case of Butch and Murph, who decide to hold up a bank only to find that Murph is the "one millionth customer!" amid a flurry of confetti. Or little Phoebe, whose class assignment was to write a 500-word essay on her "Big Day" in which she tells of her birthday party where the dog set the couch on fire. We see the invention of the wheel and what it was REALLY for. And then there's Lucille, who gets her first driving lesson from her father ... the church pie sale being only one...

48 pages

18-19 roles (2 m, 1 w, 15-16 flexible)

When a pirate ship inadvertently sails over the lost city of Atlantis, an adventure-seeking girl – who happens to be the granddaughter of Poseidon himself – makes friends with a charmingly naïve sailor, causing their two worlds to collide. As the pirates continue to arrr-gue and the Atlanteans ask an endless series of questions with no answers, new friends Duffle and Pana explore strange new worlds they have never seen before. With the help of a Narrator giving advice and a friendly dog who just wants to play, and with Poseidon’s undersea magic adding to the ...

63 pages

2 m, 2 w

The problem with many plays where things have to go bump in the night is that things have to go bump. Not in "Hector's Warehouse and Other Ghost Stories." Four friends tell five ghostly stories using the most potent special effect of all: the audience's imagination. Using only chairs and candles (plus some well-timed blackouts), the characters re-enact their own eerie experiences and generate plenty of spine-tingling moments for us along the way. In "Toni's House," Phyllis takes us to a house she lived in with footsteps above and a fear-inducing basement belo...

70 pages

4 m, 5 w, 1 flexible, optional 1 boy

Armed with a sharply judgmental attitude and a pair of binoculars, homeowner Leona Crump is consumed with anxiety over her new neighbors. Will they be California beatniks? Or paroled drug pushers? Or more frightening yet, perhaps someone with children?! Her worst fears are realized when an odd-ball "hill-folk" family move in across the street. She quickly realizes that neither God, nor her favorite telephone psychic, has prepared her for the series of showdowns set to take place in her living room. Gafina Hambefferschmidt, an obnoxious, gum-chewing woman, tog...

68 pages

14 m, 3 w, and courtiers, attendants and servants.

One of Shakespeare's greatest "Breeches Parts" plays. Viola finds herself shipwrecked on a strange coast where she must disguise herself as a young man to get along in society. An intricate plot that retains its intricacy but not its confusion. This tale of love and courtship, mistaken identity, pride, and practical jokes is edited to 90 minutes. The actions flows quickly and the archaic terms are eliminated. This is a fine version for actors from junior high school through college to perform.

63 pages

Flexible cast. Approx. 9 m, 9 w, 10 or more flexible

The Reporters Grimm bring you the news scoop of the year: True Love Conquers All! Set in the middle of the Great Depression, the familiar story of Cinderella has been given a vibrant twist. Cinderella Fitzgerald once led the perfect life, until her father loses everything when the stock market crashes. Shocked at the news, the poor man remains frozen at the dinner table and Cinderella and her conceited stepsisters and her vengeful, gold-digging stepmother, must live and move around him. This Depression really is depressing! Sure, Cinderella still has her frie...