School

50 pages

3 m, 3 w, extras as desired

Ahoy, mystery fans! Book passage on the Titan, a cruise ship headed for the grave of the Titanic, where it hopes to bring up artifacts for auction. But when romance goes sour and the very wealthy and demanding Blake Witherspoon is murdered, a new course must be chartered. The social director tries to steer passengers back to having fun, but Tara Dawn DePue, a detective and antique dealer, decides to solve the crime. With the captain too sick to help, the audience and crew must try to find out who killed Witherspoon before the killer strikes again. Audience me...

71 pages

11 m, 10 w, 3 flexible, 1 boy, extras

Ah, what fools these mortals be! Whimsically adapted from Shakespeare's classic romantic comedy, this musical features the usual magical forest and spellbound lovers, but also an upstart Puck who decides to liven things up by modernizing the dialogue and adding song and dance numbers. It's all fun and games until William Shakespeare, fresh from spinning in his grave, leaps onto the stage, demanding to know what on earth is going on! The 13 songs capture a wide range of emotions, including the enchanting "Moonbeams," sung by Titania and her Fairies; the hilari...

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.

41 pages

2 m, 4 w

Every time Polly Peabody's in charge of something, it's murder - literally! In this hour-long play, she's program chairperson for Professor Hazelton Crandall's presentation, "Journey Through the Pharaoh's Tomb." Unfortunately, the poor professor needs his own tomb before Act I ends, because he's murdered. Miss Peabody narrows the suspects to four: the professor's estranged wife, who wants to sell the artifacts; the professor's vivacious, if vacuous, girlfriend; his longtime colleague and friend; and a reporter who'd do anything to get a story and keep his job...

51 pages

Widely flexible cast (14 or more)

Kipling's dramatic and entertaining stories about how the Camel got his hump, how the Elephant got his nose, how the Whale got his spout, and other richly woven tales come to life in this engaging full-length play. Mr. and Mrs. Kipling and their two bubbly yet unpretentious daughters serve as narrators. The story weaves from several animal tales to the final human one, how Man-or in this case an enterprising young girl!--wrote the first letter. Especially engaging is the two-person whale which is a great theatrical device. Easy to produce, this whimsical play...

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...

90 pages

Flexible cast of 13 to 40

When Fred is forced to go to the library to do a report, he meets the Book Master, a magical character who introduces him to some of the most popular fictional characters ever created. Before his eyes, sections from several great books are acted out. You can choose whichever 6 to 8 scenes of the 9 included to comprise a full evening's entertainment. Scenes include "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "Little Women" (Americana); "Jane Eyre" (Gothic); "Dracula" and "The Monkey's Paw" (horror); "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "A Thousand and One Arabi...

57 pages

5 m, 4 w

Dr. Frank N. Stein, the crusty great-grandson of the original monster-maker, has developed a magic clone box for "a brighter tomorrow." But his pretty daughter, Julie, who possesses one hair from the head of the King, wants an Elvis clone! Unfortunately, the guy with blue suede shoes and guitar who pops out can't sing a note. And it doesn't get any better when he and the doctor go back into the clone box and their personalities are switched. Add in an ambitious young TV reporter; a psychoanalyst; a crusty housekeeper; a patient with multiple personalities, an...

74 pages

7 m, 10 w, 1 flexible, extras

Mrs. Brown has moved to Hoke's Bluff to study rural school life. She's used to schools equipped with state-of-the-art computer labs and up-to-date technology. At Hoke's Bluff, however, high tech is an intercom system consisting of an aluminum can with a piece of string attached. On the first day of school, the sheriff shows up looking for leads to cow-tipping pranks. Her study of "these people" may be more than she bargained for. But as relationships are built, Mrs. Brown not only teaches her students a few lessons, but she learns a few of her own. And when C...

58 pages

Flexible casting: Minimal 3 m, 3 w.

By beginning the play with the arrival of the merchant and his daughter at the Beast's castle, this adaptation of the familiar fairy tale focuses on the many variations on the theme of love. Once the character referred to as “Beauty”' agrees to stay at the castle, the audience becomes involved in the changing relationship of the two central characters, leading to a bond of love that goes beyond surface appearances -- and that will outlast even death. It's a tale of happiness and sadness, of growing and changing. But in this version Beauty discovers her own co...

31 pages

Flexible from 5 m, 6 w, to as many as 8 m and 14 w, not including extras.

The title says it all, and every actor and actress who has ever graced the stage knows it all too well. Bobby, Danni, and Christina are three high school students who share the same bad dreams of forgetting their lines, blanking on their monologues for a big audition, looking foolish in a death scene, or being in a really bad play where you don't even know what it is or any of the cast members in it! They stumble through the ridiculous scenarios by any means necessary, improvising and freaking out at the same time. Chaos and calamity reign supreme as they dea...

47 pages

Flexible cast of 15 (approx. 3 m, 9 w, 3 flexible), extras as desired

Confusion and fun are the business of the day at Kamp KAOS, a summer camp that boasts its own 12-watt radio station. It's opening day at the camp and director Wally Schneider is already in trouble: the mortgage is due; the world's wealthiest woman wants to buy the land the camp sits on; the county health inspector is coming; and the mysterious weather phenomenon El Gordo has brought a migration of mice! It's up to the wacky gang of counselors and campers to save the day when Wally eats cheese laced with sedative. This hour-long, one-set comedy can easily expa...

29 pages

1 m, 1 w, 1-14 flexible

Lacey, a teenage girl, has finished work at the mall and is waiting – and waiting – for her boyfriend to pick her up. Left stranded yet again, she reevaluates her love life while shuffling through the songs on her iPod. Actors portraying each of the songs appear with comedic monologues that stir her emotions, offer advice, and affect her decisions. Ethan, a good-humored co-worker, offers her a ride home and the possibility of future romance. The play may be performed with anywhere from 3 to 16 actors. Actors playing Songs portray the spirit and style of the g...

35 pages

Flexible cast. Approx. 2 m, 7 w, 2 flexible.

Faith and Ivy are best friends for life…and beyond. On the surface, they don’t have much in common. One is respectful, the other sarcastic. One is studious, the other a troublemaker. One is a friendly actress, the other a reclusive poet. And, oh yeah, one is alive, the other, not so much. Ivy has been dead for weeks, and only Faith can still see or hear her. How can a ghost help Faith achieve her goal of landing the lead in the school play? And for that matter, why is Ivy still hanging around, anyway?

71 pages

7 m, 7 w, and extras (doubling possible)

Here's a hilarious melodrama spoof whose oddball characters seemingly ad lib their way through the wildest plot ever to come down the pike. Lovely, innocent Constance Purdy is about to lose her home to that villain-about-town, Wiley Schlink. Will hero Monroe Mannerly ride to the rescue in time? Will her long-lost prospector father show up and save the day? These questions aren't really answered because we're laughing too hard at the sheriff who has a mortgage on her own jail, a medicine man who ends up in a dress, and a saloon-smashing suffragette whose ax wo...

76 pages

21 characters. 6 to 8 men, 8 to 10 women,

No modern-day monster can equal the chill factor than that of Dracula and his nosferatu, the undead who must feed on the blood of the living to exist. Their lust, shown only in the darkest hours, haunts even the bravest of us mortal souls. This adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel is done with a sure and steady hand by frightmesiter L. Don Swartz. We encounter Dracula's horror from his centuries-old castle in Europe, to the ship he travels on, and finally to his new feeding grounds near an English asylum. When Dracula causes the death of a young woman named...

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...

24 pages

4 w

Ellie is at a party and wanders off to find the bathroom. The room she walks into, however, is not what she expected at all and she soon realizes that she can’t get out. Worse, she is quickly surrounded by three mysterious figures who seem to hold her life in the balance. One condemns her, one defends her, and the third seems to be a judge of some kind. Ellie must persuade the judge that the “moment’s pause” she took before making one crucial decision justifies a second chance. This compelling and powerful piece offers four varied and meaty roles in a play su...

57 pages

3 m, 6 w

You think it's easy to write a murder? Just ask the Marquis Crossing Ladies Society for the Arts. They decide to do just that, especially when they find out they have to pay royalties to do someone else's play. "Anybody can write a murder," Emma tells the others, and Opaline immediately begins to try to strangle the other members "just to figure out how to do it." The ladies soon find themselves writing an "operatic murder mystery dinner theater with possible audience participation," providing no one sells fruit to the audience. Then two actual convicts on th...

50 pages

Flexible cast, 5 m, 4 w, 9 flexible, doubling possible

(Based on Carlo Gozzi's "Il Re Cervo") King Seren depends on the uncanny ability of a magic statue to decipher a dishonest heart while trying to pick a queen for his kingdom. He desires nothing more that a young lady who truly loves him. When he finds her he calls for a royal hunt in the forest in celebration. The jealous Periglio is out to hunt kings and not stags. The spell of the court magician falls into the hands of the untrustworthy Periglio and he uses the spell to change the King to a stag and himself into the king. Chaos breaks out in the kingdom as ...

50 pages

5-9 m, 7-8 w, 9-12 flex, extras and doubling possible

There’s something in the water at George Washington School. Literally. A truck carrying sodium pentothal – a chemical also known as “truth serum” – has crashed into the local lake and spilled its cargo into the drinking water, and now everyone in school can’t help telling the truth. Teachers are fighting, parents are pouting, kids are confessing their crimes, and the school’s beloved Principal Van Vleck has gone missing. Paulie, Tibby, Seth and Analise are getting ready to compete in the school’s Olympic Mind Games as Team Electricity. The competition is in j...

36 pages

5 m, 7 w, 4 flexible. Some doubling possible.

Forget the school yard bully! There's always one teacher who can intimidate us! Will, an average high school freshman, used to love going to school…until he stumbled upon the terror of gym class under the formidable Mr. Breakwater's rule. Will's coddling mother and nervous wreck of a father (who hides out in the bathtub) are worried. Will's friends, who call themselves the Geek Squad, want to devise a plan to take Mr. Breakwater down. Can Will find a way to stop being afraid of his gym teacher? With a romance novel-obsessed principal, a jock chorus, and an un...

56 pages

4 m, 6 w

Cliff Rundle accompanies his on-again, off-again girlfriend Jackie to an old Hollywood Hills mansion where she has been hired to kick a few lingering spirits out of the house. While Cliff claims he's gone along for moral support, he's really scouting the place as a potential site for a pilot episode of his TV show, "Mansion Makeover." Jackie has brought along her video man, audio girl, and a psychic to help her banish any ghosts. Unfortunately, the only one who ends up seeing any ghosts is Cliff. He finds film star Natalie Fairchild and four others, a directo...

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...

64 pages

7 m, 12 w, extras

We're in Television City where we are watching the live taping of "Days of Our Nights." The set of "Days" is a New Year's Eve party on the Buckcannon yacht and the drama begins when Asa Buckcannon is poisoned from drinking his champagne toast. Who is the murderer? Could it be the sickly sweet Marlena, the conniving Erica, or even the long-lost Greta who acts like a wild animal? Or could it be Beau, who's always wanted to run the Buckcannon Industries but was too inept, or Stefano, a rich, cunning businessman? And how do Dr. Von Quackenhiemer, a strange German...

31 pages

4 m, 9 w

When Boss and his gang reconvene after being dismissed from parts better left unsaid, they go over the original map Boss had drawn showing where he had hidden a valuable string of pearls in a vacant house. They find it is now a home for aged ladies - and what ladies! Grannie Carlson loves to scoot in her wheelchair, Mrs. Hildebrand has a caustic tongue, Mrs. Katts has eyesight that leaves something to be desired. How the crooks find the pearls and what they do with them make this one of the funniest plays ever.

74 pages

13 m, 14 w, 5 flexible, extras

Based on the novel by L. M. Montgomery. When elderly Marilla Cuthbert and her shy brother Matthew decide to adopt an orphan to help with farm work, they expect a boy to arrive at the train station. Instead, a talkative, imaginative girl with fiery red hair and a taste for romance shows up--Anne (with an "e") Shirley. What use will she be to them? asks reserved Marilla, but tender-hearted Matthew feels they might be of some use to Anne. It turns out that all three are much more than useful to one another: they're as vital as breathing. In joyful, hilarious adv...

47 pages

2 m, 6 w

Rev. Longacre is gathering a small group of church members together at a potluck supper to broach the subject of starting a building fund. Duty-bound Hazel arrives first to set up everything and tell the Reverend she hasn't yet found out who's been sending him anonymous love letters. Several others arrive including Annie, the church secretary who is hiding something under her coat, and Lillian, the richest woman in town who seldom attends Sunday services. Before Rev. Longacre is able to give his two-hundred-plus reasons for the drive, Lillian startles everyon...

41 pages

6 - 21 performers possible

From the story by Hans Christian Andersen. "The Snow Queen" is an enduring tale of faith, devotion and the magic of friendship between a young boy, Kay, and his best friend, Gerda. One winter evening, Gerda's grandmother tells them the story of an evil troll whose magic mirror shattered into a million pieces. When a sliver from that mirror lodges in Kay's heart and in his eye, he becomes mean and ugly, and is carried off in the Snow Queen's sleigh. Gerda sets out all alone to search for Kay, and in her perilous venture meets an Old Woman who casts a spell on ...

35 pages

14 characters, approx. 7m, 7 w

Here it is - an outrageous tongue-in-cheek 60-minute murder mystery that is ridiculously believable and will have your audience in stitches! It all happens when the whole arrogant family descends on Murdock Manor to witness the Colonel's reading of his final will and testament. Everyone wants a piece of the action including the big game-hunting sister, the stuffy older son, the young ivy-league son, the prissy daughter, the obnoxious grandkids and others. But the Colonel decides rather than split the estate, he'll leave it all to one person who will care for ...