School

62 pages

8 m, 4 w, extras

It's a time of big cars, guys in fedoras and dames who are as quick with a wisecrack as they are with a gun. Into this world walks Nick Addams, Private Eye. All Nick has to do is find out who's framing him for the murder of the husband of the beautiful woman who hired him to help her in the first place. (Got that?) Throw in a bunch of killers hired to rub out a gumshoe named Nick Adams (one D, no relation), a girl Friday who keeps saving Nick's neck (against her better judgment), and an underworld kingpin who might just have something to do with all this.

41 pages

5 m, 6 w

What would you do if you were faced with a former teacher you loathed? Ever-optimistic Tammy Davis gives a party for Florence Furtney, the despot who taught senior English at Central High School for 40 years. Only a few former students show up for the party and then only to see if time has rendered the dreaded teacher harmless. Some want to tell her off, some want to ignore her, one wants to kill her! One by one, as the former students sit in an old desk, Miss Furtney comes to life and tells them why she acted as she did. All come away with a different view o...

56 pages

4 m, 1 w, 5 flexible, plus extras

As the title implies, this fast-paced, lighthearted adaptation takes a few liberties with the original text and focuses on one adventurous day in the life of fiction’s most unfortunate fellow. Here, Quasimodo is meant to be adored, not feared, while his villainous master Frollo sports a bad toupee. The handsome war hero Phoebus is easily outwitted (and charmed) by the feisty gypsy Esmeralda, and the city is patrolled by the 15th century’s version of the Keystone Kops. Nothing and no one is taken too seriously. But beneath the humor is a timeless moral core wi...

29 pages

4 m, 5 w

George and Dana each had such high hopes for their high school popularity and love life back when they were in junior high. But the reality is they now have their lunch stolen every day and are subjected to catty comments by the sports jocks and cheerleaders. Laugh and cheer as George and Dana's daydreams for wild success come alive as they imagine themselves as successful business people, Nobel Prize-winning scientists, famous actors and authors, and secret CIA operatives foiling hijacking attempts. Meanwhile, their tormentors' biggest achievement is to memo...

47 pages

4 m, 9 w

Competition, stress, excitement and jealously are but a few of the emotions these characters share as they all undergo the pressure of "trying out." Susan is bringing home a serious boyfriend for the first time, and her teenage daughter feels like she's trying out a new dad. Megan figures the lead in the school play is hers as a senior drama student until Tasha, a hotshot sophomore, shows up for tryouts. Brandon really wants a job at the burger joint where his best friend works, but is he ready for the rigors of a job interview? His friend Erik doesn't think ...

42 pages

4 m, 5 w, 10 or more optional

Brian and Sarah are making life miserable for the other students with their constant kidding, everything from switched homework to joy buzzers. Carefree Brian and Sarah apologize with a flippant, "Just kidding," but their jokes are fast becoming not funny. Their science teacher, Mrs. Keller, arranges a little sting operation. It's a beautiful plan created by a master, but little does anyone know the final practical joke is Mrs. Keller's alone! Three self-contained sections of optional dialogue among the class president contenders (the Nerd, the Babe, and the ...

66 pages

6 m, 5 w, extras

The stage is the actual setting of this play which evolves around a young and attractive play director and handsome basketball coach in sometimes heated, sometimes humorous conflict over the use of stage/gym facilities. The real audience actually becomes part of the play in the 3rd act by being the assembled audience for a variety show that the school is presenting. There are opportunities for several real variety numbers to be includeded. Actors planted in the audience add humor. Production can be as simple or elaborate as desired, depending on facilities, t...

27 pages

1 m, 9 w

In the late 1800s rumors were circulating about alleged horrors taking place on Blackwell’s Island, home of the Insane Asylum of New York. Women were apparently the victims of abuse and torture, and one woman, a newspaper reporter, decided to risk her own life to investigate. Nellie Bly committed herself to the asylum, documenting her findings and ultimately revealing the horrors to the entire world. This one-act play, adapted from her book, “Ten Days in a Madhouse,” tells the incredible story of how this “girl” reporter forever changed the way the world look...

37 pages

4 m, 8 w

At the end of the 1940s an old theatre building is about to be torn down. As the theatre's acting troupe is packing up the props, costumes and set pieces, an old magician's trunk is wheeled onstage. Suddenly, members of the company are turning up dead. Margaret, the director's assistant, is the only witness to these crimes, seeing with her own eyes how Eve was strangled, Madigan bludgeoned, and Stan shot. Yet no one will believe her, especially when there is no trace of any of the bodies! This edgy, film noir-style mystery earned straight superiors from the j...