School

47 pages

Large, flexible cast. Approx. 20 actors.

In pageant, verse and fearsome argument the gods on Olympus set the great Perseus myth in motion. When the Oracle tells the human king, Acrisius, that his grandson will kill him, the old miser locks his daughter, Danae, up in a tower guarded by fearsome dogs. Zeus comes to her and devours the dogs and soon Perseus is born. Acrisius locks mother and baby in a chest and sets it afloat on the sea. The gods see the chest safely to the isle of Seriphos where Perseus grows into a local hero. The jealous king sends him on an impossible quest: to bring in the head of...

35 pages

14 parts. (with doubling 2 m, 1 w, 3 flexible)

Yazoo! Get ready for one tall tale of adventure as Sheriff Cyclone Malone must protect his town, Yazoo Junction, from evil pirates! The pirate captain, along with two bumbling crewmen, has somehow managed to build a submarine – with torpedoes! – and is sailing on the river outside of town. Cyclone’s gonna need help to deal with this problem. The sweet schoolmarm (and Cyclone’s gal) Cozy Dumond tries to get a message to the neighboring sheriff, but she is tricked by the disreputable Violent Lavender, captured and tied to the submarine’s periscope. Cyclone and ...

44 pages

3 males, 7 females, 1 flexible, extras

Here’s the Cinderella story retold, with a little help from above! Overworked and derided by her stepmother and three stepsisters, kindhearted Cinderella can only dream of attending a ball at the castle. Suddenly her Angel Godmother appears, but she almost blows the whole fairy tale before the Godfather rushes to the rescue on his Zucchini 500. (There’s a shortage of pumpkins!) Prince Eugene dreams of finding an honest girl, but his eccentric fans make a nightmare of his party. His only hope is the sweet young woman who isn’t afraid to state her own thoughts....

56 pages

3 m, 2 w (playing three roles)

Why would Hollywood soap opera star Ava Eveready check into a decrepit inn like Henry Cabot's lodge on a stormy night when the phone lines are down and the only road to town will soon wash out? Because her calculating husband Robert planned it that way so he could poison her. Also along for the ride are Ava's secretary with whom Robert is involved, and Ava's identical twin sister, Eva. But everything about Robert's well-rehearsed plan goes wrong. And bumbling Sheriff J. T. Malden, Cabot's good buddy, is right there to confuse the plot even more when he falls ...

71 pages

Flexible cast from 10 to 40

If drama has always taken a back seat to athletics at your school, it's time to bring all those sports nuts into your theatre. From baseball to football to tennis to chess and beyond, you'll find scenes about every aspect of sports -and life - the good, the bad, the ugly, and the funny! Pick and choose from 18 scenes to create a show that's just right for your team. You'll laugh at scenes like "Competition," "Coaching School," and the hysterical new game show, "Face Off." You'll be taken by scenes as "Teamwork," "Finding Time," and the offbeat "Adult Games," ...

62 pages

5 m, 5 w, 3 flexible parts, and extras

Would you like to hear the legend of Robin Hood? If your answer is "I Sherwood," then hitch up your gauntlets and get ready to laugh. You see, it's a little-known fact that the famous English bandit was a bit of a klutz. As a kid he practiced with a bow and violin instead of a bow and arrow, so naturally to fight the king's injustices he needed his famous band of women. Women? That's what you get when you send Little John to do the recruiting! But just as the ladies are persuaded that after they steal from the rich they have to give the goodies to the poor, R...

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...

51 pages

2 m, 2 w, 10 either (expandable to 20)

Magic, mayhem, and madness unfold in this classic story of love, revenge, and forgiveness. Based on The Tempest by William Shakespeare, Bitterroot is a modern adaptation set in the American West. Prospero and his daughter Miranda have been stranded in the Montana wilderness for twelve years. When fate brings Prospero’s evil brother to Montana, Prospero must decide whether to exact his revenge or forgive his enemies. But can Prospero accept that his daughter wants to marry the son of an enemy? And can he forgive himself for th...

59 pages

8 m, 14 w

When Max Holsten sets out for work leaving behind his briefcase and an unfinished breakfast, his quaint 1950s family is besieged by a series of misunderstandings that fester into conspiracy theories and suspicions. The extended family Max and his newlywed wife, April, have been living with are no comfort. April’s sister June has an obsession with pulp-fiction intrigue and leads April to assume the worst about Max. Making matters murkier, Grandma May, the aged and easily confused matriarch of the family, misstates all the facts. Max’s seemingly simple oversigh...

88 pages

Widely flexible cast of 45 characters. (3 m, 6 w, 36 flexible)

Andy would do anything for his sister. Perhaps even end the world. This post-apocalyptic dark comedy of wishes gone wrong takes the audience on a wonderfully bizarre, humorous, frightening, and surprisingly heartfelt journey.  Along the way there are British zombies, a mind-reader, a trickster who only wants a good story, hip vampires, a hero who both slays and saves, and multitudes of other oddities. 

But at its heart, the play is about family, f...

58 pages

11 m, 23 w, doubling possible

High school student Chloe seems to have everything together. She is a soccer player, a dancer, and a top student. But under the surface, the pressure is mounting. Her mom and brother need help at home, the school projects pile up, and even her friends pressure her to start dating. She doesn’t want to disappoint anybody, but in her effort to please everyone, her world begins spinning out of control. As the various responsibilities build up around her, she creates and deploys multiple versions of herself – the Chorus – in an effort to be "everything to everybod...

50 pages

6 m, 3 w

Hard times have come on Gumption Gulch and Grandma Gertie Parker is forced to open a clothes-washing service to earn extra money. Even Sheriff Gideon Gumption is “moonlighting” (though the term has him totally baffled) at the stagecoach office and a local lunch spot. Grandma Gertie’s old nemesis has sent her two boys, Luther and Ulysses Bragg, to town to put Gertie’s laundry service out of business as payback for an old feud. Add in a possum-farming brother and sister couple (Elrod has a serious case of “the anxieties”), a blacksmith who dreams of being a com...

64 pages

8 m, 4 w, 4 flexible, doubling possible

Far from being a demure woman quietly sewing a flag, the epic life of Betsy Ross and her survival during the Revolutionary War and the British occupation of Philadelphia is brought vibrantly to life in this full-length play. It is a romantic story of heroism against the background of a great, world-shattering war for independence. The story is told through the eyes of John Claypoole, boyhood friend of Betsy's, in love with her from the start, who is also a soldier in Washington's army. Wounded at Germantown, John became a sailor and ended the war in the Briti...

54 pages

5 m, 7 w, optional extras

It is Petrea’s birthday slumber party, but she doesn’t feel like celebrating because she will soon be going away to boarding school. Her girlfriends play a hypnosis game to make her feel better, but are then shocked to find that Petrea really believes she is Peter Pan! When a group of boys arrive to crash the party, everyone becomes involved in a charade of Neverland characters, gender-bending their way through a scene with boys pretending to be mermaids and fairies and girls acting as pirates and the “lost boys.” Only a clever boy, disguised as Wendy, can sn...

67 pages

5 m, 11 w, 7 flex, 4 kids. Doubling is possible.

When Cassidy Tyler heads back to her hometown of Farmland, Indiana, she is determined to tell the truth about the boyfriend she has been writing about in her blog and magazine column. But before she can confess to her family, her editor arranges for a suspended sports writer, Jason, to play the part of this fictional boyfriend. She is determined to throw him out, but her family loves him, her old boyfriend hates him, and she finds herself more attracted to him than she wants to admit. But at her sister’s graduation party, the fake romance is exposed in front ...

67 pages

5 m, 10 w, and 5 - 10 flexible

Connor's summer is off to a rough start: the camp bus almost crashes, his cabin mates don't trust him, and the girls on the other side of the camp constantly outsmart him. But when he and his friends Tasha, Parker, and Kimberly investigate the mystery surrounding the "Ghost of Dead Billy," they begin a hilarious adventure that is worlds away from a typical campfire story. This haunted camp comedy with a sci-fi twist has it all: ghosts, aliens, robots, plant zombies and, of course, dodgeball.

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...

31 pages

From 5 - 13 actors.

Speed dating is a great way for singles to meet other people. Each "date" only lasts a few minutes, and if it doesn't work out, you can hope the next one will be better. For Cindy, those minutes feel like an eternity as she is subjected to a seemingly endless parade of jerks and losers. First there’s Marcus, whose questions seem more like an interrogation; then Trevor, whose career motivation extends only to getting the next new video game. Third is Scissor, an artistic man with an inflated sense of ego, followed by Ernest, a socially awkward guy who thinks s...

67 pages

Widely flexible cast (5 -14 m, 9 - 31 w)

Horror movies can be lots of fun! Join producer C.C. Bellows as he meets five directors whose movie pitches come alive onstage. Of course, C.C. knows that audiences only really like what they’ve seen before, so each of the directors has tweaked a famous horror film. “The Calamityville Horror” tells the story of a family who move into a house that’s haunted by circus animals. In “Saturday the 14th,” a group of college kids hope to find the famous ghost, Jacob Voorbees, a hockey player who fell through thin ice. In “The Extortionist,” a young girl is possessed ...

68 pages

7 m, 5 w, and 7 flexible

Deep in the heart of West Virginia, there’s a little hillbilly town called Gizzard, and in that town you’ll find Leroy’s Clip n’ Dip… the world’s first beauty parlor/auto garage. Now, folks in Gizzard aren’t exactly beating the Clip n’ Dip’s door down, so to pass the time, Otis Hooper and his mechanic buddies Crisco, Clyde and Floyd, have started a band called Truck Stop Chili. Clementine (Otis’s sweetheart.) and her beauty parlor pals, Mazola, Darlene and Helga the masseuse, all grit their teeth, cover their ears and tolerate the racket, until the day Hollyw...

61 pages

3 m, 9 w

Tycoon Willard Witherspoon has been looking for his great-niece Earnestine since she was lost with her parents in the Amazon eighteen years earlier. Though her parents died, Willard has good reason to believe that Earnestine survived. With the help of his secretary Dudley and his housekeeper Beulah, Willard launches a search for his Earnestine so he can leave his fortune to her when he dies. After a media announcement, Earnestines appear from every corner of the country, but Willard finally settles on four to invite to his mansion for the weekend. Earnestine ...

76 pages

11 m, 22 w, 2 flexible. (Minimum cast 2 m, 5 w, 2 flexible.)

A King, grieving over the death of his son, demands that a weaver create a tapestry that will provide comfort. The woman weaves six tales into her tapestry. The first tells the story of young woman who must learn about herself. The second concerns two farmers who have a chance at a tremendous fortune, but it may cost them everything. Other tales teach more lessons. Finally the Woman weaves the story of Tatiana, a mother who loses her daughter and almost succumbs to her own grief. Upon completion of the tapestry, the King must decide whether he has found conso...

71 pages

6 m, 13 w

When the owner of a small local television station decides to jump on the bandwagon and produce his own reality show, sparks fly about the million-dollar prize. Harold Fastbuck sees an opportunity to make millions with the TV show, which casts the haughty Tuttletons of Park Avenue, New York, with the down-home Hatter family of Hog Holler, Kentucky. The families think they only have to live together in the Hatter cabin for a month, but unbeknownst to them, they must also endure a series of challenges. Being the lying cheater that he is, Fastbuck intends to mak...

47 pages

4 m, 5 w, 4 flexible

Flint Buckshot is away at a sheriffs convention, so his daughter, Shania, is the deputy in charge - even though she never did get a horse, badge, or a gun to make it official-like! When two desperados, Saddleback Bertha and Sleazebag Barney, roll into town, they realize they've found easy pickings. Telegrams soon arrive reporting that Flint's been badly hurt. Smelling an opportunity, Bertha points out that since Shania is a novice, Barney should be the sheriff because he has considerable experience with law enforcement (although on the wrong side of the law!)...

35 pages

2 w

Tina has fallen hard for Greg, an upperclassman, but her best friend, Margie, is worried about the relationship with its subtle and not so subtle bullying. Greg meets Tina after every class, gets her to quit the soccer team because it takes too much time away from him, and basically manipulates her to do exactly what he wants to do. Soon his controlling personality leads to violence, and Tina's family gets a restraining order against him. But he's determined to see Tina one more time. With Margie as our narrator, we see how a girl's youthful dream of love can...

55 pages

15 m, 25 w, 2 flexible, doubling

Loosely based on Dickens' "Oliver Twist." It's 1955 and young Oliver is taken from a dismal orphanage by the oppressive MacDonald family. Oliver dreams of having a family like the one on the TV series, "We Love the Brewsters," and runs away to Hollywood hoping to join them. Instead, he meets up with Nancy, a waitress at Tinseltown Malt Shop, and Bill Sikes and his band of pickpockets. Oliver has the good fortune to try to pick the pocket of the producer of the Brewster show, and Oliver actually lands a spot in the perfect television family. But just when life...

63 pages

5 m, 10 w, 15 flexible, 1 optional

Welcome to Delight, Italy! The once happy village is now a sad town ruled by the not-so-very-nice Signora Notsobene Pantalone. The townspeople are frightened of her, while her spirited daughter, Piccola, feels smothered by her mother's rules. Then a ragtag troupe of traveling actors turns everything upside down. Led by a woman who looks surprisingly like the signora, and with other characters assuming disguises, there's lots of comedic confusion. And it might just lead the citizens of Delight back to their heritage of fun. Winner of the Columbia Entertainment...

65 pages

8 m, 17 w, doubling possible

Ah, the glories of Camelot! Knights in armor, damsels in distress, and...girls on motorcycles!? King Arthur has been forced to retreat through a portal to the future created by Merlin when Camelot was captured by the forces of evil. Arthur and the ladies-in-waiting must remain in this century until he can enlist a new band of knights to retake his rightful throne. Unfortunately, the pickings are quite slim. His knights-in-training consist of three college guys who practice horsemanship on a riding lawn mower and fencing with sticks and trash can lids. Just wh...

65 pages

Widely flexible cast from 12 to 50

Here's an energetic, engaging look at how theatre developed, from the first actor to speak aloud to the idea of using scenery. The play then segues into a variety of scenes from the great plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes. The easy-to-present scenes show how ancient Greek plays, both tragic and comedic, became classics because they were insightful and entertaining. Features a special music and sound effects CD (#8128T) to immerse your audience into the theatre of 2,000 years ago, available when you order your cast set. "The script is w...

78 pages

14 m, 16 w, 10 flexible, much doubling possible

Adapted from the novel by Charles Dickens.  One of Dickens' most unforgettable stories is now achievable for the high school stage. Lucy Manette, half-English, half-French, rescues her father after he has spent years in prison in France. They want to live simply and quietly in England, but the long, bloody hand of the French Revolution reaches out to them, thrusting them into ever-increasing danger. The story's essence - love, loyalty, friendship, patriotism, and the human spirit - from the mindless, mob-driven depths to the highest, most noble peak of Sydney...