31 pages
2 m, 4 w
“So Rude!” is a modern adaptation of the Rude Mechanicals scenes from Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Erin is the leader of her high school drama club, and her senior project is to mount a production of “Pyramus and Thysby.” Everything that can go wrong does, from missing actors, flubbed lines, and malfunctioning costumes and props. By the time the curtain goes up, it could be a triumph or a tragedy. Or both!
46 pages
4 m, 8 w, 2 flexible, extras
Stan is a social pariah. He is beaten up at the school bus stop, never chosen for any team, and ignored every day at lunch. Then Chloe enrolls at the school. Being called names? No problem. She has flippant retorts and happily collects the offensive epithets in a notebook. Someone in her face? Her dad taught her how to physically twist a bully’s arm. Amid her tough, cool exterior, however, she also has compassion. Stan and Chloe become allies and gradually fall in love, and as is often the case with first loves, they feel as if everything good in their world ...
28 pages
Minimum 2 m, 2 w, 2 offscreen voices. Maximum 10 m, 10 w, 2 offscreen voices.
Join this hilarious family as they struggle to endure being stuck at home – together! Why is the WiFi out, and will their old-school solutions work when all the needed cords are missing from the junk drawer? Will the family secure two-ply rolls of toilet paper in trade negotiations with Grandma? Wait… what has each of them been using? How many family game nights can teens endure? What foods (or beverages!) are critical enough to make a special run to the grocery store? And really, who is strong enough to endure more than one Dad joke?
25 pages
2 m, 3 w, 1 flexible
Remy's scene partner refuses to perform and Remy’s grade is on the line. Her backup plan is to have her sister do a scene with her but when her sister runs late the night of the performance, Remy is forced to improvise. She is able to convince one of her friends in the audience to get on stage and act with her. The scene work goes sideways as several additional members of the audience end up on stage... all in the name of trying to get Remy a good grade! About 25-30 minutes.
36 pages
6 m, 11 w, extras
Adapted from his full-length play, “Shoestring Theatre.” Sanders, the director of a small community theatre production, is very upset. The budget that is to fund his season opener is being cut by eighty percent. This play is to be an epic retelling of the timeless classic “Cinderella,” but how is he expected to pull off such a spectacle with practically no money? Then Sanders learns that Mrs. Brakes, the owner of the theatre, has embezzled the “Cinderella” money to fund a vacation for herself on the Caribbean. He decides to take matters into his own hands. “I...
28 pages
4 m, 3 w, 1 flexible
The Poor famly is struggling to keep the ROCK (Railroad of Central Kansas) on track and a large job to ship cattle back East will help. But the evil banker, Vil Lain, holds the mortgage on the railroad and he and his sidekick scheme to foreclose on the ROCK. Lain tries to entice Terri Blee Poor, the heroine and by coincidence, a train whistle virtuoso, to become his wife to save her family's railroad, but Terri Blee loves a brakeman on the ROCK, Earnest Lee. When she refuses Lain's advances, she is tied to the tracks. Will Earnest be able to pick up the cattl...
20 pages
2 m, 2 w
Four high school students report to the school auditorium for play rehearsal only to find out the director is not coming. To add to the confusion, one of the cast members has dropped three rehearsal scripts, of which all the pages are unbound and unnumbered. The pages fly everywhere. No problem! - unless the scripts are "Macbeth," "The Taming of the Shrew," and "A Midsummer Night's Dream." As one of the students quips, "We don't know anything about Shakespeare, but it all sounds the same anyway, so grab some pages." The mayhem that results will have you wonde...
29 pages
4 m, 2 w
Kyle, William, Natalie, and Richard are not likely friends. With such different backgrounds, they never would have met outside of the subway station. But when their train becomes stalled unexpectedly, they have no choice but to turn to one another. Personalities clash and tensions rise. In the midst of crisis, with nothing but time, these four strangers reflect on their problems and insecurities, defining who they are now. Slowly, they begin to realize how much they really share. Despite initial difficulties, they bond and come out stronger on the other side ...
52 pages
7 m, 2 w
The Robinson family is on a journey overseas to begin a new life. After a harrowing storm, their tall-masted ship sinks, and they are shipwrecked on a deserted island. Mother and Father and their three children, Fritz, Ernest and Franz, are now forced to truly begin a new life: a struggle for survival. Salvaging what they can, the innovative family constructs a tree house in which to live. They embark on daily scavenging treks to recover what food, weapons, and other supplies have washed ashore the uninhabited island...or is it? Soon, strange things begin to ...
73 pages
4 m, 6 w, 5 flexible, doubling possible
The Potter family has a chance to hit the big time. Their local radio show has become the latest rage. Two network executives and a national sponsor are coming to town for a dinner meeting to put together the "million-dollar contract." But when the executives show up, confusion reigns! Identities have been switched, actors brought in to play members of the household, and uninvited guests arrive. The national execs demand to view a performance of the radio show before any contracts are signed. What results is a chaotic disaster that is broadcast live, complete...
24 pages
Flexible casting
The effects of drunk driving are brought home in these two very short one-acts combined under one title. In "Only Seventeen" (3 m, 4 w, 2 flexible), Corey Martin is dead from drinking and driving. At his funeral he desperately calls out to his family and friends,"I can't be dead. I'm only 17!" but no one hears him. A fellow student delivers a eulogy full of irony as Corey's friends and family think aloud about the senselessness of his death. In "The Waiting Room" (3 m, 6 w, 4 flexible), young people find themselves in a dark room, unsure of where they are or ...
56 pages
23 or more
The immortal tale of the star-crossed lovers finally comes to the stage in a manageable adaptation. All of the romance, action, suspense, comedy, drama and beautiful imagery is here, condensed without affecting the enjoyment of the Bard's original masterpiece. An exciting and beautiful adaptation, this version is a wonderful resource for all high school and college drama departments, as well as community theatre productions. The condensed text is easy for even the novice actor or audience member to understand, features very simple settings and still thunders ...
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 ...
40 pages
3 m, 5 w, 3 flexible (Some male roles have been adapted to female roles.)
On an enchanted island, a powerful man named Prospero uses his magic to create a tempest to shipwreck his enemies on his shores. Once they are on land, Prospero leads the castaways about with the help of his fairy servant, Ariel, who has long been promised her freedom. The conspiring nobles who once usurped Prospero’s dukedom are haunted by Ariel, and their plot to murder one of their own is thwarted. Meanwhile, one of the castaways, a kind prince, falls in love with Prospero’s daughter. Prospero’s monstrous servant, Caliban, meets up with the ship’s captain ...
74 pages
8 m, 8 w, 2 flexible
All the fun and nostalgia of the '50s make this play a winner! Judy Harding's life as a 16-year-old isn't too sweet right now. Her dad can't find the money to fix up the family's soda shop; her older brother is flunking out of school; and her younger brother has retreated into a fantasy world of comic book superheroes since their mom died. To add to the dilemma, Judy has a major crush on a new student who's a mysterious loner. Enter Angela, a bumbling angel-in-training who must earn her halo by helping the Hardings. But when the shop is hit first by a fire an...