School

48 pages

14 speaking roles, extras

Here's Romeo and Juliet, along with Hamlet and Ophelia, updated as today's high school campus personalities! Written in couplets, the ferocious rhymes create much of the humor. With its nice mix of characters, the high school faculty will even want to join in the performances. The script also includes many opportunities to insert local information and take jabs at rival schools, making your performance unique to your school and magnifying the fun. Split stage and pantomime scenes help keep the play moving, and there's room for creative staging and slapstick. ...

33 pages

1 m, 2 w

This play deals with the heartache and the trauma of being old, being alone in the world and forgotten. Mrs. Delmonico, a former actress, lives in a tenement building in New York. She exists mostly in her imagination and takes her torment out on her neighbor, Mrs. Quinn. They are unable to get along in any way until this Christmas Eve when Mr. Gartch, one of the roomers whom they have never met, happens upon the scene. He becomes their catalyst - motivating them to look at things differently. Because of his being so positive and hopeful, and because he is ano...

56 pages

Flexible cast: 9-30 actors.

Gather ‘round, friends. Here are four Appalachian folktales your audiences will love … and your actors will love performing, too! Our favorite folk hero, Jack, appears in all four stories: “Jack’s Mother’s Second Marriage,” “Jack and the Mean Old Man,” “Foolish Jack,” and “Soldier Jack.” All four tales are fast paced and humorous, and still hold true to the oral traditions of the Blue Ridge Mountains. In fact, playwright R. Rex Stephenson gathered some of the material from the archives of the WPA Virginia Writer’s Project and some tales from interviews with l...

29 pages

4 m, 4 w (all teen roles)

It’s Steph’s high school graduation party. Her friends are all around, her family will be back shortly, and she is supposed to be adding the final touches to the house. But this “commencement” is anything but easy or simple. She and her boyfriend Brandon have news that will devastate her father, has already caused an upheaval with her mother and sister, and will no doubt upset her best friend Gina’s careful plans. Everyone has an opinion about what Steph should do, but naturally everyone tells her it’s “her decision.” As the news filters through her network o...

15 pages

2 m, 2 w, 2 flexible, 3 narrators

In ancient Thebes, Antigone determines to give a sacred burial to her brother, Polynices, who had died on the battlefield. But her uncle Creon, the tyrant king, forbids her to do so under pain of death, because, he says, Polynices is a traitor. Antigone gives up her family, her fiancé and even her own life to do what she believes is right.

39 pages

Approx. 10 m, 10 w, much doubling possible

Frankie meets his end in an act of wanton cowardice. This offense isn't bad enough to send him to the basement, but he isn't good enough for the attic. He is assigned to Angie the Angel in the "Situation Re-Modification Department." He is given three chances to try to correct something in history that didn't go the way it was supposed to go. He messes up all three chances, but is offered a fourth chance by Herman, Angie's boss. With this one, the toughest of them all, he succeeds.

52 pages

Flexible casting

Adapted from tales by Catherine Wells, Guy de Maupassant, and W.W. Jacobs. Three terrifying tales are set on or around Halloween in a New York brownstone. In "The Actor," (2 m, 3 w, 1 flexible), a young girl, who lives with her eccentric parents in a house rumored to be haunted, asks a famous actor to frighten her by portraying the house ghost at a Halloween party. She gets a lot more than she bargained for when she is truly frightened out of her wits. In "The Hand," (3 m, 3 w, 4 non-speaking), an arrogant hunter has his prized trophy mounted on the wall of h...

38 pages

2 m, 4 w, 2 flex and optional extras

Every day, we make a thousand choices that might not seem important at the time, but who knows which one has the potential to change the course of our entire life? Three high school friends, Summer, Victoria and Ariel, are simply choosing a place to eat that night, but where they end up might set their futures on very different paths. Explore four possible scenarios springing from the same mundane decision in this comedy/drama about friendship, destiny, and the surprises life has to offer.

20 pages

3 m, 2 w, 2 flexible

An ideal version for introducing younger audiences to one of Shakespeare's best-known comedies. A narrator helps keep the action going and explains some lesser known words. The story, of course, is this: Petruchio, who wants a rich wife, marries Katharina, "the shrew." Then he has to tame her. And that he does by spirit, good-nature, and wit. The holy terror is subdued but perhaps Katharina saw in Petruchio what she liked in a man and allowed herself to be tamed. This is a loud and energetic romp from beginning to end. Can be presented with a detailed or simp...

73 pages

Widely flexible cast from 28 to 41

The classic and timeless tale of Shakespeare's two star-crossed lovers takes on new life in this clear and concise adaptation. Audiences will understand and love this show with its lack of archaic phases or dated references. Reduced to two acts, this version makes our greatest play more accessible for modern audiences. Actors new to Shakespeare will appreciate the added stage directions as well. This is a Romeo and Juliet for today. Running time is between 90 minutes and 120 minutes, depending on further optional cuts clearly explained in the script.

21 pages

1 m, 5 w

Are you overdosed on teen problems, dramas about eating disorders, drunk-driving, suicide, etc.? Then this darkly humorous one-act is the antidote. Violet is in the nurse's office after having fainted that morning. One by one her friends visit her and one by one she takes advantage of them by confessing to all the ills teens are supposed to have. With a story of illiteracy, she gets the bright but mousy Moxie to do her homework. A tale of bulimia gets tomboyish Caryn to give up her car keys. A fable of drunk driving gets the uptight Kelly to bring Violet her ...

64 pages

Company of between 18 - 35 actors

Here is a combination of three of Mark Twain's books blended into one story that continues Huck and Tom's great adventures. Huck and Tom are called to Arkansas because something mysterious is happening to Uncle Silas. As only Huck and Tom can, they set about solving the mystery that involves twin brothers, the maniacal Widow Dunlap and her nere-do-well son. This story is as poignant and humorous as Huck Finn, but without any of the racial overtones that in some areas has made Twain a controversial author. About 90 minutes.