School

23 pages

2 m, 7 w, doubling possible

Adapted Renee Rebman from the story by Edith Wharton. A period piece set in the 1920s, this play provides an opportunity for two old friends, Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade, to sit in an outdoor cafe in Rome and reminisce about the past. Now both widowed, the women begin to examine their strangely intertwined lives. A dramatic and emotional confrontation reveals a startling secret that is explored through well-staged flashbacks. A twist of fate long buried in the past leads to a surprising ending that will leave their friendship marked and the women changed forev...

34 pages

2 m, 2 w, 4 flexible

The House of Frankenstein is in turmoil. Victor Frankenstein, engaged to a woman he deeply loves, has fallen into a fit of despair. The cause of Victor’s behavior is, in fact, a Creature he brought to life. Contrary to what Victor intended, however, his Creature is hideous to look upon. So much so, that the Creature has covered his face so he won’t have to see his own reflection. Desperate, the forlorn Creature strikes a bargain with Victor: If the young scientist will create a suitable bride for him, the Creature will retire with her to the cold and distant ...

80 pages

3 m, 4 w, 1 flexible, 2 boys, 1 girl

This version breathes new life into the supreme classic by Henrik Ibsen. Of course no one can improve Ibsen's original story of Nora Helmer, living an unexamined life of domestic comfort but being ruled by her husband, Torvald. The foundation of everything she has believed in is put to the test when she is unable to pay back a loan she made in secret to save her husband’s life. She has to contrive ways to pay back the money, for if a solicitor reveals her secrets, the household will be torn apart. Rather than stiff and stodgy dialogue from other translations ...

68 pages

6 m, 5 w

WHAM! The Masked Wonder leaps into the room and fights off four or five henchmen without even wrinkling his cape and then...? Then the Hollywood writers of the Majestic Film Studios have to figure out what he does next. Pop, Tiger Lil, Stu, Howard and Dena are stuck until they meet the latest addition to their writer's stable. "Like any of us are writers," says Howard, "or stable." As the new kid on the team, Freddie has a lot to prove, mostly to his overbearing mother. Does he give up and leave with Mom? No chance! Especially not with Dena around! These two ...

57 pages

Flexible cast of 15, extras, doubling

Adapted from the novel by Mark Twain. Sir Boss, a computer wiz, is transported back in time to the age of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. After proving his "magic" is more powerful than Merlin's, Sir Boss begins to modernize Camelot. The new TV station has Morgan La Faye as chief newscaster and Merlin as the "predictor" of the weather; the Knights of the Round Table form a basketball team, the Camelot Pacers; and everyone is getting e-mail. All goes well until King Arthur and Sir Boss travel through Camelot, disguised as peasants, so the King ...

54 pages

3 m, 5 w, 1 flexible

Janet has come up with the excuse of a party to relieve the tensions between their two trigonometry study groups. During the party the kids play a murder game, pretending that their trigonometry teacher is the victim. The students become edgy because of the parallels between their characters and themselves. All calm is shattered when word comes that their trigonometry teacher actually has been murdered! Everyone has a theory about who killed the teacher. Amidst the finger pointing and scrambling for alibis, "evidence" shows up in bookbags, and friends become ...

68 pages

6 m, 18 w, doubling possible

Adapted from the book by Eleanor Porter. It's the early 1900s and young, frightened Pollyanna Whittier arrives in Vermont, full of hope that her new life with Aunt Polly will help ease the pain of her parents' deaths. But Polly Harrington has only taken her niece out of a sense of duty and quickly regrets it. The girl immediately begins making friends with the very people Polly Harrington has worked hard to either ignore or run out of town. Pollyanna seems to find joy in everything and gradually brings the town to life. But when Aunt Polly finds her niece hel...

36 pages

With doubling: 2 m, 4 w.

Before putting "Through the Looking Glass" down on paper in 1860s, Lewis Carroll told a colleague’s young daughter, Alice Liddell (the real Alice in the books), the story of talking chess pieces. The novel, of course, was a sequel to his earlier one, "Alice in Wonderland." This play is set in the early 1920s as a now elderly Alice Liddell reflects on the telling of the story. Faithful to Carroll’s expression of childhood fears of growing up, this adaptation keeps the Victorian charm and merriment by maintaining Carroll’s scenes intact. The audience is transpo...

77 pages

8 m, 6 w, 1 flexible, optional extra women

Not entirely happy with the way "Romeo & Juliet" ended, Prince Escalus decides that everything would’ve been better had the two famous lovers lived and the ending of Shakespeare’s classic is rewritten. With Romeo and Juliet alive and their fathers agreeing to end their vicious feud, it appears that we finally have a happy ending. Preparations are made for the couple to renew their vows in front of both families to cement the new peace. Will they live happily ever after, or will the fickleness of being a teenager – coupled with Romeo’s knack for getting th...

76 pages

5 m, 8 w

Who killed Osgood Buckely-Lodge? His widow admits her actions killed her husband. But she says it was a trap and anyone who had stepped into the room that night would have been the murderer. Is she telling the truth or setting yet another clever trap? Perhaps the murderer is Osgood's eccentric sister, Olga, or the spoiled, lazy children, Simon and Jasmin. Then there's still the eerie butler and his sarcastic wife. To add more confusion, not one but two mysterious strangers in trench coats appear at the mansion during a thunderstorm. To catch the murderer amon...

54 pages

4 m, 3 w

Hailed by George Orwell as “the wittiest play” G.B. Shaw ever wrote, Arms and the Man is a true classic in the history of theater, blending social commentary, romantic comedy, fun and lively characters, and crackling dialogue that leaps off the page! We are in the 1880s, and Raina Petkoff is a young Bulgarian woman, worried about the war her father and fiancé are currently fighting. No sooner is she warned that enemy soldiers may be nearby, than Captain Bluntschli, a war-weary enemy, breaks in and holds her hostage. To their surprise, and the audienc...

28 pages

(13 - 24 total. 2 m; 5 w; 6 - 17 flexible with doubling.)

Courtney Hanson, high school junior and avid protester, claims that her high school has turned athletics into a religion, violating the separation of church and state. After numerous meetings with the hapless school principal Courtney and her mother have decided to sue the school district. The characters interact in a series of scenes at the school, at a sports fundraiser, and at a PTO meeting. Some say Courtney has finally gone around the bend, while others say it’s high time someone stood up for academics and the arts....