School
Sorry, Shakespeare!
Comedy by Michael Willis
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...
Southern Surrender
Melodrama by Joan Sween
48 pages
3 m, 6 w
Aurelia Archibald, a Southern widow, and her four daughters are all that remain on Archibald Plantation when it is taken over by Union forces. Expecting Northerners to be heartless brutes, they are confounded when the Yankees treat them courteously. The villain of the piece – actually a villainess – is the beautiful but treacherous Gardenia Galsworthy. She is determined to save her plantation from destruction by revealing to the Yankees where the Archibalds have hidden their jewels. Little does she realize they are also hiding Beauregard Burnside, a Confedera...
Special Agent Goldilocks
Comedy by Bobby Keniston
41 pages
3 m, 2 w, 2 flex
Attention, new recruits! Fairytale City is in trouble because of a wolf named Big Bad, who wants to get his hands on a magic porridge that will make him invincible! Billings, a master of disguise who runs the Special Agent Unit, needs your help! Meanwhile, Mama Bear, the Porridge Maker, and Papa Bear, the Porridge Keeper, are having a hard time getting Baby Bear, a bratty toddler, to eat the porridge and become the Porridge Heir, which would keep Fairytale City safe. While Big Bad plots to steal the porridge from the Three Bears, Billings calls in his secret ...
Mother Nature's Revenge
Comedy by Robert Frankel
35 pages
Flexible cast of about 15. Doubling possible, extras if desired.
Mark Polluter is an environmental disaster, and Mother Nature's overseer, a former school teacher, plans a little revenge. With a smile on her face, she turns him into a tree, then a fish, and finally a bird. In each transformation, Mark is visited by a few of the species, like Sally Starfish, an actress, and St. Louee Cardinal, a baseball-playing bird. As one of them, Mark learns firsthand the nasty effects of his human carelessness. Easy, fun costuming and lots of comedy makes this topical play perfect for touring.
The Forest of the Dead
Horror by L. Don Swartz
75 pages
6 m, 8 w
A cold-blooded killer stalks the dark woods surrounding Chestnut Hollow. As the body count rises, three families drawn into the Sheriff's investigation refuse to accept the possibility that the murderer is one of their own. A group of young friends, abandoned by the rational-thinking adults, are left alone to confront Chestnut Hollow's most sinister secret. "The Forest of the Dead" tells its suspenseful tale with Hitchcockian touches and a dash of dark humor. Unit set.
Life on the Mississippi
Classic by R Rex Stephenson
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.
Ghost Detective
Mystery by Billy St. John
73 pages
6 m, 9 w
An international film star is found drowned in the swimming pool at his remote island estate and his houseguests make excellent suspects. But fog prevents the police from getting to the island to investigate the murder so Jeff Burke, a young private investigator serving as a consultant on the star's latest film, takes over. But before Jeff gets very far he is shot and killed. As a spirit he is physically helpless, but he can communicate with one person, his girlfriend Jennifer, also a guest. Normally a sensitive, quiet woman, Jennifer deliberately sets hersel...
Going for Broke
Farce by Michal Jacot
76 pages
7 m, 6 w, 3 flexible, doubling possible
After being part of the richest family in Boston, the adult Webb kids try to adjust to sudden poverty when crazy brother Elwood is given total control of the fortune. But they just don't know how to be poor. They try everything from renting rooms in the mansion to taking a job as a clown for children's parties. Their luck changes with the reappearance of their mother, whom they thought dead; their cranky butler, Fenwick; and the surprise introduction of Fenwick, Jr. Junior is a boorish, obnoxious lout, but is also now the sole heir to the Webb fortune. The ex...
Good Trouble
Drama by Dolores Klinsky Walker
25 pages
9 m, 7 w, extras
Get a glimpse of the Civil Rights Movement in 1965 in Selma, Alabama, through the eyes of young Sandra. This play reveals the realities of segregation that prompted ordinary people to risk their security and sometimes their lives in pursuit of justice. Despite her father's disapproval and her mother's reluctance, Sandra skips school to attend Movement rallies, marches with adults to seek voting rights, and participates in "Bloody Sunday," the infamous failed march from Selma to Montgomery. A realistic but upbeat drama that can be a life-changing experience fo...
Half Frozen
Comedy by Craig Sodaro
48 pages
3 m, 7 w, 2 flex
Poor King Augustus and Queen Regina! Their kingdom is half frozen because of a curse placed on their daughter, Princess Mirabelle, and nobody seems to know how to break the spell. When the Princess’s latest suitor, Prince Tomaso from a neighboring kingdom, is frozen by her touch, matters are no long inconvenient—they’re downright dangerous. Tomaso’s father threatens war if his son is not returned safely. As a last resort, the Queen texts a writer who gives advice in her “Leave It to Lilith” daily column. Lilith says the easiest way to break the curse is to go...
Hand
Drama by Burton Bumgarner
21 pages
3 m, 3 w, 4 extras
Adapted from the tale by Guy de MaupassantAn arrogant hunter shocks his dinner guests by showing them his prized trophy, a human hand chained to a board and mounted on the wall of his library. The next morning the hunter's mother demands he make amends to the guests and remove the hand. But the police have now heard about it and plan to check it out. The hunter wants to hide the hand but admits to his maid he feels safer keeping it in sight. The hand is the only thing he fears because the person it used to belong wants it back. That night the hunter finds the...
Opening Night
Farce by Delanie Kay Tucker
76 pages
5 m, 4 w, 5 flexible
Kathy, the stage manager, has the play’s first line: “I hate opening nights!” From that point on we see everything that could go wrong in the course of a performance happen to a group of dedicated high school actors and techies. Mistakes, miscues, dropped lines, forgotten entrances, missing props, and a tricky light board you name it, it happens in this frenetic play. As we watch chaos reign in the tech booth and with the actors backstage, we also see what calamities occur onstage in the “play within the play.” It all makes for non-stop hilarity as the proces...
Paper Umbrellas
Comedy by Kandie St.Germain-Kelley
35 pages
7 m, 9 w
Members of the Dream Big Society are meeting in Hawaii's Paradise Hotel for the fourth annual convention, where they can find motivation to achieve their personal dreams, no matter how impossible they may seem. And wild dreams they are: Yvonne wants to be the Queen of England, CJ wants to be a samurai, Dora wants to train dolphins even though she can't swim, and Cory wants to be a rock star, though he can't sing a note or even play the air guitar. Clare, whose only dream is to have a happy family, discovers and is befriended by the society after being jilted ...
Princess and the Pauper
Comedy by Burton Bumgarner
73 pages
14 m, 7 w, 9 flexible, doubling possible
Based on the story by Mark Twain. A young girl visits the White House on a school tour and is mistaken by the Secret Service for the mischievous daughter of the President. She is escorted to the family quarters, where she inadvertently meets the real First Daughter who resents the loss of her freedom notoriety has imposed. On a lark, the girls decide to change places for twenty-four hours: the President's daughter goes to a housing project, and the student remains to spend a night in the world's most famous residence. Unfortunately, the President's daughter i...
Princess and the Pea
Classic by Vern Adix
51 pages
6 m, 6 w, 1 flexible
This beloved tale from Hans Christian Andersen gets an original spin when set in the kingdom of Pilsenferfer! The King and Queen think it’s high time their son Prince Albert found a bride and settled down. But shy Albert can’t stop collecting butterflies for his conservatory long enough to find and woo a royal maiden. And really, who needs to go to all that trouble when the lovely Anne, one of the Queen’s maids, shares his passion for butterflies AND sews the buttons on his coat. If only she were from royal linage like the other candidates, including the food...