School

58 pages

3 m, 6 w, 3 flexible parts

The Culpeppers open the doors to the Last Chance Inn once again in this hilarious sequel to "Last Chance Inn, Calamity Gulch." Ma's just as harried, Pa's just as cantankerous, and Horace Prickley is just as villainous! This time he plots to woo and wed the woeful Widder Black and take control of her fortune. It seems, however, that Horace may have to share the money with the Widder's noble nephew, Peter Loveless...if the young man finds a bride before the week is out. Enter two likely prospects - Pansy Perriwinkle (the most annoyingly sweet heroine ever to gr...

68 pages

13 m, 13 w, and Bear, Time Chorus & Musicians

A beautiful adaptation especially written for secondary school students to perform. Here is the story of good versus evil and the power of time to heal all wounds. Leontes, without warning, suddenly believes his visiting boyhood friend, Polixenes, is in love with Leontes' wife Hermione. Leontes even goes so far as to order his friend poisoned and Hermione thrown in jail where she has a baby girl. It never occurs to Leontes he could be wrong, even though the Oracle of Apollo showed the couple's innocence. Sixteen years later the child, Perdita, who has been ra...

24 pages

5 m, 3 w, and ensemble

Hassan works as a scholar in the House of Wisdom specializing in translating legends. She spends her days alongside her father and twin. Together they are all living a dangerous secret. It is 13th century Bagdad at the height of Islamic civilization and women are forbidden in the House of Wisdom, so Hassan and her sister are posing as men. The daughters are living a protected and peaceful life, yet Hassan dreams of travelling the world. The arrival of a new scholar expands Hassan’s horizons, but will he jeopardize her secret identity as well as her future? Wh...

20 pages

2 m, 2 w

A cartoon show writer who is getting bad reviews and an about-to-be-fired hair dresser land in the same taxi cab in the middle of a rain storm. After initial-humorous-hostilities toward each other they realize their plights may have much in common. About 30 minutes.

56 pages

Flexible cast of about 30

This delightful adaptation updates the action to 20th century New Orleans Mardi Gras celebration! It has been edited for time and archaic expressions, but otherwise the language is the same. The through-line is still very evident as Shakespeare's comment on the classes and pastoralism. Included in the oversized script are four original songs, New Orleans jazz style, which use Shakespeare's poems as the lyrics, with the suggestion of a grand finale of "When the Saints Go Marching In." The costumes are modern day but still very much in the style of Shakespeare ...

20 pages

4 m, 4 w, 2 flexible parts and extras

Here's a comedy about good-ol-boy law and (dis)order in the deep South! As various denizens of Redwine County testify, we find out an entire murder trial is based on the "facts" that the local undertaker needs some business and the sheriff's cleaning lady thinks the accused sorta looks like that criminal on TV the other night. Luckily, the defense council is not about to let her new client swing from the hangin' tree! A young newspaper reporter covering this most unusual and hilarious trial serves as narrator.

41 pages

2 m, 2 w

This play is a gathering of some of the most clever characters ever written! It provides examples of the clownish, comic characters written by William Shakespeare in many different kinds of productions through the ages. Far from circus clowns in face paint, these are clowns in the broadest sense, varying in sizes, shapes, ages and types. A few of the characters include the rude Mechanicals in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Constable Dogberry in “Much Ado About Nothing,” the boastful Sir Jon Falstaff in “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” the boisterous sisters Bianca...

44 pages

6 m, 7 w, 6 flexible, extras

At last, Rumpelstiltskin gets to be the hero! Based on the original Grimm fairy tale, this traditionally misunderstood character earns a well-deserved happy ending, winning the hand of Freya, the beautiful miller’s daughter. Both comic and suspenseful, and using elements of other fairy tales and classical myths, this adaptation involves King Grood, the (not very) Good; his vain son Prince Werther; and an unscrupulous chancellor. Rumpelstiltskin, a handicapped young man, is actually Prince Werther’s twin, whom the soft-hearted miller could not bring himself to...

63 pages

5 m, 7 w

It's WWII and on the Hoosier homefront, the Rev. Peter Farenkamp and his family try to do their part, especially the oldest son, David, who volunteers as a junior air raid warden. Soon the close-knit family lets Rita and Louise Baxter live with them so the two V-Girls can work at the nearby defense plant. A call from Louise's fiance, leaving for active duty in Europe, sparks in David a defiant determination to join the Army on his upcoming eighteenth birthday. But Peter, who has seen war up close, tries to stop him. Father and son clash in a powerful scene as...