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Catalog of Plays & Musicals College Edition Printable Format
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Table of Contents
3 | New
3 | Full-Lengths 9 | One-Acts
11 | Adaptations Using This Catalog HEADER Section name, and play length SPECIALTY ICONS eScript Available Musical PLAY LISTINGS Title, author, genre, cast range, synopsis, and review
17 | From New York 22 | Female Leads 26 | One-Acts 29 | Anthologies 32 | Free Play
Sleep by Adam Szymkowicz
35 | Rights Information 36 | Company Information
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SECTION 1 | NEW
PAGE 3
ABOUT THIS SECTION | The plays and musicals in the following section were chosen for publication in the past year, and meet the unique needs of college theaters.
New 110 Stories | Sarah Tuft
1984 by George Orwell | Michael Gene Sullivan
BUY
BUY
Drama | Full-length 5 males, 3 females | 8-26 actors possible
Drama | Full-length 5 males, 1 female | 6 actors possible
110 Stories captures the grief and resilience of New York City in the wake of September 11th through the words of those who experienced it directly—not only the firefighters and police, but the ironworkers, chaplains, K9 handlers, nurses, photojournalists, and the homeless who witnessed the horrific events and saved lives that day, too. Together these unflinching first-person testimonials offer catharsis by revealing the hope, humor, and compassion that emerged in the midst of this tragedy. Memorializing 9/11 by sharing the stories no one saw on the news, this play is a powerful and humanizing account of New York City's darkest day.
Based on the iconic novel by George Orwell, 1984 brings us the story of Winston Smith, a cog in the giant machine state of Oceania. Physically and mentally under the omnipresent eye of Big Brother, Winston has been caught struggling for scraps of love and freedom in a world awash with distrust and violence. With the brutal "help" of four Party Members, Winston is forced to confess his Thoughtcrimes before an unseen inquisitor, and the audience—which acts as a silent witness to his torture. A ferocious and provocative adaptation of one of the most prescient works of literature of the last century.
"Sullivan's adaptation of 1984 is a chilling reminder that some of the political excesses set forth in George Orwell's novel are painfully evident in today's increasingly monopolistic media." —Melinda Schupmann, Backstage
25 Questions for a Jewish Mother Kate Moira Ryan and Judy Gold | BUY Memoir/Comedy | Full-length 4 females | 1-21 actors possible Part memoir and part stand-up routine, this hilarious and affecting play breaks down just what makes Jewish mothers so lamentable, laughable, and lovable. Comedienne Judy Gold and playwright Kate Moira Ryan seamlessly weave actual interviews with Jewish mothers across the United States together with memories from Gold's childhood and her own experiences as a Jewish mother in order to create a performance piece that explores it all: from rugelach to rabbis, matzoh to marriage, Ann Landers to Anne Frank, and guilt to G-D. Judy Gold in 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother, Ars Nova, New York, NY. Photo: Carol Rosegg
"...fiercely funny, honest and moving." —The New York Times
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NEW | Full-Lengths
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A Bright Swarm of Beetles | Don Zolidis
BUY
Drama | Full-length 6 males, 4 females | 10-40 actors possible Based on actual events, A Bright Swarm of Beetles follows the breathtaking career of the greatest writer of the Soviet Union: Mikhail Bulgakov. From his beginnings in the Red revolution as a nearly homeless opium addict to the dizzying heights of literary stardom, Bulgakov struggles to write in a world fraught with madness and betrayal. After his work is denounced and banned, Bulgakov is offered a chance at redemption by the sinister dictator Joseph Stalin—but he must choose between his art and his survival. A wild, fast-paced journey through fifteen years of one of the darkest periods of modern history.
A Commedia Christmas Carol | Matthew R. Wilson
BUY
Holiday Comedy | Full-length 4 males, 1 female, 4 either | 7-40 actors possible Ebenezer Scrooge gets a Commedia dell'Arte makeover in this zany take on the classic Dickensian tale of redemption. On Christmas Eve, a Pantalone Scrooge receives a visit from his old friend Dottore Marley, launching a series of quirky visitors and unforeseen capers. Masks, acrobatics, and holiday cheer abound in this madcap physical romp.
"A Commedia Christmas Carol crackles and amuses with abandon...high-spirited revelry...emotional depth." —Jane Horwitz, The Washington Post
Consider the Oyster | David MacGregor
BUY
Comedy | Full-length 2 males, 3 females | 4-5 actors possible When Gene breaks his leg after proposing to girlfriend Marisa, he begins to feel some odd changes. It turns out the oyster shell that the doctor left in his leg to assist with his healing is causing him to slowly transition into a female—just the way an oyster does. Can Gene learn to live his life as a different gender, and will he—or she—be able to feel the same for his fiancee? Consider the Oyster is a funny and surprising exploration of gender and our changeable human nature.
"Consider the Oyster is David MacGregor's terrific new comedy... Some smart producers have an off-Broadway 1,000-plus performance hit ahead of them." —Theatermania
Paul Reisman, Michael Sprouse, Joel David Santner, and Julie Garner in A Commedia Christmas Carol, Faction of Fools Theatre Company, Washington, DC (2012). Masks: Waxing Moon Masks. Photo: Second Glance Photography.
Crazytown | Jonathan Rand
BUY
Comedy | Full-length 2 males, 2 females | 4-71 actors possible Crazytown is a low-tech evening of comedy designed to be performed by a cast of four, but expandable to over 70 actors. Take a tour of the most messed up town in America, from the police interrogation room where the nicest guy in town is issued a strange ultimatum, to the elementary school for a heated political debate on critical issues like tater tots. Welcome to Crazytown, where our motto is: Welcome to Crazytown.
Current Economic Conditions | Don Zolidis
BUY
Comedy | Full-length 3 males, 3 females | 6-12 actors possible After losing her low-level job in the publishing industry, 26-year-old Lily has no choice but to move back in with her well-meaning but neurotic parents. A series of disastrous interviews and her parents' strict house rules have Lily feeling more like a troubled teenager than an employable young woman—and the Justin Beiber posters in her old bedroom aren't helping. Will she find a job before she loses both her sanity and her dignity?
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NEW | Full-Lengths
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Bryan Pridgen, Mary Lucy Bivins, Eugene Wolf, and Dan Folino in Elvis Has Left the Building, Barter Theatre, Abingdon, Virginia (2011). Photo Courtesy of Barter Theatre.
Elvis Has Left the Building | V. Cate and Duke Ernsberger
BUY
Comedy | Full-length 3 males, 2 females | 5 actors possible It's December 20th, 1970, and Elvis Presley has disappeared. No one, not even his wily manager, "The Colonel", knows of his whereabouts. But the Colonel is all shook up because he has racked up a secret debt—and with the King himself missing, the only way to pay it off is to find an Elvis impersonator within 24 hours. Hijinks ensue as the Colonel takes desperate measures to replace a man who is irreplaceable, all while keeping the prying eyes of a nosy reporter at bay and figuring out what happened to the real Elvis.
"Unpretentious fun!" —Lexington Herald-Leader
crafting of the holiday parade float. But under the surface of this pleasant gathering, the women find themselves grappling with sexuality, betrayal, and their own hard and fast notions of right and wrong. In this ode to the complicated undercurrents of Midwestern morality, you'll meet Marty, Luce, Char, Arletta, and Doodee—five women who face the tests life presents to them with laughter, love, and a lot of fake snow.
"A rare and wonderful accomplishment... This is just plain excellent theatre; great characters, engaging script, generous humor and compelling conflict." —Chicago Stage Review
How We Got On | Idris Goodwin
BUY
Coming of Age Drama | Full-length 2 males, 2 females | 4 actors possible
Float | BUY Patricia Kane Comedy/Drama | Full-length 5 females | 5 actors possible The industrious members of the Budapest Women's Club (pronounced "Bu-DAP-est") come together for an annual tradition: the
Hank, Julian, and Luann are three talented, determined suburban teens coming of age in the 1980s. Dreaming of fame and fortune in the new Hip-Hop music scene, they must overcome cultural isolation, familial dysfunction, and ruthless rivalries to make the music that defines their lives. A sultry DJ spins their stories with her own meta-theatrical perspective in this contemporary ode to the roots of rap.
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NEW | Full-Lengths
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The Lost Boy | Ronald Gabriel Paolillo
BUY
Drama | Full-length 4 males, 3 females | 7-18 actors possible Despite finding success and fame as a writer, James M. Barrie is dissatisfied with his work and his life. He returns to his hometown in Scotland to visit his mother, who still blames him for the longago death of his older brother in a skating pond. Haunted by the tragic accident and his mother's harsh words, James slowly begins to confront his family's tragic past with the help of an unexpected friendship and his own gift for storytelling. This fictionalized account of the birth of Peter Pan will warm the hearts of audiences everywhere who remember the magic and mystery of The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up.
"An important and entertaining work." —Bob Heisler, The Journal News
Love at First Bite | BUY Jodi Picoult, Jake van Leer, and Ellen Wilber Musical Comedy | Full-length 11 males, 17 females, 7 either | 35-48 actors possible
Jeff Berg and Joseph Lee Gramm in The Lost Boy, Helen Hayes Theatre Company, Nyack, New York (2005).
The Lily's Revenge | BUY Taylor Mac and Rachelle Garniez Play with Music | Full-length 3 males, 4 females, 25 either | 32-100 actors possible An uprooted Lily falls in love with a blushing bride, much to the dismay of The Great Longing Deity, a malicious stage curtain hellbent on spreading nostalgia and institutionalized narrative. Tasked with becoming a real man in order to wed its beloved, the Lily attempts to hijack the story and create its own kind of narrative. What follows is an epic dismantling of theatrical norms and an inspiring, raucous ode to storytelling in all its myriad forms. Part Noh play, part musical, part verse play, part dance-theater, part silent film, and part party, The Lily's Revenge is a one-of-a-kind extravaganza of theater, love, and community.
"In its bravery, scope, creativity, extremity and sheer generosity of spirit, The Lily's Revenge, to my mind, surpasses any American theater in New York this year. [Taylor Mac] is one of the most exciting theater artists of our time." —Adam Feldman, Time Out New York
A new school and a new girlfriend: things are looking good for teen vampire Drake. Except, of course, that his sweetheart's mom is not only the school principal—she's also a vampire hunter. Can Drake outwit Principal Stake and Lucy's vengeful ex-boyfriend? Only with the help of new friends like an exchange student named Frank N. Stein and Scrappy, the unusually hairy basketball player with a thing for howling at the moon. With a hilarious cast of misfit characters and catchy songs, Love at First Bite is a monstrously good time.
A Perfect Likeness | Daniel Rover Singer
BUY
Comedy/Drama/Historic Fiction | Full-length 2 males | 2 actors possible Reclusive writer and photographer Charles Dodgson (also known as "Lewis Carroll") invites celebrity author Charles Dickens to his Oxford home to pose for a portrait. Dickens is so intrigued by the whimsical Alice's Adventures in Wonderland that he accepts. What ensues is a baring of two creative souls, the one private and fastidious, the other boisterous and irreverent. As Dodgson struggles to capture a "perfect likeness" of Dickens, Dickens craftily pries into Dodgson's personal life to get a handle on one of the most curious men he has ever met. The result is a hilarious and revealing conversation between two quirky, fascinating, and completely different men.
"So lovely and entertaining that you want it to be true." —Lynn Felder, Winston-Salem Journal
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NEW | Full-Lengths
Play Dates | Sam Wolfson
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BUY
Comedy | Full-length 2 males, 2 females | 4-11 actors possible Love is hard at any age. In Kindergarten, five-year old Sam falls for Stacey, a tough Girl Scout who wants to be a cowboy when she grows up—just like he does. But Stacey eventually breaks Sam's heart, and instead of growing up to ride the range, he becomes a jaded radio show host. As "Dr. Love," Sam (not-so-secretly) pines for the long-lost Stacey, and dishes out cynical advice to frustrated couples like Mike and Katie, whose relationship has grown stale after 5 years together. When Mike and Katie cross paths with a grown-up Stacey in a TGI Fridays, she is thrust back into Sam's life with hilarious and touching results.
"Highly recommended." —LA Weekly
Pride and Prejudice: A Romantic Musical | BUY Jon Jory and Peter Ekstrom Musical Comedy | Full-length 6 males, 8 females | 14-22 actors possible Jane Austen's timeless love story is given new life in this faithful and fresh musical adaptation. Strong-minded Elizabeth Bennet is not out to find a husband, and the snobbish Mr. Darcy certainly wouldn't be her first choice. But first impressions are not always what they seem, and soon both Elizabeth and Darcy must look beyond their pride to discover their true feelings. When talk of marriage is everywhere and family expectations are high, can these two overcome their prejudices to make a more meaningful connection? A lively score and moving songs add richness and warmth to this classic story of wit and romance.
Pride@Prejudice | Daniel Elihu Kramer
BUY
Comedy | Full-length 2 males, 3 females | 5 actors possible Watch Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy fall in love all over again— this time filtered through the world of the internet. Modern voices interject and build on this classic love story in the form of blog posts, chat room discussions, quotes from film adaptations, and even letters from Ms. Austen herself to create a delightfully postmodern view of 19th century England. Written for five actors to play every role, Pride@Prejudice is a hilarious and moving homage to Jane Austen's most beloved novel, as well our love affair with reading.
"I can't think of another new work staged in Columbus in my 24-plus years as a Dispatch critic that has displayed so much promise or polish... This play seems destined to be seen and celebrated across the country." —Michael Grossberg, Columbus Dispatch
Romeo & Juliet: Choose Your Own Ending, Capital Fringe Festival, Washington, DC (2010). Photo: Joe Flood.
Romeo & Juliet: Choose Your Own Ending | Ann Fraistat and Shawn Fraistat
BUY
Comedy | Full-length 4 males, 2 females | 6-14 actors possible What if Romeo had stayed helplessly in love with Rosaline instead of Juliet? Or if Mercutio and Tybalt hadn't died...but had gotten together instead? In this Shakespearean take on the "Choose Your Own Ending" model, the audience casts votes throughout the performance to determine which course true love will take; ultimately deciding whether everybody lives or everybody dies. With eight dramatically different possible endings, this isn't the tale of starcrossed lovers that you read in high school. An irreverent, madcap reimagining of Shakespeare's most beloved romance.
"Whip-smart and hilarious... A fantastic, unexpected comedic gem." —Fiona Zublin, The Washington Post
Six Characters in Search of an Author Steve Moulds | BUY Comedy/Drama | Full-length 4 males, 4 females, 2 either | 10-13 actors possible Six fictional characters, abandoned by their creator, invade a rehearsal in progress and demand to be brought to life by a new author. But the characters' existential agenda collides with the more lighthearted ambitions of these theatre artists, whose open rehearsal "audience engagement event" becomes darkly entangled with the characters' tragic story. This intimate adaptation of Luigi Pirandello's absurdist classic foregrounds the comedic contrast between melodrama and the contemporary sensibilities of the acting company— all the while asking us to consider just what we believe to be real.
"Fresh, insightful and a great deal of fun." —Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
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NEW | Full-Lengths
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The Tell-Tale Farce | Don Zolidis
BUY
Two Jews Walk Into a War... | Seth Rozin
BUY
Farce | Full-length 5 males, 4 females | 9 actors possible
Comedy | Full-length 2 males | 2 actors possible
It's 1848, and Edgar Allan Poe is just coming off the spectacular success of "The Raven." Unfortunately, it's only earned him a grand total of nine dollars. So when a wealthy dowager commissions him to write her a poem for the vast sum of one hundred dollars, he leaps at the chance. Only problem: the man who shows up to write the poem isn't Poe, he's Poe's mailman, and he's on a quest to woo the dowager's spinster niece. Playing Poe is harder than it looks, though, especially when your mustache keeps falling off, the teenage grand-daughter of the house is lusting after you, and Poe's arch-nemesis, Rufus Griswold, just happens to be dropping by to settle old scores. A freewheeling, door-slamming farce with a touch of the macabre.
Ishaq and Zeblyan are the last remaining Jews in Afghanistan. They share the only remaining synagogue that has not been destroyed by the Taliban. They share a mission to repopulate the Jewish community in Kabul. But they also hate each other. Can this Middle Eastern odd couple commit to one incredible act of faith to keep the diaspora alive without killing one other? A modern vaudeville full of schtick, sorrow, and survival.
Toil and Trouble | Lauren Gunderson
BUY
Black Comedy | Full-length 2 males, 1 female | 3 actors possible Underemployed friends Adam, Matt and Beth are desperate to beat the recession any way they can—like combining forces to take over a small island in South America. But when a fortune cookie tells Matt that he will rule and Beth gets a little too handy with a dagger, plans go awry. This hilarious adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth pits friend against friend, ambition against fate, pet-sitting against miniature vicuna mogul-dom.
The Two Musketeers! | Jon Jory
BUY
Comedy | Full-length 4 males, 2 females | 6 actors possible When a small acting company eliminates one Musketeer from their production of The Three Musketeers due to budget constraints, the rest of the cast must sally forth bravely with only two. The classic tale of d'Artagnan and his sword-fighting friends is presented by a hilariously self-aware cast of six, with romance, wit, and derring-do to spare. This low-tech, high-comedy adaptation is a witty send-up of Alexandre Dumas' beloved adventure.
"An uproarious comedy with a twist of faith. Through a humorous story and unforgettable characters, playwright Seth Rozin poignantly explores issues of faith, commitment and perseverance that keeps audiences laughing and thinking long past curtain call." —The Jewish Ledger
The Walk Across America for Mother Earth | BUY Taylor Mac and Ellen Maddow Comedic Play with Music | Full-length 6 males, 4 females, 2 either | 10-12 actors possible Political activism meets bedazzled drag show in this story about two young friends who flee their suburban upbringing in "Real America" to join a ragtag group of activists on a protest march from D.C. to Nevada. On the road, the group attempts to establish a nomadic utopia, but the marchers continually find themselves divided by cancer, unrequited affections, indecision, and a secret hunger for power. Whimsically blending commedia dell'arte influences with song and dance, The Walk Across America for Mother Earth explores how the idea of community sometimes fails to unite us, and sometimes brings us together in the most unexpected ways.
"With this new play, a sweet and satiric meditation on the beautiful folly of idealism, Taylor Mac establishes himself as a writer and artist of serious consequence." —Charles Isherwood, The New York Times
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NEW | One-Acts
PAGE 9
Apocalypse or Bust | Davis Alianiello
BUY
Comedy | One-act 5 males, 2 females, 12 either | 9-19 actors possible It's doomsday, and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have been called into action. Unfortunately, it turns out they're completely unprepared and have accidentally killed their horses. Luckily, the four contentious personalities (Conquest, War, Famine, and Death) meet Phyllis—a recently deceased Midwestern woman and their human liaison for the End of Days. Together, they hitchhike their way to Earth, but various forgotten cultural figures keep delaying their progress. Will the Horsemen reach their destination in time to cause the end of the world?
Brief Interviews with Internet Cats Patrick Greene | BUY Comedy | One-act 7 males, 9 females, 6 either | 8-30 actors possible
Rebecca Hurd and Brian Duranleau in Apocalypse or Bust, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland (2012). Photo: Teresa Pearson.
10 Ways to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse | BUY Don Zolidis Comedy | One-act 3 males, 5 females, 2 either | 8-24 actors possible It's the end of the world and hordes of rampaging zombies are about to kill you. What do you do? Try your hand at kung fu against the undead? Attempt to reason with creatures that would rather eat brains than use them? Turn to this handy and hilarious guide to survive the apocalypse! (Hint: sacrifice the weak is step number one.)
All I Really Need to Know I Learned From Being a Zombie | BUY Jason Pizzarello Dramedy | One-act 2 males, 2 females, 14 either | 5-45 actors possible In today's chaotic, challenging world, we often don't know where to turn for help. Little did we know that life's most valuable lessons lie within the undead. Finally, zombies engage us with musings on life, death, and everything in between. They show us that brains aren't everything...you are what you eat...and what doesn't kill you makes you...more alive.
Celebrity interviewer Ian McWorthy has a dream line-up for tonight's episode of the World Wide Window: a veritable litterful of felines whose internet antics have catapulted them to fame. In this fastpaced series of hilarious interviews, Ian uncovers the story behind Tuffy's first dramatic foray into a cardboard box, learns just what makes Nelson the Grouchy Cat so very, very grouchy, contends with the diva-like antics of Kitty Boo Boo and her entourage, and so much more. So stay tuned! Things are bound to get a little...hairy.
Finding Love In The 21st Century Jim Garvey | BUY Comedy | One-act 3 males, 3 females | 6-30 actors possible With over 7 billion people currently living on planet Earth, finding love in the 21st century can be more than a bit daunting. When a boy named Oliver and a girl named Elliot miraculously hit it off on their first-ever online date, their friends push them to date other people before committing. But after a series of dates that includes a guy who treats marriage as something to check off his bucket list and a girl who livestreams her entire life, they realize they may have had it right the first time. But is it too late for these starcrossed lovers to reconnect?
The Future Is In Your Tiny Hands Jonathan Rand | BUY Comedy | One-act 2 males, 2 females | 4-11 actors possible Kaitlyn Parker and Eddie Grantwood square off for the political debate of the century: student president of their elementary school. No topic is off-limits, be it cootie prevention, kickball roster justice, or—most critically of all—tater tots. Presented in a town hall format, all the hard-hitting questions come from fellow students in the audience. Who will win? America's very freedom hangs in the balance. Or at least a decision as to whether Santa is real.
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NEW | One-Acts
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All I Really Need to Know I Learned From Being a Zombie, Irondale Ensemble, Brooklyn, New York (2013).
Jane Eyre | Gerald Murphy
BUY
Comedy | One-act 4 males, 6 females, 1 either | 9-11 actors possible The classic Gothic tale of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is deconstructed and transformed into a comedy in this hilarious and fast-paced oneact. Despite a gruesomely unhappy younger life, Jane ascends from lowly orphan to governess at the strange and mysterious Thornfield Hall, where she falls for the brooding master of the house. Narrated by Jane's sassy and spoiled cousins, Georgiana and Eliza, and complete with a talking dog, imaginary horses, and, of course, the agonizing pain of unspoken love, you've never seen plain Jane like this before.
May the Best Fan Win | Jonathan Rand
BUY
Comedy | One-act 4 males | 4 actors possible Welcome to the thrilling world of watching dudes watch sports. Finally, the match-up the entire nation has been waiting for: the historic showdown between veteran slacker Donald Baxter and rookie sensation slacker Michael Felton. Legendary sportscasters Merv Johnson and Tim Bixby are there to break down all the exhilarating action, LIVE from that couch by the TV.
Meet the Roommates | Jonathan Rand Comedy | One-act 8 males, 8 females | 7-16 actors possible
BUY
Two friends discover an incredible online simulator that shows them exactly what their future college roommate experiences will look like. Yet after a few minutes with a raging narcoleptic, a world-class procrastinator, and a children’s party clown, it may be time to seriously consider living alone.
No More, Mister Nice Guy | Jonathan Rand
BUY
Comedy | One-act 4 males | 4 actors possible Meet Sheldon Grimes, the nicest guy in town. Unfortunately for Sheldon, in this town, being a nice guy is prohibited by law. But after a crash course from a pair of local police detectives and a very special specialist, Sheldon might just learn to be a jerk fast enough to stay out of prison.
Orientation | Ian McWethy
BUY
Comedy | One-act 10 females | 6-10 actors possible Two college RAs are tasked with matching up 8 incoming freshmen as roommates. By crafting the perfect pairings, their year could be worry-free! But if they fail, they may ruin the students' lives forever (according to a study they read, getting along with your freshman roommate means you are 80% more likely to have a productive and meaningful life). But with an extreme germaphobe, an intrusive podcaster, an over-excited Alaskan, and other neurotic newbies, this is one assignment that deserves some extra credit.
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SECTION 1 | NEW
PAGE 11
Adaptations Ajax in Iraq | Ellen McLaughlin
ABOUT THIS SECTION | The source materials for the plays listed below are well-known pieces of literature or popular myths. From Jane Austen to Sophocles, these adaptations are sure to engage students and faculty in the classroom or on stage.
Dracula | BUY William McNulty
BUY
Drama | Full-length 5 males, 7 females | 11-30 actors possible
Horror | Full-length 7 males, 7 females | 12-14 actors possible
Past and present collide in Ellen McLaughlin's mash-up of Sophocles' classic tragedy Ajax with the modern-day war in Iraq. The play follows the parallel narratives of Ajax, an ancient Greek military hero, and A.J., a modern female American soldier, both undone by the betrayal of a commanding officer. Athena, goddess of war, coolly presides over the whole. Inspired by material collected from interviews with Iraq war veterans and their families, Ajax in Iraq explores the timeless struggle soldiers face in trying to make sense of war.
Professor Van Helsing and his brave comrades must hunt down and destroy the profoundly evil Count Dracula. But the Count is exceedingly resourceful, employing superhuman strength, psychic powers, and shape-changing to confound and frustrate his antagonists. Culminating in a wild and shocking confrontation between the King of Vampires and those who would rid the world of him, this adaptation is an action-packed, blood-soaked retelling of Bram Stoker's classic tale of horror.
"Ms. McLaughlin has carved out a career as a playwright of fierce moral conviction." —Anita Gates, The New York Times
Frankenstein, A New Musical | BUY Mark Baron, Jeffrey Jackson, and Gary P. Cohen
Anon(ymous) | Naomi Iizuka
BUY
Drama | Full-length 5 males, 6 females | 11-35 actors possible Separated from his mother, a young refugee called Anon journeys through the United States, encountering a wide variety of people— some kind, some dangerous and cruel—as he searches for his family. From a sinister one-eyed butcher to beguiling barflies to a sweatshop, Anon must navigate through a chaotic, ever-changing landscape in this entrancing adaptation of Homer's Odyssey.
"Anon(ymous) is [a] stunning retelling of an epic quest." —Dominic P. Papatola, St. Paul Pioneer Press
Musical | Full-length 7 males, 4 females, 3 either | 9-35 actors possible With earnest ballads and soaring ensemble numbers, this compelling new musical brings the suspense and romance of the classic tale to life in a uniquely faithful, yet thoroughly innovative adaptation of Mary Shelley's original novel. In his quest to discover the secret of life, Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant young scientist, creates a human of his own design that turns out to instead be a horrifying beast. This is no "Hollywood monster," but a flesh-and-blood man who, while terrifying in appearance, grows to become articulate, cunning, and thirsting for revenge upon the creator who abandoned him. A tragic love story and exploration of humanity, Frankenstein, A New Musical breathes new life into the world-renowned story of man and creator pitted against one another in epic battle.
"...brings the classic story thrillingly to life." —Julie Reed, Associated Press
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ADAPTATIONS
Hedda Gabler | Christopher Shinn
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BUY
Drama | Full-length 3 males, 4 females | 7 actors possible This Broadway adaptation of Ibsen's timeless drama presents a sympathetic, yet striking and powerful, Hedda in the classic tale of her struggle to find a means of escape from a loveless, ordinary existence. Beginning with the return from her honeymoon, Hedda finds herself bored of her husband, and longing for the days when she was free to exercise her wild and independent whims. With the return of an old flame and a proposition from an amorous judge, she begins a dangerous game, amusing herself by manipulating and destroying everyone around her in an attempt to regain control of her life.
"Shinn's new adaptation nudges Ibsen into modern passion without disrespecting him." —Newsday
Is He Dead? | David Ives
BUY
Comedy | Full-length 7 males, 4 females | 11-16 actors possible Jean-Francois Millet, a young painter of genius, is in love with Marie Leroux but in debt to a villainous picture-dealer, Bastien Andre. Andre forecloses on Millet, threatening debtor's prison unless Marie marries him. Millet realizes that the only way he can pay his debts and keep Marie from marrying Andre is to die, as it is only dead painters who achieve fame and fortune. Millet fakes his death and prospers, all while passing himself off as his own sister, the Widow Tillou. Now a rich "widow," he must find a way to get out of a dress, return to life, and marry Marie.
"A ripely enjoyable confection! An elaborate madcap comedy that registers high on the mirth meter and reaches especially giddy comic heights!" —David Rooney, Variety
It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play (full-length version) | BUY Joe Landry Holiday drama | Full-length 3 males, 2 females | 1-25 actors possible This beloved American holiday classic comes to captivating life as a live 1940s radio broadcast. With the help of an ensemble that brings a few dozen characters to the stage, the story of idealistic George Bailey unfolds as he considers ending his life one fateful Christmas Eve. (A short version of this play is also available.)
"One of the best holiday shows around. This is a fresh and inventive way of reconnecting with a classic story of love and redemption." —Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times
John McMartin and Tony Award winner Norbert Leo Butz in the Broadway production of Is He Dead?, Lyceum Theatre, New York City (2007). Photo: Joan Marcus.
Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five Eric Simonson | BUY Comedy/Drama | Full-length 12 males, 3 females | 12-23 actors possible Based on Kurt Vonnegut's classic novel, Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes "unstuck in time" after he is abducted by aliens. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all the phases of his life. Concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden, this satirical and horrifying anti-war story carries a unique poignancy—and humor.
"The show moved me so much I couldn't speak for ten minutes after." —The Chicago Reader
Little Women | Marisha Chamberlain
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Drama | Full-length 4 males, 7 females | 11-24 actors possible Under the guidance of their beloved mother, the four young March sisters—tempestuous Jo, motherly Meg, shy Beth, and spoiled baby Amy—struggle to keep their family going while Father's away in the Civil War. In this beautifully dramatized adaptation of the classic novel, even as privation, illness, and sibling rivalry cast their shadows, each girl strives to find her true self. (A one-act version of this play is also available.)
More plays and musicals available at playscripts.com
ADAPTATIONS
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Check out our newest plays at playscripts.com. The Love of Three Oranges | Hillary DePiano
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Nightfall With Edgar Allan Poe | Eric Coble
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Comedy | Full-length 8 males, 8 females, 5 either | 13-40 actors possible
Drama | Full-length 3 males, 2 females | 5-9 actors possible
Forget all your dusty misconceptions about the traditions of commedia dell'arte as The Love of Three Oranges, based on a scenario by Carlo Gozzi, provides a wild, raucous slapstick comedy that is completely retooled and revised for today's audiences. Prince Tartaglia's life is filled with misery until an evil witch and her equally evil henchmen curse him to search for three giant oranges. But this quest proves more fruitful than anyone could have imagined as a once-lonely prince discovers love, friendship, and laughter when he encounters wizards, monarchs, and a wild narrator who isn't sure how far removed from the story he really is.
Edgar Allan Poe stands alone in the flickering darkness of his mind, trying desperately to convince himself—and us—that he's not mad. The spell he weaves brings us a highly theatrical adaptation of four tales Poe himself considered his best: "The Raven," "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Pit and the Pendulum," and "The Tell-Tale Heart." Enter the world of Poe and check your heartbeat at the door.
Lysistrata: A Woman's Translation Drue Robinson | BUY Comedy | Full-length 14 males, 14 females | 20-40 actors possible Lysistrata: A Woman's Translation is the only modern adaptation of Aristophanes' classic comedy written entirely in rhyme. Lysistrata, an Athenian woman fed up with war, rallies together the women of Greece to seize the Treasury, stage a sex strike, and force the men of each warring faction to come home and sign a truce. This makes for a fast-paced and bawdy affair, including the pompous Magistrate's antics of male domination, and the celibacy-sworn Myrrhine's relentless teasing of her sex-starved, phallus-laden husband. Meanwhile, the Chorus of Old Men and Chorus of Old Women square off in a hilarious battle of wits and guts, ultimately resulting in a reunion of genders, ages, and political positions.
Moliere Impromptu | Rinne Groff
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Comedy | Full-length 7 males, 5 females | 12-13 actors possible In 1665 Versailles, the members of Moliere's Illustre Theatre have gathered to rehearse a new play commissioned by the King for a performance this very night. Everything is fine, except that the script is in horrible shape, the straight man wants to leave the troupe, marital spats are ripping the company apart, the intern is lobbying for a bigger part, and Mademoiselle Du Croisy can never remember her lines. A wickedly funny look at the magic of theater, translated and adapted from three short plays by Moliere.
"[Moliere Impromptu] satirizes as it sashays, slyly infusing pop-culture references even as it honors Moliere's 17th-century playwriting achievements...it crackles with entertainment and energy..." —Gina Perille, Boston Globe
Orestes: An Antic Tragedy | Anne Washburn
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Drama/Comedy | Full-length 2 males, 1 female, 5 either | 8-12 actors possible The Trojan war is over. Orestes and Electra have killed their mother. The city wants them dead. Just when it seems like they have nowhere to turn, their best friend comes up with a plan... Ironic, desperate, humorous, and highly entertaining, this potent satire on the Oresteia myth brings this marvelous play to new life.
"Anne Washburn has a way of laser-targeting her language that makes the material explode, even at a distance of 3,000 years." —Helen Shaw, Time Out New York
Pride and Prejudice | Jon Jory
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Romantic comedy | Full-length 6 males, 8 females | 13-40 actors possible All of the wit and romance of Jane Austen's classic 1813 novel come to life in this refreshingly fast-paced and engaging new adaptation. Finding a husband is hardly Elizabeth Bennet's most urgent priority. But with four sisters, an overzealous match-making mother, and a string of unsuitable suitors, it's difficult to escape the subject. When the independent-minded Elizabeth meets the handsome but enigmatic Mr. Darcy, she is determined not to let her feelings triumph over her own good sense—but the truth turns out to be slipperier than it seems. In a society where subtle snubs and deceit proliferate, is it possible for Elizabeth and Darcy to look beyond his pride and her prejudice, and to make the best match of all? (A one-act version of this play, Darcy and Elizabeth, is also available.)
"Jory, the former longtime producing director at Actors Theatre of Louisville and founder of its famed Humana Festival of New American Plays, has crafted an exceptionally clear, funny and moving version." —San Francisco Chronicle
More plays and musicals available at playscripts.com
ADAPTATIONS
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NOW AVAILABLE: eScripts to read and print. Sense and Sensibility | Jon Jory
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Romance | Full-length 8 males, 8 females | 13-16 actors possible Sisters Elinor and Marianne find themselves captivated by two very different men in this lively and dynamic adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel. Sensible Elinor is charmed by the quiet, bumbling goodness of Edward, while passionate Marianne is swept off of her feet by the dashing and mysterious Willoughby. But when Willoughby's scandalous past and Edward's secret fiancee come to light, the sisters are forced to rely upon themselves and one another to weather their heartache—and learn that when sense and sensibility meet, love can't be far behind.
Sherlock Holmes and The Case of the Jersey Lily | BUY Katie Forgette Mystery/Comedy | Full-length 5 males, 2 females | 7-11 actors possible The wit of Oscar Wilde meets the cunning of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle when Wilde brings his dear friend, Lillie Langtry, to Baker Street. Someone has stolen the highly intimate letters Lillie exchanged with the Prince of Wales, and now she is being blackmailed. Only Holmes can solve the case, going so far as to disguise himself as an early version of Lady Bracknell from Wilde's latest play, The Importance of Being Forthright, while Watson falls head-over-heels for the Jersey Lily and a wicked professor attempts to bring the Crown to its knees.
The Spoon River Project | Tom Andolora
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Play with Music | Full-length 6 males, 5 females | 10-18 actors possible In this beautifully haunting play based on Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology, the former residents of Spoon River examine life and the longing for what might have been. As the citizens reflect on the dreams, secrets, and regrets of their lives, they paint a gritty and honest portrait of the town as all of their pasts are illuminated.
The Spoon River Project, Hallberg Theatre, Cal State Fullerton, Fullerton, CA (2012). Directed by Mark Ramont; Department Head Bruce Goodrich. Lighting Design: AmyAnne Tafolla; Scene Design: David Corigliano; Costume Design: Theona White.
More plays and musicals available at playscripts.com
ADAPTATIONS
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thrown in prison? Moliere's classic comedy satirizes religious hypocrisy, blind piety, and deceit, and this adaptation captures these themes in playful irreverent rhyme. (A short version of this play is also available.)
The Three Musketeers | BUY Linda Alper, Douglas Langworthy, and Penny Metropulos Drama | Full-length 17 males, 7 females | 14-40 actors possible Alexandre Dumas' classic novel gets an adventurous update as this tale of friendship and romance follows young D'Artagnan as he arrives in Paris in seek of fame, fortune, and a place among the King's Musketeers. He is quickly taken under the wing of Athos, Aramis, and Porthos, and D'Artagnan soon finds himself helping the Queen hide an affair with a British Duke and making enemies with the Cardinal Richelieu. When D'Artagnan's love, Constance Bonacieux, is kidnapped out of revenge, D'Artagnan and the rest of the Musketeers must work together to rescue Constance and restore honor in the kingdom.
Sense and Sensibility, Orlando Shakespeare, Orlando Florida, (2013). Photo by Tony Firriolo.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde | BUY Noah Smith Science fiction thriller | Full-length 5 males, 3 females | 8-21 actors possible Dr. Henry Jekyll is a brilliant scientist frustrated by dull "respectable" life in 1888 Victorian London. He creates a formula to unleash his inner bestial nature, transforming him into the brutish but oddly compassionate Edward Hyde. Hyde lives the high life while Jekyll's middle-aged normalcy continues—until Hyde's passions begin to turn up a body count. This intimate, easy-to-stage version of Robert Louis Stevenson's science fiction classic features two haunting chorus characters, who speed along the action, play many supporting roles, and speak to Jekyll as the voices in his head, spurring him toward triumph and tragedy.
Tartuffe | BUY Timothy Mooney
"For sheer action-packed, beguiling melodrama...there's nothing like this latest version of the oft-dramatized Musketeers." — San Francisco Examiner
Troy Women | Karen Hartman
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Drama | Full-length 3 males, 9 females | 12-20 actors possible Hecuba and the women of Troy mourn and celebrate their city on the morning after its destruction. Together, they grieve the deaths of their husbands and children as they await their fates at the hands of their Greek captors. With modern elements adapted into Euripides' classic, Troy Women is a chilling, brutal, but accessible portrait of women during war.
Vintage Hitchcock: A Live Radio Play | BUY Joe Landry Suspense | Full-length 3 males, 2 females | 2-30 actors possible
Comedy | Full-length 5 males, 5 females, 2 either | 12-15 actors possible When the religious hypocrite Tartuffe ingratiates himself into the good graces of Orgon and his mother Mme. Pernelle, he is taken into their home and promised Orgon's daughter's hand in marriage (even as he secretly attempts to seduce Orgon's wife, Elmire). Everyone else in the family sees through Tartuffe's pose, and his machinations and hypocrisies are eventually exposed, but is it too late to save the family from eviction and to keep Orgon from being
Spies, murder, love, and other trademarks of Alfred Hitchcock come to life in the style of a 1940s radio broadcast of the master of suspense's earlier films. With The Lodger, Sabotage and The 39 Steps, Vintage Hitchcock: A Live Radio Play is a triple feature, complete with vintage commercials, that recreates a daring train chase, a serial killer's ominous presence, and a devastating explosion through the magic of live sound effects and musical underscoring. This spooky, exciting piece is perfect for any space, large or small. (A one-act component of this play, The 39 Steps: A Live Radio Play, is also available.)
More plays and musicals available at playscripts.com
Monologue Books
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Actor's Choice monologue books are unlike other monologue books. The source material of every monologue is available through our website, where you can read nearly the entire published script online for free. Whether you're looking for a monologue for classwork, competitions, or auditions, you'll be sure to find a perfect fit in this collection.
More plays and musicals available at playscripts.com
SECTION 1 | NEW
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From New York The 4th Graders Present an Unnamed Love-Suicide | BUY Sean Graney Drama/Comedy | Full-length 2 males, 5 females | 7 actors possible When 4th grader Johnny shoots himself, he leaves behind a play as a suicide note that the kids in his class are forced to perform as a memorial. As friends and bullies assume the roles of Johnny and his classmates, a heartbreaking, darkly curious story emerges, offering a glimpse into the motivation behind Johnny’s actions.
“...an idiosyncratically clever one-act, as precisely tooled as a Swiss music box.” —John Beer, The Village Voice
Abraham Lincoln’s Big, Gay Dance Party | BUY Aaron Loeb Comedy | Full-length
4 males, 3 females | 7 actors possible Illinois schoolteacher Harmony Green has told her fourth grade class that Menard County’s most beloved homegrown hero, Abraham Lincoln, was gay. When Honest Abe is “outed” in a reimagined Christmas pageant, controversy and chaos engulf the town. As the trial of the century begins, big-city reporters and Congressional candidates descend, and family skeletons are forced out of the closet. Top hats and beards abound in this hilarious, poignant, and timely look at prejudice past and present.
ABOUT THIS SECTION | Below you’ll find a curated selection of plays and musicals from Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway. Challenging and provocative, these plays are examples of the compelling voices being cultivated in the New York theater scene.
Act A Lady | BUY Jordan Harrison and Michael Friedman Comedy | Full-length 3 males, 3 females | 6 actors possible When the men of a small Prohibition-era town decide to put on a play dressed in “fancy-type, women-type clothes,” the whole community is affected: gender lines blur, eyebrows raise, identities explode, and life and art are forever entangled. A thoughtful and exuberant Midwestern fable about the woman in every man, the man in every woman and the power of theatre to uncover both. Accompanied by accordion.
Anna Bella Eema | Lisa D’Amour
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Dramatic comedy with music | Full-length 3 females | 3-6 actors possible Ten-year-old Anna Bella and her hermetic mother Irene live in a ratty trailer on the edge of town. When their trailer park is slated for demolition because of interstate highway expansion, Irene refuses to leave. In this moment of crisis, Anna Bella creates a new girl out of the mud behind their trailer home. This mud-girl helps Anna Bella and Irene channel the supernatural and face the life they must live in the world outside their trailer home. A richly imagined tale of a fierce mother/daughter bond, spoken and sung by three women.
“Its beauty and its depth are almost beyond language other than its own.” —The Austin Chronicle
COMING SOON! 14Below: A Collection of New Plays from New York’s Downtown Theaters More plays and musicals available at playscripts.com
FROM NEW YORK
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Crumble (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake) | BUY Sheila Callaghan Comedy/Drama | Full-length 2 males, 3 females | 5 actors possible It’s Christmas, and a year has passed since the untimely death of Janice’s father. Struggling to cope, Janice is holding spiteful conversations with her dolls, and Mother is suffering from panic attacks, with only her baking skills to keep her busy. In their deteriorating Apartment that incessantly begs for repairs, their only comforts are visitations from their respective celebrity crushes—Justin Timberlake and Harrison Ford. With the support of Justin’s affection, Janice begins to craft a plan that will mend the chasm in their lives. Meanwhile, the Apartment is developing murderous plans of its own...
Glory Days | BUY Nick Blaemire and James Gardiner Rock Musical | Full-length 4 males | 4 actors possible A year after graduating high school, four best friends reconnect on their old school’s football field. Will has called the boys together with a mission: to hack into the sprinkler system so that it goes off when the jocks who bullied them in high school take the field for a charity game. But as the guys wait for instructions on how to break into the system, they quickly realize how dramatically their lives have grown apart. With a soaring pop-rock score, Glory Days is a poignant and witty coming-of-age story about friends searching for understanding and validation as they face the consequences of growing up.
“This charming little pop musical about adolescent innocence comes from two experts on the subject... [it] should register with legions of like-minded souls on the threshold of adulthood...” —Paul Harris, Variety
Goodbye Cruel World | BUY Robert Ross Parker, freely adapted from Nikolai Erdman’s The Suicide Comedy | Full-length 4 males, 2 females | 6-14 actors possible Semyon Semyonovich has a problem: he thinks his life isn’t worth living. Unfortunately, everyone he knows agrees with him! But when he decides to end it all, he finds himself the center of attention, urged to blame his misery on love, philosophy, and even politics. When a glorious death is the most popular commodity in town, how much will a simple suicide cost? A saucy Soviet satire. Seriously.
This rarely produced gem is a door-slamming farce wrapped inside a humanist attack on the Soviet regime... As comedies about mortality go, this one is rather joyful. —Jason Zinoman, New York Times
Crumble (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake), Moving Arts, Los Angeles (2005). Photo: Paul Amendt.
In Darfur | Winter Miller
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Drama | Full-length 3 males, 4 females | 7-12 actors possible In Darfur is the provocative account of three intertwined lives at a camp for internally displaced persons in Darfur. The story follows an aid worker’s mission to save and protect lives, a journalist’s pursuit to deliver a “Page One” story and a Darfuri woman’s quest for safety. It is a searing story of urgency and international significance. (A portion of the royalties from In Darfur will be donated to an anti-genocide organization.) Winner, “Two-Headed Challenge,”
“Winter’s play is an urgent and passionate response to a crisis unfolding at this moment.” —Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director, the Public Theater
Irena’s Vow | Dan Gordon
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Drama | Full-length 6 males, 4 females | 10-23 actors possible Through the eyes of a strong-willed woman comes the remarkable true story of Irena Gut Opdyke and the triumphs of the human spirit over devastating tragedy. 19-year-old Irena Gut is promoted to housekeeper in the home of a highly respected Nazi officer when she finds out that the Jewish ghetto is about to be liquidated. Determined to help twelve Jewish workers, she decides to shelter them in the safest place she can think of: the basement of the German commandant’s house. Over the next two years, Irena uses her wit, humor, and courage to hide her friends until the end of the German occupation, concealing them in the midst of countless Nazi parties, a blackmail scheme, and even the birth of a child. Her story is one of the most inspiring of our time.
More plays and musicals available at playscripts.com
FROM NEW YORK
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Natalia Zvereva and Dianne Wiest in the New York Premiere of Memory House, Playwrights Horizons, New York City (2005). Photo: Joan Marcus.
Juvenilia | BUY Wendy MacLeod Comedy/Drama | Full-length 2 males, 2 females | 4 actors possible Bored of frat parties and second-run movies, a group of college friends challenge each other to have a three-way with the Christian who lives next door. (“It could be the new Survivor.”) In this undergraduate world of irony and internet porn, sex is common but love is the thing that dares not speak its name.
“Cleverly written...it’s the playwright’s way with language that does the trick, her understanding of the versatile uses these sharp kids find for the idiomatic speech of their generation.” —Marilyn Stasio, Variety
Love Child | BUY Daniel Jenkins and Robert Stanton Comedy | Full-length 2 males | 2-13 actors possible Joel, a neurotic, down-on-his-heels actor/playwright, is opening his new adaptation of an obscure Euripides comedy in a smelly former sausage factory in Brooklyn. Unknown to him, there’s a big-
time Hollywood casting director in the house, as well as his crazy mother (who’s also his agent) and his crazy aunt (who’s really his mother). When one of the actors takes sleeping pills and passes out mid-performance, and the leading lady quits, Joel’s relatives leap over the footlights to rescue the show. Realities collide, and his family’s wild stories out-Greek the script, in a horrifically hilarious night of truth-telling. Just two actors can play all of the outlandish characters in this stripped-down, high-octane farce.
Memory House | Kathleen Tolan
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Comedy/Drama | Full-length 2 females | 2 actors possible One winter night a woman bakes a pie as a girl tries to finish her college essay. As the deadline looms, unexamined issues of the girl’s adoption from Russia, the rupture of her parents divorce, and the fear of leaving home break through the surface as the mother cajoles, deflects, and maneuvers around her own feelings of sadness and loss. Unfolding in real time, Memory House is about a young and an older woman who are forced to grapple with the past as they face an uncertain future. A funny and moving story about the complexity of living in the world today.
“This glowingly written play by Kathleen Tolan may remind you of why we go to the theater in the first place.” —Journal News
More plays and musicals available at playscripts.com
FROM NEW YORK
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MilkMilkLemonade | Joshua Conkel
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Comedy | Full-length 5 either | 5 actors possible Emory is an effeminate 11-year-old boy who lives on a farm with his chain smoking Nanna and his only friend, a depressed chicken about to be processed. Nanna wishes Emory would get his head out of the clouds, stop choreographing ribbon stick dance numbers, and be more like Elliot, the boy down the road with a penchant for burning things. But Emory and Elliot have a relationship—just not one Nanna would expect or approve of. With absurd, poignant dialog and brutal characterizations, MilkMilkLemonade is a bitterly funny exploration of gender, sexuality, life, death, and the human body.
“Conkel and director Isaac Butler are unafraid to go for the belly: They want you laughing, nauseated or both. It’s proof of how desperately comedy needs audacity: Here, as on your average chicken farm, only the plucky survive.” —TimeOut New York
The Pied Pipers of The Lower East Side Derek Ahonen | BUY Drama/Comedy | Full-length 4 males, 2 females | 6 actors possible
Max Posner and Sam Alper in punkplay, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island (2008). Set & Photo: Sara Ossana
An extraordinary gathering of young idealists lives above a vegan restaurant in NYC. Billy, Dawn, Dear and Wyatt are an extended sexual family battling their fears and addictions in order to live their utopian dream. The Pied Pipers of The Lower East Side is a celebration of love and the search for human grandness—and what happens when bohemian paradise begins to crumble.
Self Defense, or death of some salesmen | BUY Carson Kreitzer
“Brings to mind the vitality that distinguished the early Off-Off Broadway work of artists like Sam Shepard only a generation ago.” —The New Yorker
punkplay | Gregory S. Moss
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Comedy/Drama | Full-length 3 males, 1 female, 2 either | 4-6 actors possible A history of America in the 1980s, an idiosyncratic genealogy of punk rock music, and a personal narrative of growing up as an outsider, punkplay is a mix tape tribute to the excesses and energy of adolescence. Mickey, a thirteen-year-old suburban misfit, is befriended by an angry runaway named Duck. Together, the boys attempt to reinvent themselves using punk rock, but as reality threatens to crash in on them, their fabricated world of amped-up music and shocking band names becomes just as oppressive as the society they’re desperate to reject.
Drama | Full-length 3 males, 5 females | 8-24 actors possible Seven white men have been found dead along I-95 in Florida. A prostitute is arrested and charged with their murders. The police say she’s a serial killer. She claims seven separate acts of self-defense. Inspired by the true story of Aileen Wuornos, Self Defense, or death of some salesmen is a whirlwind seven acts in 95 minutes. The play is fast and furious, shocking and funny, and at its center, a portrait of a very complicated human being. She is complex, charismatic, dangerous, damaged, full of love and anger; above all else, she is alive. An investigation of capital punishment, destitution, violence against (and by) women, and whether a prostitute is considered a person under our justice system, Self Defense gives a long, hard look at an America most of us don’t want to admit exists.
“The play moves like lightning, cutting through a series of brief scenes that illuminate the story in puzzle-piece fashion...smart and surprisingly funny... Insightful, engaging, witty, earnest...Self Defense is sociallyconscious drama at its best.” —Brooke Pierce, TheaterMania
More plays and musicals available at playscripts.com
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Seven Minutes in Heaven | Steven Levenson
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Swimming in the Shallows | Adam Bock
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Comedy | Full-length 3 males, 3 females | 6 actors possible
Comedy | Full-length 3 males, 3 females | 6 actors possible
It’s a Friday night in 1995 and Monday morning homeroom is a million miles away. Six over-stimulated, under-supervised high school students are gathered in Margot’s basement to meet her mysterious boyfriend from summer camp—though none of them have even seen a picture of him and he has yet to show up. As the teens keep themselves busy with rounds of party games, the night gives way to stolen kisses, malicious gossip, and broken hearts. This heartbreaking, hilariously real play showcases the absurd and terrible ecstasy of being young in America.
Barb finds out that Buddhist monks in Thailand only own eight things—and wonders if that is all she wants. She starts giving away her things but her husband Bob keeps buying her new ones. Donna wants Carla Carla to marry her, but Carla Carla doesn’t like that Donna smokes. Nick meets a shark at the aquarium—they go on a date to the beach and Nick tries not to sleep with the shark too fast. Plus dream sequences. Plus a wedding.
“Wildly charming... Spot-on teen dialogue. The show paces itself as parties do, with whatshould-we-play-next aimlessness punctuated by sudden moments of abruptly adult pain.” —Helen Shaw, Time Out New York
She Like Girls | Chisa Hutchinson
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“Bock tells his fairy tale in a surreal idiom that shows wit and imagination. Working with a loose-limbed structure of episodic scenes, [he] focuses on cute characters caught up in winsome gay love stories deriving considerable charm from their oddball humor.” —Marilyn Stasio, Variety
Vampire Cowboy Trilogy | BUY Qui Nguyen and Robert Ross Parker
Drama | Full-length 3 males, 6 females | 8-11 actors possible
Comedy | Full-length 2 males, 3 females, 2 either | 7-25 actors possible
Kia Clark has dreamt of Marisol Feliciano since the start of the school year, but always assumed that she was staunchly heterosexual (like everyone else in their neighborhood). While supporting Marisol through a health crisis, the two share a forbidden kiss that starts a fulfilling—but challenging—romantic relationship. Straining to keep their involvement a secret from their conservative mothers and their gay-bashing classmates, harassment from even their closest friends escalates, forcing Kia to choose between her newfound sexuality and societal acceptance.
This live comic book anthology contains three irreverent comedies that hilariously skewer well-beloved genres. Hard-boiled paranormal detective Jake Misco takes on the case of a mysterious stranger who is haunted by her dead husband; a Cold War-era crime-fighting duo struggles to save America from the throes of Communism while questioning their own principles; and a teenage warrior princess named Tina must fight evil Zombie cheerleaders and the tedium of French class.
“Ms. Hutchinson has a sharp ear for dialogue...and shows clearly the web of prejudice and hostility woven by peers and parents.” —The New York Times
roger&tom | Coming Soon Julien Schwab Comedy/Drama | Full-length A fast paced, mind bending, quasi romanti-tragi-dramedy that obliterates the fourth wall before building it back up again. Penny is Penny. But her ex-husband Richard is actually William. And Roger? Well, he’s just here to watch his brother’s play roger&tom. Or is he?
Trevor | Coming Soon Nick Jones Comedy/Drama | Full-length
Seven Minutes in Heaven, HERE Arts Center, New York City (2010). Photo: Adrienne Campbell-Holt
Inspired by true events, Trevor is a subversive comedy about fame, success, and the lies we tell ourselves in order to keep people from taking away an erratic, 200-pound chimpanzee. At the center of this hilarious and heart-wrenching play are two individuals fighting against a world unable to understand their love: Trevor, a chimpanzee who once performed in commercials with the likes of Morgan Fairchild, and his owner Sandra, who swears he would never hurt a fly...at least not on purpose. A moving exploration of family, flawed communication, and humanity.
More plays and musicals available at playscripts.com
SECTION 1 | NEW
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Female Leads Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls | Naomi Iizuka
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ABOUT THIS SECTION | Covering the classics as well as new plays, this section lists plays that feature strong female leads. From Lysistrata to Nora, and everything in between, the lead roles in these plays are perfect for college-age women.
DollHouse | Theresa Rebeck
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Comedy | Full-length 5 males, 4 females | 9-11 actors possible
Drama | Full-length 3 males, 3 females, 2 either | 7-8 actors possible
A man moves to write the great American novel. A woman moves to Alaska to start a new life. Babies, wild dogs, komodo dragons, and hula dancers abound in this play about finding your tribe in a world gone haywire.
A contemporary adaptation of Ibsen's A Doll's House that sheds a fresh new light on Nora's struggle to reclaim herself. In the tony suburbs of Connecticut, Nora's children are cared for by a Jamaican nanny, her husband's best friend is in love with her, and her stifling marriage is crumbling. Nora also has a secret, the revelation of which irrevocably sets her life on a new course.
Anne of Green Gables | Peter DeLaurier
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Comedy/Drama | Full-length 3 males, 8 females | 11-13 actors possible
Exit, Pursued by a Bear | Lauren Gunderson
When aging brother and sister Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert send to the orphanage in Nova Scotia for a boy to help them on the farm, they get more than they bargain for. Due to a mix-up, they are instead left with 11-year-old Anne Shirley. Over the course of six years, this romantic, hot-headed, and energetic girl wins their hearts and turns the stodgy, rural Canadian community into a bright world of "kindred spirits." This swift yet theatrical adaptation of the classic novel is an all-ages crowd-pleaser.
Revenge Comedy | Full-length 2 males, 2 females | 4 actors possible
Dog Act | BUY Liz Duffy Adams Post-apocalyptic comedy | Full-length 3 males, 3 females | 6 actors possible Post-apocalyptic wilderness was never funnier. Follow the adventures of Zetta Stone, a traveling performer, and her companion Dog (a young man undergoing a voluntary species demotion) as they wander through the former northeastern United States. Zetta, Dog and their little troupe are on their way to a gig in China, assuming they can find it...and survive the journey. A theatrical, darkly comic variation on the classic doomsday genre, with five original songs.
BUY
Nan has decided to teach her abusive husband Kyle a lesson. With the help of her friend Simon (acting as her emotional—and actual—cheerleader) and a stripper named Sweetheart, she tapes Kyle to a chair and forces him to watch as they reenacts scenes from their painful past. In the piece de resistance, they plan to cover the room in meat and honey so Kyle will be mauled by a bear. Through this night of emotional trials and ridiculous theatrics, Nan and Kyle are both freed from their past in this smart, dark revenge comedy.
"Gunderson's script not only makes each character adorably quirky but engenders empathy for all four as well. This show contains enough offbeat and grisly—no pun intended—humor that the Bard's immortally funny line is a fitting title." —The Week Magazine
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FEMALE LEADS
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Finger Foods: An Evening of Short Plays | BUY Nina Shengold Comedy/Drama | Full-length 3 males, 5 females | 8-45 actors possible These seven short comedies and dramas provide a lightly surreal romp for actors, who play everything from ex-boyfriends in a police lineup (Forty to Life), to abandoned suitcases (Emotional Baggage), to four women of uncommon zen wisdom (Lives of the Great Waitresses). Together these pieces serve up a satisfying assortment of life experiences that are sometimes mysterious, sometimes hilarious, and always surprising.
Heddatron | BUY Elizabeth Meriwether Comedy/Drama | Full-length 6 males, 4 females, 2 either | 10-14 actors possible A pregnant housewife is abducted by robots and taken to the rainforest and forced to perform Hedda Gabler by her robot captors. Meanwhile, her family is back home in Michigan trying to find her, and Henrik Ibsen is in Norway attempting to write Hedda Gabler, as Strindberg taunts him. A hilarious and savage journey to freedom.
"Strangely moving... Achieves true, and truly original, theatrical transcendence... Magical... Brings to mind the heady fall down the rabbit hole that begins Alice's Adventures in Wonderland..." —Ben Brantley, The New York Times
Hiding in the Open | Kira Obolensky
Kate Crackernuts | Sheila Callaghan
BUY
BUY
Convoluted fairy tale | Full-length 4 males, 5 females, 10 either | 9-19 actors possible
Drama | Full-length 4 males, 6 females | 8-14 actors possible An adaptation of Sabina Zimering's memoir, Hiding in the Open tells the true story of two Jewish sisters from Poland who assume false Catholic identities and work in a Nazi hotel during World War II. Living in constant fear of having their identities revealed, the sisters bravely face danger and the challenges of growing up while keeping their heritage a secret. Thrilling and heart-warming, this story of survival and teenage courage examines the bonds of family and human kindness in the face of great atrocities.
Iphigenia and Other Daughters | Ellen McLaughlin
Hiding in the Open, History Theatre, St. Paul, Minnesota (2010).
BUY
Drama | Full-length 1 male, 9 females | 9-21 actors possible This three-play cycle is a modern retelling of the fall of the House of Atreus. It follows the children of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, siblings who are both players in the family tragedy and victims of it. The cycle of blood and vengeance seems inescapable until the final reunion of a lost sister and brother brings the bloody family saga to its mystical and unlikely end.
Kate's sister Anne, a ravishing beauty, wakes up one morning to discover a sheep's head between her shoulders. Thus begins the journey of the two sisters in their quest to return Anne's true head to its proper place. The journey is sidetracked, however, by Kate's obsession with a slim raver-boy who has a nasty little addiction. Based loosely and lyrically on the British fairy tale "Kate Crackernuts."
Kid-Simple: a radio play in the flesh Jordan Harrison | BUY Comedy | Full-length 3 males, 3 females, 1 either | 6-11 actors possible Moll, a girl who invents things, wins the science fair with a machine for hearing sounds that can't be heard. But when a shapeshifting Mercenary steals the invention (and her heart), she must embark on a quest to save noise as we know it. Accompanied by the last boy-virgin in the eleventh grade, Moll crosses chasms and rafts rivers into a world where sound is always more than what meets the ear. A quirky fable of innocence and experience, featuring live sound effects, mutinous onomatopoeia, and a host of woodsy temptations.
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Not sure what you’re looking for? Find A Play right now. Little Women | BUY Jacqueline Goldfinger
Pride and Prejudice | BUY Joseph Hanreddy and J.R. Sullivan
Comedy/Drama with music | Full-length 2 males, 5 females | 7 actors possible
Romantic Comedy | Full-length 10 males, 14 females | 23-26 actors possible
In this affecting, delightful adaptation of Alcott's classic novel, the four spirited March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—endeavor to sustain their family in the absence of their father, who is away fighting the Civil War. Led by their devoted Marmee and accompanied by music from the period, each girl struggles to overcome her own limitations to become the best version of herself, even in the midst of disease, jealousy, and poverty.
Marriage is an inevitable fact of life for the five Bennet sisters— Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia. With the family estate entailed away to their closest male cousin, their only hope to advance in life is to find a rich and single man—and one has just arrived in the form of the very handsome and very well-off Charles Bingley. The kindhearted and beautiful Jane seems poised to make a match, but must contend with her overly zealous mother, his snobbish sister, and a slippery social ladder. And when Bingley's taciturn friend Fitzwilliam Darcy shows an interest in the opinionated and spirited Elizabeth, the situation becomes more complicated than either of them expect. The fire and wit of Jane Austen's classic 1813 romance shines through in this vibrant new adaptation.
Lysistrata | BUY Ellen McLaughlin Comedy | Full-length 7 males, 13 females | 13-26 actors possible This fresh, fast-paced comedy, inspired by the Aristophanes play, follows Lysistrata, an Athenian housewife, who calls for the women of Greece to help end the Peloponnesian War. She proposes a radical plan: all Greek women must refuse to engage in love making until the men see reason, lay down their arms and come home to lay down with their wives in peace. The women agree to make the sacrifice and all hell breaks loose as men wander the country in an agony of unsatisfied lust. Will Lysistrata and her crew accomplish what the politicians could not?
Miss Julie | Craig Lucas
BUY
Drama | Full-length 1 male, 2 females | 3 actors possible In this new adaptation of Strindberg's classic drama, mistress of the house, Miss Julie, and her servant play a dangerous game of seduction in an effort to relieve themselves of their trapped existences. Using everything in their arsenals from sex to money, the two battle each other in a struggle for power and escape.
"Craig Lucas' mission in adapting Strindberg's Miss Julie was to remove the fussy Victorian attitudes that have hampered previous translations and are not faithful to the original. He has succeeded admirably in this new version." —Victor Gluck, Backstage
Quake | BUY Melanie Marnich Comedy/Drama | Full-length 3 males, 3 females | 5-17 actors possible Lucy is on a cross-country mission, looking for the love of her life. Her journey takes her across the American landscape, through hilarious and eccentric relationships in which time and emotion pass in a warped instant. When her quest becomes intertwined with that of a quirky female serial killer (an astrophysicist gone bad), the landscape changes once again, as they cross state lines and faultlines, exploring the geography of the human heart.
Schoolgirl Figure | Wendy MacLeod
BUY
Comedy | Full-length 1 male, 4 females | 5-11 actors possible Welcome to a high school where the in-crowd is the thin-crowd. The death of the uber-anorexic Monique, queen of the Carpenters, kicks off a scramble for the crown, and the school's hottest hottie, The Bradley. Renee, with the help of her bulimic best friend Patty, is determined to claim the crown by out-foxing her rival Jeanine and taking her body back to its pre-puberty contours. Let the diet wars begin!
"Playwright Wendy MacLeod's bitter black comedy is...sick. It's perverse. It's irreverent. And it's hilarious." —The Washington Post
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FEMALE LEADS
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Asa Somers and Lia Aprile in Tallgrass Gothic, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kentucky (2004). Photo: Harlan Taylor.
Tallgrass Gothic | Melanie Marnich
BUY
The Trojan Women | Ellen McLaughlin
BUY
Drama | Full-length 4 males, 2 females | 6 actors possible
Drama | Full-length 2 males, 12 females | 12-40 actors possible
The longing, isolation, desire and fear of the classic Jacobean tragedy The Changeling are transported to the Great Plains of the Midwest in this haunting tale. At the center of the story is Laura, whose need to leave her small, rural home and controlling husband is ignited when she falls in love with a man who offers her escape and a future. But in this place where history and its ghosts populate the landscape, Laura's hunger for a new beginning sets off a violent chain of events that leads her not out of town, but to a profound (and terrifying) understanding of her true nature.
In the wake of their devastating defeat, the women of Troy, all now widows, wait on the beach below the ravaged city to be claimed by their Greek conquerors as slaves and concubines. Though the war is over, exile and degradation lie ahead and the fates of these women, including Queen Hecuba, her daughter Cassandra, the doomed, mad prophetess, and her daughter-in-law Andromache, widow of the great Hector, are still in the balance.
"In Tallgrass Gothic, her lyric and strangely engrossing play...Marnich has sharply drawn some characters who may give the denizens of Wisteria Lane a run for their scandals... But the play is most exciting because of Marnich's promise as a writer. She has found a poetic, natural cadence for characters, and this heightened language is part of what makes Eugene O'Neill and August Wilson enduring figures." —Rohan Preston, Minneapolis Star Tribune
The Big Book of Moliere Monologues: Hilarious Performance Pieces from Our Greatest Comic Playwright
More plays and musicals available at playscripts.com
SECTION 1 | NEW
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One-Acts
ABOUT THIS SECTION | Listed in this section are our most popular one-acts for college-age actors and directors. From a modern adaptation of Antigone, to scenes from the wackiest dates you’ve ever seen (Check Please), the short plays below are perfect for study, in class performance, or studio shows.
13 Ways to Screw Up Your College Interview | BUY Ian McWethy Comedy | One-act 6 males, 7 females, 3 either | 4-16 actors possible When two college recruiters at a prestigious university need to fill one last spot to keep their jobs, thirteen eccentric, dimwitted and slightly-insane high school seniors are eager to come in for an interview. What seems like a simple task turns into a nightmare when the applicants turn out to be a reality TV star, a practicing vampire, an amateur magician, and others that are much, much worse. Each applicant’s interview hilariously illustrates what NOT to do at a college interview.
15 Reasons Not To Be in a Play Alan Haehnel | BUY Comedy | One-act 14 males, 14 females, 12 either | 15-67 actors possible This is a play about not being in a play, ironically expressed through a hilarious series of monologues, duets, and ensemble scenes. From early traumas involving a glory-seeking elementary school teacher to possible disturbances in the global climate, 15 Reasons Not To Be in a Play keeps the audience guessing just what scenario will be next.
Antigone Now | Melissa Cooper
BUY
Drama | One-act 1 male, 3 females | 4-11 actors possible In the midst of a bombed-out city still feeling the aftershocks of war, the rebellious and intense Antigone defies her uncle to bury her disgraced brother. This contemporary response to the myth of Antigone brings powerful, modern prose to an ancient and universal story.
Antigone Now, Dallas Theater Center (2003).
“This deeply stirring adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone ...proved the starkest, most electrifying and inspired piece the company has produced in years... It’s great for kids to see ancient theater connect so electrifyingly with their own world. But adult audiences deserve to see this superb experiment as well.” —Dallas Morning News
The Auditioners | Doug Rand
BUY
Comedy | One-act 3 males, 11 females | 3-14 actors possible This audition was supposed to be simple: prepare one classical monologue and one contemporary monologue. But when this challenge is taken up by a beauty queen, a stand-up comic, a slam poet, an Esperanto-speaking mime, and a parade of other crazies—most of whom insist on doing the same Lady Macbeth piece very badly—what’s a director to do?
More plays and musicals available at playscripts.com
ONE-ACTS
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Check Please | Jonathan Rand
BUY
Comedy | One-act 7 males, 7 females | 4-26 actors possible Dating can be hard. Especially when your date happens to be a raging kleptomaniac, or your grandmother’s bridge partner, or a mime. Check Please follows a series of blind dinner dates that couldn’t get any worse—until they do. Could there possibly be a light at the end of the tunnel?
Down Came the Rain | Burgess Clark
BUY
Drama | One-act 2 males | 2 actors possible
Matt Craig and Lucy Luedeke in Boy Meets Girl: A Young Love Story, Huntington University, Huntington, Indiana (2012)
Bake Off | Sheri Wilner
Eighteen-year-old Michael and his fourteen-year-old brother Brucie— who has been considered mentally “slow” since birth—venture out on a camping trip together. Brucie’s never-ending curiosity becomes increasingly unbearable to Michael, especially when the questions involve the death of their mother. Down Came the Rain is a touching, sad, and ultimately hopeful exploration of two vastly different brothers, and how they navigate the delicacy of family and truth.
I Dream Before I Take the Stand | Arlene Hutton
BUY
BUY
Comedy | One-act 2 males, 1 female | 3 actors possible
Drama | One-act 1 male, 1 female | 2 actors possible
Last year, the largest cash prize in Bake Off history was awarded to a man; this year, one female contestant will make sure that the male entrants get their just desserts...
A defense lawyer cross-examines a woman during her testimony in a sexual assault case—and in doing so, horribly distorts her perfectly innocent walk in the park.
“Top honors go to Sheri Wilner’s Bake Off, a devastatingly funny riff on the Pillsbury Bake-Off, in which contestant Rita, furious that a man won the previous year’s grand prize for the first time, goes to any lengths to keep well-meaning Paul from repeating the other man’s win.” —CurtainUp
Boy Meets Girl: A Young Love Story Sam Wolfson | BUY Comedy | One-act 1 male, 1 female | 2-4 actors possible Follow Sam and Katie as they go through the trials and tribulations of love at the tender age of five in this hilarious and sweet take on young romance. From the decision to check the “yes” box on their boyfriend/ girlfriend contracts to more serious conversations about past nap partners, Sam and Katie find themselves entering into a genuine relationship, all in the midst of worrying about the spelling bee, selling Girl Scout cookies, and figuring out what they want to be when they grow up.
“A non-stop 30-minute laughfest!!!” —The Los Angeles Times
Kissing Scene | Carl Martin
BUY
Comedy | One-act 1 male, 1 female | 2 actors possible An hour before acting class, Ashley and Richard meet to rehearse their scene. It calls for them to kiss five times, but whenever they get to the first kiss they break character to argue—about Richard’s lateness, about Ashley’s attitude, about who chose this scene and why. Does one of them have a secret crush on the other? They’ll have to rehearse the entire scene to find out—if they can make it that far.
Meet the Roommates | Jonathan Rand
BUY
Comedy | One-act 8 females, 8 males | 7-16 actors possible Two friends discover an incredible online simulator that shows them exactly what their future college roommate experiences will look like. Yet after a few minutes with a raging narcoleptic, a worldclass procrastinator, and a children’s party clown, it may be time to seriously consider living alone.
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The Most Massive Woman Wins | Madeleine George
BUY
Comedy/Drama | One-act 4 females | 4 actors possible Challenging, brutal and hilarious, four women of various shapes and sizes sitting in the waiting room of a liposuction clinic explore their perceptions of body image. The women reveal their experiences dealing with their weight issues through monologues, short scenes, and even schoolyard rhymes. From painful childhood memories to frustrations with the opposite sex, these experiences both haunt and empower these women as they imagine their way to a new vision of themselves as beautiful and whole.
“...a thought-provoking glimpse at the anguished consequences for women trying to conform to society’s often unattainable image of female beauty.” —Martin Hernandez, LA Weekly
Poof! | BUY Lynn Nottage Comedy | One-act 2 females | 2 actors possible When a housewife comes to the end of her rope with her abusive husband, she doesn’t expect him to spontaneously combust. Now she has a pile of ashes on the floor, and a life to reclaim.
The Role of Della | John Wooten
BUY
Comedy | One-act 3 females | 3 actors possible An eager young actress has her eye set on the role of Della, but can she convince a cold, sarcastic director that she’s right for the part? A riveting and riotous look at the contemporary audition process, giving new meaning to the term “stealing a scene.”
“Wooten has come up with a very witty ending. Give the playwright a candy bar—and make sure it’s an O. Henry.” —Peter Filichia, The Newark Star Ledger
The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet | BUY Peter Bloedel Comedy | One-act 6 males, 6 females, 12 either | 12-24 actors possible A whimsical reinvention of Shakespeare’s tragic love story, complete with rhymed couplets, creative wordplay, and fantastical machines—similar to something Dr. Seuss might have come up with if he ever had his way with the script...
Discover adaptations of your favorite children’s books.
The Siren Song of Stephen Jay Gould Benjamin Bettenbender | BUY Comedy | One-act 1 male, 1 female | 2 actors possible A man lands on a woman after trying to throw himself off a bridge in a botched suicide attempt. On the quiet riverbank, as he attends to her minor injury, he learns that she too was planning to end her life over a broken heart. An argument ensues over the relative seriousness of their respective losses, the nature of existence, and the harmful effects of the essays of biologist Stephen Jay Gould. Will this unexpected collision lead each of them back to the dark place where they started, or will they start anew?
The Whole Shebang | Rich Orloff
BUY
Comedy | One-act 1 male, 1 female, 4 either | 6 actors possible This play asks the question, “What if the entire universe was just some nerd’s science project?” In a classroom in a dimension far beyond ours, a student striving for a “Master of the Universe” degree gives an oral presentation on an unusual thesis—the creation of the heavens and the earth. Two professors and a dean interrogate the student and his two visual aids, a “typical” man and woman. (This play can also be performed as part of the full-length collection.)
“It’s a witty, whimsical, charming one-act play.” —New York Daily News
SUPERHEROES: With Great Power Comes Ordinary Responsibilities Ian McWethy | Coming Soon Comedy | One-act For superheroes, saving the world is tough, but the time spent away from work is tougher. The Hulk has to do taxes, sidekicks form a support group, and Batman goes stir-crazy without enough crime to fight. Superheroes is a funny, fast-paced series of vignettes that explores how the caped crusaders deal with life in street clothes.
More plays and musicals available at playscripts.com
SECTION 1 | NEW
PAGE 29
Anthologies 24 by 24: The 24 Hour Plays Anthology | BUY Will Eno, Tina Howe, David Ives, Terrence McNally, Adam Rapp, Theresa Rebeck, and more In 1995, a group of writers, directors and actors gathered on Manhattan’s Lower East Side for what was supposed to be a one-time-only event: write, direct, produce and perform new plays within the span of 24 hours. More than a decade and just over 300 plays later, The 24 Hour Plays have been produced on Broadway, in London, Los Angeles, Chicago and across the globe.
Funny, Strange, Provocative: Seven Plays from Clubbed Thumb | BUY Adam Bock, Sheila Callaghan, Erin Courtney, Lisa D’Amour, Rinne Groff, Ann Marie Healy, and Carson Kreitzer This anthology includes seven plays produced by Clubbed Thumb, the Obie Award-winning downtown New York City theater company that burst onto the new play scene in 1996. Edgy and thought-provoking, each play is funny, strange, and provocative in surprising, widely varying ways—including an apartment that both adores and despises its inhabitants in Crumble (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake), a metropolitan housewife who senses that something is watching her in 16 Spells to Charm the
ABOUT THIS SECTION | Playscripts offers a wide selection of anthologies from some of today’s most renowned theater companies, festivals, and playwrights. From modern classics to the best 10-minute plays, these anthologies are perfect for classroom study and performance.
Beast, and a group of traveling freak show performers who reveal a deep humanity underneath their crowd-drawing deformities in Freakshow, among other uniquely inventive stories. For over a decade, Clubbed Thumb has had its finger firmly planted on the pulse of new work, and these plays prove it.
California Scenarios | BUY Luis Alfaro, Rick Coca, Joann Farias, Anne Garcia-Romero, Jose Cruz Gonzalez, and Octavio Solis Rich in history, fantasy, triumph, and longing, this collection of short plays captures aspects of Latinos in California, from a group of women waiting in the night to be swept away by their bandit-boyfriend (Desert Longing or Las Aventureras by Anne Garcia-Romero), to a young monk who finds introspection in the form of a skeleton (The Seven Visions of Encarnacion by Octavio Solis). Inspired by Isamu Noguchi’s sculpture garden “California Scenario,” each play reveals a complex view of the California landscape as it has never been seen before.
Great Short Comedies, Volumes 1-6 | BUY Lucy Alibar, David Lindsay-Abaire, Werner Trieschmann, Daryl Watson, and more Fast and funny, these volumes contain short comedies that will split your side as you roll down the aisle busting a gut. From four young businessmen handling delicate negotiations over whether to like girls (Controlling Interest by Wayne S. Rawley),to a blue-collar family coming to terms with their absurd prejudices (How We Talk in South Boston by David Lindsay-Abaire), and many more these collections will make audiences laugh till it hurts.
More plays and musicals available at playscripts.com
ANTHOLOGIES
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Great Short Plays, Volumes 1-10 | BUY Liz Duffy Adams, Trista Baldwin, Taylor Mac, Elizabeth Meriwether, John Walch, and more With a diverse blend of themes, styles, and cast requirements, Great Short Plays contain extraordinary comedies and dramas. From the oldest living human with exactly ten minutes left before the end of the world (The Last Woman on Earth by Liz Duffy Adams), to a marriage reconciled with puppet therapy (The Rebirth of Beautiful by John Walch), these collections deliver a little bit of everything in half the time.
Humana Festival: The Complete Plays (2006-2013) | BUY Idris Goodwin, Lucas Hnath, Greg Kotis, Lisa Kron, Allison Moore, A. Rey Pamatmat, and more Each anthology brings together all ten scripts from the year’s Humana Festival of New American Plays, staged at Actors Theatre of Louisville. These unique compilations feature an exceptional array of work by some of the most exciting new voices in the American theatre, including Adam Rapp, Anne Washburn, A. Rey Pamatmat, Sharr White, Adam Bock and many more. These diverse compilations of plays are must-haves for anyone searching for challenging, captivating, and bold theater.
Random Acts of Comedy: 15 Hit OneAct Plays for Student Actors | BUY Julia Brownell, Ian McWethy, Ed Monk, Qui Nguyen, Rich Orloff, Jonathan Rand, Don Zolidis, and more Home of the most popular one-act plays for student actors, Playscripts, Inc. presents 15 of their very best short comedies. From a blind dating debacle to a silly Shakespeare spoof, from a fairy tale farce to a self-hating satire, this anthology contains hilarious large-cast plays that have delighted thousands of audiences around the world.
Snapshot | BUY Tanya Barfield, Lynn Nottage, Dan O’Brien, Craig Wright and more A photograph captures and documents a single moment in time and space—a snapshot of history, of a reality bounded by the photo’s frame. But what lies outside, beyond, behind the photograph? And what stories, memories, or associations does an image of place inspire? In this multi-writer project from Actors Theatre of Louisville, a diverse assortment of talented playwrights encounter and transform Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, 1969, a compelling image of the monument by renowned photographer Lee Friedlander. Their thought-provoking scenes and monologues range from delightful comedy to utterly serious tragedy, each approaching the photo’s themes through a new lens.
Naked Angels Issues Projects: Collected Plays | BUY Lee Blessing, Warren Leight, Kenneth Lonergan, Craig Lucas, Jon Robin Baitz, and more Since 1989, New York City’s Naked Angels has collaborated with some of America’s most beloved playwrights to create exciting, topical plays for their time-honored tradition: The Issues Project. The short plays within this collection respond to resonant themes from gun control to the environment, faith to human rights.
Act a Lady (Humana Festival 2006: The Complete Plays), Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kentucky (2006). Photo: Harlan Taylor.
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ANTHOLOGIES
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Ten-Minute Plays from the Guthrie Theater Volumes 1-3 | BUY Joan Ackermann, Carson Kreitzer, Melanie Marnich, Kira Obolensky, and more Since its founding in 1963, the Guthrie Theater of Minneapolis has pioneered the American regional theater movement, bringing to life both the traditional classical repertoire and a diverse body of new works. The ten-minute plays in this series were commissioned by the theater for its Guthrie Experience summer acting conservatory. Each volume includes plays by outstanding playwrights, every one expanding the possibilities of the ten-minute form.
The Civilians: An Anthology of Six Plays | BUY Neal Bell, Steven Cosson, Michael Friedman, Anne Washburn, and The Civilians Collected for the first time in one volume are six inventive theater pieces created by Obie Award-winning theater company The Civilians. Based on the creative investigation of actual experience, and often intertwined with experimental cabaret, their pieces are boldly theatrical and always unique—from a story about a Hollywood movie and a lost flock of geese (Canard, Canard, Goose?); to a tale about things lost and found, charting a musical landscape of loss (Gone Missing); to a dark ride through the landscape of American public culture, asking a thorny question: how do we know what we know when everyone in power seems to be lying? ((I Am) Nobody’s Lunch).
Thornton Wilder’s Playlets: Short, Short Plays for 3-5 Persons | BUY Thornton Wilder This anthology by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Thornton Wilder is a collection of twenty-two very short plays, three of which are published here for the very first time. These snapshots of the creative spirit at play explore a variety of complex characters that range from the ordinary to the biblical, the haunted to the mystical. From the tale of a conflicted composer with a strangely familiar tune stuck in his head (The Song of Maria Bentedos), to a pair of newlyweds who find themselves bizarrely affected by the color of their hotel’s tea room (Flamingo Red: A Comedy in Danger), all these tales—many told with great wit and humor—ask the thought-provoking questions of mortality, morality, and faith that Thornton Wilder is famous for asking.
Canard, Canard, Goose? (The Civilians: An Anthology of Six Plays), HERE Arts Center, New York City (2002). Photo: Leslie Lyons.
Twas the Night Before | BUY Christopher Durang, Len Jenkin, Roger Rosenblatt, Elizabeth Swados, and Mac Wellman A collection of five Christmas-themed short plays from New York City’s acclaimed Flea Theater. From a family sitting down to read “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” with unexpected results (Not a Creature Was Stirring), to elves rapping about bloody films (Holiday Movies), to an irreverent take on the story of Jesus’ birth (Away in the Manger), these comedies and dramas take on the holiday season like never before.
Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (30 plays in 60 minutes): 90 Plays from the First 25 Years of the Neo-Futurists Greg Allen | Coming Soon The longest-running show in Chicago history, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind comprises 90 1-minute plays from the Neo-Futurists, the ensemble that dares to attempt “30 Plays in 60 Minutes,” letting the audience choose which plays will be performed, and in what sequence. Comedy, tragedy, social consciousness, and meta-theatrical mayhem are all represented in this unique collection that presents the ultimate challenge: how many plays can you perform once the 60-minute timer starts to tick?
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SECTION 1 | NEW
PAGE 32 CAST OF CHARACTERS BRIAN, 18 years old | MELISSA, 18 years old | DARLA, 18 years old | EM, 18 years old ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Sleep was first performed at The Stella Adler Studio of Acting Teen Rehearsal and Performance Program on August 13th and 14th, 2010 in New York City. It was directed by Melissa Ross and starred Shaina Ferguson, Minou Clark, Hugh Smith and Annie Rasiel. It was subsequently produced by Rattlestick Playwrights Theater as part of TheatreJam June 2, 2013 in New York City. It was directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel and starred Emma Galvin, Pico Jogalla, Emily Perkins, and Marie Polizzano.
Sleep
PLEASE NOTE: To perform this play you must obtain performance rights at playscripts.com.
By Adam Szymkowicz ADAM SZYMKOWICZ’s plays have been produced throughout the U.S., and in Canada, England, The Netherlands, Germany and Lithuania. Published full length plays include Deflowering Waldo, Pretty Theft, Food For Fish, Hearts Like Fists, Clown Bar, The Why Overhead, and Nerve. Adam received a Playwright’s Diploma from The Juilliard School’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program and an MFA from Columbia University where he was the Dean’s Fellow. Szymkowicz is a two-time Lecomte du Nouy Prize winner, a member of the Dramatists Guild, Writer’s Guild of America, Primary Stages’ Dorothy Strelsin New American Writer’s Group, the MCC Playwright’s Coalition and was a founding member of the Ars Nova Play Group.
His plays are published by Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French, Playscripts, Original Works Publishing, Indie Theater Now and featured in New York Theatre Review ’07 and ’09, NYTE’s Cino Nights, and numerous Smith and Kraus books. He has written articles for Howlround, New York Theatre Magazine and The Brooklyn Rail and has interviewed over 600 playwrights on his blog. He also has a web series called Compulsive Love and a comic strip called Toys In My House Comics. For more, www.adamszymkowicz.com.
(BRIAN, MELISSA, DARLA and EM speak to the audience from
DARLA. Where am I?
separate spaces. Their speech may overlap.)
BRIAN. On Saturday—
DARLA. Where am I?
DARLA. On Saturday—
BRIAN. All I want is to be taken seriously. Is that so much to ask?
EM. On Saturday—
MELISSA. I just— It doesn’t make sense.
MELISSA. It was a day like any other. I woke up early to run.
EM. The truth is, there are a limited number of happy people in the
BRIAN. I woke up at ten.
world at any given time.
EM. I woke up at noon.
DARLA. Where am I?
DARLA. I didn’t wake up.
MELISSA. I just…give me a minute.
(Beat.)
BRIAN. Look at me. See me.
BRIAN. On Monday—
EM. The more people that are aware of how many unknowable
EM. On Monday—
things there are, the more people are unhappy. But of course more
MELISSA. On Monday—
people are being born all the time. The number of happy people on
EM. They told us.
the earth is a constant. I can show you the math.
(A shift.)
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FREE PLAY | Sleep, by Adam Szymkowicz
PAGE 33
BRIAN. I am her best friend. Why would they not tell me? No, I’m
BRIAN. But I love you.
not her boyfriend. But that’s just something we decided. As adults.
DARLA. See, why’d you have to go and say that?
Don’t diminish my friendship with her. Don’t diminish me. You
BRIAN. I didn’t have to.
could have told me. Sure I was surprised not to hear from her over
DARLA. Then don’t. I think we should just be friends. Don’t you?
the weekend and was surprised that she didn’t answer the phone or
BRIAN. I guess.
text me back, but it wasn’t alarming. I didn’t think it was alarming.
DARLA. Good. That’s a relief.
EM. Darla and I haven’t been friends in a while. And there are lots
BRIAN. Yeah. I mean—
of reasons for that, none of them entirely clear. And it makes me
DARLA. I’m glad we decided this like adults.
sad, but that’s how it is. Still when they had an assembly to tell us
BRIAN. (Defeated:) Yeah.
about her, it hit me hard, and when they said you could go talk to
DARLA. What are you having? I’m going to have a grilled cheese.
the school psychiatrist if you wanted, I found that I wanted. Or something. I want something. MELISSA. I don’t want to talk to some ass clown school shrink. What does she know about Darla? What could she possibly know? Who the hell even falls into a coma for no reason? It just doesn’t happen. I mean she’s eighteen, not eighty. She didn’t have head trauma or a drug overdose she just went to sleep and kept sleeping. Someone explain it to me!
(BRIAN gets up from the table. DARLA lies down on the table, in her coma. BRIAN talks to MELISSA in the present.) MELISSA. You’re not going to the shrink, are you? BRIAN. I don’t know. We could go to the hospital. MELISSA. Is she even in there? BRIAN. I don’t know. MELISSA. It doesn’t make any sense. BRIAN. I know.
(Beat. No one explains it.) BRIAN. Last week. At the West End Diner. (BRIAN sits at a table with DARLA.) BRIAN. Do you know what you want? DARLA. I don’t know.
MELISSA. Just last week we were waiting for a ride after cross country and she said— DARLA. (Sitting up and moving into MELISSA’s space:) Melissa, I don’t know. MELISSA. What?
BRIAN. Because—
DARLA. I just can’t handle the weight of it any more.
DARLA. Stop. BRIAN. No, I was just going to say— DARLA. Please, Brian. Sometimes it’s just so tiring. BRIAN. What is? DARLA. You have to be sick of it too. BRIAN. Sure. (Beat.) Wait, what? DARLA. Just all the stupid things we’re expected to do in a normal day. Everything wants something from you, all the time. I’m just so exhausted of the whole thing. BRIAN. I don’t know what you mean. DARLA. You know what I mean.
MELISSA. The weight of what? DARLA. There are so many terrible things happening in the world at any given time. Mass murders, destructions of virgin forests, the creation of more plastic, people dropping out of school, not enough drinking water, oppression, home schooling, unemployment, focus groups, yellow number five, the push to ignore science, the lack of understanding, diseased animals, unsafe farming, the lack of justice, general assholery. MELISSA. Oh. DARLA. Doesn’t it bother you? MELISSA. I try not to think about it.
BRIAN. I don’t want anything. DARLA. That’s exactly wrong. You’re a good example. I mean you and I are great.
DARLA. It makes me so tired. MELISSA. Yeah. I’m going to get a bottle of water. You want one? DARLA. Melissa, don’t be part of the problem.
BRIAN. Yeah.
(DARLA lies back down.)
DARLA. What we have is great. BRIAN. Right.
MELISSA. (To BRIAN:) Do you think I’m part of the problem?
DARLA. But you want something more.
BRIAN. No. I mean, you didn’t put her in a coma.
BRIAN. Well—
MELISSA. I didn’t, did I? It’s not my fault.
DARLA. You know it’s true. You’re going to ruin our friendship.
BRIAN. No. It’s my fault.
Youchave to stop.
(EM approaches.)
BRIAN. Stop what?
EM. Um, hi. Sorry, um. You guys are friends with Darla, right?
DARLA. Stop sending that kind of energy my way. It’s only causing
MELISSA. What do you care?
me pain.
BRIAN. (Scolding:) Melissa. (To EM:) Yeah we are.
BRIAN. Pain?
EM. I used to be friends with her.
DARLA. Irritation!
BRIAN. Oh. Cool.
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FREE PLAY | Sleep, by Adam Szymkowicz
PAGE 34
EM. I was just wondering. Are you going to visit her? In the
MELISSA. Yeah.
hospital, I mean?
EM. The smell.
MELISSA. Yeah. I think so.
MELISSA. Yeah.
(Pause.)
(They get to DARLA.)
BRIAN. You want to come?
BRIAN. I’ve never seen her so calm.
EM. Can I?
MELISSA. It’s unnatural.
MELISSA. Do you have a car?
EM. I wonder what she’s thinking.
EM. Sort of.
BRIAN. Should we say something?
(They go to her “car.” EM opens the doors.)
MELISSA. What? Like a eulogy.
EM. Sorry it’s such a mess. Just put all that crap on the floor.
BRIAN. No, like, “Hi?” I don’t know.
(The three get in EM’s car.)
(EM steps up.)
EM. St. Thomas’?
EM. Darla, it’s Em. Hi. I know we haven’t talked in a while but we
BRIAN. Yeah.
used to be good friends. And I miss you. I hope that when you
(EM drives. They are all silent.)
come out of this we can be friends again. If you want. I promise to
MELISSA. This sucks.
not ignore you in the halls and I will be there for you, in various
BRIAN. Yeah.
ways, if you want me to… Just so you know. So…OK.
MELISSA. I mean, what the hell, Darla!?
(EM kind of steps away and BRIAN steps up.)
(Silence.)
BRIAN. Hey, it’s me. Hey. How’s it going in there? You feel rested?
BRIAN. How did you know her?
(Beat.) Sorry. I know I’m part of the problem. So, sorry about that.
EM. When we were kids, we played a lot.
What can I say? I love you. I can’t help it. You’re different. You see
(DARLA gets up and becomes her younger self. She reveals dolls
things other people don’t see. I wish I was more like you. Come
which she puts to sleep in various places on the stage.)
back, will you? I promise I won’t bother you. I’ll try not to.
EM. She lived right down the street from me so we would play. She
(BRIAN steps back. MELISSA’s turn.)
liked to put all the dolls to sleep. One by one, we would put them
MELISSA. Listen, I’m sorry so much of the world sucks. I am. But
all down. And she would always say—
dropping out doesn’t help anyone. It makes it a little harder for the
DARLA. Goodnight. Enjoy your rest. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep.
world when you’re not around. So wake up, OK? Stop screwing
Sleep.
around. I’m serious. I’ll kick your ass if you don’t come out of that
EM. Then she would do it again. And again. Until all of the babies
coma right now!
were asleep.
(Does DARLA shift slightly or do they just act like she did?)
(DARLA does this.)
EM. What was that?
BRIAN. I bet she was real cute when she was a kid.
MELISSA. Did she move? I think she moved.
(The others say nothing. They arrive at the hospital. DARLA lies
BRIAN. Darla?
back down. They get out of the car, go to her.)
(They watch her. DARLA doesn’t move. Blackout.)
EM. I hate hospitals.
END OF PLAY
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