- My Own Personal Mermaid by David Steven Simon
Drama/ 1 character, 1 woman any age/ One Act
Synopsis: My Own Personal Mermaid is a one-act, one-woman play (for an actress of any age) that navigates themes of loss, grief and renewal in a style of magical realism. The story is seen through the eyes of writer Mags Prescott as she reads a selection from her newly-published, autobiographical novel, that takes us back to when she was a brilliant eight-year-old living on Park Avenue, and about to lose her enchanted mother to cancer. Mag’s only coping mechanism is the extraordinary imagination that will guide her through her harrowing, heart-of-darkness journey, ...
Read more . . . - Life on the Moon by Anna Tatelman
Drama/ 4 characters, 2 women, 2 men/ Full Length
Synopsis: Life on the Moon is a family drama about Spencer, a young infantryman in the U.S. army, returning home for Christmas to visit his parents and Piper, his 18-year-old sister with autism. As Spencer and his parents struggle to celebrate the holiday, it’s Piper who notices what everyone else misses, but is unable to communicate her observations or frustrations.
…
From Encore Michigan: “Tatelman doesn’t shy away from portraying the challenges faced by a person with disability and those who live with her. This is not a sappy Hallmark story filled with tired ...
Read more . . . - The Not-So-Secret Life of Rowena Riddle (Superhero) by Zoe Henderson
Comedy/ 1 character, 1 female/ One Act
Synopsis: Meet Rowena Riddle: middle-aged superhero and irrepressible raconteuse. She is on a mission. The only problem is … she can’t remember what it is! Can the audience help her?
In the meantime, sit back and listen to tales about her thrilling adventures and watch her demonstrate her (very) unusual superpower.
Performance rights must be secured before production
Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
Zoe Henderson
heyzoehend@gmail.com
Ph: (647) 667-0182
About the Playwright: Zoe Henderson is a multi-disciplinary artist/educator living in Nanaimo, B.C., Canada. She is Artistic Director of Nanaimo Young People’s Theatre.
The Not-So-Secret Life of Rowena Riddle (Superhero) was first produced by ...
Read more . . . - The Lovers of Cealg by Serjio Castrellon
Drama/ 11 characters (doubling is recommended), 6 female, 5 male characters/ Full Length, Two Acts
Synopsis: Charming, up-and-coming actor Ted Cealg is about to hit it big; he’s the star of the new movie The Jester’s Plight. But when three former lovers come forward with stories about their relationship with Ted and how he left a scar for each of them to carry, he begins to face the consequences of his past. Ted’s pride becomes his armour against remorse during an era where accountability is demanded of all of us.
As Ted’s team of Hollywood agents tries to mitigate the scandals coming ...
Read more . . . - She’s Really Trying by George Freek
Comedy/ 10 characters, 4 female, 5 male, 1 either/ One Act
Synopsis: The family has gathered at Ma and Pa’s farm, worried about Ma’s probable cancer. As they await the arrival of Doc Baum and his diagnosis, various concerns emerge. Mary Lou fears that husband Stanley no longer finds her attractive, and also that Stanley’s brother Howard intends to cut Stanley out of his inheritance. And they all realize Pa is not up to dealing with financial complications. Meanwhile, Stanley is deeply worried about Mary Lou’s increasing drinking, which seems to revolve around Stanley’s mysteriously absent friend, Chip.
Can their concerns be ...
Read more . . . - Finding Neil Patrick Harris by Donna Hoke
Comedy/ 6 Characters, 3 Women, 3 Men (3 actors total; 4 of the characters are played by 1 actor)/ Full Length, 90 mins.
Synopsis: When frenemy nail techs Cha-Cha and Katie are privileged to hear a favorite customer’s bizarre dying wish, they set off to make it come true. In their quest to find Neil Patrick Harris, they discover that what they’ve been searching for has been right in front of them.
From Washington City Paper: “The quest begins at a spa in upstate New York (Hoke’s script suggests Buffalo, where she lives), where two nail technicians, Katie and Cha-Cha are giving a ...
Read more . . . - Monster Girl by Dan Taube
Drama/ 6 Characters, 4 female 2 male, some doubling possible (Mother/Dr. Ack and Father/Jay)/ One Act
Synopsis: Monster Girl is obsessed with monsters. Her nocturnal pals help to keep her safe from the real monsters of this world — predatory cousins, vicious brothers and uncaring parents. She is alone in this world until she meets another “weird kid” — Anna — at a party circa 1982.
Performance rights must be secured before production
Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
Dan Taube
taubedan@gmail.com
Ph: 773-580-4633
About the Playwright: Dan Taube lives in the Chicago, Illinois area. He has had several readings of his work through Chicago Dramatists and Naked Angels ...
Read more . . . - The Weavers by Jonathan Talmadge
Comedy/ 30+ Characters, gender neutral, flexible casting/ One Act
Synopsis: As Emperor Coco and her loyal assistant Nadia host Sartoria’s annual fashion show, the renowned Weavers arrive, announcing that they are on vacation and are definitely not available to create clothing from their unique, magic cloth that only the wise can see.
Coco convinces them to make the garments for her anyway. As they work, she sends her staff and cabinet to check the progress. They see nothing, but say that they do. Only Nadia tells the truth, and Coco banishes her in anger.
Nadia teams up with Karski, a member of The ...
Read more . . . - Fly A Kite by Fred Rohan-Vargas
Comedy/ 2 Characters, 2 males/ One Act
Synopsis: An off-duty policeman releases his frustrations with his wife by going to the park and flying his kite. While there, he comes across a teacher lying in the grass, reading his newspaper. The teacher is startled by the policeman shooting birds who come near his kite. The two are soon at odds, until they start talking about the problems they’re having with their significant others, which creates a testosterone bond between the two.
Performance rights must be secured before production
Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
Fred Rohan-Vargas
rohanvargas@gmail.com
fred@miuprod.com
About the Playwright: Fred Rohan-Vargas is the author of several full-length, ...
Read more . . . - Dear Miss Ophelia by Maria Rio
Comedy/ 18-20 Characters, gender flexibility; Ophelia is female, all other characters can be male or female/ One Act
Synopsis: Miss Happy, Mr. Hurry, Miss Shy and various other children in New York City have a problem: Nobody understands them, and their parents and teachers criticize them just for being themselves! They decide they’d like to try being someone else for awhile, and write to Miss Ophelia of the “Dear Ophelia” advice column to ask for help. When they don’t hear back, they embark on a journey to Ophelia Headquarters in Chicago to demand some answers.
Alarmed by their disappearance, the President of ...
Read more . . . - The Dangerous Christmas by Charles Carr
Drama/ 9 Characters, 4 men, 5 women, some gender flexibility/ Full Length, Three Acts
Synopsis: “It’s the holidays. Keep murder in the family,” suggests The Dangerous Christmas, the newest hit comedy-thriller from master storyteller and multiple award-winning author Charles Carr. Inspired by actual events, The Dangerous Christmas details how a mysterious antique and the man determined to possess it by any means pull friends into a decades-old murder that turns their world upside down and threatens their very lives.
The Dangerous Christmas deftly blends a challenging mystery that will keep you guessing with wry humor and a heartfelt message about the meaning ...
Read more . . . - The Goodies by Alan Rossett
Comedy/ 2 women, or 8 women play 8 characters/ Full Length, Two Acts
Synopsis: Beware au pair girls! Annie, a first-time mother at 35, hires Bibi, an exuberant 18-year old, to care for her baby while she returns to work. Bibi is keen, but when Annie returns home one evening to find that her new hire has gone off dancing and the baby has nearly burned down his nursery, she fires her.
An agency sends her a series of replacements, each more dreadful than the last. Meanwhile, Bibi’s next employer is Granny, an old crone who has gained custody of her grandson ...
Read more . . . - Tide Beyond The Rift by Fred Rohan-Vargas
Comedy-drama/ 4 Characters, 2 men, 2 women/ Full Length, app. 90 minutes
Synopsis: Liza, a middle school teacher, has found happiness with her husband, Bill, and their daughter, Kelly. In her past is an emotional wound: As a child, she was brought to America as part of Operation Peter Pan, a CIA-run mission to remove children from Fidel Castro’s Cuba. As a result, she spent most of her youth in an orphanage. But she has put that behind her — or so she thinks.
One day, she receives a letter from her long-lost father, Sebastian, asking if he may visit her. She is ...
Read more . . . - Cathexis…or is it something else? by Julie Marino
Comedy/ 6 Characters, 3 men, 3 women/ Full Length, Two Acts
Synopsis: Tony-winning playwright Brett has lost his creative mojo and ended up at a small regional theater as Artist-in-Residence, hoping to fix the disaster that is his latest script. But Brett does not play well with others, and he especially doesn’t want input from those he considers small-town wannabes and not in his league.
Meanwhile, the members of the company, all hard-working professionals with years of experience, have no patience for the carryings-on of divas. After weeks of putting up with Brett’s resistance and tantrums, the cast decides to rewrite the ...
Read more . . . - James Joyce on the Witches’ Sabbath by Giuseppe Cafiero
Drama/ 13 Characters, 9 men, 4 women, doubling possible/ Full Length, Two Parts
Synopsis: 1934. Kusnacht, Switzerland. Herr Dr. Gustav Jung’s clinic for the mentally ill. One of the patients is Miss Lucia Joyce. In a nightmarish atmosphere, her father, the Irish writer James Joyce, is pressed by the ghosts of his past to revisit his life, and his relationship with a daughter lost to madness and love for him.
The ghosts gradually become the protagonists of the drama. In song and word, they reconstruct the fragments of Joyce’s love-hate bond with Lucia, as well as his resentment towards Ireland, which ultimately ...
Read more . . . - Idols by Nicholas Bompart
Comedy-Drama/ 11 Characters, 4 men, 5 women, 2 Either-Or, multiple casting possible/ Full-Length, 70 mins.
Synopsis: As a pianist plays in a corner of the stage, we meet Alex, a 10-year old piano prodigy who has been diagnosed with ADHD after getting into trouble at school. His parents are given an ultimatum: Alex must take Ritalin or face expulsion. As they struggle with the choice, Alex’s grandparents object. Russian immigrants, they have vivid memories of the 2nd World War, when Hitler gave the drug to his troops. They don’t want to see Alex turned into “an obedient little soldier.”
Meanwhile, Alex ...
Read more . . . - Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, adapted by Lee Wilson
Drama/ 40 characters: 21 Nonbinary, 11 Female, 8 Male, 8 actors minumum, doubling/tripling possible/ One Act
Synopsis: Charles Dickens himself takes us through this new adaptation of one of the greatest Christmas stories ever told. Lee Wilson had yet to find a version of Dickens’ masterpiece that satisfied him as a director, so he was inspired to create one. He has endeavoured to create a version that is true to Dickens’ original story and also catered towards non-traditional proscenium theatre spaces (although this version works beautifully on those as well).
Performance rights must be secured before production
Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
Lee Wilson
wilsonle@tcd.ie
Ph.: ...
Read more . . . - The Valiant by Lee Wilson
Drama/ 4 Men, 1 Woman, or non-binary/ One Act
Synopsis: Adapted from the original by Holworthy Hall and Robert Middlemass, The Valiant tells the story of James Dyke, a confessed killer who has been sentenced to die. As he awaits execution at a prison in Connecticut, the warden, chaplain, and others fight to learn his real identity and why he is so determined to take this secret with him to the grave. Then, on the night of Dyke’s execution, a young woman shows up adamant that this prisoner is her long-lost brother.
We are taken through many twists and turns, as she ...
Read more . . . - Wall: A Product of Resourcefulness and Efficiency in America’s Never-Ending Battle for Absolute Supremacy and General All-Around Kick-Assedness — by J.R. Spaulding Jr.
Comedy/ 11 characters + ensemble, 4 men, 2 women, 5 gender-fluid, 3 characters may be doubled/ Full Length, Two Acts
Synopsis: A team of idealistic Americans sets out to build a “grandiloquent wall of epic proportions” as a symbolic testimony to America’s strength and all-around kick-assedness. However, after receiving a cease and desist notice from the Dept. of Redundancy, Waste, and Red Tape, they discover that their blue-collar intentions may not be so well-received by those in charge.
Brilliantly written . . . . Accurately capture(s) the absurdity of the state of the nation. – The Columbus Underground
Most of Wall may be read ...
Read more . . . - The Myth of Summer by Conni Massing
Comedy/ 8 Characters, 5 women, 3 men/ Full Length, Two Acts
Synopsis: A lightning strike and the inspirational story of Joan of Arc trigger a series of magical occurrences for 16-year old Jessica and everyone else around her caught up in the fleeting euphoria of this most maddening season of the year. German massage therapist Werner and frantic puppeteer Melanie fall in love over dreams of the Canadian wilderness and French erudition, both of which turn out to be empty promises. Party planning duo Dacia and Kevin orchestrate important events for others while deluding themselves about the lack of meaning in ...
Read more . . . - Bertha and Bertman by Zsolt Pozgai
Drama/ 1 Man, 1 Woman/ Full Length, Two Acts
Synopsis: Bertha, a nurse, lives peacefully in her apartment in Austria. She has had no success in finding a partner, but has resigned herself to the situation. One day, an unexpected guest arrives. Her love from grammar school — an established, wealthy man, youthful and athletic. But lonely. He lives with his mother, who is terminally ill. He needs somebody, a partner who loves him.
Bertha welcomes him. They live together. The man takes her on fabulous journeys. They sometimes visit his mother in the hospital. She is glad that her son is ...
Read more . . . - A Road To Nowhere by David Earle
Drama / 7 Characters, 5 Men, 2 Women/ One act
Synopsis: Lost and alone at night on an unfamiliar, desolate country road following an auto accident, Sam Kaufman, a middle-aged businessman, seeks help at an eerily unimpressive roadside motel. Its bleak and depressing ambience, however, is nothing compared to the bizarre behavior of the manager and his guests. Gradually, Sam comes to realize the macabre circumstances of where he is and that the road that led him to this motel was, in fact, a road to nowhere.
This stage version of A Road to Nowhere is the basis for the multiple award ...
Read more . . . - Oh! Christmas Tree by Conni Massing
Comedy/ 2 Characters, 1 Man, 1 Woman/ Full Length, app. 90 minutes
Synopsis: Algar and Lucy have just moved in together and plan to get married. Lucy, a hysterically busy party planner, is the youngest of four sisters in a claustrophobically close-knit Scandinavian family. Algar, on the other hand, is an only child who has purposely moved to the opposite side of the country from his parents. The two have embraced their differences — and each other — except, now that it’s December, there’s trouble on the horizon.
Algar has thus far managed to avoid much of the seasonal brouhaha during his ...
Read more . . . - Postnuptials by David Earle
Comedy (Farce)/ 10 Characters, 6 Men, 4 Women/ Full Length, Two Acts
Synopsis: A ménage à trois of love, secrets, and drag, set in present-day Fresno, California, that begins shortly after newlyweds Kevin and Lillian cross the threshold into matrimony only to have their first night of wedded bliss degenerate into a nightmare of chaos and confusion. A female impersonator from the Las Vegas strip named Joey (a.k.a. Amber Star) arrives at their apartment with the intent of finding closure with the husband who jilted him the morning after their impromptu wedding in The Little Chapel on the Strip. News that ...
Read more . . . - The Cruel Lesson by Valentin Krasnogorov
Drama/ 4 Characters, 2 Women, 2 Men/ Full Length, Two Acts
Synopsis: The Cruel Lesson is inspired by a real psychological experiment that received broad international attention. Two students, guided by their professor, torture a woman for scientific purposes. As the strange experiment proceeds, the personal relationships of all four participants are rocked by ethical questions and emotional dilemmas. A riveting play about the social and psychological roots of cruelty, and the fine line between moral and immoral actions, The Cruel Lesson, which has proven especially popular among young people, keeps the audience on the edge of their seats.
Performance rights must ...
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