| Qui Nguyen. Originally from Arkansas, Qui Nguyen is a Brooklyn-based writer, fight choreographer, and co-artistic director of the OBIE award-winning Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company. His scripts include Krunk Fu Battle Battle (East West Players); Bike Wreck (produced at Youngblood and Metropolitan Playhouse); Trial By Water (produced at Ma-Yi Theater/Queens Theatre in the Park); Aliens Vs. Cheerleaders (Keen Teens); and the critically acclaimed Vampire Cowboys productions of The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G, Alice in Slasherland, Fight Girl Battle World, Men of Steel, Living Dead in Denmark, Stained Glass Ugly, A Beginner's Guide to Deicide, Vampire Cowboy Trilogy, and Soul Samurai. Additionally, he is a resident playwright of New Dramatists, a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, co-director of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, an alumnus of Youngblood, and an advanced actor/combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors. He has an MFA in Playwriting from Ohio University. |
|
|
|
Horror Comedy
Full-length, 80-90 minutes
3 females, 3 males (6-10 actors possible: 3-5 females, 3-5 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
When young Lewis Diaz accidentally resurrects the soul of a brutally slain girl named Alice, he unwittingly unleashes a literal hell on Earth. Now, with every imaginable kind of demon, monster, and killer ravaging his small town, it's up to Lewis and his newly undead companion to protect his classmates -- including longtime crush Margaret -- from becoming freshly slaughtered carcasses. With the help of Alice's trash-talking demonic teddy bear, Lewis races to find a way to close the rift before the devil himself shows up and totally ruins their senior prom.
|  |
|
 |
| "A geek kid's theater dream come true!" |
| --Christina Ku, Show Business Weekly |
|
|
|
|
Action comedy
Short, 25-30 minutes
6 females, 4 males, 4 either
(10-12 actors possible: 6-10 females, 4-8 males)
$40.00 per performance; $7.99 per book
After aliens abduct and scan two unsuspecting teenagers' brains to find their leader, they are led to Principal Forsman of Saint Valley High School. Little do the power-hungry aliens suspect that the school's cheerleading squad is full of brains, brawn, and butt-kicking skills. But when the cheerleaders are overpowered, it's up to hipster outsider Molly and her nerdy sidekick Lewis to step in and save the planet. (This play was specially commissioned by Playscripts for high school actors.)
|  |
|
|
|
Comedy
Full-length, 90-100 minutes
2 females, 3 males (5-15 actors possible: 2-7 females, 3-12 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
A young Catholic schoolgirl named Lucy launches an unholy crusade to undo the biggest mistake ever made: human existence. Bolstered by a mighty battle axe and her brilliant but nerdy sister Mary, Lucy conducts a merciless murder spree backwards through time, lopping off the heads of great religious thinkers from Darwin to Dante in her mission to find God and destroy him -- before he can create the torment of life as we know it.
| |
|
|
| "...few playwrights could dream up a heretical, post-modern stew of a show like this one. Nguyen and Parker have the fearless, take-no-prisoners bravura of early Monty Python." |
| --Martin Denton, nytheatre.com |
|
|
|
|
Dark comedy
Short, 20-25 minutes
3 males
$35.00 per performance; $9.99 per book
NOTE: This play is part of an anthology called Great Short Plays: Volume 6.
A rookie to the world of Chinese food delivery learns the rules of the game.
|  |
|
|
| "Bike Wreck, Qui Nguyen's jauntily violent urban tale about an African-American bike messenger and a Chinese deliveryman, [shows] how their paths tragicomically intersect with that of an arrogant businessman. Besides jokes about race, class and gentrification, Nguyen glosses the gritty pulp with philosophical depth." |
| --David Cote, Time Out New York |
|
|
|
|
Drama/Comedy
Various durations
Various cast requirements
$9.99 per book
NOTE: This book contains 10 plays. To perform any of the plays, each must be licensed separately.
With a diverse blend of themes, styles, and cast requirements, Great Short Plays: Volume 6 contains ten extraordinary comedies and dramas. From an unlikely and hilarious friendship between a tough black messenger and a quiet Asian delivery boy (Bike Wreck by Qui Nguyen), to a very revealing wedding dance (Mr. and Mrs. by Julie Marie Myatt), to the powerful relationship between an Israel boy and a Palestinian girl (Holier Ground by Jonathan Denn), these collections deliver a little bit of everything in half the time.
To purchase this book of 10 plays, click "Order this play" above. To perform an individual play, click on its title below:
Bike Wreck by Qui Nguyen
A Bone Close to My Brain by Dan Dietz
The Grand Design by Susan Miller
Holier Ground by Jonathan Denn
Hum of the Arctic by Sarah Hammond
Light by Jeni Mahoney
Mr. and Mrs. by Julie Marie Myatt
Pumpkin Patch by Patrick Gabridge
Reading List by Susan Miller
Sorry by Timothy Mason
|  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| "Comedy is easy to pick up, yet hard to master. Random Acts of Comedy is a collection of assorted plays that range in many types of humor from outright parody to twisting of classics to meta humor on the art of theatre. For anyone seeking to teach their students the art of humor, [this] is quite the excellent source for inspiration." |
| --Midwest Book Review |
|
|
|
|
Drama
Full-length, 90-100 minutes
2 females, 4 males (5-7 actors possible: 1-3 females, exactly 4 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
Hung and his brother are forced to flee a war-ridden Vietnam to America. But what should be a lucky escape becomes more horrifying than they ever imagined when their boat breaks down in the middle of the ocean. Now Hung must fight to hold on to his humanity amid a desperate struggle to survive. Based on the real Vietnamese Bolinao crisis, this deeply affecting drama tells a harrowing tale with wit, humor, and utmost care.
| |
|
|
| "Trial by Water is a beautifully written script and is cleverly acted with moments that are as heartwarming as they are heartbreaking. Highly Recommended!" |
| --Mary Kroeck, Newcity Chicago |
|
|
|
|
Comedy
Full-length, 80-90 minutes
3 females, 2 males, 2 either (7-25 actors possible: 3-19 females, 2-15 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
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.
| |
|
|
| "...a lethal combination of social satire and serial spoofing..." |
| --Elias Stimac, BACKSTAGE |
|
|
|
|
