|
|
Comedy
Short, 15-20 minutes
9 females, 7 males, 7 either
(4-23 actors possible: 0-23 females, 0-23 males)
$45.00 per performance; $7.99 per book
Welcome to WOMG Action News, the most trusted news program since the invention of trust, news, and programs. Join lead anchors Babs Buttlebee and Jim Pickles as they usher us through tonight's top stories -- from adorable killer puppies, to Apocalypse status updates, to an old man grumbling about Email YouTubes. Tune in to WOMG Action News! Or don't and suffer the consequences...
|  |
|
|
|
Comedy
Full-length, 85-95 minutes
7 females, 7 males, 10 either
(19-48 actors possible: 4-43 females, 5-44 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
After an embattled student body president resigns in disgrace, Mark Davenport figures he will cruise to victory in the special election. After all, his only opponent is nerdy Christy Martin, who wants to eliminate football. But when a mysterious Super PAC gives her an unlimited budget, things start to get very ugly. Mark must face total annihilation or accept the services of a slick professional campaign manager with questionable ethics and a million-dollar Super PAC of his own. A hilarious and timely satire on the contemporary political scene.
|  |
|
 |
| "Everybody loved the show: students, parents, teachers, community members... Several parents approached me after the show to tell me how much they had enjoyed running lines with their kids because the script was so hilarious. And everybody (including the kids!) appreciated the educational value and critical relevance in an election year." |
| --Dakota Benedetto, Visual & Performing Arts Teacher, Fall Mountain Regional High School, Langdon, NH |
|
|
|
|
Drama
Short, 45-50 minutes
5 females, 6 males, 5 either
(7-36 actors possible: 3-18 females, 4-18 males)
$40.00 per performance; $7.99 per book
An emotional journey into the hearts and souls of Hurricane Katrina's survivors, THE KATRINA PROJECT: Hell and High Water is based on actual interviews, collected stories, and found texts, providing a voice for the greatest natural disaster in our country's recorded history. The play follows a diverse group of characters as they reflect on and experience the devastation, heartbreak, anger, and, ultimately, hope of the thousands affected by the Category 5 storm. (All royalties from THE KATRINA PROJECT: Hell and High Water will be donated to hurricane relief charities.)
|  |
|
|
|
Farce
Full-length, 100-110 minutes
5 females, 3 males
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
Accusations, mistaken identities, and romances run wild in this traditional, laugh-out-loud farce. Two nuns at the Sisters of Perpetual Sewing have been secretly making wine to keep the convent's doors open, but Paul and Sally, reporters and former fiancees, are hot on their trail. They go undercover as a nun and priest, but their presence, combined with the addition of a new nun, spurs paranoia throughout the convent that spies have been sent from Rome to shut them down. Wine and secrets are inevitably spilled as everyone tries to preserve the convent and reconnect with lost loves.
|  |
|
|
| "...a delightful comedy with a touch of silliness...a zany and funny story with plot twists galore." |
| --Patricia L. Garcia, Las Cruces Sun-News |
|
|
|
|
Comedy
Short, 45-50 minutes
10 females, 9 males, 4 either
(9-31 actors possible: 5-21 females, 4-21 males)
$40.00 per performance; $7.99 per book
Rose Red has just turned thirteen, and the pressure is on -- what will she do to get famous like her sister, Snow White? Everyone in the kingdom, from her parents to her close friend Miss Muffet, is pressuring her to get discovered. But Rose Red doesn't want to constantly be on the front page of the Grimm Times, even if Bo Peep, Cinderella, and Goldilocks eat up the attention. In her struggle to choose between doing what everyone else wants and forging her own path, Rose Red can't help wondering if a girl who wants to be "just normal" can live happily ever after.
|  |
|
|
|
Drama
Full-length, 90-100 minutes
4 females, 4 males (8-30 actors possible: 4-15 females, 4-15 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
This is the heroic and true story of children coming of age in Terezin, the "Jewish city" established by the Nazis near Prague as a way station before the death camps. In the face of unspeakable horror, these children use their determination and creativity to build lives filled with hope and beauty -- playing, studying, making art, and writing an underground newspaper -- all at the peril of being executed. Their actual poems and stories are woven into a fast-paced drama, evoking the universality of children caught in the insanity of war.
|  |
|
|
| "[And a Child Shall Lead] not only sheds light on this dark camp, it's also relevant to modern conflicts around the world." |
| --Christopher Stollar, Bend Bulletin (Oregon) |
|
|
|
|
Comedy
Short, 45-55 minutes
3 females, 4 males, 9 either (12-22 actors possible: 2-18 females, 3-19 males)
$40.00 per performance; $7.99 per book
Channel Eight is Detroit's least-watched newscast. The ratings are lower than ever, the viewers are leaving their TVs off so they don't accidentally tune in, the writers are adding on-air fights to the anchors' scripts, and the reporters can't tell a story to save their lives. As a last-ditch effort, the station hires a news director with a plan to make Channel Eight number one. What the station doesn't realize is that his plan involves a reporter being killed on air. Will the Channel Eight news team catch on to his diabolical scheme? Or will it turn out that the best way to break news is to fix it? Find out, straight ahead.
|  |
|
| ReEntry by Emily Ackerman and KJ Sanchez |
 
|
|
Drama
Full-length, 75-90 minutes
2 females, 3 males (5-11 actors possible: 2-6 females, 3-5 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
An unflinching look at the lives of Marines getting ready for and returning from combat, ReEntry is a docudrama exploration of the relationships between Marines and the civilians they fight for overseas and must contend with when they return home. Honest, moving, and surprisingly funny, this play is based entirely on interviews with Marines and their families.
|  |
|
|
| "Provocative and Powerful!" |
| --New York Times |
|
|
|
|
Drama
Full-length, 70-90 minutes
4 females, 3 males (7-12 actors possible: 4-8 females, 3-8 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
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.)
|  |
|
|
| "In Darfur is based on a real case in Darfur's Kalma camp that I once reported on. It's an excellent poignant play." |
| --Nicholas D. Kristof, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist |
|
|
|
|
Comedy
Short, 15-20 minutes
6 females, 1 male
$35.00 per performance; $7.99 per book
It's time to go backstage at the Academy Awards, where the five nominees for Best Actress -- the aging superstar, the British diva, the impressionable teen idol, the indie film queen, and the "token" African-American nominee -- battle it out during an interview with the entertainment reporters from hell.
|  |
|
|
|
Drama
Full-length, 90-110 minutes
3 females, 2 males (5-8 actors possible: 3-5 females, 2-3 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
Shelita Burns, an African-American editor, publishes Bee-luther-hatchee, the autobiography of a reclusive 72-year-old black woman named Libby Price. Shelita has never met Libby, and when the book wins a prestigious award she decides to deliver it to her in person. To her profound shock, the actual author of the book is a white man named Sean Leonard. Furious and resentful, Shelita accuses Sean of perpetrating a hoax, while he defends the book as a truthful work of imagination. Their confrontation, played out on the edge of the racial divide, builds to a jarring act of violence.
(This is the first part of a trilogy. See also Permanent Collection and A House With No Walls.)
|  |
|
|
| "A powerful, provocative piece of theatrical writing. You want to run down the street twisting people's arms to see it." |
| --Linda Eisenstein, Cleveland Plain Dealer |
|
|
|
|
Comedy/Drama
Full-length, 60-80 minutes
3 females, 5 males (5-17 actors possible: 2-7 females, 3-10 males)
$75.00 per performance; $9.99 per book
NOTE: This book contains 12 plays. Each piece in this anthology can be licensed and performed separately.
From the mind of the writer of The House of Yes and Juvenilia comes this exciting new collection of short plays. With characters ranging from a smooth talking salesman (Snake Oil) to a group of downtrodden college baseball players (Division III), each play features the unique wit and wordplay of celebrated playwright Wendy MacLeod.
To purchase this book of 12 plays, click "Order this play" above. To perform an individual play, click on its title below:
Boxes
Chemistry
Division III
Downstairs, Upstairs
Feedback
Flood
Last Night
Photo Opportunity
The Probabilities
Small Packages
Snake Oil
Tina at the Times or Below the Fold
|  |
|
|
|
Comedy
Full-length, 110-120 minutes
3 females, 4 males
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
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.
|  |
|
|
| "An...ambitious mashup of burlesque anarchy, elaborate narrative intrigue, serious sociopolitical themes, and campy dance interludes. [...] It shouldn't hold together. Yet somehow this frequently ingenious, hilarious contraption does." |
| --Variety |
|
|
|
|
Drama/Comedy
Short, 50-60 minutes
7 females, 3 males, 7 either
(14-17 actors possible: 7-14 females, 3-10 males)
$35.00 per performance; $7.99 per book
Two compelling stories come together in this heartwarming play inspired by the famous editorial Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. On Christmas Eve, 1897, in New York City, eight-year-old Virginia is left pondering whether or not Santa really exists after a series of unhappy events. Meanwhile, a young newspaper editor also struggles against tough holiday times as he is faced with losing his job if he can't find his writer's voice by morning. Even though they don't know each other, the spirit of Christmas is about to bring these people together, creating in the process an unforgettable and cherished part of classic Christmas folklore.
|  |
|
Bill of (W)Rights
by Janet Allard, Rebecca Gilman, Jeffrey Hatcher, Syl Jones, et al. |
|
|
Comedy/Drama
Full-length, 80-90 minutes
10 females, 13 males (10-24 actors possible)
$75.00 per performance; $9.99 per book
Bill of (W)Rights is a political funhouse growing from a moment in history when self-censorship abounds and the populace is increasingly governed by fear. Nine playwrights offer ten plays, each based on one of the U.S. Constitution's first ten amendments. These pieces focus less on government interference and more on the interpersonal, from a father and daughter facing a criminal trial to the silence of an unfaithful husband "pleading the fifth" to his family -- not to mention a company of actors yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater. The creation of the script, encompassing a diversity of voices and opinions, was itself an act of democracy, demonstrating that theatre can be a voice of revelation and revolution.
|  |
|
|
| "Mixed Blood's prescient, potent blend of zeitgeist and bold vision makes Bill of (W)Rights feel like the CNN of theater... The theatrical meditation on the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution is extraordinary in almost every respect." |
| --Dominic Papatola, St. Paul Pioneer Press |
|
|
|
|
Tragicomedy
Full-length, 80-90 minutes
1 female, 3 males (4-26 actors possible: 1-6 females, 3-20 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
A fast-paced tragicomedy; one part modern satire, one part honest investigation. The central story concerns Robert, an American teenager guilty of murdering three of his classmates in what has come to be referred to as a school shooting. Spliced among the dramatic exchanges between Robert and his assigned social worker, a parade of fantastical stereotypes storms in and out, creating a dichotomy between moments of hilarity and sorrow. Confronted by disturbingly accurate exaggerations of the tabloid-like modern media, the audience is made to laugh, and then question that laughter.
|  |
|
|
| "An episodic, highly expressive, contemplative play, equally balanced between satire and sadness. An impressive debut." |
| --Steve Oxman, Variety |
|
|
|
|
Drama
Full-length, 95-100 minutes
5 females, 3 males (8-24 actors possible: 5-14 females, 3-10 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
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.
|  |
|
|
| "Stunning and compelling...raw and bold, brutal and ironic, and full of nagging questions. Whereas the film Monster dealt with the more sensational aspects of Wuornos' Florida killing spree, Self Defense...lashes out at the twisted society that turned her trial into simply another media-driven circus." |
| --Ed Kaufman, The Hollywood Reporter |
|
|
|
|
Comedy
Short, 30-40 minutes
4 females, 3 males, 8 either
(14-23 actors possible: 1-22 females, 1-22 males)
$35.00 per performance; $7.99 per book
Wave bye-bye to your mistakes because Mistakes-R-Us is open for business! Just grab your credit card, dial their 1-800 number and sit back as they erase any (well, almost any) mistake you've made for a practical price. Sound too good to be true? It does to a snooping high school journalist who interviews the wacky owner in hopes of uncovering the truth about this company. Will this mean the end of Mistakes-R-Us, or is the idea of a perfect world closer than we thought?
|  |
|
|
|
Comedy
Short, 30-45 minutes
7 females, 9 males, 1 either
(13-17 actors possible: 4-8 females, 9-10 males)
$35.00 per performance; $7.99 per book
Tracy Singleton is an optimistic high school newspaper reporter writing an article about the "beauty" of teenage love. Determined to prove her theory that teenagers are capable of ideal, mature romance, Tracy interviews her classmates for the perfect story. To her dismay, she discovers that her definition of love doesn't line up with reality, as her sources' personal lives are loaded with awkward, embarrassing, and painful moments. A charming story about growing up, Love Is Awkward reveals relationships as the delightfully imperfect experiences they are.
|  |
|
| Squall by Elizabeth Hemmerdinger |
|
|
Psychological thriller
Full-length, 85-95 minutes
2 females
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
Diana is a celebrated TV journalist, and a fierce guardian of her own privacy. Isolated on an island off the coast of Maine while sorting through the personal effects of her recently deceased mother, Diana is surprised and intrigued when a young stranger, Cordelia, rings the bell. Once a fierce summer storm washes out the bridge connecting them to the mainland, however, Cordelia reveals an unnerving intimacy with Diana's past. A compelling game of cat and mouse ensues, culminating in a violent life-and-death struggle.
|  |
|
|
| "An intricate puzzle that offers moments of fascination and others of bitingly funny humor...fast-paced dialogue and clever twists..." |
| --Zach Utko, Back Stage West |
|
|
|
