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Comedy
Short, 10-15 minutes
1 female, 2 males
$40.00 per performance; $7.99 per book
Brad comes home from school one day to find his parents waiting for him, deeply concerned. They have found a secret that Brad stashed away in his underwear drawer: an algebra book. That's right -- Brad has been studying behind their backs, instead of following his parents' strict insistence on sex, drugs, and rock & roll. What unfolds is a parody of all those insufferable after-school specials that made us who we are today.
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| "Sparkles with humor and wit... Rand's genius play create[s] an engaging scene that reveals unexpected twists among an amusing family squabble." |
| --Silver Chips Online |
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Drama
Full-length, 80-90 minutes
20 either (5-76 actors possible: 0-76 females, 0-76 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
If you could say anything you wanted, without any consequences or judgment, just what would you say? Based on student responses from around the country, What I Want to Say But Never Will explores this simple but intimate question, offering a glimpse into teenagers' most private thoughts. Told through monologues and anecdotes from the playwright himself, these confessions range from a hilarious rant on an art teacher's bad breath to a touching piece of advice from a brother leaving for the Navy.
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Drama
Short, 25-35 minutes
17 females, 7 males, 21 either
(10-55 actors possible: 6-35 females, 4-20 males)
$35.00 per performance; $7.99 per book
Mirror girl, mirror girl on the wall, who is the most perfect girl of all? At age four, Bethany believes that it is her. Yet as she grows up, the pressures of her life begins to turn her innocent confidence into self-doubt. By the time she's a teenager, Bethany is sickened by her own image in the mirror. With warmth and humor, this play explores the forces that can erode confidence and the journey Bethany takes back towards self-acceptance.
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| ReEntry by Emily Ackerman and KJ Sanchez |
 
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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.
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| "Provocative and Powerful!" |
| --New York Times |
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Comedy/Drama
Full-length, 75-90 minutes
4 females, 3 males (6-48 actors possible: 3-25 females, 3-23 males)
$75.00 per performance; $9.99 per book
NOTE: Each piece in this anthology can be licensed and performed separately.
An exceptional and eclectic collection of twenty short plays that wends its way through various scenes of urban life. Along the way there are unlikely weirdos accosting people on subways in The Subway, a militant store clerk pushing environmental reform in Pamper Island, a man grappling with his own racism in The Three Roses, and a woman who wears a wedding dress to a wedding that isn't hers in Temporary People, Part Two: Rebecca Ruth. With wit and sensitivity, Augustine's Confessions explores the terminally vague and toxically vogue members of society.
To purchase this book of 20 plays, click "Order this play" above. To perform an individual play, click on its title below:
The Opening
Gen - X
The Subway
Temporary People, Part I: Siobhan
Nicole and Jane
Ghost
Pamper Island: A Grocery Store Comedy
The Three Roses
Window of Opportunity
Kept Boy
Megaphone Man
The Censorship Play
Temporary People, Part II: Rebecca Ruth
The Closing
Scab Writes a Song!
Promesa
Innocent Victims
Maurice
Sarabande
Mrs. Smith Plays the Piano
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| "John Augustine's characters cling to language like alcoholics to a martini glass. Insecure, endless verbalizing and very funny, they hope to assuage ambivalence with words; their dialogue tends less to the absurd than to a brittle epigrammatic gleam." |
| --The Village Voice |
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Drama
Short, 40-55 minutes
8 females, 7 males, 1 either
(11-16 actors possible: 1-15 females, 1-15 males)
$35.00 per performance; $7.99 per book
At sixteen, Joey has just committed suicide. Through narration and a series of flashbacks, Joey shows us the life he used to lead and why he chose to end it -- but we also see the unexpected effect of his death on his classmates, teachers, and family.
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Comedy/Drama
Full-length, 75-90 minutes
1 female, 3 males, 2 either (4-6 actors possible: 1-3 females, 3-5 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
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.
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| "In staccato scenes inspired by punk anthems, Moss captures the clammy intensity of adolescent bonding: arousal by contraband porn; battles over band names; preening in search of authenticity... [It's] political satire meets Pee-wee's Playhouse." |
| --Jacob Gallagher-Ross, Village Voice |
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Comedy
Full-length, 100-120 minutes
3 females, 5 males (8-18 actors possible: 3-6 females, 5-12 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
Wintersville High School, 1976. Richard Miller is the hip new Social Studies instructor at his crumbling old alma matter, and decides to teach his students about the U.S. criminal justice system by staging a "drug game," where the students play pushers, buyers, narcs, cops, and lawyers, using Good & Plenty candies as the contraband of choice. Bad idea -- after a hilarious unraveling of authority, with switcheroos and betrayals galore, most of the school has landed in actual jail. A brilliant twist on high school madness, and a compelling meditation on democracy, as well.
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| "Just as our national horror begins to devolve into jingoism and empty-headed flag-waving, along comes Good 'N' Plenty, a play that not only examines our system of government, but provides us the opportunity to exercise the most precious freedom democracy allows: The ability to laugh at it." |
| --Dominic P. Papatola, St. Paul Pioneer Press |
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Drama
Short, 25-30 minutes
7 females, 2 males, 9 either
(18 actors possible: 7-16 females, 2-11 males)
$35.00 per performance; $7.99 per book
Sixteen year-old outcast Molly doesn't seem to fit in anywhere. Her family barely knows she exists, the kids at school think she's a "depressed freak," and even her two best friends are having trouble understanding her. When the only comfort in her life, music, is disrupted by the death of Kurt Cobain, Molly's world is turned upside down. But her plans to leave the miserable town of Walla Walla behind for good are intersected by the person she least expects.
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Drama
Full-length, 90-100 minutes
3 females, 2 males (5-9 actors possible: 3-5 females, 2-4 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
Expulsion, a drunken mother, drug abuse, and an affair with her mom's boyfriend: these are the elements that make up fifteen-year-old Minnie's life as she grows up in the chaos of the 70s. But Minnie is incredibly bright and self-reflective, and narrates her story in her diary with brutally honest words and drawings. This acclaimed adaptation of Phoebe Gloeckner's graphic novel sparkles with wit, curiosity, and optimism despite the loneliness and abuse that Minnie encounters. A poignant look into an ugly adolescence.
Please note that the script of this play contains selected illustrations by Phoebe Gloeckner. Some of these illustrations depict adult imagery and content.
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| "The great achievement of The Diary of a Teenage Girl, adapted from Phoebe Gloeckner's graphic novel, is to take the girl's point of view seriously. Neither sentimental nor judgmental, Diary presents Minnie Goetze as a smart, creative, passionate young woman, and the production's only agenda is to be true to her experience." |
| --Backstage (Critic's Pick) |
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Comedy/Drama
Full-length, 75-95 minutes
3 females, 4 males (7-17 actors possible: 3-9 females, 4-8 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
NOTE: This book contains 6 plays. Each piece in this anthology can be licensed and performed separately.
From the author of Heddatron and Oliver Parker! comes this fascinating new collection of short plays. From a betrayed girlfriend turning oddly dingo-like (The Sound in the Throat) to a woman exploring her mental state through interpretive dance (My Mental Illness), from a broken-hearted bunker hideout (I Bought a Bunker, Bitch) to a lifelong relationship condensed into twenty minutes (The True Love Story of My Parents), these plays peer into the mysterious workings of the heart with a sharp insight and witty dialogue unique to esteemed playwright Elizabeth Meriwether.
To purchase this book of 6 plays, click "Order this play" above. To perform an individual play, click on its title below:
90 Days
I Bought a Bunker, Bitch
My Mental Illness
Sketch Comedian
The Sound in the Throat
The True Love Story of My Parents
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Convoluted fairy tale
Full-length, 120-140 minutes
5 females, 4 males, 10 either
(9-19 actors possible: 5-15 females, 4-14 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
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."
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| "Strange, dense, brilliant wordplay...part poetry slam, part rave, part dog-eared storybook theater, and all edgy, infectious, ultra-theatrical entertainment. Kate Crackernuts is an adult fairy tale that, like its tough but vulnerable heroine, follows a warped dream logic while keeping its sharp-tongued wits about it." |
| --Rob Kendt, Los Angeles Times |
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Drama
Full-length, 110-120 minutes
2 females, 14 males (10-16 actors possible: 1-2 females, 9-14 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
A supernatural power grants Dorian Gray eternal youth and beauty. As the years pass and his outward form remains unmarred, his soul wallows in pride and sin, dragging the lives of everyone he touches into the depths of depravity. This new adaptation of Oscar Wilde's masterpiece explores the themes of obsession, influence and reckoning by viewing Dorian's story through the eyes of those most profoundly affected by him.
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| "Enthralling... a crystal-clear, ideally-structured adaptation." |
| --Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times |
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Black Comedy
Full-length, 75-100 minutes
2 females, 2 males
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
An unlikely and uncomfortable friendship exists between old-man alcoholic Jasper and socially awkward 17-year-old Oliver Parker. Living in squalor in a decrepit New York apartment owned by Oliver, Jasper just wants to be left alone -- but Oliver, determined to use the apartment in his quest to get laid, loses patience with his pathetic existence very quickly. Shady dealings involving a grieving politician and her ambitious assistant Agnes only increase the tension between them, and soon buried shame and secrets bubble to the surface. Sharply funny and keenly tragic, Oliver Parker! is anything but a typical coming-of-age story.
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Black Comedy
Full-length, 90-100 minutes
1 female, 3 males, 1 either (5 actors possible: 1-2 females, 3-4 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
A video of Iraqi insurgents beheading Jack Lewis has just been released over the Internet. Back home in Idaho, his fundamentalist Christian family is trying to grieve while fending off the media. Jack's widow Karen decides to seek answers at the holiest place she knows: the Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage, Missouri. Along for the ride are Jack's father and his brother Bib, dealing with his own mounting spiritual crisis. With the help of a teardrop-eyed angel and a carnie named Chuck, the Lewis family struggles to understand what exactly they've lost.
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| "[Hunter] probes the very roots of American identity by way of its latest national crisis, engaging a foreign war from the home front, and questioning the value and role of religious belief in the most fundamental and relatable ways." |
| --Benjamin Sutton, The L Magazine |
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Comedy
Full-length, 60-75 minutes
6 females, 8 males (11-30 actors possible: 5-10 females, 6-22 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
Bill, Mary, Gwen, and Jimmy are all swell kids. They listen to their parents, do well in school, and help out around the community -- that is, until they get caught up in the marijuana subculture. With "Mary Jane" filling their lungs, these kids resort to theft, prostitution, and murder to satisfy their cravings, which leads to suicide and death sentences. Is one puff really too much? A hilarious send-up of the 1936 exploitation film, now a cult classic.
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| "Today Reefer Madness has reached cult status...Sean Abley's adaptation faithfully -- and hilariously -- reproduces the film's spirit and much of its dialogue." |
| --Lawrence Bommer, Chicago Tribune |
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Drama
Full-length, 115-125 minutes
4 females, 6 males (10-40 actors possible: 4-20 females, 6-20 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
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.
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Comedy/Satire
Full-length, 75-90 minutes
3 females, 5 males
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
Lust! Paranoia! Murder! All rolled into one... Set in All-American 1950s suburbia, Dr. Carroll, principal of the local high school, warns how one puff of pot can lead clean-cut teenagers down the road to insanity, death, and worse. Stopping at nothing to make his point, Dr. Carroll tells the sad, sordid story of how the nicest kids in town are lured into a world of violence, weird orgies, wild parties, unleashed passions, and drug-crazed abandon. A spoof of the 1936 cult classic film.
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| "Hilarious! One of the funniest plays of the year! In his witty and sarcastic way, Landry manages to make you feel like an ass for even considering any of the trendy Drug-Czar hullabaloo about weed constituting a dire threat to Western civilization." |
| --The Advocate (Connecticut) |
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Comedy/Drama
Full-length, 80-85 minutes
1 female, 4 males
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
It's Jimmy's last day before going to war: he's addicted to glue, his mom is seeing visions in the sweet potato casserole, and his wheelchair-bound dad can and will kick his butt. He turns to a higher power for answers, and finds an Ivory-billed Woodpecker instead. A dark comedy that explores family, faith, and freedom, while blurring the lines between black and white and right and wrong.
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| "The Woodpecker is top-drawer dark comedy -- or, in this current era of 'forever war,' squint your other eye and see one of the funniest tragedies in town. Either way, Samuel Brett Williams is a voice to be reckoned with." |
| --Lee Blessing, Playwright |
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Comedy
Full-length, 80-90 minutes
3 females, 2 males
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
Food writer Francesca's dinner party features famous recipes from the Alice B. Toklas Cookbook, along with a guest list that's an almost certain recipe for disaster. It includes Pilar, a multilingual art detective with visa problems; Bricka, a lesbian widow with a child and custody-seeking Republican in-laws; Joe, an OB/GYN whose lover is a disoriented drug addict; and Kev, a playwright who has written a soon-to-open play about...all of them. A hilarious, irreverent look at gay and lesbian life in the new millennium.
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| "Hilarious! I had a ball at Bass for Picasso! An authentically witty and intelligent comedy...the same kind of exotic and nurturing treat Toklas intended to cook up for Picasso." |
| --NYtheatre.com |
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