Plays for Young Audiences and Plays for Young Performers
Unpublished Youth Plays (Contact me for perusal copies and rights)
Fumble and the Fairies
Cast: 17 (3 female, 2 male, 12 male or female)
Running Time: 70-75 minutes
Set: Unit set with lighting changes
Comedy
fable, middle school students, fantasy, bees, fairies
It's spring and the bees need to work. But Fumble has been approached by Flutterby-the-butterfly to be her dancing partner with the fairies. Fumble discovers he loves dancing. But he's a worker-bee. Or is he? Adapted from the Bee Who Would Not Work by Charlotte Herr. the play asks "must you always work?" "Is there time for play?"
Excerpt
Contact Playwright or use Contact Page
Bound by Stardust
Cast: 3 (1m, 2f)
Running Time: 90 minutes
Set: Unit set with 1 insert
Drama
North Pole, arctic, magical realism, universe, cosmos, stars, physics, grief
Developed with Purple Crayon Players Playground at Northwestern University, April 2016
Miranda dwells in the past. Any past – as long as the world is prior to her father’s death 2 years ago. Reeling from her mother’s remarriage, Miranda spends a week with her great aunt and acquaints herself with an ancestor from her father’s past – the Russian explorer Otto Schmidt.
In the confines of Elsie’s apartment, Miranda travels back and forth to the North Pole gleaning information about the nature of the universe, loss and ever-lasting presence. As Miranda visits Otto in the past, Elsie is struggling to maintain the equilibrium she is barely holding to since her sister’s death. Trying to keep her crushing anxiety at bay, Elsie tries to give Miranda remembrance and closure. Turning to the stars, Miranda works at building a way of reaching the past and finding her father.
Excerpt
Contact: Playwright or use Contact Page
Almost Mary
Cast: 5 (3f, 2m)
Running Time: One hour (approximate)
Drama
History, paleontology, science, women in science, 365 Day Women Playwriting Project
Setting: The cliffs of Lyme Regis, England; and a setting above the cliffs that has a table where Mary and her mother sold fossils. A small setting of a bed and table inside the home is set. It should be very sparse.The set can be imaginatively created. It can be as simple as levels. It can be as fantastical as an imagined etched drawing of the Jurassic period. Mary’s story is real but the population often found her fossils to be fantastical. Scrims, projections would also work.
SYNOPSIS: Mary Anning is considered the first female paleontologist. She lived in Lyme Regis which is still a hotbed of fossils. She learned to find fossils at her father’s knee. After her father died, she continued to find fossils and sell them to help her family earn a meager living. This play chronicles her first big discovery at the age of twelve: an ichthyosaur (fish lizard). Mary had little schooling but was a learner. She read incessantly, carefully chronicled and drew all of her findings. Her thirst for knowledge began at an early age (and was attributed to being hit struck by lightening although that is more lore than fact). Mary’s brother Joseph (at age 9!) found a large (4 feet) fossil head. Mary believes that the entire fossil could be found and the play is about her efforts – against all odds – to do so.
Winner 2016 Old Miner's Children's Playwriting Contest. Developed at Utah University by Dr. John Newman and the university students.
EXCERPT
Use Contact Page or contact playwright
SAMPLE OF PUBLISHED YOUTH PLAYS (a sample of my fifty published plays; contact publisher)
Antigone in Munich: The Sophie Scholl Story
Cast: 11 (6f, 5m) with doubling: 8 (4f, 4m)
Running Time: 75-80 minutes
Drama
Social justice, Sophie Scholl, White Rose Society, Nazi Germany, passive resistance, Nazi resistance
Time: 1933-1943
Set: Unit set. The set should consist of playing areas or levels. The scenes are episodic and move quickly in time and space. Set pieces should be kept to a minimum. The play would do well with projections. Multimedia slides for each scene are suggestions.
Synopsis: Sophie Scholl was a member of the White Rose Society in Nazi Germany
which encouraged passive resistance against the totalitarian government. The play chronicles her coming of age and development from bystander to witness to activist.
Excerpt
Contact: Your Stage Partners
La Bella Cinderella
Cast: 6 (3f, 2m, 1m or f)
Running time: 55 minutes
Bare set
Comedy, theatre for young audiences, touring production, interactive, fairy-tale
Winner - Unpublished Play Reading Project administered by the American Alliance for Theatre Education
Winner - Prince George County Children's Play Writing Contest
The Primo Pasta Players turn the Cinderella tale topsy-turvy with zany, pasta-loving fun. Help the Players get ready for the ball, save Cinderella from a wild boar and stop the villainous clown from stealing the crown! Silly rules the land! Music and dance are welcome additions. Interactive for ages 4-10.
"There aren't many Fringe offerings that are truly all-ages shows, but this is one and it's very fun, even if attending kid-less. It's an adaptation of "La Cenerentola," the Italian folk tale that inspired "Cinderella" (and Rossini's opera), but in Claudia Haas' version, the title character is OCD about cleaning, which is too much for her stepmother but just right for an order-obsessed prince. It's presented with the kind of comedies performed in Renaissance-era public squares, and is delivered with a light touch and plenty of kid-pleasing charm." - Rob Hubbard, St. Paul Pioneer Press
Excerpt
Contact: YouthPLAYS
Dreaming at the Fair
Cast: 12 (7f, 3m, 2m or f); extras welcome
Running time: 60 minutes
Unit set; state or county fairgrounds
2nd Place, Jackie White Memorial Children's Play Writing Contest
Semi-finalist: Ronald Ruble New Play Contest
Serio-comic, historical, magical realism, polio, large cast, young performers
On a magical day at the fair, wishes are blown to the wind and dreams are crafted and celebrated. Rosie wants to go to college although her status as a foster child with no money makes it seem unlikely. Her brother Ozzie dreams of running away with Rosie and leading a life off the grid. Virginia has a dream that she will leave her wheelchair behind and dance again. Daniel wants to be an artist. Raymond desperately needs a home for his beloved Chickie - where she won’t be turned into a chicken-pot-pie! Bobby would just like his sister to pay attention to him. And Jansen yearns for adventure. Their dreams intersect and bump into each other as young people discover what dreams are made of and how it takes more than wishing to make them come true. All roles are for young performers.
Excerpt
Contact playwright or use Contact Page
Under a Midsummer Moon
Cast: 14 (5m, 6f, 3 m or f)
Running time: 60 minutes
Unit set - urban park
Honored with a Playwrights in our Schools Grant
2nd Place (earlier edit) Jackie White Memorial Children's Play Writing Contest
High school theatre, community theatre; theatre for young performers, large-cast play, 1969 moon landing, historical
It's the summer of 1969. Viet Nam is raging. Woodstock will end the summer. Cities are crumbling and people are shouting. On July 20, 1969 a man will walk on the moon. David knows the war in Viet Nam is just. How else could he justify the recent loss of his brother "over there?" Russell knows the war is an abomination and cannot wait until he is 18 and can burn his drafft card - just as his brother did. And Madrigal knows the times are fragile and call for magic. And if the faeries won't supply enchantment - she will.
Excerpt
Contact: Dramatic Publishing
The Fisherman and his Wife
Cast: 3 (1 m, 1f, 1m or f)
Running Time: 50 minutes
Minimum set (for touring)
Winner Prince George County Children's Theatre Play Contest
Winner Anna Zornio Memorial Play Writing Contest
Theatre for young audiences, interactive, fairy-tale, touring production, comedy
A timeless tale of wanting things. When a simple fisherman catches Scatfish - a jazzy, enchanted fish, it is discovered Scat can grant wishes. The fisherman's wife proceeds to ask for more things. When will they have enough? With little set needed, this play is ideal for touring and can be done anywhere - in a classroom, in a gym, in a park.
Excerpt
Contact: Playscripts
By Candlelight
Cast: 10 (7f, 3m)
Running time: 60 Minutes
Multi-level set
Teen Performers, drama, 9/11. historical, docudrama, high school, community theatre
Winner-finalist Bonderman Symposium
Winner Aurand Harris Play Writing Contest
Community theatre; high school theatre; theatre for young performers, 9/11, historical, docudrama
A tale of young people trying to connect and heal after 9/11. Their solution to terror? Chocolate truffles and painting murals. Their solutions may seem simple and naive but their hope makes all things possible. Framing the story is a true tale of a friendship that brings home the beauty of tolerance.
Excerpt
Contact: Playscripts
Pride and Prejudice - adapted from Jane Austen's novel
Cast of 20-27 (17f, 10m, many extras possible)
Running time: 90 minutes
Set: Utilizes a center stage area and 2 small sitting areas on either side of the stage - the only sets you need to change would be small set pieces.
High school theatre, literature, adaptation, comedy, Regency England, large-cast play, community theatre, teen performers
The dialogue is vintage Austen and the story of pride, prejudice and love remains as fresh as ever. Especially adapted for high school theatres.
Excerpt
Contact: Eldridge Plays and Musicals
Cast Away to Shakespeare's Garden
Cast: 12 (9f, 2m, 1m or f)
Running time: 60 minutes
Unit set with 1 inset
Comedy, historical, large cast, teen performers, Shakespeare, high school theatre, time travel
Second Place, Jackie White Memorial Children's Play Writing Contest
Semi-finalist Bonderman Symposium
An errant computer and a mysterious comet conspire to send three teenagers back to Shakespeare's time. The teens soon find themselves acting in an "olde" version of Pyramus and Thisbe with Shakespeare's children! Meanwhile back at home, two computer geeks are hard at work trying to bring their friends back to their own time.
Excerpt
Contact: Brooklyn Publishers
Cap o' Rushes
Cast: 17 (4m, 8f, 5 m or f, extras possible)
Running time: 65 minutes
Simple interior and exterior set
Winner, 2013 East Valley Chidren's Theatre Aspiring Playwright Award
It's the King Lear of fairy tales - also known as one of the "salt" tales. The play chronicles the journey of young maiden (Sabine) who is suddenly cast out of her father's home for telling him she loves him "as much as meat loves salt." Forced to earn a living with few skills, Sabine re-invents herself as "Cap o' Rushes" and carves out a new life for herself. It's a riches-to rags-to riches mixture of silliness, love, and family ties.
Excerpt
Contact: Pioneer Drama
The Magic Fishbone - adapted from the story by Charles Dickens
Cast: 26 (11f, 1m, 14 m or f)
Running time: 60 minutes
Simple interior and exterior set
Young Performers, serio-comic, large-cast play, Victorian England
A story of wishing and is it really necessary? Do you make your own luck? A large-cast play for young performers set in Victorian England.
Excerpt
Contact: Big Dog Plays
The Hanging of the Greens
Cast: 20 (3m, 8f, 11 m or f)
Running time: 60 minutes
Simple exterior and interior set
Holiday show, family audiences, adult and young performers, seriocomic, folktale, large-cast, high school, community theatre
There is a legend that garlands and wreaths must be hung above every doorway and window in winter to prevent the witch from entering your home to kidnap children. But what happens when children shirk their responsibilities to play and dream? They are ripe to be kidnapped by the witch - Pinella!
Excerpt
Contact: YouthPLAYS
Fumble and the Fairies
Cast: 17 (3 female, 2 male, 12 male or female)
Running Time: 70-75 minutes
Set: Unit set with lighting changes
Comedy
fable, middle school students, fantasy, bees, fairies
It's spring and the bees need to work. But Fumble has been approached by Flutterby-the-butterfly to be her dancing partner with the fairies. Fumble discovers he loves dancing. But he's a worker-bee. Or is he? Adapted from the Bee Who Would Not Work by Charlotte Herr. the play asks "must you always work?" "Is there time for play?"
Excerpt
Contact Playwright or use Contact Page
Bound by Stardust
Cast: 3 (1m, 2f)
Running Time: 90 minutes
Set: Unit set with 1 insert
Drama
North Pole, arctic, magical realism, universe, cosmos, stars, physics, grief
Developed with Purple Crayon Players Playground at Northwestern University, April 2016
Miranda dwells in the past. Any past – as long as the world is prior to her father’s death 2 years ago. Reeling from her mother’s remarriage, Miranda spends a week with her great aunt and acquaints herself with an ancestor from her father’s past – the Russian explorer Otto Schmidt.
In the confines of Elsie’s apartment, Miranda travels back and forth to the North Pole gleaning information about the nature of the universe, loss and ever-lasting presence. As Miranda visits Otto in the past, Elsie is struggling to maintain the equilibrium she is barely holding to since her sister’s death. Trying to keep her crushing anxiety at bay, Elsie tries to give Miranda remembrance and closure. Turning to the stars, Miranda works at building a way of reaching the past and finding her father.
Excerpt
Contact: Playwright or use Contact Page
Almost Mary
Cast: 5 (3f, 2m)
Running Time: One hour (approximate)
Drama
History, paleontology, science, women in science, 365 Day Women Playwriting Project
Setting: The cliffs of Lyme Regis, England; and a setting above the cliffs that has a table where Mary and her mother sold fossils. A small setting of a bed and table inside the home is set. It should be very sparse.The set can be imaginatively created. It can be as simple as levels. It can be as fantastical as an imagined etched drawing of the Jurassic period. Mary’s story is real but the population often found her fossils to be fantastical. Scrims, projections would also work.
SYNOPSIS: Mary Anning is considered the first female paleontologist. She lived in Lyme Regis which is still a hotbed of fossils. She learned to find fossils at her father’s knee. After her father died, she continued to find fossils and sell them to help her family earn a meager living. This play chronicles her first big discovery at the age of twelve: an ichthyosaur (fish lizard). Mary had little schooling but was a learner. She read incessantly, carefully chronicled and drew all of her findings. Her thirst for knowledge began at an early age (and was attributed to being hit struck by lightening although that is more lore than fact). Mary’s brother Joseph (at age 9!) found a large (4 feet) fossil head. Mary believes that the entire fossil could be found and the play is about her efforts – against all odds – to do so.
Winner 2016 Old Miner's Children's Playwriting Contest. Developed at Utah University by Dr. John Newman and the university students.
EXCERPT
Use Contact Page or contact playwright
SAMPLE OF PUBLISHED YOUTH PLAYS (a sample of my fifty published plays; contact publisher)
Antigone in Munich: The Sophie Scholl Story
Cast: 11 (6f, 5m) with doubling: 8 (4f, 4m)
Running Time: 75-80 minutes
Drama
Social justice, Sophie Scholl, White Rose Society, Nazi Germany, passive resistance, Nazi resistance
Time: 1933-1943
Set: Unit set. The set should consist of playing areas or levels. The scenes are episodic and move quickly in time and space. Set pieces should be kept to a minimum. The play would do well with projections. Multimedia slides for each scene are suggestions.
Synopsis: Sophie Scholl was a member of the White Rose Society in Nazi Germany
which encouraged passive resistance against the totalitarian government. The play chronicles her coming of age and development from bystander to witness to activist.
Excerpt
Contact: Your Stage Partners
La Bella Cinderella
Cast: 6 (3f, 2m, 1m or f)
Running time: 55 minutes
Bare set
Comedy, theatre for young audiences, touring production, interactive, fairy-tale
Winner - Unpublished Play Reading Project administered by the American Alliance for Theatre Education
Winner - Prince George County Children's Play Writing Contest
The Primo Pasta Players turn the Cinderella tale topsy-turvy with zany, pasta-loving fun. Help the Players get ready for the ball, save Cinderella from a wild boar and stop the villainous clown from stealing the crown! Silly rules the land! Music and dance are welcome additions. Interactive for ages 4-10.
"There aren't many Fringe offerings that are truly all-ages shows, but this is one and it's very fun, even if attending kid-less. It's an adaptation of "La Cenerentola," the Italian folk tale that inspired "Cinderella" (and Rossini's opera), but in Claudia Haas' version, the title character is OCD about cleaning, which is too much for her stepmother but just right for an order-obsessed prince. It's presented with the kind of comedies performed in Renaissance-era public squares, and is delivered with a light touch and plenty of kid-pleasing charm." - Rob Hubbard, St. Paul Pioneer Press
Excerpt
Contact: YouthPLAYS
Dreaming at the Fair
Cast: 12 (7f, 3m, 2m or f); extras welcome
Running time: 60 minutes
Unit set; state or county fairgrounds
2nd Place, Jackie White Memorial Children's Play Writing Contest
Semi-finalist: Ronald Ruble New Play Contest
Serio-comic, historical, magical realism, polio, large cast, young performers
On a magical day at the fair, wishes are blown to the wind and dreams are crafted and celebrated. Rosie wants to go to college although her status as a foster child with no money makes it seem unlikely. Her brother Ozzie dreams of running away with Rosie and leading a life off the grid. Virginia has a dream that she will leave her wheelchair behind and dance again. Daniel wants to be an artist. Raymond desperately needs a home for his beloved Chickie - where she won’t be turned into a chicken-pot-pie! Bobby would just like his sister to pay attention to him. And Jansen yearns for adventure. Their dreams intersect and bump into each other as young people discover what dreams are made of and how it takes more than wishing to make them come true. All roles are for young performers.
Excerpt
Contact playwright or use Contact Page
Under a Midsummer Moon
Cast: 14 (5m, 6f, 3 m or f)
Running time: 60 minutes
Unit set - urban park
Honored with a Playwrights in our Schools Grant
2nd Place (earlier edit) Jackie White Memorial Children's Play Writing Contest
High school theatre, community theatre; theatre for young performers, large-cast play, 1969 moon landing, historical
It's the summer of 1969. Viet Nam is raging. Woodstock will end the summer. Cities are crumbling and people are shouting. On July 20, 1969 a man will walk on the moon. David knows the war in Viet Nam is just. How else could he justify the recent loss of his brother "over there?" Russell knows the war is an abomination and cannot wait until he is 18 and can burn his drafft card - just as his brother did. And Madrigal knows the times are fragile and call for magic. And if the faeries won't supply enchantment - she will.
Excerpt
Contact: Dramatic Publishing
The Fisherman and his Wife
Cast: 3 (1 m, 1f, 1m or f)
Running Time: 50 minutes
Minimum set (for touring)
Winner Prince George County Children's Theatre Play Contest
Winner Anna Zornio Memorial Play Writing Contest
Theatre for young audiences, interactive, fairy-tale, touring production, comedy
A timeless tale of wanting things. When a simple fisherman catches Scatfish - a jazzy, enchanted fish, it is discovered Scat can grant wishes. The fisherman's wife proceeds to ask for more things. When will they have enough? With little set needed, this play is ideal for touring and can be done anywhere - in a classroom, in a gym, in a park.
Excerpt
Contact: Playscripts
By Candlelight
Cast: 10 (7f, 3m)
Running time: 60 Minutes
Multi-level set
Teen Performers, drama, 9/11. historical, docudrama, high school, community theatre
Winner-finalist Bonderman Symposium
Winner Aurand Harris Play Writing Contest
Community theatre; high school theatre; theatre for young performers, 9/11, historical, docudrama
A tale of young people trying to connect and heal after 9/11. Their solution to terror? Chocolate truffles and painting murals. Their solutions may seem simple and naive but their hope makes all things possible. Framing the story is a true tale of a friendship that brings home the beauty of tolerance.
Excerpt
Contact: Playscripts
Pride and Prejudice - adapted from Jane Austen's novel
Cast of 20-27 (17f, 10m, many extras possible)
Running time: 90 minutes
Set: Utilizes a center stage area and 2 small sitting areas on either side of the stage - the only sets you need to change would be small set pieces.
High school theatre, literature, adaptation, comedy, Regency England, large-cast play, community theatre, teen performers
The dialogue is vintage Austen and the story of pride, prejudice and love remains as fresh as ever. Especially adapted for high school theatres.
Excerpt
Contact: Eldridge Plays and Musicals
Cast Away to Shakespeare's Garden
Cast: 12 (9f, 2m, 1m or f)
Running time: 60 minutes
Unit set with 1 inset
Comedy, historical, large cast, teen performers, Shakespeare, high school theatre, time travel
Second Place, Jackie White Memorial Children's Play Writing Contest
Semi-finalist Bonderman Symposium
An errant computer and a mysterious comet conspire to send three teenagers back to Shakespeare's time. The teens soon find themselves acting in an "olde" version of Pyramus and Thisbe with Shakespeare's children! Meanwhile back at home, two computer geeks are hard at work trying to bring their friends back to their own time.
Excerpt
Contact: Brooklyn Publishers
Cap o' Rushes
Cast: 17 (4m, 8f, 5 m or f, extras possible)
Running time: 65 minutes
Simple interior and exterior set
Winner, 2013 East Valley Chidren's Theatre Aspiring Playwright Award
It's the King Lear of fairy tales - also known as one of the "salt" tales. The play chronicles the journey of young maiden (Sabine) who is suddenly cast out of her father's home for telling him she loves him "as much as meat loves salt." Forced to earn a living with few skills, Sabine re-invents herself as "Cap o' Rushes" and carves out a new life for herself. It's a riches-to rags-to riches mixture of silliness, love, and family ties.
Excerpt
Contact: Pioneer Drama
The Magic Fishbone - adapted from the story by Charles Dickens
Cast: 26 (11f, 1m, 14 m or f)
Running time: 60 minutes
Simple interior and exterior set
Young Performers, serio-comic, large-cast play, Victorian England
A story of wishing and is it really necessary? Do you make your own luck? A large-cast play for young performers set in Victorian England.
Excerpt
Contact: Big Dog Plays
The Hanging of the Greens
Cast: 20 (3m, 8f, 11 m or f)
Running time: 60 minutes
Simple exterior and interior set
Holiday show, family audiences, adult and young performers, seriocomic, folktale, large-cast, high school, community theatre
There is a legend that garlands and wreaths must be hung above every doorway and window in winter to prevent the witch from entering your home to kidnap children. But what happens when children shirk their responsibilities to play and dream? They are ripe to be kidnapped by the witch - Pinella!
Excerpt
Contact: YouthPLAYS