Biographies, show books, musical scores, history, and must-read theatre books.
Comedy / 3m, 3f / Interior Recently retired and newlywed, Sam Galway is flabbergasted when the spring water at his honeymoon retreat transforms dear old Amy into a 19-year-old knockout. His "young' bride attracts a youthful admirer while the sheriff becomes convinced that Sam has murdered Amy. This romantic comedy by the librettist-composer of It's a Wonderful Life, the author of My Heart Reminds Me and the co-author of Just Say Yes! is a charming audience-pleaser.
Farce / 4m, 4f / Interior When Harry Douglas, the new American Ambassador to Great Britain, tells his family he is going to Scotland to play golf, his wife and daughter announce weekend plans of their own. Their newly hired butler, Perkins, watches stoically as each leaves and secretly returns for a romantic rendezvous in the empty house. Harry's secretary and Captain South of Marine Corps Embassy Security then arrive in the wake of a bomb threat and the embassy is sealed off, with hilarious re...
4m, 1f / Running Time: 90 minutes plus intermission / Period costumes and set pieces, mid to late 19th century / Act I, The Loves of Alonzo Fitz Clarence and Rosannah Ethelton, is from Mark Twain's story of two people falling in love at a great distance with the aid of that brand-new invention, the telephone. Alonzo in Maine and Rosannah in California meet by the accident of crossed wires and each falls in love with an imagined ideal of the other. So complete is their self-deception that even wh...
Drama / Characters: 3m, 2f / In American Soldiers, the patriarch of a politically prominent Long Island family fights to hold the family together when his eldest daughter, an Army veteran, returns from the Middle East for an uneasy homecoming. The girl, emotionally scarred from her military service, is struggling to take her ex-boyfriend and sister away with her to start a new life in Colorado. Her aim is to liberate them of the hometown influences of society, religion and class that led her to...
Full Length, Drama / 3 m., 3 f. / Unit set. / This acclaimed one act about children in a struggling farm family is now available in a full length version that builds on the emotional strengths of the shorter play. See description of the one act version for more information.
Full Length / Musical Comedy / 4m, 3f / Interior An Interactive Musical Comedy Mystery Spoof of the famous HBO series. Meet the family that inspired it all, the Altos. It's Tony's funeral (Or is it?) and his wife Toffee has invited you to the wake. Chris wants you should check your weapons at the door (and if you don't have any, he's got extras!) Uncle Senior has a rigged dice game going and Tony's Ma is - well just nuts. Tony's shrink Dr. Malaise is giving free analysis and the Father isn't su...
In the hilarious Broadway comedy, ALONE TOGETHER, Mom and Dad have spent the last thirty years raising three active sons. How they looked forward to the peace, the quiet and the privacy of an empty nest. After considerable comic turmoil and revelation of deep feelings, the nest is finally emptied. Peace now? Quiet? Not for long. The empty nest fills up again by the sudden, unexpected arrival of their parents, each with a problem which is dumped on Mom and Dad. How to empty the nest once again so...
Every actor knows that the secret to a successful audition is finding the perfect monologue - one that seems as if it were written exclusively for you! Mr. Milligan is our foremost author of original audition material, having already written or co-written Actors Write for Actors, Encore, Going Solo, His & Hers, Next! and Both Sides of the Story. In this, his latest volume, he has created 50 new audition pieces (25 for men and 25 for women, all various character types and situations). Each mono...
Comedy / 3m, 4f / Interior When Cliff Tucker inherits an orphan on the eve of his wedding to wealthy Bobbi Ralston, he figures he can handle matters until the foundling turns out to be full grown and gorgeous with an infant in her arms. While Cliff is fielding this disaster, his lawyer, who is in love with Bobbi, plots to scuttle the wedding. Plans backfire and lunacy multiplies when a struggling actor arrives and Cliff's housekeeper/sister lets him move into the apartment Cliff is vacating. Th...
Dramatic Comedy / Characters: 2 male, 4 female / Unit Set. / Ty Greene is a normal guy with three very big problems. In an unprecedented (for him) run of promiscuity, Ty has managed to impregnate three women in the span of one week: His ex-girlfriend, his 40-something married next-door neighbor, and his 18 year-old student. In this edgy comedy by playwright Rajiv Joseph, Ty's problems illuminate every triumph and failure of his life, and as the women in his world converge and figure out what...
All Groups / Comedy / 3f, 1m or up to 17f, 7m, or an all Female cast / Unit set The story of Elvis Presley told through the eyes of 17 Women! Some Enthralled, some appalled, ALL OBSESSED! A fast paced series of 5 comedic plays and 3 monologues based on the life of Elvis Presley. From Tupelo Mississippi--where an 11 year-old Elvis wanted a BB Gun instead of a guitar--to the Steve Allen Show, from President Richard Nixon's office, to Andy Warhol's studio, from Cadillac Salesmen, to Graceland guar...
This collection of 14 scenes about contemporary topics appears to actors and actresses from 6 to 15. Issues range from baby-sitting and violin lessons to drugs and stolen money.
Comedy Drama / 1m, 1f /Simple Set Sean and Amy are your typical co-habitating, Catholic/Jewish, twentysomething couple living in Manhattan. They work hard, love each other and share common goals in life. Well, sort of. After nearly three years together, Amy wants to get married but Sean does not believe in the institution. The game is on!!! Tonight is the night when they will settle the marriage question once and for all. They will both bring their "A" game and the gloves will come off. Sean wil...
Dramatic Comedy / 2m, 2f, 2 either m or f / A dark comedy about a clown from the "unhappiest country in the world", Moldova, who pins her hopes on a US work visa. Chased by Homeland Security, a deportation letter deflates Nadia's enthusiasm and a pair of spike heels might be all it takes to burst her American Dream (or turn it into a nightmare...). New York City, with its special energy, seems like the perfect solution for her problems, but is it really? Luckily, Nadia is not alone in her journe...
Drama / Characters: 3 FemalesSummoned to a covent, Dr. Martha Livingstone, a court-appointed psychiatrist, is charged with assessing the sanity of a young novitiat accused of murdering her newborn. Miriam Ruth, the Mother Superior, determindly keeps young Agnes from the doctor, arousing Livingstone's suspicions further. Who killed the infant and who fathered the tiny victim? Livingstone's questions force all three women to re-examine the meaning of faith and the power of love leading to a dramat...
Comedy / 4m, 2f / Interior / A hilarious new play from James Sherman, AFFLUENZA! borrows classic characters from Restoration Comedy like the cuckolded husband, the coquette, the wily servant, and the fop to create a contemporary comedy of manners. When multi-millionaire William Moore brings home his new girlfriend, his son and ex-wife are threatened by the potential new heir to the family fortune. Who gets what and who ends up with whom is revealed in this dazzling display of wit and wordplay. /...
Comedy / 3m, 3f / Unit Set There is a cloud over porn queen Heidi the 'Ho's usually cheery cable TV show. Her guests are wearing armbands to mourn the passing of their employer and mentor, a legendary porn filmmaker. Tired of working for others, this motley group of adult video veterans decides to write and shoot their own extravaganza, an "art" film. The script doesn't live up to their expectations so they bring in a new writer, one who insists they read the classics to prepare for their roles...
3m, 1f / Comedy / Interiors The intersecting lives of four
Dramatic and Comedic Monologues M and F Bare Stage The author's of this new monologue collection have all worked as actors - and, more importantly, have spent years auditioning for roles. Actors Write for Actors was written on the premise that the selection of monologues available from published plays is limited and the best pieces are more often than not overdone. Deborah Cowles Scott, Jason Milligan and Robert Spera have created fresh material to add to the existing body of audition pieces ...
Comedy / 3m, 2f / Bare stage with set pieces This comic odyssey charts the life and times of the title character as he makes his way through the show business jungle seeking fame and artistic fulfillment. As a baby he learns that crying brings nourishment and affection; crying too long and loud results in scolds and smacks. Armed with this lesson about the capricious nature of existence, he launches into his craft as a child playing a Wise Man at Christmas. Then it's on to the acting Mecca of N...
Full Length, Comedy. Characters: 2 male, 2 female . Interior Set. Lee Schallert, housewife, feeling she may be missing out on something, leaves her husband, Bob, and her suburban home and moves into a two room Greenwich Village apartment with two roommates. One roommate, Pat, is an aspiring actress, never out of character or costumes; but through an agency mix up, the other roommate is a serious, young, graduate student male. The ensuing complications make a hysterical evening. . "An amusing...
Collection of short plays, Comedy, Winner! 2009 NJACT Perry Award for Outstanding Production of an Original Play Seven of The Porch Room's best short plays collected together into an evening of comedy that proves that no matter what you plan for - accidents happen.Shorts include: Accidents Happen - Please beware of all safety procedures and take note of the emergency exits. Nine Point Eight Meters Per Second Per Second - Balthazar Kent, ejected from an airplane, tries to regain control of his li...
Comedy 2m, 2f Interior Professor Peter Smedforson lives in a quiet New England college town in the former home of poet E.R. Lennox, whose writings are the subject of his scholarly life's work. Reclusive Peter finds his sedate life is suddenly turned upside down when he is invaded by Tammi, a free spirit from Atlantic City whose luck has run out, by Judith, another Lennox scholar determined to unearth a lost manuscript in his home, and by Stuart, Judith's reprehensible ex-husband who is trying...
Musical / 16m, 9f "The founding fathers got their own musical with 1776, so why not Abe?" - Playbill.com Abe is a new musical about the early life of Abraham Lincoln. The show explores his youth as a flatboat pilot on the Mississippi, his early love for Ann Rutledge, his troubled marriage to the difficult and mentally fragile Mary Todd, and his attempt to be a good father to his sons. The story follows Abe from his earliest attempts at self-improvement through the 1860 election which made him ...
Thriller 5m, 2f Interior What begins as a pleasant anniversary dinner for novelist Allen Grant, his wife Sheila and her daughter Cindy ends in terror when Cindy is forced off the road and abducted while driving back to college during a thunderstorm. Cindy and the icily determined kidnapper both speak with Allen and Sheila during the abduction via cell phones, the horrifying voice of the abductor coming through their speaker phone eerily distorted by a synthesizer. Tension mounts as Allen trie...
5m, 2f / Comedy / Unit set / Count Zescu, a Vampire from the old country, takes up residence in the American southwest accompanied only by his coffin and Mattie, who is an all too amorous co-ed he can't seem to lose. Hot on the heels of this colorful entourage is Joyce Lyonhartt, a plucky and determined reporter who excels in disguises to get close to what seems to be a once in lifetime story. The Count settles down in dreary house near a secret army base, and witnesses a bat seemingly explode s...
Comedy / 4m, 2f / Interior / Ever since the leading employer left for sunny Georgia, times have been tough in Randolphsburgh, PA. the nation's leading importer of overcast. Hoping to create a media event that will turn things around, a committee is organizing the dedication of a statue of the town's only famous citizen, short, bald space shuttle astronaut Dr. Dick Davidson. With three weeks remaining before the gala event, the flirtatious former cheerleader, the avid gardener and school band dir...
Short plays, farce / 2m, 1 f / Interior / Mod. or Russian cost. This little farce is very popular and one of the funniest ever written. The story tells of the efforts of a nervous and excitable man who starts to propose to an attractive young woman, but who gets into a tremendous quarrel over a boundary line.
Full Length, Drama / 4 m, 2 f, with doubling / 2 verandas / Webs of personal, political, sexual, social and artistic deception unfold in the indigo nights and bright days of the Greek islands in this two part play by the author of Bent which starred Vanessa Redgrave in London and Judith Ivey in New York. In A Table for a King, which can also be produced as a one act, a writer helps blackmail an unpleasant and uncompromising woman who refuses to relinquish her table on the terrace of a Corfu hote...
Drama / 5m, 5f, extras / 4 sets / An American editor resigns his post and moves to France with his wife and two children to spend his time in writing important books. But all too shortly he learns that he is dying of an inoperable cancer, and forthwith determines to live every day, hour, and minute to the fullest: life is a gift of time. Gradually he begins to feel the pain and physical consequences of his affliction. Unfortunately, he even becomes immunized to morphine. He decides, therefore, t...
2m., 2f. / Full Length, Comedy / Interior/ George shoots a schnauzer and brings it triumphantly back to Zee, who stuffs his pillowcase with bloody fish parts. Fighting ensues, and the flood water outside is rising. For some reason, teenager daughter Annie dreams of escape from all this. Into their mountain cabin stumbles poor Frank, the perfect replacement for the son they lost. Now if only they can keep him without killing him, too. A Fish Story is a
Comedy / 1m, 3f / Interior / A delightful sequel to the popular Sparkin' with the same delightful characters: Lessie, Orry, Susan, and Granny Painsberry. Takes place a year or so after Sparkin' and centers around Lessie and Orry's new baby and a Christmas present Orry has just made for the little one.
Farce Characters: 14 male, 4 female (including 1 male narrator guitarist and 1 male or female piano player), plus extras. Area or platform staging. . After many failures due to ineptitude, the notorious Rawlins gang rides into Gopher's Breath to rob the bank. While Rawhide Rawlins dreams of a farm for his ma, Sheriff Crutchwaffle representing all that's rotten in town also has his designs on the loot. He needs money to escape the clutches of Fat Jack Caldwell, the most feared man in the West...
5 one act plays by accomplished playwright Jason Milligan. . Contents:. Rituals One Way Street Paul's Ghost The Fire-Breathing Lady and the Sugarplum Fairy Key Lime Pie
Comedy, Characters: 6 male, 3 female (w/ doubling) . Interior set . . Deanne and Robert, a May-December couple, have just returned from their honeymoon, and Deanne is shocked to find that Robert has unwittingly bought the very same apartment that she used to live in with her ex-husband, Skip. Not only that, but Skip has also bought the apartment right next door to theirs. It becomes apparent in time that Deanne and Skip are still in love, and getting the couple back together is facilitated b...
From the Movie by Alfred Hitchcock, Licensed by ITV Global Entertainment Limited and an original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon Characters: 3m, 1f Comedy WINNER! 2 Tony
Contemporary scenes for man/man, woman/woman, and man/woman pairs are written in a language that lives, making them ideal for workshops, auditions, and special readings.
Selected speeches for actors and actresses from the author's successful works - comedy, drama, absurdist - provide a gold mine of contemporary material for amateurs and professionals to use in auditions, workshops, and special readings.
5f / Musical/ Unit Set Unlike most of the stage works about Gertrude and Alice, 27 Rue de Fleurus is told from Alice's point of view. Gertrude grows tired of Alice's lack of panache for telling her perspective of their story and attempts to hijack the play as only the author of such lines as "sugar is not a vegetable" can. But Alice has secrets to share with the audience that silence the famously verbose Gertrude. This celebrated couple confronts each other about love, marriage, jealousy, genius...
Full Length, Farce/ 5 m, 3 f, extras / 2 ints. Here is the hilarious frolic that launched Feydeau in Paris as the Neil Simon of his day. Take one philandering husband; add his virtuous wife set on revenge, and a doctor determined to be her instrument of revenge; mix well with the husband's friend who is eager to trap his spouse in flagrante delicto and a young nephew with a cocotte to round out his education; toss them together at 13 Rue de L'Amour where a love starved German countess is the co...
...And Then There Was Nun is written in the style of a classic 1940's murder mystery; and is a blend of humor and who-dun-it as the actors emulate iconic movie stars of the past. Take one foreboding mansion on a secluded island, throw in ten whacked-out members of The Holy Order of the Sisters of San Andreas, stir in their unseen and mysterious leader, add an assortment of the sharpest tongues this side of Hollywood and Vine; then infuse with a healthy dose of some of the most famous lines in c...
Characters: 1 female. A single woman's desire to experience motherhood without a husband at her side sends her through the world of adoption. Her path leads her through an array of characters and situations rife with drama. Settling on private adoption through an attorney she suffers an unfathomable heartbreak at the death of her newborn son. She is somehow able to rise out of despair to try again and meets Elizabeth who is looking for someone to adopt her unborn child. A new family is forged th...
"[An] explosive, often brilliant work about America, narrative, the Middle East and identity."- Time Out New York "...funny, moving, postmodernist-in-a-good-way... Like Scheherazade's tales, 1001 is endlessly compelling, and also endless (again, in a good way)..."- Boston Globe "Jason Grote is one of a generation of brainy new American dramatists - including Tracy Letts and Will Eno - who understand that to reach new audiences, political theater needs to move beyond moral indignation and outra...
