Scripts by Title E-J
Elizabeth
The Queen
by Maxwell Anderson
Elizabeth and Essex, a royal favorite and popular general, are in love. He is barely thirty and Elizabeth is an aging woman; their love is an extraordinary paradox. Elizabeth delights in Essex the courtier and lover, but is jealous of Essex the military leader and hero. Her constant effort is to keep him quietly at Court under her control. Essex, the last of a proud family, loves the queen but longs for action, glory, and power. He longs to over throw Elizabeth's crafty, cautious statesmanship with his own heroic endeavors.
Cast: 16 M, 6 F
Equus
by Peter Shaffer
Dr. Martin Dysart, a psychiatrist, is confronted with Alan Strang, a boy who has blinded six horses in a violent fit of passion. This very passion is as foreign to Dysart as the act itself. To the boy’s parents, it is a hideous mystery; Alan has always adored horses. To Dysart, it is a psychological puzzle that leads both doctor and patient to a complex and disturbingly dramatic confrontation.
Cast: 5 M, 4 F
Evil Dead, the Musical
by George Reinblatt
This hilarious show takes all the elements of the cult classic films The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness and combines them into one of the craziest theatrical experiences of all time. Five college students go to an abandoned cabin in the woods and accidentally unleash an evil force that turns them all into demons. It's all up to Ash (a housewares employee turned demon-killing hero) and his trusty chainsaw to save the day. Blood flies. Limbs are dismembered. Demons tell bad jokes ... and all to music.
Cast: 4 M, 3 F, 1 either
Family Album
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by Noel Coward
Just back from their father's funeral, the Featherway children cannot pull long faces nor feign regret. The last one to break into laughter is pious Lavinia, father's companion until his death. Even she must admit that he was lecherous and mean. After some wine, Lavinia reveals that she and old Burrows burned the final will (which left nothing to the children) minutes after the old man died.
Cast: 5 M, 4 F
Fen
by Caryl Churchill
Fen takes place in England's swamp or "fen" country and focuses on a gang of women landworkers. The play looks at their work situation and their private lives and dreams. In particular, we follow the story of Val, who leaves her husband and children to live with a farm worker, Frank. Other characters include Angela, the outsider who torments her stepdaughter Becky; Alice, who has turned to religion; Nell, who tries to assert her rights against the farmer; Shirley, who prides herself on keeping going. A community with strong links with the past but living in a present where the land is owned by multinationals.
Cast: 1 M, 6 F, 1 girl
Fiddler on
the Roof
by Joseph Stein
Set in the little village of Anatevka, the story centers on Tevye, a poor milkman, and his five daughters. With the help of a colorful and tight-knit Jewish community, Tevye tries to protect his daughters and instill them with traditional values in the face of changing social mores and the growing anti-Semitism of Czarist Russia. Rich in historical and ethnic detail, Fiddler on the Roof's universal theme of tradition cuts across barriers of race, class, nationality and religion, leaving audiences crying tears of laughter, joy and sadness.
Cast: 7 M, 9 F, + ensemble
Fifth of July
by Lanford Wilson
The scene is a sprawling farmhouse in rural Missouri, which is home to Ken, a legless Vietnam veteran, and his lover, Jed, a horticulturist. They are visited by Ken's sister, June, and her teenage daughter, and by Gwen and John—the former a hard-drinking, pill-popping heiress who aspires to be a rock star, the latter her wary-eyed husband and manager. All are old friends from college days, and former activists who agitated for what they hoped would be a better world. The action centers on Gwen's offer to buy the farm, which she plans to convert into a recording center, and on Ken's Aunt Sally, who has come to the family homestead to scatter the ashes of her late husband.
Cast: 4 M, 4 F
Flowers for Algernon
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by David Rogers
This is the story of Charlie, a mentally retarded man, and the interweaving of his life with that of Algernon, a mouse. Experimental surgery has been performed on Algernon increasing his intelligence fourfold. The operation is tried on Charlie, who rapidly changes from a moron to a genius, far more intelligent than his teacher or the doctors who created the operating technique. But, as Charlie approaches the peak of his brilliance, Algernon shows frightening symptoms of regression.
Cast: 8-10 M, 9-17 F
Fly By Night
by Will Connolly, Michael Mitnick, and Kim Rosenstock
A star-crossed prophecy. A lot of music. Just not a lot of light. In this darkly comic rock-fable, a melancholy sandwich maker’s humdrum life is intersected by two entrancing sisters. A sweeping ode to young love set against the backdrop of the Northeast blackout of 1965, Fly By Night is a tale about making your way and discovering hope in a world beset by darkness.
Cast: 5 M, 2 F
For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf
by Ntozake Shange
Capturing the brutal, tender and dramatic lives of contemporary Black women, For Colored Girls... offers a transformative, riveting evening of provocative dance, music and poetry.
Cast: 7 F
Forever Plaid
by Stuart Ross
Once upon a time, there were four guys (Sparky, Smudge, Jinx and Frankie) who discovered that they shared a love for music and then got together to become their idols – The Four Freshman, The Hi-Lo's and The Crew Cuts. Rehearsing in the basement of Smudge's family's plumbing supply company, they became "Forever Plaid". On the way to their first big gig, the "Plaids" are broadsided by a school bus and killed instantly. It is at the moment when their careers and lives end that the story of Forever Plaid begins....
Cast: 4 M
Fortune and Men's Eyes
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by John Herbert
A play on the degradation and brutality of prison life, Fortune and Men's Eyes focuses its harsh light on Smitty, a naive and essentially non-criminal young inmate sentenced to serve six months for a minor offense. His cellmates are three: Rocky, a blustering, opportunistic bully; Queenie, a raging homosexual who uses the reformatory's corrupt system for his desires; and Mona, a gentle boy who has detatched from his emotions in order to survive.
Cast: 5 M
Fumed Oak
by Noel Coward
In the middle class drawing room of amiable and hard working Henry Gow passes most of the family life surrounding his harridan wife Doris, his brat daughter Elise, and his complaining mother in law Mrs. Rockett. But Henry is a turned worm when he comes home with a couple of drinks under his belt and a new courage. So he reveals his plans for escape, his long time saving which now makes it possible for him to leave. He vows never to see his family again, jauntily leaves, and saucily slams the door.
Cast: 1 M, 3 F
girl.
by Megan Mostyn-Brown
A play about what it means to be a "girl" in this day and age. The girls in this play show great strength, revealing their vulnerabilities in language that is honest and extremely compelling. Split into three sections, the characters speak entirely in monologues (with some overlap), providing great material for auditions and monologue work.
Cast: 1 M, 4 F
Greater Tuna
by Jaston Williams and more
The long-running Off Broadway hit features two actors creating the entire population of Tuna in a tour de farce of quick change artistry, changing costumes and characterizations faster than a jack rabbit runs from a coyote. Two actors, twenty characters, and a barrel of laughs, y’all.
Cast: 2 M or F
Hairspray
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by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan
It's 1962 in Baltimore, and the lovable plus-size teen, Tracy Turnblad, has only one desire – to dance on the popular "Corny Collins Show." When her dream comes true, Tracy is transformed from social outcast to sudden star. She must use her newfound power to dethrone the reigning Teen Queen, win the affections of heartthrob, Link Larkin, and integrate a TV network... all without denting her 'do!
Cast: 5 M, 7 F, + ensemble
Half a Sixpence
by Beverley Cross
The time is the turn of the century and the place is an attractive seaside resort in the south of England. Young Kipps and his fellow apprentices work for a tightfisted businessman. Kipps' main concern is his girl Ann, to whom he gives half a sixpence as a lover's token. Their romance is upset when Kipps suddenly inherits a large fortune and is swept away by new friends.
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Cast: 12 M, 11 F
Hands Across
The Sea
by Noel Coward
Lady Gilpin (Piggie) is so busy with social duties and gossip that she has no time for coherent thinking. She is set aflutter when her drawing room is suddenly filled with her husband's naval conferees, blueprint delivery boys and dumpy Mr. and Mrs. Wadhurst from the Far East, who flighty Piggie mistakes for the Rawlingsons. The Wadhursts overhear intimate phone conversations, are stumbled over, spilled upon and completely ignored before Piggie finally gets it straight.
Cast: 6 M, 3 F
Heaven Can Wait
by Harry Segall
Mr. Jordan is checking passengers who are to depart in an airplane for the Hereafter. The routine is interrupted by the arrival of Joe Pendleton who refuses to admit he is dead and induces Jordan to look up the "records," which reveal that Joe is not scheduled to arrive for another 60 years! But, as Joe starts to return to earth, word reaches Heaven that Max Levene, Joe's manager, had Joe's body cremated, and Joe has no body to return to. Jordan promises to find Joe another body and finds that the wealthy Jonathan Farnsworth is about to be murdered by his wife. So Joe finds himself in the home of the financier, visible as Joe to the audience but apparently as Farnsworth to Mrs. Farnsworth, and the public.
Cast: 12 M, 6 F
Heidi
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by William Friedberg and Neil Simon
This heart warming adaptation for the musical stage blends the dramatic qualities of the immortal story and the lovely Schulman melodies to create a show with universal appeal.
Cast: 4 M, 5 F
Henry VI, Part One
by William Shakespeare
Henry V's funeral is attended by many of his noblemen, who speak sadly of the death of such a great king. Several messengers arrive, announcing trouble in France. Several towns, part of the English territory once won by Henry V, have been lost, the Dauphin Charles has been crowned king, while the English hero Talbot has been taken prisoner. Hearing the news, the noblemen rise to action, each taking on a different task to help reorganize the kingdom and prepare the newly crowned king--the former king's son, Henry VI--for his emergency duties in France.
Cast: 31 M, 3 F
Henry VIII
by William Shakespeare
King Henry VIII listens to Cardinal Wolsey too much and gives him power, which the Cardinal uses to convict a duke of treason. Henry meets Anne Boleyn, divorces his wife Katharine, and marries Anne. Anne gives birth to Princess Elizabeth who the Archbishop prophesies will become great.
Cast: 23 M, 3 F
Here and Now
by David Rogers
This play is unusual in every way—in subject matter, manner of presentation, and the way in which it seems to move from "performance to reality." In Scene 1, a group of actors begin rehearsing the play. The play they are presenting is loosely based on actual experiments in a high school in which students, teachers and parents met for sessions in a human relations group called a "Here and Now" meeting. As the actors work on the play, their identification with the characters becomes stronger, and as the confusions and tensions of their parts surface, their own hang-ups emerge, too. Finally, the characters, the actors and the audience will learn that they are not alone with the pressures and confusions young adults, teachers and parents face today.
Cast: 6 M, 7 F, 3 either
Hotel Universe
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by Phillip Barry
About the baffling problems every adult human is forced to face at some point. The characters seem hardly to exist at all in relation to other people. These people are essentially introspective, literally self-seeking. And what are they after? Just an answer to the question every thinking human must ask himself, and vainly: Where are we going and why? What is the meaning of past, present, and future?
Cast: 5 M, 4 F
Huckleberry Finn
by Jane Kendall
It's always Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer when there's real mischief afoot, with Old Man River in the background. Here the threat is a pair of smooth-tongued crooks who call themselves the Duke and the King. They pose as the uncles of a pair of pretty orphaned girls, guests of Aunt Sally. They plan to steal the girls' inheritance. They also threaten Jim and insist he's a runaway slave. Huck and Tom must take fast action—and they do!
Cast: 6 M, 8 F
Independence
by Lee Blessing
The setting is the small town of Independence, Iowa, the lifelong home of Evelyn Briggs. Her oldest daughter, Kess, is a university professor in Minneapolis, but she has come home at the request of her sister, Jo, who is concerned for Evelyn's mental health. Kess, a professed lesbian, wants to cut her family ties once and for all; Jo, an incurable romantic and longtime virgin, has now become pregnant; while Sherry, salty-tongued and amoral, wants only to finish high school so she can leave home for good.
Cast: 4 F
I Love a Piano
by Irving Berlin
I LOVE A PIANO is the celebration of the music and lyrics of Irving Berlin. It follows the journey of a piano as it moves in and out of American lives from the turn of the century to the present. Along the way, the story comes to vibrant life with over sixty of Irving Berlin's most beloved songs. Alternately heartbreaking and hilarious, rousing and reflective, I LOVE A PIANO is a fitting tribute to the man Jerome Kern famously said had 'no place in American music - he is American music.'
Cast: 3 M, 3 F
I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change
by Joe Dipietro
This celebration of the mating game takes on the truths and myths behind that contemporary conundrum known as "the relationship". Act l details the journey from dating and waiting to lovers and marriage, while Act II reveals the agonies and triumphs of in-laws and new-borns, trips in the family car and pick-up techniques of the geriatric set. This hilarious revue pays tribute to those who have loved and lost, to those who have fallen on their face at the portal of romance, to those who have dared to ask, "Say, what are you doing Saturday night?"
Cast: 2 M, 2 F
Is There Life After High School
by Jeffrey Kindley
This is a "memory musical." The cast plays various characters remembering the joy, the laughter, and the pain of what it was like to go through high school.
Cast: 5 M, 4 F
J.B.
by Archibald MacLeish
We are deep in the unanswered problems of man's relationship to God in an era of cruel injustices. J.B. is Mr. MacLeish's counterpart of the immortal Job. The glory of the play is that, as in the Book of Job, J.B. does not curse God. When he is reunited with his wife, two humbled but valiant people accept the universe, agree to begin life all over again, expecting no justice but unswerving in their devotion to God.
Cast: 12 M, 9 F
I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road
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by Gretchen Cryer
This is the story of a thirty-nine-year-old songwriter who is making a comeback, throwing out “the crap of the past” – her commercial sex kitten image – in order to forge a new identity, writing songs that express how she really feels and who she really is. Her manager (a former lover) is appalled. He likes her the way she used to be and says he can’t sell this “new woman.” They battle it out to a bittersweet, triumphant conclusion.
Cast: 6 M, 4 F
Jane Eyre
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by Helen Jerome
Young Jane Eyre comes to Thornfield, the estate of the brooding Rochester, to be a governess to Adele, his child-ward. Rochester is an unhappy man with lunatic wife whom he must keep locked up. As Jane's presence begins to lighten his mood, they come to an understanding which it is assumed will lead to marriage. However, Jane discobvers Rochester's secret of the the locked room and leaves Thornfield, returning to discover that the lunatic has burned down the estate killing herself in the fire, leaving Rochester free to marry Jane.
Cast: 10 M, 12 F