Clicking on the title or photo of the play will bring up more information. Clicking on the picture of the cover will take you to the publisher's website. Plays marked with the NPX logo can be downloaded for free by members of the New Play Exchange.
Click the photo or title to read more about the play. |
FULL LENGTH COMEDIES |
Click the cover to get a copy! |
The Lady Demands Satisfaction(5w, 2m) comedy.Winner of the Todd McNerney National Playwriting Award and Joining Sword & Pen Competition. When a young maiden who has never touched a sword learns she must defend her inheritance in a duel, she struggles with a milksop suitor, a servant girl posing as a Prussian fencing master, the actual Prussian fencing master who believes he is there to marry her, a stodgy lord, and her domineering aunt – the finest blade anywhere - to save her house and lands. |
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A Very Modern Marriage(1w, 2m) comedy.Matthew and Tina's marriage is already on the rocks when Tina's friend Christopher moves in with a secret agenda to get Tina out of the picture and steal Matt's heart once and for all. |
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Long Joan Silver(8-20w, 6-15m) comedy.Published by YouthPLAYS. Long Joan Silver and her all-female crew take on discrimination and inequality as well as Squire Trelawney, Jim Hawkins and all the regular characters in this hysterical new version of the classic adventure story Treasure Island. |
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The Christmas Princess(4-8+ w,4-4+ m) children's playPublished by YouthPLAYS. A new fairy tale for all ages - a spoiled Princess must find three magical christmas gifts for her parents if she is to escape an arranged marriage to the world's stupidest Prince. |
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Mission: Colusa(3w, 2m, 1 any) comedy.Can a team of volunteer astronauts stay sane in the confines of a mock spaceship on a simulated four year mission? Um.... no. NASA was looking for the best of the best and got these people instead. |
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Mrs Dilber's Christmas Carol(9-36 roles) large cast comedy.Mrs. Dilber - Scrooge’s maltreated housekeeper in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol - meets Marley and the Spirits of Christmas before they haunt Scrooge, and sets off on a past, present and future adventure of her own in this subversive and hilarious reimagining of the classic Christmas story. |
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FULL LENGTH DRAMAS |
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A Gulag Mouse(5w, 1m) drama.Published by Next Stage Press Winner of the Joining Sword & Pen Competition Woodward/Newman Drama Award Finalist. A woman's arrival at a Siberian Gulag destroys the intricate web of hierarchy, alliance and treachery among the other inmates of her bunkhouse. |
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Past Curfew(2w,1m) drama.Published by Next Stage Press. Years of bitter conflicts erupt as a single mother and her teenage daughter confront the unspoken issues between them in a night of vicious headgames. |
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The Ithaca Ladies Read Medea(6w, 1m) drama. There is also a ONE ACT version for 6f.Published by Next Stage Press. In 1953, after interrogation by the House Un-American Activities Committee, four university wives meet for their monthly play reading knowing one of them betrayed the host. |
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TRASH(2f) drama.Published by Next Stage Press. Winner of the Joining Sword & Pen Competition. In TRASH, two estranged sisters clash when they attempt to recover their mother's dying message - a letter that has been thrown out with the trash and now resides in a municipal dump |
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ONE ACT PLAYS |
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Almost Christmas(1w, 2m) dramaA bartender tries to get money from her new boss and a cantankerous regular customer to fund a trip to kill her father. Merry Christmas! Published by Next Stage Press as part of an evening of one acts titled THIN LINES. |
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Bailing Out(1w, 1m) serio-comicA fisherman with a troubled past reveals the secret of life to a jaded nurse in a hospice. Published by Next Stage Press as part of an evening of one acts titled THIN LINES. |
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Courtin' in Georgia(1w, 2m) comedyA reinterpretation of Anton Chekhov's The Proposal, set in the south of the U.S. A frail hypochondriac tries to ask his neighbor's headstrong daughter to marry him in spite of a long history of rivalry between their families. |
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The Ithaca Ladies Read Medea - One Act(6f) drama. A ONE ACT version of the full length play.Contact the playwright. In 1953, after interrogation by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, four university wives meet for their monthly play reading knowing one of them betrayed the others. |
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The Night Before Christmas(10-30) Middle School comedyThe famous poem that begins “Twas the Night Before Christmas” goes awry when the characters start voicing their own opinions about what it all means. Available from YouthPLAYS! | ||
Mopping the Stage(1m) dramatic Download this one for free!A playwright mops the stage before a play, and reveals the event that forced him to quit a lucrative job training military helicopter pilots and become a writer. And mop stages. |
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Rising(4w, 3m) dramaSeven combative Middle School students must work together when their school is surrounded by rising floodwaters. Available from YouthPLAYS. All author proceeds from this play, whether from sales or productions, go to charities working for hurricane relief. |
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Straw, Sticks, Bricks(6-9 any gender) comedyAvailable on the New Play Exchange Three building materials that long to become houses face real trouble when they meet a Big Bad Wolf. |
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There Is No Play(9-15, any gender) dramaEight drama students attempt to stage a play that speaks to their own experiences, even after the school administration shuts it down. Available from YouthPLAYS. |
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Thicker than Water.(1w, 1m) dramaA young couple cope with love, a possible pregnancy... and an inexplicable puddle of blood. Published by Next Stage Press as part of an evening of one acts titled THIN LINES. |
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TEN MINUTE PLAYS |
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After It's All Over
(1w, 2m) surreal
comedy Available from Original Works Online. A nuclear family in a post-nuclear age struggles to accept the son's decision to go into a completely one-sided battle. |
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After the War is Over
(2w, 2m) drama Available on the New Play Exchange A young couple struggle to reconnect after being separated by World War II - and sixty years later, the couples' daughter struggles to connect with her father as he battles Alzheimers. |
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Archibald the Monster
(9-16+ any) comedy When a scary monster terrorizes fairy tale villagers to steal their food, only the poorest child has the cunning and bravery to stop the monster and earn the villagers’ respect - in a tale woven by two babysitting siblings trying to head off a tantrum from their own little “monster”. Published by YouthPLAYS, Inc. |
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Ashes
(5 any) horror Four teenagers search the remains of a forest after a devastating fire for their missing friend who started the blaze. Published by YouthPLAYS, Inc. |
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Bang!
(1w, 2m) comedy A jealous husband shoots his wife's ex-boyfriend before the curtain even rises in this surprising comedy. |
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Bath Time is Fun Time.
(4 Any) comedy Available from YouthPLAYS. Four bath toys face an existential crisis - they hate water! Easily castable, family friendly... I wrote this play as a children's play, and found myself getting deeper into the angst of these poor inanimate objects questioning their entire existence. |
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Better by Candlelight
(1w, 1m) drama Available from Original Works Online. A widower relives the anniversary of his wife's death with a role-playing prostitute. |
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Blood and Coal Dust
(2m) drama Two miners, trapped by a cave-in one of them started, confront their fears and reveal their secrets as they await rescue. Premieres August 15th at the 2024 SAMUEL FRENCH OOB FESTIVAL. |
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The
Bricklayer
(1m) drama Download this one for free! A bricklayer talks to his son about the the importance of making each brick square and true, the importance of the big picture, of small parts playing roles in larger issues... as he builds an industrial chimney in a concentration camp. |
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Bully Issues
(1w, 2m) dark comedy Three bullies clash over the best way to bully other kids. |
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Childish Things
(2w, 2m) drama A man facing a terminal illness tries to reconcile with his daughter with the help of two of her childhood toys. Childish Things is included in Applause Books' Best American Short Plays 2015-2016 and is also available on the New Play Exchange |
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Christmas Spirit
(3w, 2m) comedy A hitchhiking maniac and dead bodies in the fountain conspire to ruin the perfect family christmas. |
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The Copilot
(1w, 1m) comedy A college dropout and her professional "road trip copilot" must survive a hungry bear after their car goes into a ditch. |
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Doing the Math
(1w) drama Download this one for free! A hyper intelligent girl - borderline Asperger's Syndrome - discovers her father may not be the man she thought. This play won the 2012 MonoSlam Competition at the Secret Rose Theatre, Los Angeles. |
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Every Battle, Every War
(4m) comedy Available from Original Works Online. Four soldiers in a trench in World War One find more to fight about with each other than with the enemy. |
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Fallen to the Communists
(1w, 1m) comedy Awkward humor abounds when a widower tries to cope with his 12 year old daughter's first period. |
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The Fine Print (1m, 1 Any) serio-comic Available from Original Works Online. An extremely persuasive devil convinces an uptight engineer to build a diabolical electrical circuit for a new weapons system. |
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The
Four Senses of Love
(1w, 1m) off-beat comedy. Available from Smith & Kraus. A man with no feelings falls for a woman with no taste at a support group for the sensory deprived. |
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The Fourth Ghost
(1m, 1 Any) comedy Available from Smith & Kraus. Ebeneezer Schrooge confronts a very modern ghost who hates Christmas and suffers from seasonal affective disorder. (self-diagnosed.) |
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Gentlemen
(4m) comedy Four men meet at the urinals of a restaurant mens room, and clash over politics, physical attributes - and the meaning of masculinity and life. |
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How Blue is My
Crocodile
(2w) serio-comic Available from YouthPLAYS. Two young girls play fantastical games while waiting for their wounded father to return from a tour of duty. |
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How Not To Do Your Homework
(10 roles for Middle School students) comedy A simple instruction manual in the art of avoiding homework, bamboozling parents and putting one over on your teachers! |
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Howie's Last Words (1w, 1m) drama Available from Original Works Online. A stuntman, home late after a fire stunt that went disastrously wrong, confronts the wife who wants him to quit. |
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If You Could Go Back...
(3 Any) comedy Available on the New Play Exchange and in the collection 30 Short plays for Passionate Actors. When a geeky guy invents a time travel machine to go back and kill Adolf Hitler, his future roommate uses it to try and stop the would-be assassin in a comedic look at the cycle of violence. |
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The Last Man on Earth
(1w, 2m) comedy The last three survivors of the apocalypse face a complicated relationship triangle. |
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Last Minute Addition
(2w, 2m) dramedy Three actors struggling with a cheesy anti-texting and driving play are confronted by a student who lost his brother in an accident. |
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Moby (No Last Name Given)
(3-4w,1-2m) comedy with music Available from YouthPLAYS. Herman Melville's classic "Moby Dick" in ten minutes. How much time do you really need? |
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New Kid Next Door
(3 teens) horror When the creepy new kid comes over for July 4th, two siblings clash over whether to play nice... or run screaming. |
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Next Year, Cancun
(1w, 2-3m) comedy Available on the New Play Exchange When a middle aged couple tries to spice up their anniversary with a little sexy role-play as a lady of the evening and her client - they run into an old college friend, and then the law. |
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Palaces
(3w) drama, maybe dramedy After Abby kills her abusive husband, she turns to her old flame Barbara - now living under hard times - for help. Originally titled Of Rats and Men. |
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The Passport
(2m) drama Available on the New Play Exchange Two lovers' plans for a trip are thrown into turmoil by an emergency phone call from home. |
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Past Saturn
(2w, 2m, 1 Any) serio-comic A couple whose marriage is on the rocks meet a couple with an embarrassing secret on Alaska's "Planet Walk" hike, in the face of an approaching blizzard. Throw in a pair of sandals and an unhelpful park ranger... what could go wrong? Published by Next Stage Press as part of an evening of one acts titled AWESOME AMERICA. |
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Sales of a Dead Man
(2w, 2m) comedy Winner of the Tree City Playhouse 10 Min Play Competition! After the leading salesman gets squished by a bus, irascible co-workers and their awkward boss fight over his commissions to save their jobs. |
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The Secret of Jarlsberg
(1w, 1m) comedy A young couple clash over life, money, and the world's most perfectly expensive fondue. |
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She Will Have Freesias
(2w, 3m) drama Three troubled siblings must overcome their differences when they learn their mother has terminal cancer if they are to make it through the months ahead. |
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Snakes in a Lunchbox
(3w or 2w,1m) serio-comic Available from YouthPLAYS. When Carly and Georgia team up to get the best revenge in the history of ever against the school bully who steals their lunch, they're not prepared for what happens - to them, to the bully, or to the dangerous snake they have hidden in a lunchbox. Suitable for Middle School students and TYA |
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Still Waters
(2w,1m) drama A couple fight to save their marriage after the death of their daughter. |
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Survivors Club
(2w, 2m) comedy Four survivors of a shared traumatic childhood experience - a visit to a chocolate factory that went disastrously wrong - confront the terrifying news that a man they thought was dead is plotting to give away five new golden tickets. |
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Sweeping with the Enemy
(2w) comedy Two overzealous stage moms clash over the best way to sweep the stage before their kids' dance recital. |
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Tiger in a Cage (1w, 1m) drama Available from Original Works Online. A female psychiatrist gets trapped in a jail cell with a former patient - a recidivist sex offender. |
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Uncle Yahya Ruins the Wedding
(2w, 2m, 1 any) political comedy A pre-wedding nervous couple deal with a meddling mother-in-law who's done the unthinkable - invited Uncle Yahya, a political extremist. It's a funny farce until the final moments, when we discover this is all taking place in Afghanistan, and Yahya's presence will provoke a drone strike. |
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The Waiting Room of the Gods (2w, 2m)
comedy Available from Original Works Online. Three classical personifications of love - Venus, Erato and Cupid - are rudely surprised by a modern interloper - the spirit of Erectile Dysfunction! |
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What the Well Dressed Girl is Wearing
(2w) comedy Available from YouthPLAYS. What happens when Jennifer asks her friend Sandra to pick out her outfit for her date with the guy Sandra's been obsessed with for years? |
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Zombified
(3m) comedy Zombies make the best employees! A CEO creates the world's most cost-effective workforce with the help of some black magic. It's a job for life... and beyond! |
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ONE MINUTE PLAYSOne Minute plays are on their own page. |