A one-act play, The Boarding House is a dramatic satire, by David.H. Klein, of the story by James Joyce. Mrs. Mooney, the owner of a boarding house of questionable reputation, exploits the wiles of her daughter Polly and the power of the Church to snare one of her more respectable boarders as her potential son-in-law.
This full-length comedy play with music brings rapid-fire dialogue to an old classic. With a flexible cast, it is an excellent play for high school performances, college theaters, or community productions. Elvgren has selected the bawdiest and most satirical tales for this version. A sense of Chaucer's language is maintained but is made accessible to a modern audience.
(Lead sheets available)
A tribute to Dr. Seuss and a parody of "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back", where Nick & Sally are savvy enough to call Social Services to deal with both The Cat and the pink snow that he created.
Give Scrooge a break for the winter holiday production! THE CHIMES is a full-length comedy and large-cast adaptation of another Dickens' classic Christmas/New Years tale. Toby Veck, an impoverished London porter wants to bless his daughter's marriage by New Year's Day. Alas, he doesn't have even a shilling in his pocket. Surely, the wealthy families he carries packages for will find enough work for him to do before the New Year comes and he must break a promise made on his late wife's deathbed.
This Dickens' comedy is a great Christmas change-of-pace for schools, communities, and regional theaters.
A 50-minute condensed monologue adapted from Charles Dickens' Scrooge. How the ghosts who haunt him, eventually transform a lonely, stingy, bitter old man into a generous, infectiously cheerful humanitarian. D.D. Delaney, a professional actor, playwright, journalist, and poet has adapted the familiar holiday classic for the stage. Written as a monologue, it can also be performed by 4 actors. Ideal for Christmas celebrations, house performances, and readers theater. Downloadable PDF available.
A stunning drama with wonderful comic scenes, which received a special mention in the 2019 ScreenCraft Stage Play Competition. The story: in 2018, a black Congressman is caught up in a Trump impeachment battle and the alt right. Two hundred years earlier at the same plantation home, a slave is deciding whether to escape. Two parallel stories show how much has and hasn't changed about race and politics in America.
A one-act playadapted from "The Dead" in James Joyce’s “Dubliners”
During an annual Christmas celebration, Gabriel Conroy has to cope with his doddering aunts, discover the true nature of his relationship with his wife, Gretta, and confront his own academic pedantry. He condescends to the provincialism of his friends, family, and his wife. But a big surprise about Gretta awaits him after he retires for the night.
In The Devil’s Due, a one-act drama/comedy, an artist, Eric Talmadge, confronts the decline of his aesthetic powers and the possible dissolution of his marriage. In a satiric tour de force, a visitor—possibly a neighboring psychiatrist and possibly a more fearsome presence—offers him a possible way out of his dilemma. Is M. Boudreaux really an unorthodox psychiatrist practicing from his apartment in NYC or does he represent a power other than the mind? And what choice does he give Eric in order to regain his peace of mind and his artistic abilities?
A one-act, satirical caricature on the practice of medicine, Human nature is revealed and pilloried in this comedy which skillfully skewers the medical profession, a narcissistic patient, and his conniving wife. The Hypochondriac (also known as The Imaginary Invalid) is as germane today as it was in Moliere's France.
Easy to produce on stage or in a classroom as reader's theater. (We have special copying rates for classroom use.)
“The Legacy of an Invisible Father” is a 10-min drama within Monique Franz’s play series “Legacy of a Father.” The short play highlights one woman’s futile attempt to locate a father through a private investigator. Angela’s lifelong loss of a father figure is further complicated by her biracial identity and her struggles with an unloving mother. Within the script, Angela must come to the terms that fate hadn’t been cruel to her at all, that maybe the absence of her father was the heavens working in her favor.
A one-act children’s morality play based on a Malaysian folk tale. A group of unruly and rowdy forest characters give a group of greedy monkeys their comeuppance. Set in a hot tropical jungle, this is a comic tale around the relative values of sloth and industry. Can be performed for and/or by children. Great for classroom readings.
Aesop's Fable The Tortoise and the Hare meets an African Ibo legend . This one-act comedy play script for kids reveals what inquiring minds have always wanted to know - the inside scoop behind Aesop's most famous Fable and why tortoises have cracked, lumpy shells.
A one-act family comedy for 5 actors. A woman is pushed to the limits by the needs of her family. Her husband is overwhelmed by a new business venture, two of her children are self-absorbed, and her eldest son copes, with her help, with mild mental retardation. What will they do when she goes on strike?
Great for middle school, high school, community theater, school competitions, and groups for women. Downloadable, printable PDF available.
In ancient times, Eldad, a gem merchant hears rumors of a magnificent pearl. He spends his life seeking for this marvelous jewel. Throughout his travels——and travails——he encounters both the splendor and the baseness of humanity. When his riches and health, and even his sight are finally gone, he discovers that the rumored pearl is, in fact, a man named Jesus, the true pearl beyond price.
A full-length fantasy play for five characters, based on Oscar Wilde's Story The Selfish Giant. This adventure tells the enchanting story of a group of city kids who discover a beautiful house and garden in the middle of their cement and broken glass environment. But they are chased off by the selfish giant, Gorgon, who places a 'No Trespassing' sign on the gate. Because of his selfishness, the elements of Frost, Snow, and Hail invade his garden and transform it into a place where Spring is banished.
This 60-minute Christmas play for the whole family is adapted by Gillette Elvgren from "The Snow Queen" story by Hans Christian Anderson. Follow the adventures of the young girl Gerda as she strives to free her best friend Kay from the icy grip of the Snow Queen. A modern version with optional audience participation, for Children's Theatre or students to perform for family audiences.
