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Competition
Competition Plays for High School
There are over 20 plays suitable for Competition Pieces. Written by award-winning authors. Winning one-act plays that fit the competition rules. Take them to your next competition with confidence. Clever comedies, winning adaptations, comic takes on Cinderella, a pact with the devil, romantic couples, monologues, duologues, award-winning comedies – and more.
AMERICAN COLLEGE THEATRE FESTIVAL — IRENE RYAN COMPETITION
Students do not need to apply for permission to present monologues/scenes as audition pieces in the American College Theatre Festival’s Irene Ryan Competition. You may perform monologues/scenes from any of our plays without written permission or paying a royalty fee.
Performance rights only need to be applied for and secured if a student progresses to the final round, where the monologues/scenes are presented at the Kennedy Center.
Do not send us an application for the earlier rounds of the competition. If you have further questions go to The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival site and contact the representative in your district.
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Inside and Out
$9.97 – $50.00Price range: $9.97 through $50.00This 10-minute poetic play dramatizes a mother's attempt to reach inside the autistic mind of her young son. Characters include Jonah, the boy, his mother, Jonah's mind. The play is a great change of pace in an evening of short plays and as an introduction to discussion groups and classes in social work and mental health settings. -
Legacy of a Father
$14.70 – $110.00Price range: $14.70 through $110.00"Legacy of a Father" is a collection of seven dramatic and comedy one-act plays inspired by real one-on-one, personal interviews conducted by the playwright, Monique Franz. The series addresses a fatherless theme and deals with absentee fathers and the absence of what a father traditionally provides. -
Library Wars
$13.70 – $135.00Price range: $13.70 through $135.00School and public libraries, bastions of free access to information, are threatened. “Library Wars” begins with an ordinary setting: a local library board meeting. Everything’s routine until someone arrives with what might be a weapon, and new members propose banning books with race-oriented, gay, and transsexual themes and characters. -
Looking Glass Elegy
$13.97 – $78.00Price range: $13.97 through $78.00Structured as a nonlinear narrative, a film location scout named George takes us on a trip through his past, reflecting on his adventures in the film business as well as past relationships, particularly with a dancer who he came to love and eventually lost. His attempt to come to terms with that loss drives the action of the story. -
Monologues for Men: Voices from the Old Testament
$13.97 – $55.00Price range: $13.97 through $55.00These voices from the Old Testament are perfect for Christian solo drama performances. Also with voices of contemporary men of faith, struggling or affirming their beliefs bring modern issues to life. Perfect for inclusion in virtual church services and programs, and also as audition pieces. For performance rights for individual monologues, please contact us. -
Monsters
$11.97 – $90.00Price range: $11.97 through $90.00Seven contemporary monologues that take the audience into a roller coaster ride of the psyche from predators to bizarre takes on the afterlife. Featuring an electric chair experiment, missing body parts and a weird scientific experiment to name a few. Great solo performance ideas. -
Not Your Fairy Godmother
$9.97 – $50.00Price range: $9.97 through $50.00A comedy that actually DEFENDS insurance companies because everyone just assumes that insurance companies have an unlimited amount of money to hand out. -
Off Our Rockers
$13.70 – $110.00Price range: $13.70 through $110.00This collection of madcap 10-minute comedies appeals to everyone from teens to seniors. Casts include elves, grumpy homophobic neighbors, and a troupe of historical characters come to life. -
Oil Pandango
$9.97 – $50.00Price range: $9.97 through $50.00“Oil Pandango” is the fifth installment in the Playroom series, and it’s set in the garage. A lot of teens take over the garage with dreams of starting a band, but Marla isn’t a lot of teens. -
Ophelia Chooses
$13.97 – $125.00Price range: $13.97 through $125.00"Ophelia Chooses" begins at Ophelia’s funeral. After perfunctory mourning by the cast of Hamlet, she is resurrected by a feminist from our time, who offers her the chance to live. Feminist Fay instructs Ophelia in the art of standing up for what she wants (and ultimately believes). This is done by revisiting all the scenes from Hamlet in which Ophelia appears. -
Original Relocation
$9.97 – $50.00Price range: $9.97 through $50.00Adam and Eve start the first world war as they negotiate an uneasy peace when they are banished from Paradise. A funny take on the likely conversation after being ejected from Paradise. And of course, there are rules about Apples. -
Papito
$9.97 – $50.00Price range: $9.97 through $50.00Papito is a ten-page short play addressing parentification, specifically how a young man who grows up without a father assumes the partnership role with his mother and has difficulty establishing a healthy partnership with a significant other. The narrator, Zoe, is that significant other who is frustrated with her domineering mother-in-law and her husband who refuses to establish needed boundaries for his mom. -
Priming the Pump
$11.97 – $120.00Price range: $11.97 through $120.00Fight for Life is a low-rent Jerry-Springer-style talk show whose mantra is embodied by its two major chants: Fight for Life and Stage the Rage; its ratings are sliding and fast. Along comes Grace Truman, a guest whose story seems likely to reverse their declining numbers but she is not quite the guest that host, Burt Solomon, expected. -
4 skilfully adapted plays for young audiences: Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, A Midnight Summer's Dream, and Macbeth. Plays are each around 45 to 50 minutes, are fast-paced, engaging, and make the language more accessible to young audiences, while including both Shakespeare’s original language and theatrical devices. As exciting participatory theater they appeal to elementary school students. With the participatory elements removed, each play's frame story is producible as a play for teens or for teen drama groups to perform for a younger audience.
