4 Hilarious Plays for Every Kind of Summer Vacation

 School is out for the summer!

Growing up I remember having a blast performing in spring productions at my high school, but then I would spend summer vacation longing for fall auditions. Now I say: "Why wait?" Summer vacation is a great time to put on a show, too!

Get ready for all-caps FUN with these four plays for young actors that are guaranteed to make a splash with your student performers. From aspiring YouTubers to Pokémon-obsessed gamers to hopeless high school romantics, Stage Partners has a great summer play for everyone— and as always you can read them all for free!

For the Aspiring Influencers:

15 Minutes of YouTube Fame

From kindergarten to high school, kids today are just waiting for their big break online, but be careful what you wish for! Ian McWethy’s hilarious short play for schools and young audiences reveals the reality behind virality  when one kid falls on his butt and accidentally turns into a viral video sensation. It’s a laugh-out-loud cautionary tale that explores the bizarre world of being a celebrity in the internet age.

For the Hopeless Romantics:

101 Breakups

Have you been burned by a summer romance? Once? Twice? How about 101 times? You’ll feel all the feelings in this dram-com that’s great for both high school and middle school aged kids. Jason Pizzarello’s play will have your acting students laughing their way through heartbreak.

101 Breakups by Jason Pizzarello

For the Gamers:

The 8 Ways Pokémon Go is Destroying Your Life

Ever wish your favorite gamer would get out and enjoy the sunshine a bit more? Well thanks to Pokémon Go, they can! (Just be sure it doesn’t lead them off a cliff, into a volcano, or right into the arms of a team of super-criminals.) This hilarious play from comedic genius Don Zolidis explains all those pitfalls–– and more!–– so you can play safely all summer long.

For the Theater Kids (like me!):

When Bad Things Happen to Good Actors

Let’s face it: Making theater isn’t always a walk in the park. But if you think your productions are wild, try keeping up with this outrageous short play from Ian McWethy and Jason Pizzarello. With everything from missed cues to a renegade sound board op who refuses to play anything but dinosaur noises, this one-act proves that when it comes to live theater everything that can go wrong will go wrong (and you better believe it will be hilarious).

When Bad Things Happen to Good Actors by Ian McWethy and Jason Pizzarello

 Still looking for inspiration? Check out all our plays here!

<  Chris Barlow is a New York-based playwright as well as the Director of Social Media and Content Manager for Stage Partners.