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One-Act Dramas

From intimate dramas for competition to large cast historical plays, Stage Partners has an award-winning collection of exciting dramatic play scripts for high schools, middle schools, and theatres from some of the most popular playwrights working today.

Browse our selection below and READ EVERY PLAY SCRIPT FOR FREE!

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Items 1 - 10 of 13
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  • Soundscapes, a one-act drama play script by Claudia Haas and Sarah Kraning - Stage Partners

    Soundscapes (one-act version)

    Length: 35-45 minutes
    Cast Size: 9-30+ actors (suggested casting: 5F, 2M, 9 any)
    Genre: Drama
    Synopsis:
    Iris has synesthesia. She has no idea. At first, she simply thinks that everyone sees colors and shapes when music plays, but by the time she's a teenager, it's clear that others don't understand. Struggling to downplay the way she experiences the world, and worrying what it might mean to be different, the young artist is at war with herself until she meets a new friend - and he sees the colors to...
  • Moriarty's Daughters (one-act version) - Stage Partners

    Moriarty's Daughters (one-act version)

    Written By: Claire Wittman
    Length: 35-40 minutes
    Cast Size: 11-30+ actors (suggested casting: 11F, 5+ any)
    Genre: Dramedy, Drama
    Synopsis:
    In 1897 New York City, Lucy and Louise Bullard are trying their best to live a quiet life, untouched by the legacy of their father Adam Worth, an internationally infamous conman and art thief whose exploits inspired the character of Moriarty in the Sherlock Holmes stories. However, upon discovering that their father has a third daughter, kept in the care of their aunt, and that the aunt in questio...
  • Moriarty's Daughters - Stage Partners

    Moriarty's Daughters

    Written By: Claire Wittman
    Length: 65-70 minutes
    Cast Size: 11-30+ actors (suggested casting: 11F, 5+ any)
    Genre: Dramedy, Drama
    Synopsis:
    In 1897 New York City, Lucy and Louise Bullard are trying their best to live a quiet life, untouched by the legacy of their father Adam Worth, an internationally infamous conman and art thief whose exploits inspired the character of Moriarty in the Sherlock Holmes stories. However, upon discovering that their father has a third daughter, kept in the care of their aunt, and that the aunt in questio...
  • The Heart and Soul of Thomas Elegie - Stage Partners

    The Heart and Soul of Thomas Elegie

    Length: 35-45 minutes
    Cast Size: 7 actors
    Genre: Drama
    Synopsis:
    Thomas is a very precise pianist who's being pushed by his mom to win competitions for scholarships, he's losing his love of music in the process and it shows in his playing. He meets a new friend at school who reminds him how to have fun with the piano, but when it turns out she's terminally ill he freaks out - this is a relationship he can't "win" -  but ultimately decides to prioritize love of...
  • Yellow Wallpaper adapted by Kathryn Funkhouser from the story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    Yellow Wallpaper

    adapted by Kathryn Funkhouser from the story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
    Length: 35-45 minutes
    Cast Size: 6-30+ actors (suggested casting: 2M, 10F)
    Genre: Drama
    Synopsis:
    When Eleanor stumbles upon a hidden diary, she unlocks a family secret - and finds that danger lives closer to home than she possibly could have imagined. An ensemble of trapped spirits cracks open the door between generations in a theatrical adaptation that wraps the classic psychological horror story The Yellow Wallpaper in a Hitchcockian thriller. 
  • The Inexplicable Chaos Factor of Mia Gregory - Stage Partners

    The Inexplicable Chaos Factor of Mia Gregory

    Written By: Emily Hageman
    Length: 30-35 minutes
    Cast Size: 8-20 actors (suggested casting: 5F, 3M)
    Genre: Drama
    Synopsis:
    Liv is one of the most brilliant teenage mathematicians in the country, but she does not understand her best (and only) friend Mia. Like, at all. And now, she's doing this stupid play to try to figure it out. An incredibly moving and empowering story about the chaos we create, and the order we can find in it.
  • The Old Woman Lost at Sea one-act drama play script by Jason Lemire

    The Old Woman Lost at Sea

    Written By: Jason Lemire
    Length: 35-40 minutes
    Cast Size: 8-11 actors possible (suggested casting: 6F, 3M, 2 any)
    Genre: Drama
    Synopsis:
    Take care of your own little boat, and let others take care of theirs. That’s what Chelsea’s mother Martha taught her as she grew up. But she also remembers the cost, and she can’t look away when she sees someone drowning, like her mother can. When the seas turn stormy for Martha’s own boat, she refuses to come aboard a bigger ship crewed by people different from herself—and they can onl...
  • Barn Wood and Blue Roses - Stage Partners

    Barn Wood and Blue Roses

    Written By: Jacquelyn Priskorn
    Length: 30-40 minutes
    Cast Size: 7-20 actors (suggested casting: 3F, 7 any)
    Genre: Drama
    Synopsis:
    When Devon learns that best friend Chelsea has cystic fibrosis, Devon creates a fantasy world for the two of them to live in. They live in their new imaginative world as L'Sea, a woman who becomes a dragon twice a day, and D'Nova, renowned artisan of comical barn wood signs and a magician's apprentice. But Devon has kept a secret, too. And it is about to bring their whole fantasy world crashing do...
  • The Secret Garden - Stage Partners

    The Secret Garden

    Adapted by Erin Detrick from the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett
    Length: 45-55 minutes
    Cast Size: 12-48 actors (4F, 5M, 3 any)
    Genre: Drama
    Synopsis:
    Orphaned young Mary Lennox finds herself in the charge of a mysterious uncle, in a mysterious house, on the desolate moor in England. Bored and lonely, she starts exploring the gardens and uncovers a secret that has been kept for ten years. But why is everyone here keeping secrets? And who is crying in the house late at night? As spring arrives, the power of nature begins to unlock a beautiful new...
  • Ten(ish): Horrors - Viewings by Del Martin, 10-minute horror play

    Viewings

    Written By: Del Martin
    Length: 10 - 15 minutes
    Cast Size: 5-6 actors (suggested casting: 6F)
    Genre: Drama
    Synopsis:
    You never quite know what you're getting when you buy an old house. The past may still echo within its walls. For Deirdre, who is on the run from her own past, a new home means an escape, but it also comes with some unexpected inhabitants.   This play is part of the short play collection Ten(ish): Horror.
Items 1 - 10 of 13