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One-Act Plays

Stage Partners is home to some of the best one-act play scripts for high schools, middle schools, and theatres. From large cast comedies to intimate dramas for competition, Stage Partners' exciting collection of short plays features some of the most popular playwrights in the world. 

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

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Items 1 - 10 of 15
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  • A Wrinkle in Time 50-minute version) - Morgan Gould - Stage Partners

    A Wrinkle in Time (50-minute one-act)

    Adapted by Morgan Gould from the novel by Madeleine L'Engle
    Length: 45-50 minutes
    Cast Size: 7-30 actors (suggested casting: 7F, 4M, 6 any)
    Genre: Drama
    Synopsis:
    One of literature's most enduring young heroines, Meg Murry, is back -- braces, stubbornness and all. Once again, she's joining forces with Mrs Whatsit, Charles Wallace, Calvin O'Keefe and more to battle the forces of evil so she can rescue her father, save humanity and find herself. In the end, we know two things for sure: 1. Love CAN overcome evil and 2. There...
  • A Wrinkle in Time (35-minute version) - Morgan Gould - Stage Partners

    A Wrinkle in Time (35-minute one-act)

    Adapted by Morgan Gould from the novel by Madeleine L'Engle
    Length: 35-40 minutes
    Cast Size: 7-30 actors (suggested casting 7F, 4M, 8 any)
    Genre: Drama
    Synopsis:
    One of literature's most enduring young heroines, Meg Murry, is back -- braces, stubbornness and all. Once again, she's joining forces with Mrs Whatsit, Charles Wallace, Calvin O'Keefe and more to battle the forces of evil so she can rescue her father, save humanity and find herself. In the end, we know two things for sure: 1. Love CAN overcome evil and 2. There IS such a thing as a tesseract. Per...
  • The Wizard of Oz - Stage Partners

    The Wizard of Oz

    Adapted by Jon Jory from the book by L. Frank Baum
    Length: 30-40 minutes
    Cast Size: 10-30 actors (suggested casting: 14F, 10M)
    Genre: Dramedy, Drama
    Synopsis:
    In this faithful and playfully short adaptation of the original novel, Dorothy lands in Oz and must find her way home to Kansas. But first she must find the yellow brick road, make it through the poppy field, avoid the flying monkeys, and defeat the Wicked Witch. No big deal. Luckily she has the Scarecrow, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, and Glinda the Good Witch on her side.
  • How (Not) To Be a Wizard - a one-act comedy play script by Kathryn Funkhouser, Patrick Greene, and Jason Pizzarello

    How (Not) to Be A Wizard

    Length: 35-45 minutes
    Cast Size: 8-25+ actors (suggested casting: 18 any)
    Genre: Comedy
    Synopsis:
    It's a (magical) disaster! A school of wizardry needs a new professor...and classes start tomorrow. Everyone's coming through the portal for an interview, from a suspiciously fake-looking centaur to this one guy from Oz who can't even DO anything. Can anybody save the day? A spellbinding comedy that has created the completely new concept of a school for wizards and is definitely not making fun of...
  • 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...
  • Tara, Shaped by the Figures - Stage Partners

    Tara, Shaped by the Figures

    Written By: Emily Hageman
    Length: 40-45 minutes
    Cast Size: 11 actors (suggested casting: 6F, 3M, 2 any)
    Genre: Dramedy, Drama
    Synopsis:
    After Tara's best friend Clara dies from a heart condition, she is afraid to get close to the group trying to befriend her at her new school. The figures from history and fiction who Tara loves (including Anne Frank, Annie Oakley, Churchill, Sherlock Holmes, and Captain America) are joined by Clara in guiding Tara through her grief, until she tells her new friends about her loss.
  • Don't Wake the Dragon

    Don't Wake the Dragon

    Length: 30-40 minutes
    Cast Size: 12-35 actors
    Genre: Comedy
    Synopsis:
    A mundane school day is hilariously upended in this wild homage to Eugene Ionesco’s classic Rhinoceros. When a fierce and deadly dragon flies over a school, the teachers are rightly alarmed. However, thanks to social media and other influences, the dragon inspires a mass popular movement. Soon students and faculty alike are wearing tails, roaring, and inciting chaos! The only person who seems to...
  • The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (one-act) adapted by Hans Bloedel and Peter Bloedel

    The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (one-act)

    Adapted by Hans Bloedel & Peter Bloedel from the tale by Washington Irving
    Length: 40-50 minutes (the playwrights also allow additional cuts for time, competitions)
    Cast Size: 8-30 actors (suggested casting: 7F, 8M)
    Genre: Drama
    Synopsis:
    America’s first great ghost story, Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow follows the quirky and superstitious antics of schoolmaster Ichabod Crane, who is haunted by the dreaded Headless Horseman. This imaginative adaptation stays true to the world that Irving creates in this American gothic tale, but adds a lyrical quality that further enhances the humor, the magic, and th...
  • Founding Daughters - Stage Partners

    Founding Daughters

    Written By: Claudia Haas
    Length: 30-40 minutes
    Cast Size: 9-25 actors possible (suggested casting: 5F, 4M)
    Genre: Drama
    Synopsis:
    An episodic look at the heroic deeds of young women during the Revolutionary War that would be long forgotten if not for oral history. Had these women not been so brave and cunning, would the war have ended the same way? There is Sybil Ludington's overnight ride to gather the militia, Kate, an African Princess, forced into slavery, who saved her master from the British and more. Students and audie...
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