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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 21 - 30 of 54
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  • Every Novel You Read in High School in 25 Minutes or Less

    Every Novel You Read in High School (in 25 Minutes or Less)

    Written By: Ian McWethy
    Length: 25-30 minutes
    Cast Size: 8-40 actors (suggested casting: 4F, 4M, 6 any)
    Genre: Comedy
    Synopsis:
    The one where a theater group attempts ​ATTEMPTS​ to present all those novels you read in high school before school lets out for the summer. Pray for them. They're gonna need it and so are you. (If you like Shakespeare Abridged… consider Every Novel You Read in High School.)
  • Win or Lose - Stage Partners

    Win or Lose

    Written By: Ian McWethy
    Length: 25-30 minutes
    Cast Size: 10-20 actors (suggested casting: 15 any)
    Genre: Comedy
    Synopsis:
    Competition is all that matters, and these kids today have got to learn that...by being pitted against each other in an absurdly grueling four-part race. Winner gets a scholarship. Come in last? You're banned from prom. The parents love it! But when different groups at the beginning, middle, and end of the pack compare notes, commiserate and meet a local cautionary tale, they decide to play a diff...
  • Mascots, a one-act comedy play script by Ian McWethy and Carrie McCrossen

    Mascots

    Written By: Ian McWethy and Carrie McCrossen
    Length: 30-35 minutes
    Cast Size: 6-18 actors (suggested casting: 16 any)
    Genre: Comedy
    Synopsis:
    Drysdale High School has a problem. For the first time in their fifty-year history, they need to replace their beloved (but also deeply problematic) school mascot, Cujo. So Principal Gurgins turns to the student body to submit and select a new mascot, one that can represent (and fire up!) Drysdale for the next fifty years. During the play, we’ll see new mascots ranging from an ordinary house cat...
  • Adapted and Destroyed - Ian McWethy - Stage Partners

    Adapted & Destroyed: A Tale of Storytelling Gone Wrong

    Written By: Ian McWethy
    Length: 25-30 minutes
    Cast Size: 10-28 actors (suggested casting: 5F, 10 any)
    Genre: Comedy
    Synopsis:
    It started as a bedtime story. A story about a bunny that Mary’s mom used to tell her every night. And it was a pretty weird one (with way more digressions about mortgage rates than you’d ever expect in a children's story). But when her mom died, Bouncy Bunny became a way for Mary to remember her. So one day she decided to write it all down. And then, to her great surprise... it took...
  • Murder by the Book - Stage Partners

    Murder by the Book

    Written By: Jon Jory and Michael Bauer
    Length: 35-45 minutes
    Cast Size: 9 actors (suggested casting: 6F, 3M)
    Genre: Comedy
    Synopsis:
    When mystery writer Mary Graves is found dead, it's up to a detective with anger issues to figure out who among Graves' guests is a murderer. Is it the oil tycoon, the scientist, the Shakespearean actor, the countess, the psychic, or the maid? ...Say, this is starting to sound like a mystery novel! A hilarious one-act whodunnit brimming with larger-than-life characters.
  • Zombie Boyfriend - A.M. Dittman - Stage Partners

    Zombie Boyfriend

    Written By: A.M. Dittman
    Length: 30-35 minutes
    Cast Size: 6-30 actors (suggested casting: 5F, 5M, 5 any)
    Genre: Comedy
    Synopsis:
    Melissa's best friend has a crush on the new guy, but Melissa's not so sure about Arghn. Maybe it's the grunting, or the insatiable desire for brains. Nobody but Melissa seems to notice as the horde of zombies starts to spread through the school - or if they do, they don't want to rock the boat. Can a zombie hunter and an awkward doctor help Melissa save the staggering population from themselves?...
  • 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...
  • Places in Five - Stage Partners

    Places in Five

    Length: 30-35 minutes
    Cast Size: 10-30 actors (suggested casting: 4F, 5M, 5 any)
    Genre: Comedy
    Synopsis:
    The one where an actress stumbles into the role of a lifetime...if only she can figure out what play she's doing. Meta-theatricality knows no bounds in this wacky comedy. (​If you like The Actor's Nightmare by Christopher Durang, consider Places in Five.)
  • 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...
  • My Brother's Gift (one-act version) - Stage Partners

    My Brother's Gift (one-act version)

    Written By: Claudia Haas
    Length: 40-50 minutes
    Cast Size: 5-15 actors (suggested casting: 5F, 3M, 2 any)
    Genre: Drama
    Synopsis:
    Based on the remarkable true story of Heinz Geiringer -- neighbor and friend of Anne Frank -- we follow the story of a young artist and loving brother living in unconscionable circumstances. A trained musician at only 15 and now forced to live in hiding and silence, Heintz turns to painting and poetry to express his everyday terror but hope of the future. Through Heinz's inspired paintings, nostal...
Items 21 - 30 of 54