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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Too Many Daughters: A Jane Austen Parody
Length: 25-30 minutesCast Size: 12-25 actors, gender flexibleGenre: ComedySynopsis:
In this Jane Austen parody, the Ashworth daughters (of which there are twelve - or is it thirteen?) struggle to find suitors that will meet their mother's high standard. Her standard, of course, being that they must be filthy rich. Their task is made all the more difficult because their choices are so limited, due to the high number of potential suitors who have been killed when their horses fell... -
Don't Wake the Dragon
Length: 30-40 minutesCast Size: 12-35 actorsGenre: ComedySynopsis:
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... -
Two of the Fairest Stars, Quadruple Casted
Length: 30-35 minutesCast Size: 11 actors (suggested casting: 6F, 5M)Genre: ComedySynopsis:
When the theatre teacher has to fend off the wrestling team from taking the auditorium right before tech week of the Spring production of Romeo and Juliet, rehearsal is left to budding student assistant director, Wade. Can Sophomore Wade rally the quadrupled cast of Romeo's and Juliet's to block the famous balcony scene? He has been staying in on Saturday nights to watch recordings from the RSC fo... -
Places in Five
Length: 30-35 minutesCast Size: 10-30 actors (suggested casting: 4F, 5M, 5 any)Genre: ComedySynopsis:
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.) -
Dress Rehearsal Disaster
Length: 40-45 minutesCast Size: 16 actors (any gender)Genre: ComedySynopsis:
It’s the final dress rehearsal for The Olive Tree, an inaccessible 1800s Russian play. When overachieving student Derek learns that their director Mr. Norbert is sick (with fake-it-itis), he decides to lead the final rehearsal himself. But as Derek’s attempts to wrangle his fellow cast of misfits only leads to unmitigated chaos, he begins to wonder if the show really must go on. -
Baby Yoga
Length: 10 minutesCast Size: 7 actors (7F)Genre: ComedySynopsis:
Some mothers always seem to have it all together, and others... not so much. When Chaos Mom and Chaos Baby arrive in a community yoga class for babies and mothers, all pretenses and expectations of what motherhood should be quickly fall apart. Baby Yoga is a hilarious ode to all those moms who are just trying to get through the day. This play is part of the short play collection Ten(ish... -
Instructions for Hugs
Length: 30-35 minutesCast Size: 7-25 actors (suggested casting: 1F, 20 any)Genre: ComedySynopsis:
After isolating at home for what feels like forever, Sunny is finally ready to go out into the world again to see a friend’s play. Except...maybe she’s not. Maybe she has forgotten how to do simple things like smile, and greet a friend, and hug someone. Maybe she should just stay inside on her comfy couch, and eat beef jerky with Brandon, the embodiment of her need to isolate. Fortunately for... -
Wild Waves Whist
Length: 35-40 minutesCast Size: 10 actors (8F, 2M)Genre: DramaSynopsis:
A young teacher hoping to be hired as a coach at a private boys' school is instead assigned as literature and theatre teacher at its sister school - a private school for girls. There he is charged with the task of directing Shakespeare's The Tempest with his motley crew of adolescent female scholars, a play that effectuates an inner storm for all involved with the production. Wild Waves Whist is a... -
Justice for Pluto
Length: 40-45 minutesCast Size: 21-45 actors (suggested casting: 4F, 1M, 16 any)Genre: ComedySynopsis:
It’s time for the “Save Our Solar System” celebration! Tonight, experts from the Globex Corporation will show you how to clean up the planet Saturn by recycling your napkins. You’ll also get to sign a petition to preserve Neptune’s Great Dark Spot, and even sing along to a new pop song demanding a stop to Venus’ acid rain! But nothing compares to the biggest quest of all: reinstating P... -
A Talkback
Length: 10 minutesCast Size: 6 actors (6 any)Genre: ComedySynopsis:
Once in a while, after the actors have taken their final bows, the audience of a play is given the opportunity to interact with an actual, living playwright. But talkbacks don't always go as planned, and sometimes a writer can face difficult questions, and hungry theatregoers that demand more than the playwright is willing to give. A Talkback is a comedy about the absurdity of facing your aud...