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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 18
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  • In the Forests of the Night - Stage Partners

    In the Forests of the Night

    Written By: Del Martin
    Length: 25-30 minutes
    Cast Size: 13 actors (suggested casting: 13 any)
    Genre: Drama
    Synopsis:
    Thirteen students are compelled by their dreams to play a game in the woods to keep a mysterious monster at bay. Not everyone gets to play it again. (If you like The Giver consider In the Forests of the Night.)
  • #Censored - Stage Partners

    #Censored

    Written By: Maria McConville
    Length: 30-35 minutes
    Cast Size: 7-30 actors (suggested casting: 12 any)
    Genre: Drama
    Synopsis:
    In this ensemble-driven drama, a school art fair becomes embroiled in controversy when a student unveils a divisive painting. Students, parents, and teachers must ask themselves tough questions about freedom of speech, appropriateness, what art is supposed to do and "what is the cost of censorship?"
  • Game Night (Humans Only, Please)

    Game Night (Humans Only, Please)

    Written By: Laura Neill
    Length: 35-40 minutes
    Cast Size: 9 actors (9 any)
    Genre: Comedy
    Synopsis:
    It's game night at the end of the world. The library is one of the only places still above the water line, and the nerds are living it up while they can. But when the soccer team shows up because their field went underwater, they begin a more dangerous game. A high-stakes dark comedy about mutant lizards, climate change, and being the generation born to watch the water level rise.
  • My First Lockdown - Stage Partners

    My First Lockdown

    Written By: Jason Pizzarello
    Length: 30-35 minutes
    Cast Size: 10-20 actors (suggested casting: 5F, 5M, 5 any)
    Genre: Dramedy, Drama
    Synopsis:
    Inspired by true events, a group of theater students have just finished performing a play when the unthinkable happens - the school goes under lockdown. Caught in various rooms throughout the school, the students have to figure out what to do, who to trust, and if they're ever going to feel safe again. (There is a version with more roles available. Contact Stage Partners for details.)
  • Antigone: 3021 (one-act version) - Stage Partners

    Antigone: 3021 (one-act version)

    Written By: Nina Mansfield
    Length: 35-45 minutes
    Cast Size: 14-24 actors (suggested casting: 2F, 1M, 20+ any)
    Genre: Drama
    Synopsis:
    It's the year 3021 and Thebes has just been through a bloody civil war. Chancellor Creah has decreed that anyone who buries the body of the traitor Polyneices will face the death, but Antigone is determined to bury her brother, no matter the penalty. She brazenly breaks Creah’s law and broadcasts her crime on the public cloud. Now Creah must decide if she will bend to the will of the people or p...
  • 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 Stowaway - Stage Partners

    The Stowaway

    Written By: Del Martin and Jason Pizzarello
    Length: 35-40 minutes
    Cast Size: 10-12 actors (suggested casting: 4F, 3M, 3 any)
    Genre: Drama
    Synopsis:
    Far in the future, humanity has found peace but has been divided between Earth, the colonies on the Moon, and the Mars Federation. Person to person contact between the worlds is a thing of the distant past, with life existing in islands of division and distrust. But all of that changes when a mysterious girl arrives on Mars with a message of hope and a stark warning. Can humanity come together to...
  • Baby Yoga by Elissa C. Huang, a ten-minute play, part of the short play collection Ten(ish): Comedies - Stage Partners

    Baby Yoga

    Written By: Elissa C. Huang
    Length: 10 minutes
    Cast Size: 7 actors (7F)
    Genre: Comedy
    Synopsis:
    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 - Stage Partners

    Instructions for Hugs

    Written By: Patrick Greene
    Length: 30-35 minutes
    Cast Size: 7-25 actors (suggested casting: 1F, 20 any)
    Genre: Comedy
    Synopsis:
    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...
  • Ten(ish): Horror - Transfer by Elinor T Vanderburg. 10-minute horror play

    Transfer

    Written By: Elinor T Vanderburg
    Length: 10 - 20 minutes
    Cast Size: 5 actors (suggested casting: 4F, 1M)
    Genre: Drama
    Synopsis:
    Bow returns to her senior year of high school after a personal tragedy that no one wants to discuss head-on. But coming back isn't easy – especially not with the presence of a transfer student who is all smiles, light, and brilliance – and taking over every relationship Bow holds dear. A little Black Swan, a little more Hitchcock, Transfer is a sparse, noir-inspired drama t...
Items 1 - 10 of 18