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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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... -
Eating Crayons
Length: 10 minutesCast Size: 3 actors (2F, 1M)Genre: ComedySynopsis:
Growing up, we shared their classrooms. We may have even judged them. Now it's their turn to speak. Eating Crayons is a delightful ode to the beautiful misfits who dared to taste the many colors of every kid's world. This play is part of the short play collection Ten(ish): Comedies. -
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... -
Transfer
Length: 10 - 20 minutesCast Size: 5 actors (suggested casting: 4F, 1M)Genre: DramaSynopsis:
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... -
All I Really Need to Know I Learned From Being in a Bad Christmas Play
Length: 30-35 minutesCast Size: 10-25 actors (suggested casting: 2F, 1M, 12 any)Genre: ComedySynopsis:
A lovable yet inept drama crew -- with a director wired on Frankenstein energy drinks -- attempts to tackle a traditional Christmas show but with more energy. A mash-up of A Christmas Carol and Death of a Salesman with cheerleaders might just work. The put-upon stage manager is trying to get into the spirit of the season by not yelling at the lazy actors, the Narrator is forced to dress as Santa C... -
It's Vaudeville!
Length: 30-35 minutesCast Size: 6-17 actors (suggested casting: 2F, 2M, 13 any)Genre: ComedySynopsis:
In this revue-style show in the spirit of American Vaudeville, the laughs keep rolling. Everyone gets a turn in the spotlight when the host Kurt loses his scene partner Rose mid-show. Kurt talks to comics, clowns, doctors, coppers, gangsters, and jokesters of all kinds while looking for Rose. A bawdy, fun play for groups big and small, It’s Vaudeville! brings back the silly wordplay and charm of... -
The Great, Great Granddaughter of Sherlock Holmes: The Blue Diamond
Length: 30-35 minutesCast Size: 7-10 actors, flexibleGenre: ComedySynopsis:
Clever Sherla Gomes, the Great, Great Granddaughter of famous sleuth Sherlock, teams up with her loyal friend Lolo Watson to get to the bottom of some seriously mysterious happenings. In The Blue Diamond case, they have to figure out what an uncooked goose has to do with a missing jewel - and why Jenny the Scorpion is so dangerously irritable... Performed together or separately, these one-act myst... -
The Great, Great Granddaughter of Sherlock Holmes: The Speckled Band
Length: 30-35 minutesCast Size: 8-12 actors, flexibleGenre: ComedySynopsis:
Clever Sherla Gomes, the Great, Great Granddaughter of famous sleuth Sherlock, teams up with her loyal friend Lolo Watson to get to the bottom of some seriously mysterious happenings. In The Speckled Band, the girls must solve a high-profile murder involving a cheetah, and baboon, and an expiring inheritance. Performed together or separately, these one-act mysteries, inspired by the stories of Sir... -
Assembly
Length: 25-30 minutesCast Size: 16-50+ actors (suggested casting: 30, any gender)Genre: ComedySynopsis:
Put on your listening ears, it's a completely normal school assembly! You know how these go: a visit from a Man With a Tie who is important for unknown reasons; the usual bear attack survival tips from safety experts; and as always, the mysterious disappearance of students who cause trouble, who are never seen again. (Wait... what?) Don't worry about it. Just follow directions! Your school's...