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| For My Final Act by Cheryl Barrett |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 2. Minimum Female roles = 6. Minimum total with doubling = 8. Minimum total without doubling = 8. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | One-act character comedy. Single set (simple interior). Two out-of-the-ordinary props in the form of ventriloquist's dolls. Contains mild swearing. |
| Synopsis | The Accolades is a retirement home for stars of stage and screen, but just because they're in a retirement home, doesn't mean they're out of the spotlight. Rene and Judy are competing for the headline in their joint Edinburgh festival show, but they don’t know all the details yet. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| For Sale - Baby Shoes - Never Worn by Damian Trasler |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 1. Minimum Female roles = 1. Minimum total with doubling = 2. Minimum total without doubling = 4. No chorus. The work is divided into three pieces, each for 1M, 1F. In theory the same pair of actors could play the roles in all three - one member of the couple in the first part appears in each of the succeeding parts. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A sort of triptych for the stage. Three linked short plays, with minimal sets - essentially three stage blocks and a few props. |
| Synopsis | The story goes that Ernest Hemingway was challenged to write a novel in six words. His response was 'For sale - baby shoes, never worn.' Damian Trasler takes each part of that phrase as the starting point of a short play - three stories in the life of a young couple, not necessarily going in the direction you might expect. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| For the Love of April by Evonne Fields-Gould |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 3. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 5. Minimum total without doubling = 5. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 27 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A one-act drama on a compound set (backyard/living room/2 kitchens). US English. |
| Synopsis | Carol’s dog April has been the mainstay of her life since her husband was killed in Afghanistan. Her close friend Beth tries to help Carol back to normal life but creepy neighbour Charles intimidates her to such an extent that Carol is forced into the unthinkable. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| Forgive Our Foolish Ways by Shari Gledhill |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 2. Minimum Female roles = 1. Minimum total with doubling = 3. Minimum total without doubling = 3. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 30 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | One-act drama in a simple setting. |
| Synopsis | Carl seeks sanctuary in a church on a dark and stormy night, to escape the merciless taunting of his controlling girlfriend Nancy. Father David sits with Carl, trying to ease his troubled mind, sharing stories of his own journey. Carl opens up, but his dark secret may be a confession too far. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| Fork In The Road by Herb Hasler |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 1. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 5. Minimum total without doubling = 5. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 24 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A one act comedy play with various simple settings. |
| Synopsis | Betrothed couple Jen and David are struggling to come to a decision as to where their relationship is going. Jen's horoscope becomes very significant when she finds a table fork in the street. Her obsession with finding the fork's owner allows her and David to finalise plans for the future. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| A Forty-Minute All's Well That Ends Well by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 10. Minimum Female roles = 6. Minimum total with doubling = 16. Minimum total without doubling = 22. Chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'All's Well That Ends Well', with the original text cut down to 40 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Following the death of the Count of Rousillon, his teenage son, Bertrand inherts his estate and departs for the French court with dreams of military glory. He leaves behind Helena, daughter of his father's physician, and desparately in love with Bertrand. Helena follows Betrand to Paris where she uses her father's medicines to cure the sick king. The king grants her a reward, and she claims marriage to Bertrand. He wants none of it, and heads off to war. How can Helena win him back? |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| A Forty-Minute Henry VI Part 1 by Shakespeare, adapted by Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 17. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 19. Minimum total without doubling = 31. Chorus. Shakespearian theatre, history and war conspire to leave few female roles. Don't let that put you off! |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | One-act adaptation of Shakespeare. Other plays in this series are abridgements. This is an adaptation (Bill Tordoff felt that it worked better with the verse form used throughout), hence both script and performances are subject to copyright licensing. |
| Synopsis | Subtitled 'The Wars Of Henry VI And Joan Of Arc'.
Henry V has died, but his dukes continue to prosecute his war in France. Joan of Arc arises to lead the French. The English lose ground as they bicker amongst themselves and the first quarrels of the Wars of the Roses begin. Henry V1 is crowned and the fortunes of war change again...
Despite all the fighting and infighting, the play also has room for some moments of broad comedy. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| A Forty-Minute King John by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 19. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 23. Minimum total without doubling = 33. Chorus. Characters include Arthur, aged 8 and Blanche, aged 14. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'King John', with the original text cut down to 40 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | War amongst the descendants of King Henry II with Henry's wife, the powerful Eleanor of Aquitaine, supporting her son, King John, whilst the King of France, mendaciously, backs Arthur, the young son of John's elder brother. John's treatment of the captured Arthur causes his barons to rebel and join forces with a French invasion. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| A Forty-Minute Pericles by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 10. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 14. Minimum total without doubling = 40. Chorus. The episodic nature of the story makes lots of doubling possible. (Or, if you have a lot of actors, there are lots of roles.) |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Pericles, Prince of Tyre', with the original text cut down to 40 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | On the run from the King of Antioch, Pericles is shipwrecked and washes up on the shores of Pentapolis. There he wins the hand of Thaisa, daughter of the King of Pentapolis. On their return voyage to Tyre, Thaisa gives birth to a daughter during a violent storm. Thaisa is thought to have died and is thrown overboard in a casket. The grieving Pericles leaves his daughter, Marina, in the care of the King and Queen of Tarsus. Years later, Pericles returns to seek Marina , but is told that she died. In fact she escaped an assasination plot, and eventually Pericles finds a happy ending.
Bill Tordoff started this series as abridgements for primary schools. We think that some of the themes in Pericles are too adult for that demographic! |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| A Forty-Minute Timon of Athens by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 10. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 12. Minimum total without doubling = 31. No chorus. Lots of flexibility in numbers - lots of doubling is possible or, conversely, roles like the senators and lords can be shared out. Few specifically female characters, but many could be cast female. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Timon of Athens', with the original text cut down to 40 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Timon is berated by the sour philosopher Apemantus, but Timon ignores his advice, preferring to enjoy himself through banquets and acts of generosity. However, when Timon runs into debt his friends prove false and he leaves Athens in anger and disgust. In the wilderness his fortune changes. but not his view of his fellow man. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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