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| A Forty-Minute Othello by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 13. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 16. Minimum total without doubling = 25. Chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Othello', with the original text of around three hours cut down to 40 minutes.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army, secretly marries Desdemona, daughter of a nobleman. Roderigo, a suitor of Desdemona, and Iago, a jealous soldier, conspire against Othello, turning him against Desdemona, with disastrous consequences.
An introduction to Shakespeare for schools. |
| 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 Richard II by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 14. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 19. Minimum total without doubling = 32. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'The Life and Death of King Richard II', with the original text cut down to under 40 minutes.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | King Richard II is approached by both Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray, the Duke of Norfolk, who wish him to judge a duel between them. Both Richard and John of Gaunt oppose the duel, but Richard agrees to oversee it. As the duel commences Richard interrupts and banishes both men from England. Mowbray predicts this as the first act leading to Richard's downfall. Following John of Gaunt's death, Richard appropriates all his money and lands. As Richard plots a war on Ireland, the nobility seek to overthrow him and place Bolingbroke on the throne. |
| 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 Two Gentlemen of Verona by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 10. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 13. Minimum total without doubling = 17. No chorus. There are two groups which give numerical flexibility - 'outlaws' and 'musicians'. This is the Shakespeare play with the dog. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona', with the original text cut down to 40 minutes.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | The two gentlemen in question are Valentine and Proteus. Valentine wants Proteus to be his travelling companion on a tour, but Proteus wishes to stay behind and court Julia, a coy young lady who likes Proteus, but is too shy to admit it - at least until Proteus's father sends him away to join Valentine in Milan. However, in Milan, Proteus falls for Sylvia, whom Valentine is courting. There follows rivalry, betrayal, banishment, outlaws, cross-dressing and the occasional swoon before all ends happily! |
| 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 Winter's Tale by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 9. Minimum Female roles = 6. Minimum total with doubling = 15. Minimum total without doubling = 28. Chorus. The characters are adults plus one child and, famously, a bear, whose only role is to exit in pursuit of Antigonus (for an offstage lunch appointment - although only one of the parties is hungry.) |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'The Winter's Tale', with the original text cut down to 40 minutes.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Leontes, King of Sicilia, suspects his wife Hermione of having an affair with Polixenes, the King of Bohemia. (Herminone and Polixenes are innocent.) Polixenes escapes Leontes' wrath, but Hermione does not and is imprisoned. Hermione gives birth to a daughter, but Leontes does not believe the child, Perdita, to be his and sends her abroad. She is abandoned on the coast of Bohemia (a feat which would be frowned upon these days, owing to Geography) and Perdita is brought-up by a Shepherd. Time (making a guest appearance) moves the play on sixteen years, and Florizel, son of Polixenes, meets and falls in love with Perdita, the shepherdess, thus setting-up the inevitable reconcilliation and happy ending. |
| 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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| Galileo & Co. by Olivia Arieti |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 2. Minimum Female roles = 0. Minimum total with doubling = 5. Minimum total without doubling = 5. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 10 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A short play for school age children, which might kick-start projects about the stars, about science, about history, or about religion. |
| Synopsis | Galileo has been summoned before the Holy Office to renounce his heretical findings that the Earth rotates around the sun. In the few minutes before his hearing, some unusual characters try to convince him to stick to the truth. |
| 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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| Great Explorations by Karen Ince |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 0. Minimum Female roles = 0. Minimum total with doubling = 6. Minimum total without doubling = 6. No chorus. For a semblance of historical accuracy, the characters are all written male. However, for the purposes of performance, this isn't really necessary! |
| Run Time | Around 20 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | One-act play for kids with plenty of opportunities for over-acting and a bit of education thrown-in. |
| Synopsis | A remarkable meeting in an inn, as some of the History's Biggest Names In Exploration get together to sort out who's going to discover what, and when. And then who's going to pay the bar bill... |
| 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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Greece! - The Musical by Sue Gordon
Best Seller |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 2. Minimum Female roles = 1. Minimum total with doubling = 7. Minimum total without doubling = 15. Chorus. This could be performed in Ancient Greek style, with three actors playing all the principal parts, or the principal roles could be shared amongst a larger company. The Greek chorus comments on the action, individually, in unison (chant) or in song. |
| Run Time | Around 45 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | Sheet music for six original songs supplied with the Producer's copy of the script. |
| Style | Modern version of Ancient Greek drama with a humorous interpretation of Greek myths and legends. No set requirements, few props. The text is identical to Greece! - The Play, except that some of the chants are replaced by songs. |
| Synopsis | There's trouble on Mount Olympus - the boiler has stopped working and Zeus isn't getting any hot water. Zeus is in a temper and Dionysus has a hangover. It's up to Hera to sort things out by calling for Heracles, the odd job man of Ancient Greece... |
| 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 |
| Extras | The following additional items are available (at extra cost) to go with this script:
** CD with instrumental backing tracks for each of the six songs (plus reprises) from 'Greece! - The Musical' by Sue Gordon. (Recording by Jonathan van Gennep.)
** CD with sung tracks for each of the six songs from 'Greece! - The Musical' by Sue Gordon. (Recording by Jonathan van Gennep.)
** Zip file containing instrumental backing tracks for each of the six songs (plus reprises) from 'Greece! - The Musical' by Sue Gordon. (Recording by Jonathan van Gennep.)
** Zip file of sung tracks for each of the six songs from 'Greece! - The Musical' by Sue Gordon. (Recording by Jonathan van Gennep.)
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| Greece! - The Play by Sue Gordon |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 2. Minimum Female roles = 1. Minimum total with doubling = 7. Minimum total without doubling = 15. Chorus. This could be performed in an Ancient Greek style, with three actors playing all the principal parts, or the principal roles could be shared out amongst a larger company. The Greek chorus comments on the action, individually or in unison. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Modern version of Ancient Greek drama with a humorous interpretation of Greek myths and legends. No set requirements, few props. The text is identical to Greece! - The Musical, except that some of the chants are replaced by songs. |
| Synopsis | There's trouble on Mount Olympus - the boiler has stopped working and Zeus isn't getting any hot water. Zeus is in a temper and Dionysus has a hangover. It's up to Hera to sort things out by calling for Heracles, the odd job man of Ancient Greece... |
| 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 |
| Feedback | Click here to find out what other customers said about this script. |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| Guy Fawkes Assembly by Sue Russell |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 14. Minimum Female roles = 0. Minimum total with doubling = 17. Minimum total without doubling = 25. No chorus. Whilst the Gunpowder Plot conspirators were all male, that should not matter for the purposes of presenting this piece! |
| Run Time | Around 6 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Short presentation piece for kids. No set requirements or props, though 17th century costumes would give it some style! |
| Synopsis | A short presentation for a class on the subject of the gunpowder plot and it's most famous conspirator, Guy Fawkes.
The producer's copy of the script contains copious notes about the plot and its background. |
| 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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| Hamlet the Musical by Gerald P. Murphy |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 5. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 12. Minimum total without doubling = 16. Chorus. The chorus play non-speaking roles of peasants, courtiers, onlookers and servants. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | Sheet music (piano and vocal) for the five songs is supplied with the producer's copy of the script. |
| Style | Shakespeare's Hamlet retold in modern (American) English, with more jokes than the original.
In a normal tragedy, at the end, everyone dies. This is a musical - at the end, everyone sings. |
| Synopsis | Prince Hamlet's father reappears as a ghost to demand revenge for his murder. The prince vacillates, arranges a play to trap the murderer, and finally chooses to fight. |
| 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 |
| Extras | The following additional items are available (at extra cost) to go with this script:
** A 'rehearsal CD' with piano arrangements of songs from the show
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| Feedback | Click here to find out what other customers said about this script. |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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