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| A Thirty-Minute Hamlet by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 7. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 10. Minimum total without doubling = 17. No chorus. Whilst there isn't a formal chorus, the numbers of attendants and courtiers could easily be increased. |
| Run Time | Around 30 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet', with the original text of around three hours cut down to 30 minutes.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Hamlet, the Danish prince, finds himself haunted by his father's ghost. The ghost confirms that he was murdered by his brother, Claudius, who is now king. Hamlet dithers in his course of action - should he avenge his father or submit to Claudius? Ultimately it ends tragically for the whole court. |
| 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 |
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| A Thirty-Minute Julius Caesar by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 14. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 16. Minimum total without doubling = 28. Chorus. The chorus is flexible - there is a crowd, and unnumbered soldiers and servants. |
| Run Time | Around 30 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar', with the original text of two hours and more cut down to 30 minutes.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Fresh from military conquests, Caesar returns to Rome in triumph. His friend, Mark Antony, offers him a crown. The Roman senate takes offence at this - the senators want to maintain the republic, rather than have Rome submit to a single ruler. Thus is born a conspiracy against Caesar, leading to his murder on the Ides of March and setting up a confrontation between Caesar's supporters and the conspirators. |
| 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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| A Thirty-Minute Macbeth by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 16. Minimum Female roles = 5. Minimum total with doubling = 21. Minimum total without doubling = 28. No chorus. The male characters include Macduff's son who should be aged around 7. No formal chorus, but a flexible number of soldiers and offstage voices. |
| Run Time | Around 30 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Macbeth', with the original text of around three hours cut down to 30 minutes.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Witches foretell that, against expectations and the laws of inheritance, Macbeth will become king of Scotland. Urged on by his wife, Macbeth tries to make the prophesy come true. All goes well (in a gruesome sort of way) until the shrubbery starts walking up the drive.
An introduction to Shakespeare for primary 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 |
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| A Thirty-Minute Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 10. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 14. Minimum total without doubling = 22. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 30 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet', with the original text of two hours and more cut down to 30 minutes.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
So the Montagues and Capulets are at each other's throats, but the Montague's son and Capulet's daughter, meet, fall in love and pledge to be married in secret. Things begin to fall apart when Tybalt, a hot-headed Capulet, picks a fight. Romeo intervenes to calm things down, but this only results in Tybalt killing Romeo's kinsman and Romeo killing Tybalt. Further sorrow follows not far behind.
A tragic love story, with an awful lot of fighting. |
| 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 |
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| A Thirty-Minute Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 8. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 16. Minimum total without doubling = 16. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 35 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew', with the original text of two hours and more cut down to 30 minutes.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | A lord wishes his daughters to be married. Bianca is young and beautiful and already has many suitors, but Katherina is strong-willed, hot-tempered and uncontrollable. Their father decrees that Bianca may only take a husband once Katherina is married. Lucentio and his friend Petruchio arrive, and Petruchio is convinced to marry Katherina for her money to allow Lucentio to wed Bianca. However, Lucentio finds his marriage to Bianca is not as idyllic as he would like, whilst Petruchio bends the shrew-like Katherina to his will. |
| 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 Thirty-Minute Tempest by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 9. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 11. Minimum total without doubling = 15. No chorus. Like much of Shakespeare, the cast is male-heavy. Don't let that put you off! |
| Run Time | Around 35 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'The Tempest', with the original text of two hours and more cut down to 30 minutes.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Prospero, the exiled duke of Milan, has raised his daughter Miranda alone on an island with nobody else around but Caliban, a deformed creature Prospero treats as a slave. Using his magic to wreck a ship carrying the usurping Duke of Milan and his entourage, Prospero aims to awe the noblemen, reassert his right to the throne of Milan, and find a match for his daughter. |
| 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 |
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Thorn by Kent Mick
'... an antidote to the absurdity of our times.' - William Ayers, Distinguished Professor of Education, Senior University Scholar University of Illinois at Chicago. |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 2. Minimum Female roles = 1. Minimum total with doubling = 28. Minimum total without doubling = 28. No chorus. Characters are a mixture of adults and High School students. Many of the parts are written as specific genders, but the writer believes that most can be reassigned without changing the nature of the play. |
| Run Time | Around 85 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | Suggestions for incidental music are included in the Producer's Copy of the script. Lazy Bee Scripts does not supply any sheet music with this script. |
| Style | Contemporary drama for performance by older teenagers or a mixture of teenagers and adults. Set in various locations in an American school. Contains some swearing. |
| Synopsis | A High school teacher of 'American Government' is forced to re-evaluate his teaching and his beliefs by a streetwise student and by the fact that another teacher and friend is leaving for Iraq to serve his term with the National Guard. A thought-provoking and challenging play. |
| 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 |
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| Three Little Words by Jamesine Cundell Walker |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 3. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 7. Minimum total without doubling = 13. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 75 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A collection of eight short plays, loosely on the theme of love. Multiple settings, but simple sets requiring just furniture (and not much of that). |
| Synopsis | Malcolm and Karen find themselves trapped in the office storeroom.
Ken and disillusioned Brian reminisce about life, comedy duos, and lost loves.
Elderly Marjorie has lost interest and decided to spend her life in bed.
Overbearing Rosie drops off daughter Florence at the start of her first Oxford term.
Graham's ex-wife appears at his mother's funeral.
Teenager Alex gets talking to elderly Gladys in a hospital waiting room.
Despite Danni's encouragement, Jo is reluctant to look at the results of her pregnancy test.
Malcolm hopes to appear at the wedding of his ex-girlfriend, but her sister has something to say about it. (Featuring returning characters from three previous scenes.) |
| 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 |
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| A Throw of the Dice by Ben Alexander |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 3. Minimum Female roles = 1. Minimum total with doubling = 6. Minimum total without doubling = 8. No chorus. One male character is voice-only and more suited to being pre-recorded than performed live. The hospital staff (surgeon, nurse and duty manager) are written female but could be either. |
| Run Time | Around 104 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | 7 songs are suggested, to be played (but not performed by cast) at specified points in the play. Lazy Bee Scripts does not supply any sheet music with this script. |
| Style | A full-length thriller on a single (hospital waiting room) set. |
| Synopsis | Henry, whose father is close to death, and Judy, whose husband has been seriously injured, meet for the first time one evening in a waiting room of a private hospital. During the course of a long night, they get to know each other sufficiently for Henry to be able to help Judy when her husband's two brothers arrive the following morning to intimidate her into signing away her rights to her husband's wealth. However, Henry has a hidden agenda. |
| 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 |
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A Train Ride Away by Frank Gibbons
Performance by Aiken High won The Garcia Theater Project, North Augusta 2010. |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 3. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 6. Minimum total without doubling = 10. Chorus. Characters are mainly adults with one young child. Could all be played by children. The chorus is optional, but there are several scenes where crowds would create atmosphere. |
| Run Time | Around 35 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | One-act play. Intended to have figurative sets (possibly just lighting transitions), rather than realistic depictions of the locations. Props could be real or indicated by mime. Includes mild swearing. |
| Synopsis | The story of a family of Hungarian Jews being transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in the holocaust of 1944. |
| 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 |
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