In this scary play for Halloween, it’s the night of Halloween and brothers Mark and Gary are working, as they do every year at the local fun fair in the live action haunted house. They use the time to check out girls, and earn a bit of cash. And chat about stuff. A typical summer job. But this year Mark seems to have something on his mind that’s important. He’s Gary’s brother after all. Family. There’s just one other thing about Mark…
PRODUCTION HISTORY
American School of Dubai, UAE – 2021
Transylvania University, KY, USA – 2021
In this science fiction stage play, Edgar Stanson has been sitting in the same seat for two days in a small airport. When asked by security if he needs assistance he tells them he has arrived on Starline flight 117 and is waiting to be picked up by his driver.
Security tells him they will call his driver for him. He gives them the number to call. The phone number connects to a funeral home. When security go back to Edgar they find him dead.
They also find out that Starline was a small airline whose first flight 117 crashed twenty five years ago with no survivors. All bodies but one were found and they were taken to the funeral home which security called. Edgar Stanson has finally returned home.
PRODUCTION HISTORY
“Starline 117” was produced as a radio play by Shoestring Theater Productions.
Chariton High School, IA, USA – 2017
Olli Players, VA- USE – 2021
Rightway Club, WI, USA – 2021
Arlington School Theatre, SD, USA – 2021
Mountain Ridge High School Theatre, AZ, USA – 2022
Rocky Ford Junior Senior High School, CO, USA – 2023
Cast: 4M, 3F, 3N and a few extras (optional as not essential to the plot)
Ages of the actors: Any, all adult
Suitable for: All ages
Length: 25-30 minutes
Set: AIRPORT TERMINAL Minimum: Few rows of seats. Security desk with telephone. FULL SET: Same as minimum but with a backdrop of the inside of an airport terminal with a window.
Level of difficulty: 7/10 – making the ordinary into the extraordinary
LONELY BIRDS AND SHADOW FIGURES – PSYCHO THRILLER SCRIPT
Jess and Betty work together in a typical office and rub along against each other as coworkers do that spend half their lives together. But both of them are lonely women. Betty is a widow and Jess craves chronic solitude based on her superiority complex and cynical view of the world. So when Jess accepts a bunch of flowers meant for Betty and then in a mean gesture, makes them out to be for herself, she never even considers that the messenger who brought them may have sinister intentions in this psycho thriller script…
Both women are about to find what it is they really yearn for, or rather what they crave will find them in the most disturbing occurrences that infatuation can serve us. And he will follow them and watch their shadow figures as they move through their curtains at night…
Will the rules of right and wrong be clear when Jessica gets what is coming to her? And when she mysteriously disappears, will the principle of karma serve Betty well when she tries to make sense of what exactly happened to her “friend”, Jessica? Finally and more importantly; will anyone really care about the circumstances surrounding her “disappearance”?
PRODUCTION HISTORY
The Chorlton Players ADS, Manchester, United Kingdom – 2019
Suitable for: All ages as no actual violence is depicted
Length: 90 minutes
Set: In an office building. A large screen is placed in the office, referencing time, showing pieces of imagery in between. Overbearing gray its overwhelming neon and reflects onto various suits that are hung on coat hangers and blend into the surroundings like camouflage.
Level of difficulty: 8/10 – a psycho thriller in three acts that requires a slow build up of tension to a climax in a fairly routine office enviroment
Life could not be any simpler as a college student… Until a killer virus starts devouring every person around you, day-by-day, with the high possibility that you may be next on the agenda. The grim reaper pays a small college town a visit in this play, in the form of an unknown illness whose modus operandi is “who’s next?” The human condition is isolated and explored when an eclectic group sticks together to try to survive and as the virus continues to strike with the boldness of one seeking vengeance, nature unhinges itself – revealing its true colours. Truly, some hues are more than the human eye could ever see…
The question for the living is: how will they serve the dead? A drama script about friendship, fear and survival.
Set: A division of three neighboring apartments. The middle apartment takes up the majority of the stage. Since the play has scenes in all three apartments, this middle apartment must have scene changes.
For the most part, this portion of the set represents Henry and Clay’s apartment. It is furnished with a round table, four chairs, and a mini-fridge.
Level of difficulty: 7/10 – changing from the present back to the past without interrupting the flow of the play
In this teen ghost story script, a bunch of teens play a practical joke on one of the girls, called Sam. In the joke, it appears that the boys have dared the girls to go to a house that burnt down many years ago and to take a picture of themselves in the house to prove that they’ve done it. Local legend has it that the house is haunted by The White Widow who, as a ghost burnt the house and her husband in it, a year to the day after her husband murdered her on their wedding night. They say her young child perished in the blaze as well.
The practical joke turns real when the teens discover that the white widow is in fact real, and still bent on revenge…
Production History
Ontario High School, Ontario, Canada – 2016
Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa – 2017
Sam Houston High School, TX, USA – 2017
Carbonear Academy, NL, Canada – 2018
Miami Coral Park Drama Department, FL, USA – 2018
Oak Hills Junior High, TX, USA – 2018
Hillside Players, Co Limerick, Ireland – 2019
Pearland high school, TX, USA – 2021
CentreVille High School, VA, USA – 2021
Author: Naadir Joseph
Genre: Teen ghost story
Type: One act play
Cast: Cast of nine, 6F 3M
Ages of the actors: All teen except for white widow and homeless man but an all teen cast with makeup can play all the characters
Suitable for: Teens
Length: Play 20 – 25 minutes long
Set: Set should reflect a room that has previously been badly burnt
Level of difficulty: 7/10 – achieving climax and plot twist
The power is out as Mary Jones enters her kitchen early one morning to prepare breakfast. She and her husband will discover from their neighbors that what looks like a meteor shower has not only knocked out all electricity but batteries as well as cars and all electrical items.
How long this blackout will last is one of many terrifying realizations as the neighbors try to go about the task of maintaining order (protecting the neighborhood) and taking care of daily necessities (how will they cook, how long before the freezer contents go bad, how extensive is this power disabling celestial occurrence, what about the children away at school, what about world peace).
Doug Jones, seeking that all elusive Pulitizer winning story realizes that this is a golden opportunity.
There is nothing normal about the next few hours as the neighbors try to plan ahead. The women are quick to want to share what they have with the others on the street; the men cautious about survival.
Herb Smith, the self appointed policeman, envisions robbers from a nearby housing complex about to descend upon them. As he readies his guns to secure his property as well as his neighbors, a young man who has escaped from a gang related incident in the housing complex is desperately seeking a place to hide. Mary Smith, alone and frightened, is his victim.
The true traits of the neighbors (Mary, Doug, Sally and Herb) not only come to the fore in this crisis but determine who will survive and who will not.
SCREAM was a finalist in the Tennessee Williams One Act Play Competition in 2014.
Ages of the actors: Four middle aged to older and one teenage boy
Suitable for: PG 8
Length: 45-50 minutes
Set: Home of Mary and Doug Jones, specifically the kitchen/office. Office is set up with a FAX, computer, monitor, wireless phone, (2) lap tops, a partner’s desk, chairs with knee holes facing each other Kitchen is very modern, all electric: stove, ovens, dishwasher, microwave, coffee pot, toaster. Small color TV on counter
Small round table and four chairs Door stage left to rest of house Door upstage center to driveway with window, top half Window over sink looking out onto the driveway and house next door.
Level of difficulty: 8/10 – building up to the climax in this suspense thriller
THANK YOU FOR SHOPPING HOOCHUM’S BARGAIN BASEMENT – FUNNY THRILLER SCRIPT
This funny thriller script turns the classic horror tale of the young couple alone in their car in a deserted area encountering a frightening or horrific thing on its head. A young couple have travelled to the BAD SIDE OF TOWN to get a coffee maker from Hoochum’s Bargain Basement, as the glass in their one has cracked, and they want to do something AWFUL. They want to replace the new one with the cracked one and take it back for a refund, PRETENDING THAT IT’S THE NEW ONE. SHOCKING!!!
They’ve had to travel across town, as their usual store burnt to the ground recently under VERY MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES, in which the little old lady who owned the store barely escaped with her life. Rumour has it, however that the little old lady had a graduate student on the side. On that fateful day he was working in the back of the store, and was very badly burnt in the fire and HE HASN’T BEEN SEEN SINCE…
Rumour also has it that he wasn’t, in fact using the old lady for her body, but for her coupon skills, which she was famed for. She could get a better deal with her coupons than anyone, and he was taking her for all that she knew.
But now that the couple has bought their new coffee machine, they’re about to go for a drive to a very deserted spot where anything could happen…
PRODUCTION HISTORY
Cuyahoga Falls High School, OH, USA – 2021
University of Vermont, VT, USA – 2021
In this sci-fi play script, set in post apocalyptic earth, the world has been destroyed by nuclear bombs and people have only been able to survive in isolated pockets amidst zones contaminated with radiation. This was only possible with the help of an alien race, the Numina who arrived to help mankind in its lowest hour, and then vanished a few years later.
Mankind has been afflicted recently with a wasting disease – a disease in which you ‘become disappeared.’ The symptoms start with forgetting simple things like your keys, and progress until you can’t even open a door on your own, and then….you disappear.
But the Major, Gabriel Canada has begun to suspect that something is not right with the people who are ‘becoming disappeared.’ People blame the Numina for the disappearances, saying that the Numina are still out there in the radioactive zones, taking people. But too many are vanishing and no one has the answer…
Author: Dana Shamlawi
Genre: Sci-fi play script
Type: Short one act play
Cast: Cast of 2M
Length: 8-10 minutes long
Set: An office with a desk, a telephone and a door
Ages of the actors: Adult actors – the two actors should be similar in age
Carmilla – a performance by Zombie’s Underground – with Lara Lihiya and Vanessa Cate.
CARMILLA – STAGE PLAY SCRIPT ABOUT VAMPIRES
The second world war is about to begin. But Laura and her father remain isolated, living in a part of the Austrian countryside all-but-deserted for hundreds of years. When there is a car accident outside the mansion, and Carmilla, a young women inside the car appears to be in shock, her mother begs them to take the young girl in. As Carmilla’s health is delicate, Laura’s father allows the Countess to leave her daughter in their care. But her mother never returns. Laura and Carmilla spend every waking moment together and over time, the two girls develop a deep passion for each other.
But the ancient curse that once swept the surrounding countryside returns, leaving almost a dozen young girls dead in its wake. People begin to sicken and waste away, eventually passing into the next world as bloodless husks. There is talk of the family that once lived in the very same castle, and whose portraits bear a striking resemblance to Carmilla. People then begin to talk of vampires, as if they are real…
Carmilla is an adaptation of the 1872 novella by the same name (the novella is in public domain since Joseph Sheridan LeFanu died in 1873.)
Carmilla has had five productions, the first at Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre in North Hollywood in February and March 2014 and then by the Harlequin Players at Cayuga Community College in upstate New York. This latter production was invited to be part of the Theatre Association of New York State Festival where it won four awards–Meritorious Achievement in Direction to Director Bob Frame, Meritorious Achievement in Acting to Edward Gould for his portrayal of Fontaine, Meritorious Achievement in Lighting Design to Rob Fragoman, and Excellence in Scenic Design to Virginia Fennessy. Recently, Carmilla had a third production by the Actaeon Players in Los Angeles in October-November 2015. The fourth production was by the Reedy Point Players in Delaware October 2016 and fifth by East Michigan University in December 2016.
Further Production History
Columbia College, Chicago, IL, USA – 2017
Cedar Crest College, PA, USA – 2019
Department of Theatre Arts, Towson University, MD, USA – 2020
Author: David MacDowell Blue
Genre: Horror, thriller, drama stage play script about vampires
Type: Full length one act play
Length: 80 minutes
Cast: Cast of 9, 5F, 4M
Ages of the actors: For actors from their late teens, early twenties to older adult
Suitable for: Suitable for all ages
Set: Play takes place in a small apartment in the city of Gratz, Austria. During the course of the story, the apartment fills in and/or transforms into the area in and around an old mansion in the Austrian countryside.
Level of difficulty: 7/10 – pacing
Cost is $10.50 for this award winning digital script. Just Click Shakespeare ABOVE THIS WRITING!
Cost is $16.00 for this script in printed format. Please click Shakespeare just above. Reduced costs for multiple scripts, please inquire.
In the close of and post Second World War, idealist Natalia struggles against totalitarianism working against both the Nazi and the Communist East German governments. Dismissed from her job as a schoolteacher she eventually finds semi-skilled work as a seamstress and her need to keep her house and shortages of basic commodities leads her into a life of crime until she is no better than the system. An old colleague from the anti-Nazi days gives her opportunity to; at least, partially redeem herself, both in her own eyes and that of the state. She may not love Big Brother but has learned to accept him as the lesser of two evils. Or is Big Brother the prime cause of the evil? With clever use of symbols, this screenplay will generate much discussion after viewing.
Cast: Natalia is the main character and the screenplay shows her interacting, at mostly different times, with the 6 main supporting characters, the environment in which she lives, and other stereotypical characters such as policemen and government officials.
Ages of the actors: Adult
Suitable for: PG – some violence
Length: Two hours
Set: End of and post world war 2 Germany
Level of difficulty: 7/10 – this is a screenplay that can be made on a small budget due to relatively few special effects
A ghost and her husband are prepared to haunt the house below before they’ll let their family sell the house that has been theirs for three generations. Miranda and Ben have been quite happy living in their haunted family home their entire lives. And now that they have passed on and joined the realm of family ghosts as well, they are looking forward to an afterlife spent with their children and grandchildren.
Unfortunately, their children (more specifically their daughter in law) have other plans. Plans that involve selling the more then slightly haunted house and moving to Florida. Plans that Miranda simply won’t have…
OVER MY DEAD BODY, was a finalist in the One Act Play Competition of The Arts Club of Washington (D.C.) and also won First Prize in The Little Theatre of Alexandria One Act Play Competition in 2014.
Production History
Rhosgoch Y.F.C. – 2016.
Washtenaw International High School Drama Club, MI, USA – 2016
Wyvern Players Society, AB, Canada – 2016
Holy Rosary Convent – Edenvale, South Africa – 2017
Callan Macra, Co Kilkenny, Ireland – 2021
Indian Springs School, AL, USA – 2021
Buck Creek Players, Inc., IN, USA – 2022
Robbinsville High School, NJ, USA – 2023
TODD – FULL LENGTH DRAMA SCRIPT BASED ON ‘SWEENEY TODD’
“Todd” is based on the infamous character, ‘Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’, yet this story has a more humane approach and the author has depicted Sweeney Todd as a victim of circumstance and of his own vengeance.
It is 18th century England and Todd, a man who used to be known as Pope is sentenced to be transported to Botany Bay, Australia after spending 4 years in prison. He escapes and returns to London, seeking the whereabouts of his daughter Claire whom he has not seen since before his prison sentence. Whilst plotting his revenge, on the Judge who passed his extended prison sentence, Todd sets up as a Barber in Fleet Street, having acquired barber and surgeon skills during his adventures on the high seas. His passion for revenge affects him deeply and he changes into a bitter, cold hearted murderer. He finds his daughter in surprising circumstances, with the help of his lawyer friend, Jonathan, who is unaware of Todd’s change in personality. As for his quest – revenge is far from sweet for Sweeney Todd.
PRODUCTION HISTORY
Mount Isa Theatrical Society, Queensland, Australia – 2018
The Understudies, Radboud Universiteit, Netherlands – 2018
Studio East Training for the Performing Arts, WA, USA – 2021
Kew House School, United Kingdom – 2022
Phoenix Players, Southsea, United Kingdom – 2022
Cast: 20-28 actors 21M 7F (double casting is achievable as are some females playing male parts)
Ages of the actors: Adult
Suitable for: PG 13 violence
Set: Minimal stage furniture and props can be used. Scene changes could be made by lighting different parts of the stage, particularly with spots, a number of which are stated in the script.
Level of Difficulty: 8/10 – a drama with a large cast.
MISTER HISLOP’S DATING AGENCY – FUNNY GHOST STORY SCRIPT
Four people (two men and two women) meet in a room with an eerie atmosphere, which is part of a derelict house. They were previously unknown to each other, and are there as a result of a meeting arranged by the Hislop Dating Agency. Their uneasiness in being there is suddenly compounded into stark terror! They try to get out of the house, but find that they are locked in. They are confronted by the truth – The Hislop dating Agency is for DEAD PEOPLE ONLY. Any hopeful doubts they had over being ghosts are eventually toppled when they get involved with a BBC producer and his assistant, who are searching for a ghost-like property for an episode of the Doctor Who series.
What happens next?
Production History
Seaton High School, Australia, 2016
Author: Tom Baines
Genre: Funny ghost story script
Type: Two act play
Cast: Nine 5M 4F
Ages of the actors: Adult – mid twenties to forties
Suitable for: All ages
Length: 80-90 minutes
Set: A sparsely furnished room that includes a long full-length mirror (in a swing frame or wall mounted) – also, a plain light upright chair. … The room requires to have a slight eerie aspect about it – perhaps brought about by the décor and lighting.
Level of Difficulty: 8/10 mixing ghost story tension with comedic build up
In this cmedy thriller script, a group of friends get together to play their regular poker game. But one of the group of friends who lives in the same apartment block is mysteriously missing. The group is quite worried about him as he lost his wife recently and since then he seems to be suffering from a lot of anger and depression. They are naturally concerned that something may have happened to him, but they would never have imagined that at that very moment he was holding a burglar hostage in his apartment…
Don’t knock has been staged by The Franklin Players as part of their annual one act play festival, and by The Durban University of Technology in 2015.
FURTHER PRODUCTION HISTORY
Private performance, New Delhi, India – 2019
Read more about award winning playwright Ashley Nader. Other plays by Ashley Nader
Author: Ashley Nader
Genre: Comedy thriller script
Type: One act play
Length: 25 minutes
Number of actors: 4M 1F
Ages of the actors: Twenties to thirties
Suitable for: 16 up – strong language
Set: There are two sets – the living room of the apartment where the friends are gathered for poker and the living room of the other apartment. There is a broken lamp in the second apartment.
Level of Difficulty: 7/10 – combining comedy with thriller can be tricky!
Carol and Mark have a problem. Besides the fact that Mark has cheated on Carol, Carol is a raging alcoholic, Mark is wanted by the police, and they now have an even bigger problem – the body in the basement. It’s been about a week and the body is starting to smell. But will they get rid of the body before anyone finds out? A one act comedy thriller for three adults.
Performance History:
Edinboro University’s Diebold Center for the Performing Arts – 2015
