Tag Archives: family drama scripts

Waiting for John – drama about a family torn apart by a son’s death

WAITING FOR JOHN – DRAMA ABOUT A FAMILY TORN APART BY A SON’S DEATH

Fred has a son called John. He’s all grown up now, but still a good lad. Fred and John spend hours together, but what they like to do best is watch the stars, naming all the constellations. Today Fred is getting the tea ready for John and his wife, Edith. He likes to do this whilst he’s waiting for John. He should be home soon. Any minute now.
Edith had a son called John. He isn’t coming home, not ever again. Not since he got in that car. But she’ll wait as well, wait for her husband to come back to her. A drama about a family torn apart by a son’s death.

PRODUCTION HISTORY

Waiting for John won best play in the 2018 Franklin and Friends one act play festival in Roosevelt Park.
Schultz Theater Off Broadway Players, VA, USA – 2020
Western Nebraska Community College, NE, USA – 2022

Watch a Production by the Off Broadway Players, 2021

Author: Spencer Rowley

Type: One act play

Genre: Drama about a family torn apart by a son’s death

Cast: 1M 2F

Ages of the actors: Mains: middle aged up. Nurse: Any adult age

Suitable for: All ages to watch and teens up to perform.

Length: Twenty minutes

Set: The set is quite simple; no walls or doors, except for a shelf which splits the stage centrally into two parts left and right, and which can be accessed by either character. The shelf is otherwise see-through and must be designed in such a way that it does not affect the audience’ concentration or view. Each character has a chair (Edith’s is a rocking chair). Fred has a trunk containing toys or mementos of his son. Each side has a tea-making facility with kettle/cups/etc., and a small side-table. Each side table has a framed photograph of John, placed so that the audience can see. In the picture John is a young man/teenager.

Level of Difficulty: 7/10 – simple character portrayal is the essence of this award winning play

Read a Sample of the Script




Cost is $10 for this award winning digital play

Contact Off the Wall Plays with any queries about Waiting for John

Copyright © March 2019 Spencer Rowley and Off The Wall Play Publishers

Like this play? Other family dramas you may enjoy:

Daughter like you – family drama about a couple trying to cope with losing a young child
Love, Norman. Norman is about to take his life when his family arrives with an unusual request
Memory Palace – poignant drama surrounding the life of a family as they sell their home

Love, Norman – Drama for four actors about suicide, family and everything that comes with that.

drama for four actors

LOVE, NORMAN – A DRAMA FOR FOUR ACTORS ABOUT SUICIDE, FAMILY AND EVERYTHING THAT COMES WITH THAT

When Estelle decided to ‘dump’ her ill father Frank on her brother Norman for a few days while she would be out of town, she initially had no idea that a visit to Norman’s apartment would end up being the intervention, reckoning, counselling, cleansing and reunion session that the family didn’t plan for but certainly needed. Without a mother, Estelle would go on to overcompensate for the lack of one, Norman would lose his nerve without her presence in his life and their father would blame Norman for her death. In Love, Norman, a drama for four actors, Estelle and her family’s dysfunction are exposed in a major way all the while happening in Norman’s tiny apartment…this is Norman’s, not Estelle’s story after all. And in keeping with the theme, it is Norman’s attempt at suicide, homosexuality and alleged son, Jerome which the play reveals to us all and grapples with in the most sincere way.

This is him, this is Norman and he sends his love. A beautifully written drama that is both challenging and human at the same time.

Other drama plays – Jars a short play about the love between two women by American playwright Jordan Morille

Author: Jordan Morille

Type: Full length one act play

Genre: Drama for four actors, dealing with suicide, homosexuality and family

Cast: 3 – m, 1 – f

Ages of the actors: 1 teen, 1 elderly man, two middle aged M and F

Suitable for: Adults and older teens only, not for school productions – language

Length: 90 minutes

Set: Norman’s apartment. It is small, very small. One could almost remain in the center of the apartment and have access to every amenity inside, not unlike a spider in its web.

Level of difficulty: 8/10 – characterisation.

Read a sample of the script

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Cost is $6.50 for this new drama script. Just Click Shakespeare!

Contact Off The Wall plays with any queries about Love, Norman

Copyright © July 2018 Jordan Morille and Off The Wall Play Publishers

Like this play? Others like it:

My Child – drama about a teen who falls pregnant and the woman who wants her baby
Never alone – play about depression and suicide
Behind the Nets – drama set in a small town where a woman finds out her husband is gay

North fork – script about brothers loving the same girl.

script about brothers loving the same girl

North Fork – drama script about brothers loving the same girl

It’s summer on the East End of Long Island, a magical time for everyone, especially the young.  Joe and David are local boys, born and raised in Laurel. Even though New York City is only 90 miles away they have only been there a couple of times, to the zoo or a baseball game. Summers for teenagers on the North Fork are spent on the beach, in the water, hanging out with friends and making new friends with the summer rental “city folk” in this script about brothers loving the same girl.

This summer David and Joe have  fallen in love with Angela, a brown eyed girl renting next door. The matriarch of the family, Nana, sees what’s happening and senses a “storm” brewing. She warns Joseph not to interfere with his younger brother.

He doesn’t listen to her and one day Joe and Angela disappear. They are found days later in Montauk. Angela’s father threatens to have Joe charged with statutory rape. He’s innocent, but it is agreed by the families that Joe be sent away to live with relatives. David can’t forgive him. This causes a split in the family until they meet again, another summer 20 years later

Read other scripts by Timothy Brown – Irish Jack – Script about falling in love with a girl outside your culture

Author: Timothy Brown

Genre: Drama script about brothers loving the same girl

Type: One act play

Cast: Cast of 9, 4F 5M. Two of the characters are young and older versions of themselves.

Ages of the actors: Teen and adult

Suitable for: All ages to watch and teens upward to perform

Length: Forty minutes

Set: The Beach House, Laurel NY

Level of difficulty: 7/10 – past and present.

Read a Sample of the Script




Cost is $6.50 for this previously performed digital play script

Contact Off The Wall Plays with any queries about North Fork

Copyright © December 2017 Timothy Brown and Off The Wall Play Publishers

Like this play? Others like it – about love and about brothers:

Two Brothers – play about brothers dealing with a parent with Alzheimer’s
Getting this close – award winning play about loving your best friend
Taylor – a father struggles to come to terms with his wife’s death and his new love

Day of all days – drama script about secrets and lies

drama script about secrets and lies

DAY OF ALL DAYS – DRAMA ABOUT SECRETS AND LIES

Jean is the perfect host and has planned a get together to celebrate their friends Diane and George’s 25-year partnership. Bringing everyone together has been a bit of a trial and things go wrong – the cake is destroyed in an accident involving Dan and Jean’s best friend, Karen. Their daughter Sarah’s boyfriend decides not to attend, Karen’s husband Harry prefers to support his football team and to cap it all George’s car breaks down, which results in the celebration being postponed to the following day in this drama about secrets and lies.

About 23 years ago Dan and Karen had an affair and Dan is unaware that a child, Chris, born of the relationship was adopted rather than aborted. Dan thinks that Jean, although aware of the relationship, knows nothing about the child and has been living under a cloud of guilt ever since. Everything goes wrong when Chris, now 22 years’ old arrives at the party.

Tension builds as other family members start to let their secrets out as well, culminating in the final arrival of the last guests of the evening!

Read about playwright Keith Passmore. Other dramas – Deliverance – a play about Joan of Arc by Keith.

Author: Keith Passmore

Type: Two-act play

Genre: Drama about secrets and lies

Cast: 6M, 5F – cast of 11

Ages of the actors: Adults forties to fifties, their kids in their twenties

Suitable for: Adults only

Length: 120 minutes – Two hours

Set: Dan and Jean’s lounge hasn’t changed much from the late 1990’s, but it is homely, stylish to a degree and simply furnished and is part of a four-bedroom house in a semi-rural setting in middle class South of England.

Level of difficulty:  7/10 Building tension throughout to reach a peak at the end of two hours

Read a Sample of the Script




Cost is $5.50 for this new digital play script

Contact Off The Wall Plays with any queries about Day of all Days

 

Copyright © November 2017 Keith Passmore and Off The Wall Play Publishers

Like this play? Other family type dramas:

Memory Palace – poignant family drama about the family home
Check off in the sun – family drama about the passing away of a beloved family member
Riding a Peacock – African American family saga type drama

Memory Palace – a poignant family drama play spanning generations

family drama play

MEMORY PALACE – POIGNANT FAMILY DRAMA PLAY

A family’s home is their castle, a place where their dreams are made.

A family portrait is delicately unravelled in this generational two-act family drama play about the Fischer’s. From the purchase of the family home by Nancy and Daniel, the complicated and often tense concept of family is explored in a series of recollections throughout the Fischer’s history. Recollections shared by sisters, mother and daughter, grandchild and grandfather, memories happy and devastating as well as those that reveal secrets or rather the inquiring bottomless pit of any family dynamic. Memory Palace thoughtfully sheds light into the notion that human beings can be both complicated and amusingly simple at the same time.

MEMORY PALACE was commissioned by The Visiting Nurse Association of Chittenden and Grand Isle Counties in Vermont in 2013 and was first presented as part of The Full Circle Festival, a series of workshops and theatrical presentations on the subject of aging, in April 2014.

Author: Maura Campbell

Type: Two act play

Genre: Family drama play

Cast: Mains: 4F 3M (5 children 4M 1F and one 20 something play younger versions of the main parts. 1-2 minor parts as well)

Ages of the actors: Children through to older actors

Suitable for: All ages

Length:Two hours

Set: The home of Nancy and Daniel Fischer. Time is fluid and moves between the present and memories of the past. Lighting and incidental music are helpful for audiences to grasp time and place transitions.

Level of difficulty: 7/10 – keeping the pace in this family drama play

Read a Sample of the Script




Cost is $7 for this editor’s choice digital play script

Contact Off The Wall Plays with any queries about Memory Palace

Copyright © January 2016 Maura Campbell and Off The Wall Play Publishers

Like this play? Other family sagas and dramas that we stock:

Taylor – a family saga about a man’s devotion to his dead wife
Chicken Salad – one act drama for two women about coping with a recent death
Check off in the sun – family drama about last wishes