Tag Archives: plays by author playwright James Chalmers

DRAMA FOR TEENS ABOUT A CAR ACCIDENT

THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD – DRAMA FOR TEENS ABOUT A CAR ACCIDENT

Imagine that, in a moment of thoughtlessness your life would change for ever, and would even be over.
It’s the holidays and three teens, Danny, Ben and Rachael are going to spend the holidays at the cottage owned by Danny’s father. Danny, egged on by Ben, has driven there in his father’s car without his father’s consent. Danny also hasn’t got a driving licence or insurance in this drama for teens about a car accident.

Just a matter of a few minutes from their destination, Danny takes a bend on the wrong side of the road, resulting in another car swerving out the way to avoid them and crashing, with fatalities highly likely. In a moment of panic, Danny doesn’t stop at the scene of the accident.

When Rachael arrives at the holiday cottage on her motorbike a little later she brings news. The car they hit had one survivor, a policeman. She then produces a gun she took from the scene of the crime. What she suggests next is unthinkable.

The wrong side of the road was was one of nine scripts short-listed in the 2009 Kenneth Branagh Drama Writing Award competition.

PRODUCTION HISTORY

New Hanover High School, NC – 2021
Dudley College of Technology, Dudney, UK – 2022

Author: James Chalmers

Genre: Drama for teens about a car accident

Type: One act play

Length: 25 minutes (One Act)

Cast: 2 Male 1 Female

Ages of players: 14 to 18

Suitable for: Teens and young adults

Set: A holiday cottage

Level of difficulty: 8/10 – a good play for one act festivals with growing tension throughout.

Read a Sample of the Script

Cost is $10 for this finalist script

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Contact Off the Wall Plays with any queries about The Wrong side of the Road

Copyright © July 2018 James Chalmers and Off The Wall Play Publishers

Like this play? Other similar plays for you to enjoy:

Road Toll – one act drama in which police bring news of a fatal crash in which the person who died was thought to have died years before
The Back Seat – drama about college rape
Questions – one act drama about a murder

Dramas

Fervan Cerato does not exist – one act political drama

July 12, 2017 Demmer Dewan Leave a comment

FERVAN CERATO DOES NOT EXIST – ONE ACT POLITICAL DRAMA

This one act political drama is set in an unnamed undemocratic country ruled by the narcissistic President Cerato who has a daughter named Fervan. Fervan’s mother, the President’s wife and a former pop star, has disowned Fervan because she is so unattractive. The official line is that Fervan died at birth and Fervan’s existence isn’t known outside the Presidential Palace.

A tourist from the West, artist Stafford Careen, is arrested and held on supposed charges of espionage but they promise him a pardon and that he will be released in return for painting a portrait of the President. He is transported to the presidential palace to paint the portrait and there he meets Fervan.

Fervan is desperate to experience sex as she sees Stafford as an exotic foreigner who would be willing, she thinks. Fervan also wants Stafford to help her escape the confines of the Palace and flee the country but Stafford isn’t sure, as he doesn’t see how that can possibly happen.

Stafford completes the portrait and is promised that his passport will be returned the following day. What he doesn’t count on is a coup to overthrow the president.

PRODUCTION HISTORY

The Academies of Bryan, Station, KY, USA – 2018

Grade 10 –12 Students of The Academies of Bryan Station, Lexington Kentucky, October 2018, Kentucky Theatre Association Regionals and Thespian Festivals, Superior and Excellent ratings plus the award for visual impact.

Read other award winning plays by James – Prelude to Macbeth.

Author: James Chalmers

Type: One act play

Genre: One act political drama

Length: 40-45 minutes

Cast: 3M, 2F

Ages of the actors: Adult

Suitable for: Adults only – sexual language

Set: A room in the Presidential Palace set up as an artist’s studio. Consisting of a chair in front of a plain fabric screen. This is where President Cerato sits for his portrait (The Company may wish to include a low rostrum). A little way from this is a canvas on an easel. The easel is turned away from the audience so that the developing portrait of the President can’t be seen. (The picture is never revealed) Alongside the easel is a small table on which there are tubes of paint, palette, brushes etc. Also in the “room” a dining table (robust enough for Corvis to sit on) and a chair. The Company may wish to have something that represents a window at front of stage – left or right. Stafford’s cabin bag and suitcase are on stage.

Level of Difficulty: 7/10 – this is a well written script – creating tensions and anxieties to portray realistic characters in a country that is foreign to our western way of thinking

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 Fervan Cerato Does Not Exist

Copyright © July 2017 James Chalmers and Off The Wall Play Publishers

Like this play? Other political dramas:

Teru ‘ah – Jewish political script set in an alternate future
Foreign Gifts – drama about socialism and capitalism set at the height of the cold war

Dramas, One act plays

When Summer dies of Shame – one act drama for three actors

January 18, 2015 Demmer Dewan Leave a comment

WHEN SUMMER DIES OF SHAME – ONE ACT DRAMA FOR THREE ACTORS

A bloody Civil War has been raging in the fictitious country of Carthinia. One of the many atrocities committed during the war was Colonel Ivan Karovitch’s rape of a young Carthinian girl, the murder of her boyfriend and her parents. The rape victim takes refuge in a convent where she gives birth to a daughter Natalie. When just a few months old Natalie is adopted by an English couple and brought to the UK.

Ivan flees to the UK and begins a new life here. He marries and runs a flower shop with his English wife revealing nothing of his past to her. They have a daughter Jessica. When Jessica’s mother dies, her father Ivan comes to live at Jessica’s house in an annex. Ivan retires and spends his days tending his allotment and the garden.

Natalie visits Carthinia and finds her birth mother who tells her about the rape and that she must track Ivan down and ensure he’s brought to justice. Natalie is focused on the crime and is oblivious to the implications of her existence being a result of the rape. Natalie enlists the help of a journalist and Ivan’s army photograph and details of his crimes appear in an edition of the Guardian. Ivan sees the article and suffers a seizure and is taken to hospital. They can’t find anything physically wrong with him but it is decided he is unable to look after himself and he is put into a nursing home.

Natalie who is a trained nurse and already working in a care home, traces Ivan through Jessica’s Facebook page, and she then takes up a vacancy at the nursing home where Ivan is being looked after

The play is set in Ivan’s room in the nursing home. The play opens with a short introductory scene – set in the present – three weeks after Ivan has committed suicide. We then flashback to the day before Ivan’s suicide and the story of the events leading up to his death unfolds. In the final scene we are back in the present and this is when the increasingly confrontational relationship between Natalie and Jessica reaches its climax.

PRODUCTION HISTORY

Shetland County Drama Festival, Shetland Islands, Scotland, UK – 2017
French-American International School, CA, USA – 2019

Read more about playwright James Chalmers. Other plays by James.

Author: James Chalmers

Genre: One act drama

Type: One act play

Cast: Three, 3 – 1M (non speaking) 2F parts

Ages of the actors: M 50-70 years, F 20-40 years – one older than the other

Suitable for: All ages

Length of play: 20 minutes

Set: Ivan’s room in the nursing home with an armchair.

Level of difficulty: 7/10 – although there are 3 actors, thi is in essence a duologue for two conflicting F parts.

Read a Sample of the Script

Cost is $6 for this digital script

Contact Off The Wall Plays with any queries about When Summer Dies of Shame

Copyright ©January 2015 James Chalmers and Off The Wall Play Publishers

Like this play? Other short one act drama scripts that we stock:

The mysterious death of Christine Wilde – whodunit stage murder mystery
Two brothers – a duologue about dealing with a parent with Alzheimer’s
Choices – South African teen drama

Children's, Musicals, One act plays

Molly and the Magic Phone – musical for children

October 26, 2014 Demmer Dewan Leave a comment

musical for children

BUY a musical play online

MOLLY AND THE MAGIC PHONE – MUSICAL FOR CHILDREN

This is a one act musical for children. Written with age eleven and under in mind – although it is suitable for children up to around fifteen years old. A serious story with touches of comedy – with scope for being directed in a number of different ways – the emphasis being on participation for the children and entertainment for a young or adult audience.

PRODUCTION HISTORY

Country Players, Nelson, New Zealand – 2018

Author: James Chalmers

Genre: Musical for children

Type: One act musical

Cast: Minimum of 10 and up to 15 children

Ages of the actors: Age 11 and under but ages of up to 15 would work

Length: 25 – 30 minutes

Suitable for: Children and the whole family

Set: No set required although the play might benefit from being performed in front of some plain flats – possibly decorated lightly with graffiti. At the front of the stage on either side – are tables for the cards carrying the text messages. The Presenters pick up cards from one side – walk across the front of the stage holding the words up for the audience to read – then they place the cards on the other table. They wait there until the next text message is to be displayed – and they walk back across the other way with the appropriate cards. The words should be on both sides of the cards because the messages are cues for the actor playing the part of Molly.

Level of difficulty: 6/10 – a nice play suitable for a small drama class

Read a Sample of the Script

Read a sample of the sheet music for the play

The sheet music will be sent to the purchaser separately using the email address associated with their Paypal account.

Cost is $7.50 for this well reviewed children’s play. Just click Shakespeare

Contact Off The Wall Plays with any queries about Molly and the Magic phone

Like this play? Other plays for kids:

The Poetry Machine – plays for children
Adventures of Mojoe and Snowy in Lochloosa
Dreidel – Jewish Children’s plays

Dramas, One act plays

Prelude to Macbeth – modern Shakespeare plays

August 14, 2014 Demmer Dewan Leave a comment

PRELUDE TO MACBETH – MODERN SHAKESPEARE PLAYS

This award winning one act play is a prequel to Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The story of how Macbeth becomes Thane of Glamis and how he meets Lorna Stewart who becomes his wife – Lady Macbeth. The play is written in blank verse – the style fashionable with playwrights of Shakespeare’s era.

Macbeth’s first wife has just died. Battle weary and devastated by his loss he decides to give up being a soldier. Duncan doesn’t want to lose Macbeth. He offers him the title of Thane of Glamis if he will agree to continue as his general. Macbeth knows he will either have to accept the offer – or flee into exile. Duncan won’t take no for an answer.

Prelude to Macbeth won the 2010 Seahorse Award for best stage play at the Moondance Film Festival in America. At the Wilmslow Guild Drama Festival 2010 it received the Adjudicators Award for the most original piece of theatre.

It was also awarded the trophies for highest directing mark and overall winner at the SCDA Caithness District festival of one act plays in Scotland in 2016.

FURTHER PRODUCTION HISTORY

Artist’s Playground – Quezon, Philippines – 2016
Second round performances Artist’s Playground – Quezon, Philippines
Wauwatosa East High School – Tosa East Players, WI, USA – 2022
Smoky Hill High School, CO, USA – 2022

Read about playwright James Chalmers.

Author: James Chalmers

Genre: Shakespearean tragedy, modern Shakespeare plays

Type: One act play

Length: Forty minutes

Number of actors: Eight, 4M 4F

Ages of the actors: Teenage to elderly

Suitable for: All ages

Set: A simple stage set is suggested – for example free standing flats (1m wide x 2m high) in an arc across the playing area – painted a neutral colour such as grey. Entrances and exits can be between the flats or in front of them. The flats suggest rocks like Stonehenge or castle battlements.

Level of Difficulty: 7/10 – this play is written in the same style as Shakespeare wrote, achieving the right flow of the words is paramount.