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Scripts About Strange and Unusual Things

"It feels like the world is ending. Climate change makes unpredictable weather patterns, BIPOC folks face systemic barriers and violence at every turn, and our voting choices always seem to be the lesser of two evils. In the face of all this chaos, is it any surprise that our entertainment sometimes takes a turn for the chaotic? The plays below live in a world that’s been turned on its head. Some are eerie, some are angry, and some are charming, but they all live in a world that’s just a little bit off. If you like The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror, these are the plays for you!"

—playwright Lainie Vansant

The Very Last Wishes of Grandpa Joe or Mia & Hector Go Sightseeing by Cristina Florencia Castro

Whisper Music - Ten Minute Play by Lindsay Kennedy

Address the Body! by Zachariah Ezer

The Many Wondrous Realities of Jasmine Starr-Kidd by Stephen Brown

THE BIGNESS OF IT ALL by Stephanie Alison Walker

Being Black Outside by Vinecia Coleman

Button Lake Band Camp by Elijah Guo

37 Scenes and a Watermelon by Ian Downes

Alien of Extraordinary Ability by Chloé Hung

HOW BRENDA LANG INVENTED TIME TRAVEL WITH A MOLDY PIECE OF CHEESE by Scott Mullen

My Body by Rachel Bublitz

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Recently Recommended

Michele Clarke recommended YELLOW ROSES by Perry Guzzi

“

A gripping and full-hearted exploration of choices, regret, and finding the grace to forgive.

”

Kim E. Ruyle recommended Maximalista by Amy H Peterson

“

The artist, Edvard Munch said, “Without anxiety and illness I should have been like a ship without a rudder.” In Maximalista, Peterson leads us through Davi’s tortured, mostly rudder-less world, the result of mental illness. This play is highly theatrical, and Davi’s language is, at times, poetical. The support she continues to receive from her family in spite of her bizarre behavior is heart-rending, and I was most taken with Davi’s relationship with Violet, her daughter. Well done.

”

Shaun Leisher recommended powpowpowpowpowpowpowpowBANG by Utkarsh Rajawat

“

This play is an absolute mindfuck. I really had a good time reading it and would love to see an adventurous team of artists produce this.

”

Michele Clarke recommended Be Like Water by Lucy Wang

“

What a fantastic TYA piece. Especially for theaters looking for alternatives to the Annie-Sound of Music-Disney rut. "Who made up these rules? Do traditions ever evolve? And who gets to decide?" BE LIKE WATER is a deft and thought-provoking look at the blind reverence we give traditions and institutions - and specifically a certain financial juggernaut with origins in 1816, 1891 and 1954.

”

The NPX Index

Scripts tagged with the keyword "family"
2081
Scripts tagged with the keyword "comedy"
1880
Scripts tagged with the keyword "love"
1401
Scripts tagged with the keyword "LGBTQ"
1490
Scripts tagged with the keyword "death"
867
Scripts tagged with the keyword "women"
820
Scripts tagged with the keyword "relationships"
768
Scripts tagged with the keyword "marriage"
775
Scripts tagged with the keyword "friendship"
688
Scripts tagged with the keyword "history"
582

Featured Writer

Mark Saunders

Mark Saunders is a former winner of the Walden Fellowship, awarded to three Oregon writers each year. Many of his short plays have been staged from California to New York, from Mexico to England, and five of his plays (“Who’s on Faust?”; “Playthings”; “Some People Say”; “Two People”; “Fictionistas”) have been published by Smith and Kraus. A partial list of his productions includes “A Fine Funeral” produced by Heartland Theatre Company, Illinois. “Am I Right?” produced by New Rave Festival, Stark Raving Theatre, October 2000; Northwest Playwrights Guild April Foolery Festival of Plays, April 2001; Pregnant Chad New Plays Festival, February 2001, Newburgh, New York; Concepts: New Playwrights One Act Festival, June 2001, New York City. Excerpt published by Smith & Kraus. Indie film made based on the play. “Camp Neoconnie” produced during the Ashland 10-Minute Play Festival, July 2004, Ashland, Oregon, and by InTouch Theatre Productions, NYC, for Oktoberfest, a series of plays on current themes that ran the last week in October 2004. One of two "featured playwrights" during the festival. Also produced by Project Playwright II: The Show, MADAIR Productions, NYC, Nov. 2006. “The Case of the Missing Know-It-All” produced by ShowOff! 2017, San Juan Capistrano, California; produced by Minnesota Short Plays Festival, September 2017; produced as part of the Pick of the Vine festival by Little Fish Theatre, San Pedro, California, Jan-Feb 2018. “Delgado’s Mask” produced at the Cornelia Street Café, in New York City, October 2003; produced as part of the Love Notes series, Denver’s Dangerous Theatre, Denver, Colorado, February 2008; produced by RTR, Portland, Oregon, April 2010. Produced by Diez Minutos International 10-Minute Play Festival, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Mark once owned a Yugo (please don't ask about the car).

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Featured Script

Amna (a monologue) by Daniel Olivas

It is the year 2002, and a young Latina named Amna recounts with fondness her grandparents' migration from Mexico to Los Angeles as she recounts her own personal history that has brought her to the streets as a runaway. This monologue is adapted from the author's short story of the same name featured in the collection, "Assumption and Other Stories."

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Featured Reader

Jeremy Cloyd

Jeremy Cloyd is a theatre artist located in South Central Kentucky. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Lindsey Wilson College where he teaches a broad range of classes including Introduction to Theatre, Acting, Children's Theatre, Dramatic Literature, and Queer Theatre while also helping to create opportunities for undergraduate students to be involved with and learn about the world of theatre through performance and production. He is also the Associate Artistic Director for LWC's Summer Theatre, TheatreFest! where he also serves as the director of their IMAGINE! Youth Theatre. Some of his favorite acting roles include Raleigh in Last Train to Nibroc, Proteus in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Jamie in The Last Five Years.

Jeremy is also the cohost of Creepy Campus Podcast where he and cohost Doug Tate explore the accounts of hauntings and urban legends that surround college and university campuses.

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Featured Organization

Birdhouse Theatre

Richard Nelson recently wrote that a theatre at its essence is simply a kind of intimate human relationship
between an artist and the audience. Today, television networks fight for the rights to “time-sensitive” events
where audiences share in a feeling at the same time. This is where theatre's have and continue to thrive. All
one needs is an empty space and a shared amount of time where live human beings are in front of live human
beings to share. Birdhouse Theatre seeks to continually provide a theatre experience that creates culture,
motivation, engagement, economic development, intelligence and growth of a community.

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