Nora Louise Syran

A 30 minute one act on the life and death of Julia Pastrana, the Ugliest Woman in the World

(ten minute) A female tourist in an Hawaiian hotel piano bar lounge is transported to the past to revisit her brief but enduring love affair with a talented local piano player.

(A 10 minute monologue) Mary Mallon, aka Typhoid Mary, tells her story to the new doctor she works with in the laboratory on North Brother Island where she has been held in isolation for 18 years --and where she'll live a total of 26 years, until the end of her life. She escaped once and continued to cook even though under strict orders not to. She's believed to have infected hundreds with typhoid fever and it has been confirmed she killed three people. But while other asymptomatic typhoid carriers carried on with their lives in New York City, which she could see from her prison on North Brother Island, she was never released. Was it because she was a single, Irish female? Or just another poor soul lost in the shuffle... (Words in italics are hers.)

Not currently available. Under revision. Reach out if you're curious: [email protected]

(12 minutes) Three sisters reunite on the island of Chincoteague, VA.
Tensions below the COVID19 crisis and growing political divide cannot help but surface.

Written for the the PDC ten minute Bakeoff 2020.
Ingredients: Chincoteague, Toby jugs, umbrella
Semi-Finalist for the 2021 TASN Short Play Festival.

Published online under the title Walking Warm: https://www.americanpopularculture.com/review_americana/fall_2021/syran…

An adaptation woven throughout with songs from Charles Dickens's "playlist"--songs he loved, sang and even wrote.
Authentic, large cast ensemble adaptation with songs and staging highlighting the imagery of Dickens's original.
Contact Nora Louise Syran for a perusal copy.

April 9, 1940. Oslo, Norway. A coat check girl refuses to leave the theatre as the German army advances.

This play relates real events: the invasion of Norway by German forces, the attempted coup d'etat of the Norwegian government by Vidkun Quisling and the National Theatre's dress rehearsal of Karel Čapek's anti-war, anti-extremist play the day before - April 8, 1940.

Vidkun Quisling's broadcast from April 9 translated by the author.
Selected lines of original Czech from Karel Capek's "The Mother" translated with help of Google. Edited/adapted.

The Coat Check Girl is a working title...

(A ten minute comedy) The Devil arrives in another circle of hell, the department of motor vehicles, to renew his driver's license. How hard can it be? For Hell's sake, he has been driving since Henry Ford rolled his Model T off the assembly line. But no one, not even the Devil trapped in his own circles of Hell, is above the law.

Performed at the Heartland Theatre (Young at Heart) - October 2023
Berkshire School in Sheffield, MA - May 2024
Rover Dramawerks Finalist - 2024
Colonial Playhouse Aldan, PA - June 2025
The Theatre Artists Studio, Scottsdale AZ - June 2026

(A 5 minute Monologue) Edith sits waist high in a pile of cheap looking clothing while her husband is having dinner with the neighbors next door.

A teenage girl is cleaning her bedroom. She becomes overwhelmed with social media pressure and her parent steps in to help.

A teenage girl learns a little about life from a load of laundry.

A ten minute monologue. A young woman, annoyed by the overweight passenger beside her on a train ride through Norway, has a life-altering moment.

This was written ages ago. Curious how it works as a monologue. Feedback appreciated,tx

A monologue for a juggler juggling 4 red balls.

(Full length ~90 min) In the year 1000 AD, the old gods — Thor, Odin, and Loki— still thunder through the hearts of the people, but Iceland stands on the brink of great change. Searching for hope in what feels like the end of the world, Einar struggles to write down the frightening, sorrowful and hilarious stories of old. Through the power of these stories, he'll learn that what feels like the end of the world, may in fact be the beginning.

Einar’s Ragnarok is a moving, wildly theatrical and “joyous ode to storytelling and theatre.” At once comedic and profound, it celebrates the poets who carry culture forward, the families who shape us, and the idea that even in endings, something new is always being born.

RAGNHILD, the teenage sister of EINAR, has been helping him write down his tales of the norse gods and goddesses. But he has avoided telling the end of the story which ends in the death of the beloved god Baldr and the end of the world, Ragnarok, and has started again from the beginning with the creation of man and woman from an ash tree and an elm tree. RAGNHILD desperately wants to hear how the story will end but is frightened to write it down.

Published in Smith & Kraus "The Best Women's Stage Monologues 2023" edited by Debbie Lamedman

(A 5 minute monologue) Ellida treads water in a Norwegian fjord during a long week of sailing camp. She's already failed the rowing exercise and camping out on a rock all night under a sun that doesn't set. She can drown or swim in and give up; she's not giving up. Inspired by Henrik Ibsen's "The Lady From the Sea"

On the eve of the 1954 closing of Ellis Island, two teenagers, an Italian-American and an Irish-American, sneak inside the main building to see it for themselves. They meet an older man, now a janitor after serving as an inspector on the island since the early 1900s.The teens are drawn into his stories from the past and his memories come alive with an ensemble of people from all nationalities and backgrounds who have one thing in common: they are on the path of their "pursuit of happiness."

A timely play (with optional live-sung music) that celebrates America as a country of immigrants.
~70 minutes, Cast of 10+ (A large ensemble is encouraged; up to 40 roles included, extras possible)

This is a full length expanded version of the one act published by Eldridge Plays and Musicals
https://histage.com/ellis-island-ahead

(30-50 minutes) PUBLISHED by Eldridge Plays and Musicals.
1954. On the eve of the closing of Ellis Island, two teenagers sneak inside to see it for themselves. Through the stories of the janitor--from his time as an inspector on the island--two teenagers, an Italian-American and an Irish-American, are drawn into the past and join an ensemble of people from all nationalities and backgrounds including Irving Berlin, Khalil Gibran, Emmeline Pankhurst, passengers aboard the Titanic, Hollywood stars and many, many others : each on the path of their "pursuit of happiness." A timely piece, celebrating America as a country of immigrants. A play with music.

Full length with optional live songs: https://newplayexchange.org/script/3304568/ellis-island-ahead

Emily Dickinson finds herself in the Mind of God but then is rudely brought back to the pangs of creative isolation.

Written for the 2024 Playwrights Horror Bake-Off with the increepients: Emily Dickinson, The Mind of God, a walking stick, fighting paralysis

(Small edits made October 31, 2024 after a reading with Playwrights Thriving)

Ernst Weil considers the importance of his name and the stories --and lessons -- that pass down through the generations.
A monologue

Written for the 2026 Playwrights' Delight title selection: Erstwhile

Two Priests are sent by the Pope to pay a visit on a joint session of the United States Congress.

(5-8 minutes) A cafe/restaurant near a swampy, marsh filled with frogs.
A Glutton sits eating plate after plate of frogs' legs.

#tpcmonthlyprompt prompt: Haunted Cafe

(40 minutes) California 1856. The Gold Rush, which brought people to California from all over the world, is slowly winding down. The Wells Fargo Stagecoach has just come into town and with it, news from the rest of the world. Join sweet Betsy from Pike, Charlotte “Charley” the stage coach driver, Clementine, the miner's daughter, Sewati of the Miwok tribe, Calamity Jane and Angeline the baker as they plot to rid their town of a corrupt sheriff...

Under revision. Reach out for a perusal.

UNDER REVISION

A play with medieval music, mumming, and magic.
England 1381. Sixteen year old Eleanor is captivated by Robert "Robin" DuBois, a stonemason. As the reality of the Peasants' Revolt and her vivid imagination intertwine , she copes with it all by crafting the stories of Robin Hood and his Merry “Men" (all women save for Friar Tuck)

An ideal show for anytime of the year, but especially at during the winter holidays.

(Latest draft uploaded Oct 29, 2024)

Miletus, Ancient Greece ~450BC. Aspasia wants to put on a play with her friends. How hard could it be? But where will she find her inspiration? And once she has it, how will she control it? Can she stop Phaeton from taking his father Apollo's chariot of fire out for a spin? Can she help save Prometheus from Ethon the Eagle, who doesn't care much for liver? How can she write a happy ending for Persephone in the underworld? Psychopomp Hermes has left the theatre connection portal open and has just started his tour ... so join in and find out.

(15 minutes) A short zoom play: a parody of the absurd based on Beckett's "Happy Days". An actor crashes a family Zoom session thinking it's an audition. While Millennial Millie tries to explain to him that he's made a mistake, Millie's mother Winnie greets it all--the computer, husband and daughter who don't need, see or hear her-- and the intruding thespian, with overwhelming optimism. (Revised Draft: July 18 2022)

(short) An Anglophone and French Partner celebrate life with a bottle of champagne...better left corked.

Produced by Theatrical Shenanigans February 16, 2025 https://theatricalshenanigans.podbean.com/

(short) An ANGLOPHONE and their FRENCH PARTNER get the house, and garage, ready for Christmas. But they have mice...or is that mouses?

Note: "Mince!" in French is a gentle expletive; a substitute to avoid using the "gros mos"/swear word "merde"

(Short) An ANGLOPHONE and their FRENCH PARTNER prepare for the holidays.

(~30 minutes) 1927. Four girls with broken Broadway dreams, leave New York and set off for Hollywoodland, California only to end up with a silent film director set in his old-fashioned ways, refusing to film a Talkie.

A fun comedy with music, the Charleston and more.
A mini musical: large flexible casting

Cast of 17-18; 5-11M, 7-13F, 5M/F

(A one minute play) A 50 year old BIRTHDAY GIRL and her PARTNER receive a card in the mail.
Just a bit of silliness to celebrate another turn around the sun.

A monologue about a woman, the universe and her dog.

*Broadcast January 2024 Radio Six International through the Writer's Block Radio Hour produced by Glen Dickson (now available on youtube: https://youtu.be/slpjYoIJQDs?feature=shared) Read by the author

Suzanne Valadon "grew up with giants!" She meets Monet painting in a train station, follows Morisot to sketch at the Louvre and impresses Cassatt in a hat shop with her eye for line and color. Determined to be famous, she joins the circus; but after falling from the trapeze, she turns to modeling and becomes the muse for Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec and many other painters of the Belle Epoque. Chief among her friends, cabaret singer Aristide Bruant guides us, with the beautiful songs of Montmartre, through Valadon's quest to become, as Degas said "one of us!" -- an artist.

Email noralouisesyran AT gmail or have a look at https://youtu.be/cjJdR76akEU for the demos/snippets of scenes

A female tourist sits crouched before a locked hotel door while her host knocks repeatedly on the other side.

(Contact me for the radio play format.)

Three teenagers sit on the floor of a small church bathroom with a Ouiji board set up before them when the light suddenly switches off. But it's no longer hide and seek in the dark bathroom during choir practice like when they were young; it's serious. And there is a strange scratching come from inside the wall...
(Audio/Stage Play)

Produced December 2024 at the University of Northern Iowa's end of semester ten minute festival

A monologue or a poem or at least something written for the PT 2025 Secret Santa Title Exchange

It's Peggy Sue's birthday. She's turning sweet sixteen. She and her steady Johnathon E. Good have a date at the diner to celebrate. But things turn sour when Peggy and John discover someone has stolen his father’s brand new Shavy El Domino! Will their paranoid etiquette teacher Miss Molly and the other 50s misfits help him recover it before his father finds out? Or will John E. “The Bee” Good learn a lesson he’ll never forget?

While this is a fun, classic rock song inspired non murder mystery, like (dare I say...yes!) like CLUE, it has some not so nifty 50s themes coursing beneath its shiny formica surface! Have fun!

(This is a NON-MURDER mystery-Contact the author for the full script, including the RESOLUTION)
Quiz and pre/mid/post show games/audience interaction
A classic 1950s car to have on display for the non-murder event is highly encouraged

Note: the original title (at host-party.com) was The Nifty Fifties...then The (Not So) Nifty Fifties.

(A 10 minute monologue) Medusa sits waiting as the last of a long line of heroes attempts to cut off her head.
This time she just might let him. But she'd like to sit and talk for a bit first...

Included in the Venus Theatre Anthology: Frozen Women, Flowing Thoughts 2024

(10 minutes) 408 BC. Euripides is hiding away in his cave on Salamis, an island not too far from Athens. He is 74 years old and planning to move as he cannot bear to see democracy disintegrate and fall to the rabble. His good friend, Socrates, 63, arrives and irritates him with "Socratic" questions and coaxes him into revealing the plot of his next and last play "The Bacchae" before it's fully hatched. Athens is falling apart and Euripides wants to write about a cross-dressing king?!

(Written in response to the events leading up to January 6th, 2021; the storming of the US Capitol.)

Edited February 24, 2025

(A monologue) A woman stands looking out over the oil rigs on Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela. She's trapped. The borders are closed and there's nowhere to go but up or down.

The Weaver Girl, Zhinü, and her sisters sneak off to swim in the forbidden Jade Lake.
An English retelling of the Chinese Tale: The Weaver Girl and the Cowherd

A Play for Chinese Valentine's Day
celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month

(Full length ~100 min/ Draft 4) As floodwaters rise behind a controversial new dam in southeast Turkey, archaeologist Ayşe Yildiz races to protect an ancient mosaic unearthed in a remote Syriac monastery perched on the edge of the Tigris River. The mosaic is a masterpiece—a fragile link between civilizations, faiths, and centuries. But time is running out.

An early draft was a Semifinalist in the Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competition 2025.

(2-3 minute dialogue) A writer accidentally insults a theater critic online and tries to back-peddle their way out of it. The writer is gently coached out of their people-pleasing by their patient partner.

A parent and a teenager eat sushi together for perhaps the last time?

History comes alive as students learn that fake news is old news and disinformation can be disastrous. With the school principal waiting for the slightest excuse to fire the students’ favorite teacher, Mr Parker, and Charlotte Locus manipulating the media to become Student Council President, will the students learn from the past or will they be doomed to repeat it? A trope-filled, historical myth-busting comedy, with a couple of songs thrown in.

(A very short tragedy) A woman helps a pigeon escape an overheated dollar store but not quite the way she'd hoped.

In this faithful adaptation, Jane Austen’s personal “playlist”—songs she copied out in her own hand—becomes an integral part of the timeless tale.

England in 1814.
Anne Elliot rejected Frederick Wentworth's proposal of marriage eight years before the action of the play begins. She was persuaded to end their engagement but has regretted it every day since then. Now Frederick Wentworth has returned, a Captain. He is initially resentful, and proud, turning his attentions to another, but soon realizes that Anne is the woman he loves.

Persuasion is the last of Jane Austen's novels, and I believe the finest.

*with a few exceptions--but they are traditional/well-known at the time or from operas she knew

This draft still needs some formatting and clarification as to the movements of the Ensemble. Any feedback most appreciated. Be sure to listen to the songs (but do try to imagine them sung in lower, more modern and manageable keys!)

Four teenage girls, stuck in a Breakfast Club detention, "meet" the female scientists, mathematicians and intellectuals of the Enlightenment and early Romantic period: Emilie du Châtelet, Mary Somerville, Nicole-Reine Lepaute, Sophie Germain, Mary Anning, Caroline Herschel, Ada Lovelace and Lady Mary Montagu and discover that despite all its flaws, this is "the best of all possible worlds." Smart, bold, and unapologetically hopeful— this is a story of the power of the imagination.

Easy to produce. The original one act was produced online during Covid-complete with fraternal twins fencing at home, online! And don't let the period costumes worry you. As the character Enya says herself in the play, the costumes don't have to be 100% authentic. Staging can be as simple or ornate as needed; @buffaloseminarytheatre produced it in the round with 4 desks and 4 stools.

Minimum cast of 8F needed (have yet to test out less!) but up to 31 speaking parts possible.

This is a new full length version of the original one act produced in France. I spent time getting to know the four principal characters better, it became a 90min piece and now I'm whittling it back to 40 minutes again!
https://newplayexchange.org/plays/1524436/physics-poets-club-one-act

This is the original one act which was revised as a full length available here: https://newplayexchange.org/plays/3140717/physics-poets-club
The NEW one act is currently under revision. Writing is a process. Ask any playwright if their play is "finished"! Nope. So, open to productions, feedback etc. Reach out if you're curious, want to follow along with my progress on this one.

60 minute One Act For Zoom or Stage--Four teenage girls serving a detention for various misdemeanors discover that "we don't live in a clockwork universe, it's always breaking down." But as Voltaire's lover Emilie du Châtelet believed, it is the "best of all possible worlds." By exploring the lives of the female scientists, mathematicians and intellectuals of the Enlightenment and early Romantic period: Emilie du Châtelet, Mary Somerville, Nicole-Reine Lepaute, Sophie Germain, Mary Anning, Caroline Herschel, Ada Lovelace and Lady Mary Montagu, the four girls come to a better understanding of themselves and their potential in the modern world.

(Short scene for Three Females) After learning of English poet Lady Montagu's observations in Turkey, Enya and Brook debate the significance of her contributions to science: the eventual eradication of small pox.

Brook tells the other girls about when her undiagnosed narcolepsy started but her mother failed to give her the attention she needed. She was actually enjoying today's detention, the research and the company of the other girls before Enya had to ruin it. She missed an important appointment today.

Jade tells the other girls about her sibling rivalry and her fascination with bugs. She was enjoying today's detention, the research and the company of the other girls before Enya had to ruin it.
(Redacted to avoid a spoiler)

Please note: this is for educational use only.

(Full length) The classic story by Jane Austen woven with songs she wrote out in her own hand and is known to have played regularly. Ensemble cast. Piano accompaniment (with guitar, flute, harp also possible)

Contact me directly for a perusal copy of this script. You can see/hear (rough demos!) of some scenes here:
Demo scenes/songs: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbjMf0v8IS8iF-3sEpxJE-ejWWDuDvt3R

"Two strangers on a train wake up together, and Humanity’s place in the long sweep of geological and spiritual history gets debated while the coffee brews, and some of the earth’s (and America’s) great wonders flash by outside."-- Playwright, Vince Gatton

Written for the 2024 Playwrights Thriving Secret Santa Title Swap.

A teacher leads students safely out of a school building during a firedrill.

(A short comedy of 5-25 minutes*)
Star-crossed lovers' orbits literally collide at a school dance.

(Could be repeated 5 times with actors exchanging roles for a half hour length play; or recast each time up to 25 players--flexible)

(A monologue) A woman recounts her first --and last-- speed dating event.

(A monologue) A woman drives with her teenage son to a gun shop in America.

Free for Educational Use Only

(A monologue) A woman meets up with a friend to explain why she's not been coming out with her friends this summer... (A little something silly for the summer)

(A Monologue) A teacher stands before a disciplinary board as one of their students has declared they want to write like Virginia Woolf. -- "Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? Many people still are..."-Andrew Martineau

Published in 2023 by Smith & Kraus "WE/US: Monologues for Gender Minority Characters Anthology."
Voted one of the "Best of the Best" June 2024 by Different Strokes! Performing Arts Collective's for their 369 Monologues and Short Play Festival pt 2.

PUBLISHED in March 2023 by Next Stage Press (60-70 minutes) Twelve short interconnected plays based in modern day France at Christmas time. Twelve stories set in Paris, Brittany, Normandy and Provence which weave together wild boars and hunters, swans on the Seine, partridges in plum trees, lonely lovers and more...

"What a complete joy this cycle of short plays is. Immensely enjoyable on so many levels; funny, moving, informative but full of atmosphere and Christmas cheer. A sparkling seasonal gem."
-- Paul Smith, playwright and critic

"These short plays are woven together to make one beautiful holiday blanket. They're poems. They're paintings. And honestly very inspirational."
--Jacquelyn Floyd-Priskorn, playwright

"I love the concept of using a song, lyric by lyric, to create a sequence of short pieces that form a whole. This has the feel of France and the comic tone meshes with the nostalgia for a holiday time that we all think we miss. This lets us revel in our own memories because the writer gives us the space and time to do that. Lovely work."
-- Emma Goldman-Sherman

"Daedalus and a wild boar in a Christmas tale? It works beautifully. And it doesn’t need to be Christmas to appreciate this story of care."
-- Claudia Haas (of the first of the plays: A PERDRIX IN A PEAR TREE)

(A short audio drama) Harriet enters a Haunted Hall of Mirrors where she faces the past and her hatred of Halloween. (Edited for radio May 14, 2024)

Written for the 2023 Playwrights Thriving Halloween Bake Off

Two women meet on a bus crossing the French-Italian border. It's stiflingly hot, wildfires have stopped the trains into Nice and it's getting late.

A Mother and Child wait outside the school for the doors to open.

Written for 2025 Playwright's Delight, TITLE: 37 Origami Bees

This collection of short plays for large casts will be coming out this Spring with Smith & Kraus

Have a large cast? Need speaking roles for everyone? Want everyone to shine? Love the classics but want something new and challenging as well? Here are ten short plays for large casts in which everyone gets a spot
IN THE LIMELIGHT! (Volume One)

Aesop's Fabulous Fables (Cast of 21-23 — Running time ~8-10 minutes)
The Boy Who Cried Wolf on Old MacDonald's Farm (Cast of 21-24 — Running time ~15 minutes)
The Bremen Town Mashup (Cast of 24-31 — Running time ~15 minutes)
Jack and the Beanstalk of Banbury Cross (Cast of 24-26 — Running time ~ 20-25 minutes)
The Princess Paradigm and the Pea (Cast of 21-24 — Running time ~12-15 minutes)
She/herazade's 1001 Nights (Cast of 23-27 — Running time ~20-25 minutes)
The Sky is Falling! (Cast of 20-22 — Running time ~10-12 minutes)
The Stonecutter (Cast of 17-23 — Running time ~10-12 minutes)
The Tale of the Name of the Tree (Cast of 20-25 — Running time ~12 minutes)
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in Our Ears (Cast of 13+ — Running time ~5-8 minutes)

This is the pre-publication version.

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace...pah-pum, pah-pum, pah-pum, pah-pum.
This was a cute show for primary aged children. I am polishing up a collection of AA MILNE poems adapted for the stage so this was draft one which does not quite capture all the antics we added. Working on these...
If you're curious and want to read more of them, reach out and I'll put them to the top of my 'list'--where is that list....?

(First of "The Twelve Days of Christmas in France")
France. Countryside. Provence. A partridge fleeing local hunters stays safe in a couple's plum tree.

To be published by NEXT STAGE PRESS

(Second of "The Twelve Days of Christmas in France")
Paris. Wintertime. A woman tries to fall asleep to the incessant cooing of a pigeon outside her window.

To be published by NEXT STAGE PRESS

(Third of "The Twelve Days of Christmas in France")
Paris. A busy cafe at Christmastime. Three women gather to celebrate the opening of a charity shop.

To be published by NEXT STAGE PRESS

(Fourth of "The Twelve Days of Christmas in France")
France. Countryside. Provence. Four women walk their dogs in hunting season.

To be published by NEXT STAGE PRESS

(Fifth of "The Twelve Days of Christmas in France")
France. A busy shopper pays it forward just in time for the holiday season.

To be published by NEXT STAGE PRESS

(Sixth of "The Twelve Days of Christmas in France")
France. A maternity ward. An American Woman refuses to have her baby born on Christmas day.

To be published by NEXT STAGE PRESS

(Seventh of "The Twelve Days of Christmas in France")
Paris, France. Christmas Eve. A couple walks home along the left bank of the river Seine, in the shadow of a burnt out Notre Dame.

To be published by NEXT STAGE PRESS

(Eighth of "The Twelve Days of Christmas in France")
France. Countryside. Normandy. A woman milks a cow on Christmas Day.

To be published by NEXT STAGE PRESS

(Ninth of "The Twelve Days of Christmas in France")
Cannes, France. Sacristy of St Patrick's Anglican Church.
A giddy French Anglican Priest is helped to prepare for the Holy Eucharist by three English women of the Altar Guild.

To be published by NEXT STAGE PRESS

(Tenth of "The Twelve Days of Christmas in France")
Ten short scenes revisiting the characters of the first 9 plays in the collection "The Twelve Days of Christmas in France"

To be published by NEXT STAGE PRESS

(Eleventh of "The Twelve Days of Christmas in France")
A male music teacher in their late 60s leads 11 bagpipers at Christmas.

To be published by NEXT STAGE PRESS

(The final scene of "The Twelve Days of Christmas in France")
A woman and her partner celebrate Christmas in France "à table"...which goes on for hours!

To be published by NEXT STAGE PRESS

Cast of 21-23 (8 minutes) An ensemble retelling of the classic tales. Includes the following fables: The Tale of the Popular Rabbit, The Tale of the Ant and the Grasshopper, The Tale of the Dog and the Wolf, The Tale of the Fox and the Crow, The Peacock and the Crane, The Tale of the Two Crabs, The Tale of the Mice and the Cat and The Tale of the Mouse and the Lion

Cast of 21-24 (15 minutes) An original retelling and blending of two classic tales: The Boy Who Cried Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood.

Cast of 24-31 (15 minutes) There's a lot going on in that cottage in the woods....Hansel, Gretel and Snow White lead a host of fairy-tale creatures through the classic tale.

Cast of 24-26 (25 minutes) "Well, first there's a family who drinks nothing but tea...with parents whose children can never agree. And children with parents too lazy to work.... and then we move on to the Ogre Family." -- Jack has lost his beans at the market. But he and his cow come up with a plan which ends up teaching the whole village a lesson or two about hard work and not judging (even ogres) by their appearance.

A rhyme-filled original play for the stage based on the classic tale. Full of fun characters and music.

(10-20 minutes*) The circus is in trouble. Not even the solo acts can save it. And now the Ringmaster has fired the stagehands... What will they do? Join the clowns, dancers, acrobats, lion tamer and dare-devil for one crazy day at the circus! *depends on the length of the circus acts; while they shouldn't go on and on, there's some flexibility here.

(10 minutes) Join a class as they count their way backward through classic nursery rhymes.
An original play for young children.

A Play with Music for Children
(~20 minutes) THE LAND OF SUBMARINES. Some time in the future. The world is at war. Boarding school students are sent under the sea for their safety. Their teacher (a shark!) teaches the children a lesson or two about tolerance. Blends poetry, music, humor and an anti-war message. Each child has a spot in the In the Limelight.

File updated. The Land of Submarines and The Octopus's Garden are now loaded in NPX separately.

(10 minutes) "The King was in his counting house/Counting out his money...The Queen was in the parlor eating bread and honey..." and thinking of marrying off their son, the Prince... So begins the retelling of the classic tale.

Cast of 21-25 (10 minutes) A Stonecutter asks for more than he should and learns a valuable lesson. A retelling of the Japanese tale.

Cast of 23-27 (20 minutes) Sheherazade will not see the sun rise if she fails to please the Sultan with her story-telling. Watch how she weaves her stories together night after night, for 1001 nights...in under a half an hour! A large cast ensemble adaptation of the classic tale 1001 Tales of the Arabian Nights

Cast of 20-22 (10 minutes) Henny Penny (aka Chicken Little) overhears Humpty Dumpty's "fake news" and leads everyone on a literal wild gaggle of a tea-drinking goose, duck and fox chase... An original large cast stage play based on the classic tales

Cast of 20-25 (10 minutes) An adaptation of the Bantu tale. No one knows the name of the tree, so no fruit will fall...and the creatures are famished. Many animals try, but they just can't remember the name of the tree. Until the most unlikely of animals remembers, and saves the day...Audiences will be delighted to remember the name of the tree when the actors 'forget'!

Cast of 13-27 (8 minutes) A Retelling of a Philippine myth; imagine feeling empathy for a mosquito!