Plays for High Schools
Below you will find some of the most popular one-act plays and full-length plays suitable for high school plays. From hilarious comedies to riveting dramas and adaptations for schools, there's something for every school theatre performance. Click the images to read the plays for FREE!
One-Act Comedies
30 - 35 Minutes
10 - 50 Actors
On a sunny day in the town of Bloomington, a devastating occurrence happens - the internet has gone down! And it will continue to be down! For a week! Pandemonium! In a world that is so dependent on the internet, how will society function? Not well, as it turns out. This hilarious and timely comedy is perfect for adaptations for schools and can serve as an engaging option among full-length plays and one-act plays for high school plays. It's an excellent choice for school theatre performances. (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
25 - 30 Minutes
10 - 30 Actors
A simple one-act play adaptation of The Wizard of Oz gets derailed by missed cues, forgotten lines, and a renegade sound board operator who insists on playing only dinosaur noises. This comedy exemplifies the challenges of live theatre, proving that in school theatre performances, everything that can go wrong will go wrong—and it will be hilarious. Perfect for high school plays and as a comedic entry for full-length plays, this production is a must-read. (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
30 - 45 Minutes
12 - 50 Actors
Finally, your timeless questions about teachers will be answered through a series of hilarious revelations in this engaging full-length play. Experience a gameshow that unveils your teacher's teenage years, alongside a battle featuring core subject teachers versus electives. This is a perfect fit for school theatre performances, whether you're looking for high school plays or one-act plays. By the end, you'll understand why teachers drink so much coffee. (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
25 - 30 Minutes
12 - 14 Actors
This engaging full-length play explores the debate surrounding Peter Pan's alleged murder of an innocent pirate named Captain Hook. A jury composed of twelve of the most notorious villains will determine Pan's fate—if only they could pause their constant arguing long enough to vote. Perfect for adaptations for schools, this play is an excellent choice for high school plays and school theatre performances. (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
30 - 45 Minutes
4 - 23 Actors
When you deliver packages for high school plays or school theatre performances, anyone might be behind your next door. Jaded veteran Logan thinks she's seen it all, while newbie Sam is convinced attitude is everything. The only sure thing in this job? They're both going to be surprised. Knock Knock is a rapid-fire comedy that serves as a fantastic adaptation for schools and delivers as both a full-length play and one-act play. (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
30 - 35 Minutes
10 - 30 Actors
This is a show for any student involved in school theatre performances, whether they have ever been cast or miscast in a school play, or for any teacher who has bravely attempted to post a list of cast members without facing serious backlash. This play serves as a perfect example of adaptations for schools, fitting seamlessly into any full-length plays or one-act plays lineup. (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
30 - 35 Minutes
10 - 50 Actors
Join TED talk hosts Megan and Able as your guides to navigating various apocalyptic scenarios in this engaging full-length play. From overt robot take-overs to chaotic zombie survivalist groups, the world of the post-apocalypse may seem perplexing. If we manage to survive, that is, which may be unlikely. But don’t worry—this play will provide valuable insights! Perfect for high school plays and adaptations for schools, it offers a unique twist for school theatre performances. (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
25 - 35 Minutes
5 - 17 Actors
In this engaging full-length play perfect for high school plays and adaptations for schools, a catastrophic street sign switcheroo has two rookie detectives interrogating a motley crew of suspects and witnesses. Everyone from the high school mascot to a guy who may be Super Mario is eager to provide information. With the clock ticking and their jobs on the line, can this good cop and bad cop collar a suspect before it's too late? (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
35 - 50 Minutes
5 - 45 Actors
In today's chaotic, challenging world, we often find ourselves searching for help. Surprisingly, some of life's most valuable lessons can be found in adaptations for schools—especially those featuring the undead. Full-length plays like this one engage us with musings on life, death, and everything in between, making them perfect for high school plays and one-act plays alike. Don't miss out on this opportunity to enhance school theatre performances. (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
30 - 40 Minutes
10 - 30 Actors
Sherwood Forest is in danger of being destroyed, and it's up to Robin and his band of dimwitted Merry Men to save the day. This concept is perfect for adaptations for schools, offering an engaging storyline for high school plays. When the Sheriff challenges them to a contest to determine the forest's rightful owner, their skills are put to the test. Unfortunately, archery is only the first round. Robin and his men will also have to win a talent show and a beauty pageant, making it ideal for school theatre performances. (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
30 - 35 Minutes
8 - 25 Actors
In this engaging full-length play, two over-achieving but selfish seniors must set aside their own ambitions to help their fellow students in order to graduate. With graduation looming in just two days, the pressure mounts. Will they rise to the occasion? This play is a perfect fit for adaptations for schools and is suitable for both high school plays and school theatre performances. Hashtag uh oh? (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
30 - 35 Minutes
8 - 25 Actors
This full-length play presents a clever adaptation for schools, turning Neverland on its head while blending elements of It's a Wonderful Life and J.M. Barrie's classic tale. When the Lost Boys go missing, Peter Pan wishes he never came to Neverland. Unfortunately, his wish is granted by Tinkerbell's messy fairy cousin, Stinkerbell, providing Peter with a glimpse of a world without him. This engaging narrative makes for a fantastic choice for high school plays and school theatre performances. (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
ONE-ACT DRAMAS
30 - 35 Minutes
10 - 50 Actors
Everybody's whispering: Something's wrong with Cassie. She walked out on her squad mid-routine; won't help her mom put up Christmas decorations; suddenly wants to back out of prom plans. Well, Cassie hears taunts about how fate is inescapable in every cheer, her mom doesn't seem to notice it's February, and she's haunted by premonitions of something terrible that will happen if prom night continues as planned. So, SORRY if she is being a little WEIRD, people. But does seeing her fate mean that she can change it? Heathers meets the Greek tragedy of Cassandra in this drama glinting with dark wit.(READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
25 - 30 Minutes
10 - 30 Actors
Inspired by true events, a group of theater students have just finished performing a play when the unthinkable happens - the school goes under lockdown. Caught in various rooms throughout the school, the students have to figure out what to do, who to trust, and if they're ever going to feel safe again. (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
30 - 45 Minutes
12 - 50 Actors
Far in the future, humanity has found peace but has been divided between Earth, the colonies on the Moon, and the Mars Federation. Person to person contact between the worlds is a thing of the distant past, with life existing in islands of division and distrust. But all of that changes when a mysterious girl arrives on Mars with a message of hope and a stark warning. Can humanity come together to save itself before it is too late? (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
ONE-ACT ADAPTATIONS
30 - 35 Minutes
10 - 50 Actors
After Alice tumbles down a mysterious rabbit hole, she finds herself in a strange land where everyone is raving mad. With the help of a Cheshire Cat, an astute Caterpillar, and a righteous Humpty Dumpty, Alice must find her way home and discover who she really is. A darker, more faithful version of Lewis Carroll's classic tale that reimagines the experience of Wonderland, and ends with an unexpected new twist.(READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
25 - 30 Minutes
10 - 30 Actors
In this one-act adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s beloved romantic comedy, the stakes are even higher and the deadlines even tighter for poor Jack Worthing, whose alter ego “Ernest” comes back to haunt him in the form of his rakish friend Algernon Montcrieff, who adopts the false identity to woo Jack’s ward Cecily. But Jack-as-Ernest has just proposed to Algernon’s cousin Gwendolen, to the great disapproval of her mother, the rigid Lady Bracknell. When the two ladies – both engaged to Ernest Worthing – meet up, chaos ensues. All the wit of Wilde in less than half the time. (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
30 - 45 Minutes
12 - 50 Actors
Former citizens of a mythical Midwestern town speak from the grave of the day-to-day hopes and dreams of their lives. Touching, anguished, and contemptuous, their voices and stories weave together in this fresh new take on a modern American classic. You won't forget what you've heard from these distinctively small-town folk as they evoke universal themes of hope, despair, and love. (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
25 - 30 Minutes
12 - 14 Actors
Thomas lives in both the world of his mind and the reality of his troubled family’s home in postwar Amsterdam. Whether imagined angels support him or his father beats him, he records it all in his Book of Everything. But when Thomas begins to form surprising connections with the people around him, suddenly it seems that maybe the two worlds don’t have to be so far apart. Maybe the miraculous really looks like a letter from the witch next door, a sister who takes a stand at the dinner table, or a tropical fish in the canal. Maybe things can change. Witty, wise, and bursting with magical realism, this stage adaptation brings the acclaimed book to life with an ensemble cast. (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
FULL-LENGTH COMEDIES
30 - 35 Minutes
10 - 50 Actors
It's opening night of a brand-new mystery play, but just as the killer is about to be revealed, the body of the play's director falls onstage instead. In that moment, the theater becomes an active crime scene, and everyone from cast to crew to even the audience becomes a suspect. But how is the intrepid detective supposed to find the killer when everyone and their mother (literally) has a motive to want the demanding director gone? This Murder Was Staged is a fast-paced, backstabbing, backstage comedy from two of the writers of The Alibis and Rogues' Gallery.(READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
25 - 30 Minutes
10 - 30 Actors
On a sunny day in the town of Bloomington, a devastating occurrence happens. No, it’s not famine, or floods, or loss of your basic rights. The internet has gone down! And it will continue to be down! For a week! A whole week! Pandemonium! In a world that is so dependent on the internet for shopping, mailing, and posting pictures of cute babies, how will society function? Not well as it turns out. The Day the Internet Died hilariously explores how inept we are at dating, research, and basic human interactions when we don’t have a screen to look at. (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
30 - 45 Minutes
12 - 50 Actors
Travel around the world and explore forgotten myths and unusual legends in eight fast-paced and hilarious tales! Guided by a band of players, the audience is transported from the ancient Far East, where a hero must kill a giant centipede to save a dragon king, to the Russian countryside, where a poor orphan must defeat three witches who stole his grandfather’s eyes. Always quirky, and sometimes bizarre – these eight tales are filled with magic, mystery and morals.(READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
FULL-LENGTH ADAPTATIONS
30 - 35 Minutes
10 - 50 Actors
Thomas lives in both the world of his mind and the reality of his troubled family’s home in postwar Amsterdam. Whether imagined angels support him or his father beats him, he records it all in his Book of Everything. But when Thomas begins to form surprising connections with the people around him, suddenly it seems that maybe the two worlds don’t have to be so far apart. Maybe the miraculous really looks like a letter from the witch next door, a sister who takes a stand at the dinner table, or a tropical fish in the canal. Maybe things can change. Witty, wise, and bursting with magical realism, this stage adaptation brings the acclaimed book to life with an ensemble cast.(READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
25 - 30 Minutes
10 - 30 Actors
Alice falls down the rabbit hole. Mad tea parties, sarcastic caterpillars, depressed turtles, and one, very, very irrational Queen. Will Alice ever escape this dream-like landscape? Or was she never meant to at all? (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
30 - 45 Minutes
12 - 50 Actors
A tap at a chamber door, and the beat of a hideous heart evoke the very best and creepiest of Edgar Allan Poe. When Poe sets out to keep his stories alive from beyond the grave, an otherworldly radio studio proves just the thing. Wandering spirits gather to play the roles in Poe‘s most classic works, from The Cask of the Amontillado to The Fall of the House of Usher. But the grim master of the macabre is a little new to radio. What‘s all this about commercials? And why is a skeptical cemetery cat sticking around for all these stories? Draw the audience‘s imagination into the delicious gothic atmosphere with this flexible piece for audio or onstage performance.(READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
25 - 30 Minutes
12 - 14 Actors
The Austin family has a cherished tradition of doing something special every day counting down to Christmas - from baking cookies to decorating the tree. This year is a stressful one for Vicky Austin as she's cast as the youngest angel in the Christmas Pageant. Plus the family is preparing for the birth of a new brother or sister. Will the baby wait until January? Will Vicky mess up her big role? Will Christmas be ruined? The love between the members of the Austin family shines as bright as a Christmas star in the heart-warming tale for the holiday season. Filled with elves, carols, and laughter this timeless adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's The 24 Days Before Christmas is sure to bring a smile to your face and a tear to your eye. (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
30 - 45 Minutes
4 - 23 Actors
Former citizens of a mythical Midwestern town speak from the grave of the day-to-day hopes and dreams of their lives. Touching, anguished, and contemptuous, their voices and stories weave together in this fresh new take on a modern American classic. You won't forget what you've heard from these distinctively small-town folk as they evoke universal themes of hope, despair, and love. (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
FULL-LENGTH DRAMAS
30 - 35 Minutes
10 - 50 Actors
The residents of the small town of Bethel are facing a crisis: Their beloved park has been sold out from under them and it’s sending their lives into a tailspin. In nine interconnected vignettes, sixteen locals grapple with the loss of jobs, homes and spouses, but find love, courage and forgiveness as the park magically transforms through four seasons of the year in a single day. From a tired security guard trying get home to her kids, to a young mayor in over his head, to a nostalgic fisherman who can’t seem to catch anything, everyone takes a fall... and picks themselves up again. Bethel Park Falls draws a group of complex, fascinating, funny people together into one poignant story about the spaces where communities connect. (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)
25 - 30 Minutes
10 - 30 Actors
A birthday for a man who doesn’t know his age. A song that taunts a desperate prisoner. A storm bearing down on an unusal roadside motel. A couple finds them all in a mysterious book, said to be cursed, called... The Continuum Tales. In the spirit of The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror, this genre-bending collection of seven short plays explores weird, futuristic, and haunting worlds eerily similar to our own. Filled with strange and humorous tales of technology gone wrong, nightmares of the mind, and what happens when we let our fears get the best of us, this modern sci-fi collection is sure to entertain. (READ THE PLAY FOR FREE HERE!)