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A CHANGE OF HEART
20-25 minute drama, 5 characters: 2f, 2m, 1 any gender
Is a second chance a lifeline when it doesn't feel like your life anymore? A heart transplant patient with strange cravings and desires seems a stranger to her fiance and herself. Her donor was a teenage boy who had barely even begun. A story about the struggle for self-acceptance and moving forward with the hand we're dealt.
A KNIPPLE FULL OF DREAMS
10-minute period drama, 5 characters (2m, 3f)
1911. Iasi, Romania. As Gittel and Rubin’s feelings for each other grow, Gittel’s father arrives with news that threatens everyone’s future. Based on a true family story.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S SLAM
10-minute comedy, LGBTQ+, 3w
Two young women grapple with being abandoned by their significant others in the Athenian woods. They stumble across a very unexpected visitor from a neighboring Greek island, who opens their eyes to what a constant heart really is.
ALL THAT PEZ
5-minute comedy, LGBTQ+, 2w
A search for the candy dispenser Pez at a flea market far from home yields unexpected treasures for two young college women.
BACK TO BEFORE
10-minute drama for 1m, 1f, teen-20s
A young Amish couple are finishing up their Rumspringa - the rite of passage for teens to decide whether they want to return to their community and be baptized into the church, or stay in the "English" world for good and be shunned.
BLAME IT ON BARBIE
4-minute comedy, 2 women
A college junior has something important to tell her craft-loving mother.
CHAI, CHAI, VIKAYAM
10-minute drama for three college aged students (2w, 1m)
A homework session for two theatre students puts their lives in danger when a college protest over the war in Gaza turns ugly.
DON’T PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD
10-minute comedy for 5 actors, gender flexible. Note: 4-actor or 6-actor versions also available
Fun with food? A woman struggles to eat healthy and not succumb to the call of the snack siren. Her cupboard has other plans.
DO OVER
30 minute play, 4 characters, gender flexibility
When a disoriented teen/young adult stumbles into the U Drop Inn, they’re distraught to find out their earthly life is over. Their mother visits in her dream state. The bartender’s pain at her past life comes home to roost in a surprising manner. The road to redemption reveals itself if everyone can come to a place of forgiveness in this family drama.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
5-minute comedy, 2 characters, any gender
Newborn fraternal twins get acquainted with each other and how it all works.
FAMILY BY NUMBERS
10-minute drama, 5 characters, gender flexibility
Two people fall in love. They begin a family. But what happens as the numbers change?
Family by Numbers follows Mother and Father as they meet, have a courtship, and expand their family to five. Each time a new son enters, the numbers change and the family dynamics shift. When a tragedy occurs, everyone is affected in different ways and the family must reassess their numbers and their connection to one another.
WINNER – BEST PLAY – 1st Place , 2019 Theatre Odyssey Ten-Minute Play Festival
WINNER – JUDGES’ CHOICE AWARD, 2023 Stillwater Short Play Festival, Stillwater OK
WINNER – AUDIENCE CHOICE , 2019 S. Baldwin Community Theatre New Play Festival
WINNER – THIRD PLACE AWARD , 2020 Tree City Playhouse 10-minute Play Competition
HONORABLE MENTION – New Plays of Merit 2019 Playwriting Award
GOING HOME
8-minute drama, 2 gender flexible characters
A long-term marriage. A health emergency. When one of them ends up in the hospital following a second stroke, they both must confront the realities of the situation and what lies ahead. A story about the moments we wish we could take back.
I LOVE A PARADE
10-minute dystopian political drama, 4 characters
(2w, 1m, 1 any gender)
Three prisoners of the state are marching to their demise when they are accosted by a woman who has made the colorful masks they wear. Each character comes to terms with the masks they wear literally and figuratively.
IT’S ELEMENTAL
10 minute comedy, 4 characters
suitable for child or adult actor companies
IT’S ELEMENTAL is licensed by Tiny Scripted LLC. Please visit their website for a perusal script and licensing information: https://www.tinyscripted.com/on-stage
Neree, goddess of water, Hutch, God of Air, Gedi, God of Fire, and Gaia, Goddess of Earth gather to determine the earth’s fate. Everyone must confront their passions and prejudices as they get ready to vote. Suitable for children to perform.
JONNA/JACK
20-minute drama, 3 to 7 actors portraying 9 characters (doubling/tripling)
Two romantic partners, recently deceased, reconnect at the Akashic Hall of Records in heaven. Questioning their tumultuous lifetime together, they consult the records to view their past lives and what answers may lie there for them both. Their journey takes them to Renaissance Italy and late 1700s Ireland.
JOY RIDE
10-minute dramedy, 2 characters, women
On April 20, 1933, while attending a formal White House dinner with her spouse, Amelia Earhart convinced First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and the other dinner guests to take a quick flight from D.C. to Maryland in-between courses. It is believed both Amelia and Eleanor briefly piloted the plane. JOY RIDE joins our heroines post-death, when they re-enact the events of that evening and take it to a place neither could have predicted.
LUNCH MONEY
Lumen Play Competition 2024 2nd Place Award Winner
10-minute comedy, 4 characters, (1m, 1f, 2 any) suitable for children or adults to perform
LUNCH MONEY is licensed by Tiny Scripted LLC. Please visit their website for a perusal script and licensing information: https://www.tinyscripted.com/on-stage
The Tuffs give a British newcomer a tough time at Hemingway Elementary School. An unlikely ally rises to the occasion in this anti-bullying comedy.
CHARACTERS:
SONDRA, female, tween/teen. Smartest girl in her school.
DEX, male or female*, tween/teen. Likes SONDRA, bullying tendencies. Leader of the “Tuffs”.
LEE, any gender, tween/teen. Friend of DEX. Athletic, a “Tuff”.
CECIL, male, tween/teen, British. Mature for his age.
Characters can either be played by 4 young actors, or by 4 adults pretending to be those ages.
MAKE MULCH FROM IT
15-minute drama, 2 characters (1m 1f)
When Susan’s estranged boyfriend shows up suddenly and unexpectedly in her apartment, they are forced to confront why their relationship fell apart. More than one shocking revelation occurs as they struggle with how to accept what has happened and move forward. A play about the bonds of love, and how apologies and forgiveness are the only way to pick up the pieces and start anew.
NOW YOU SEE IT…
5-minute dark comedy, 2 characters, any gender
Two friends try to make sense of a disappearing act.
RUMMAGE ROCK!
10-minute comedy, 4 characters (2w, 2 any)
A rocking chair leads a brigade of seating that has seen better days. Will they get chosen for a renewed life, or consigned to the rubbish bin?
SEX, LIES & STYROFOAM
3rd prize, SAVAGE WONDER THEATRE Competition
10-minute dark adult comedy, 2 women
Talk about your dirty laundry! When an enterprising senior citizen and a sexually frustrated housewife collide at Launderland, more than the clothing gets agitated.
SHALL WE DANCE?
5-minute movement drama for 3 actors, any gender
A troubled soul is full of questions. Will they get the answers they seek?
In this non-linear theatre piece, movement plays a large part. It can be very simple, such as the “mirror” theatre game, or more choreographed such as a waltz or partner type dance, but there should be a constant flow of movement on the parts of Actors 1 and 2 and Dani.
SLOW OUR SHIP
8-10 minute period drama for 1 m, 1 f
A boy. A girl. A port. The courtship and marriage of two Irish teenagers revolves around a bench and lamppost till the sea calls it debt. A period drama set in Cork, Ireland, in the 1800s.
SLOW OUR SHIP is a deeper dive into the romance of Siobhan and Sean, two characters also in my one-act play JONNA/JACK.
THE BEAT GOES ON
10-minute comedy
5 characters played by 3 to 5 gender flexible actors
The various forms of music containment (L.P., Cassette, 8-track, CD, and Mp3) anxiously vie for the highly coveted “Current” display case at the Smithsonian Museum music exhibit.
THE CLEAN PLATE CLUB
a 10-minute comedy
Four Actors (1 woman, 3 any gender)
An overweight woman’s cry for help summons the Angel of Well-Being, The Food Demon, and a shiny new stranger into her kitchen. Will she cancel her membership in the Clean Plate Club?
(Note: THE CLEAN PLATE CLUB is a scene that has been excerpted from the one-act comedy DON’T PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD, by the same author, to exist on its own as a ten-minute play)
THE DATING POOL
Three versions exist:
[One-act (15-20 minute play for 5 women, optional additional non-verbal characters]; and
[Ten-minute version {5 women}); and
A 4-women version which eliminates the role of the sex worker, taking place in an elevator, entitled:
UP THE DOWN ELEVATOR
A widow, contemplating diving back into the dating pool, is confronted by her younger selves. Together they must sort out past romantic complications and mistakes before there can be any moving forward. Will they sink or swim?
The Other Man’s Grass is Mondegreen-er
10-minute comedy, 3 characters, gender flexibility
A lovelorn therapist is meeting a date on the ferry. When they show up, they only speak in mondegreens (mis-heard lyrics), as does their spurned partner who is stalking them. An absurdist physical comedy.
THE RIPPLE EFFECT
10-minute and 20 minute versions of this comedy
2 characters: 1 m 1 f
Will pregnancy elude them again? A couple in their 30s, healing from a prior miscarriage, are on opposite sides of the fence with some unorthodox fertilization rituals.
THE SANITY CLAUSET
10-minute comedy, 3 characters (2 w, 1 any)
It’s all “ho-ho-ho” till someone gets hurt. If every day is Christmas, how do you make it special? A teen rebels against her mother’s “Santa’s World” decorating scheme as they both struggle with a life change.
WATER MUSIC
10-minute drama, 2 women
A Ferry. A sloshing water bottle. A theft. For two women from differing generations, a short trip turns strangers into something else entirely.
WE THREE
10-minute play LGBTQ+, 3 characters (2 w, 1 m)
Three besties gather for their high school reunion. Reminiscing reveals resentments, and a secret is revealed that forever changes their history and how they move forward.
All of these plays, and several 1-minute plays and monologues, can be read by New Play Exchange members here:
New Play Exchange Page for Arianna Rose
If you are not a member and wish to read a perusal copy, or have any questions including licensing for performance rights, please contact the author: