Children's Theatre

55 pages

4 m, 5 w, 2 flexible, 1 girl and extras

No one loves Christmas more than Chrysanthemum Parker. As she and her grandma Gertie are discussing plans for a possible Christmas celebration show, Sheriff Gideon Gumption arrives to say that escaped convict Jedediah Thornside is on the loose. Jedediah actually is in the area with his partner-in-crime, Belinda Burnheart. They’ve concocted a sinister plan to swindle the town away from its current deed holder, the sheriff himself, AND cancel Christmas! Through a series of blunders, Sheriff Gumption falls for their scheme and the town now belongs to the villain...

52 pages

5 m, 5 w, 2 flexible. Doubling possible.

Come on back to a simpler time and visit the folks at Juneberry this Christmas! Things seem peaceful at the courthouse on Christmas Eve, and Sheriff Randy Baylor thinks that is mighty fine. His deputy, Arnie Nife, couldn't disagree more. Arnie is tired of the lack of action happening in the small town. Even locking up Curtis, the town drunk, isn't exactly cheering him up. When a few robberies start getting reported and a couple of carolers go missing while singing for the town, boring Juneberry gets real busy, real fast! Come join the citizens of Juneberry, w...

24 pages

5 m, 6 w

It's Christmas and city slicker Gerald King is trying to find a way to bring his family closer together. They have drifted apart due to their daily routines: Gerald with his job; Alice, her meetings; and the kids – well, they’re teenagers (say no more). They have embarked on a trip to the mountains to get their very own Christmas tree. However, they get lost and have to be rescued by the Shepherds, an extended mountain family. The Shepherds mistake them as being down on their luck and welcome them into their home and their hearts. As relationships develop, th...

40 pages

22 flexible characters, 12 with doubling.

This is a somewhat zany retelling of the traditional story of Jonah. Although enhanced with some extra characters and scenes, the theme and overall message hold true to the Old Testament Scriptures. Included in the story is Herald, the angel who acts as God’s voice and has the ability to turn up at unusual places and in unusual ways. In the opening scene a handful of fun-loving woodland creatures discover Jonah asleep, and bring in the right blend of seriousness when they realize he must be the prophet. Along the way Jonah interacts with some sailors who even...

58 pages

6 m, 6 w, 1 flexible

What would you do if you lost your job, lost your home, and were on the verge of filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy… yet everyone in your family was already planning to spend Christmas with you? If you’re Melvin Maldaput, you call upon your real estate buddy to lend you a million-dollar home for the holidays. Melvin and his wife Miranda end up telling a string of lies to keep the ruse going. The last thing Melvin wants is his parents or in-laws to discover that he is a failure. Melvin’s rich hillbilly neighbors, Prudy and Pruitt, even pretend to be his servants. But...

32 pages

1 m, 1 w, 8 flex, 1 b, 1 g, extras.

Captain Gilabo, a greedy, Scrooge-like pirate, and his bumbling crew are spending their Christmas on a tropical island searching for the "treasure of all treasures." There is only one problem: the island is inhabited by children and the captain hates children! After holding one of the children captive, his crew begins to have a change of heart concerning their lives as fugitives. When the children share the Christmas story with their new pirate companions, the crew decides to leave the evil captain for good. Throw in a sinking island, a mis-fired cannon and a...

44 pages

3 males, 7 females, 1 flexible, extras

Here’s the Cinderella story retold, with a little help from above! Overworked and derided by her stepmother and three stepsisters, kindhearted Cinderella can only dream of attending a ball at the castle. Suddenly her Angel Godmother appears, but she almost blows the whole fairy tale before the Godfather rushes to the rescue on his Zucchini 500. (There’s a shortage of pumpkins!) Prince Eugene dreams of finding an honest girl, but his eccentric fans make a nightmare of his party. His only hope is the sweet young woman who isn’t afraid to state her own thoughts....

33 pages

12 flexible plus extras

It is late December and Mr. Barker has sold all of the trees on his lot except for one - a little Christmas tree. It is a snowy evening, and the lonely little tree listens to Christmas carols that are playing in the distance. All of a sudden, an angel appears. He is a rather gruff, street-wise angel-- an angel that used to grace the tops of Christmas trees at Henthorne's Department Store. But this angel has been thrown out because its wing is broken. To cheer the angel up, the little tree tells the angel about this book she’s been reading: the Bible. She shar...

26 pages

7 m, 4 w.

Chris, a very materialistic teenager, just got busted for stealing her parents' credit card. Her punishment, "to teach her a lesson about those less fortunate than she," is to work at the local homeless mission every evening of her Christmas vacation. It's a punishment she is not happy about! Through Sam, a bitter homeless man; Les, the long-suffering director; and Miss Jackie, a wise, yet mysterious resident, Chris learns the true meaning of Christian love and unselfishness. A humorous, yet touching play, with an unexpected twist at the end. One simple inter...

38 pages

3 m, 2 w, 1 teen girl, 10-19+ children

With the holiday season approaching, Pastor Jack Taylor finds himself overcommitted, unable to take his own advice about not doing so much this year. When parishioner Beulah takes the pastor’s sermon of slowing down to heart and quits the children’s Christmas pageant, Pastor Taylor jumps on the opportunity to let Pam, an inexperienced teen who loves TV crime shows, be in charge. The Pastor doesn’t have the time to supervise her, so she and the kids create a new Christmas pageant called “Bethlehem CSI.” Now the long-loved Nativity scene is a crime scene! Pam t...

54 pages

6 m, 8 w, 4 children, extras. Doubling possible.

Here’s a wonderful comedy that’s sure to charm audiences of all ages. When pre-teen brats Jimmy Pate and his cousin Brianne don’t get the gifts they think they deserve, they pray to God and ask for no more Christmas. The next year as the holiday fails to materialize, the two kids are the only ones who notice, in hilarious and heart-wrenching ways, that it’s missing. The store owner doesn’t have a clue about Christmas displays, the cable company operator never heard of Christmas movies, and even Jimmy’s older sister thinks the only holiday in December is New Y...

54 pages

4 m, 3 w, 6-7 flex, 2 kids, doubling possible

Did the Nativity costumes just come alive? Pastor Hadley doesn’t know what to think when he is washing the Nativity costumes and the first sheep pops out of the dryer. Granted, he hasn’t been doing well after the recent loss of his fiancée, taking a leave from his ministry and turning away from God. Last night’s church fire just proves that when it rains it pours. Maybe that wasn’t a sheep he saw…but then out of the dryer comes Amir the Sheep Shearer and Jesse the Angel. Turns out the dryer is a time tumbler, and time and prophecies once fulfilled have been a...

34 pages

5 m, 4 w

In 1933 the Depression had taken the merriment from the holidays. After a private party cancels, diner owner Mabel decides to stay open on Christmas Eve. That’s a good thing for a gangster, two thespians, and an out-of-town couple who wind up in a small diner just to get out of the cold and warm up with a hot cup of coffee. But when an inept robber takes them hostage these strangers find a Christmas miracle. This heartwarming holiday comedy tells an offbeat story of down-and-out strangers discovering the joy of Christmas at gunpoint. About 45 minutes.

32 pages

4 m, 2 w, 4 flex, and a choir or singers.

When Jack Willoughby's youth minister has to go out of town at the last minute to visit his sick aunt, he leaves his best student, Jack, in charge of this year's Christmas play. But when everyone begins arriving at the church for the first rehearsal, this teen realizes his task may be more than he bargained for. Strange noises are heard in the empty church, an unknown janitor begins appearing and disappearing, and no one wants to cooperate with the new young director. It's beginning to look as if there may not be a play after all. Then things begin to change ...

41 pages

2 m, 6 w, 4 flexible, plus extras

Three teenagers are lured into malevolent Professor Carny Barker's Once-in-a-Lifetime Traveling Career Fair, where they are tempted with futures of glamour, riches and power by warped and wicked counterfeit pretenders from the medical, legal, business and military branches of Golden Calf Industries. With the oddball assistance of janitor Holly Coast, the teens avoid being trapped in a futureless fate worse than death. This modern morality play is loaded with slapstick comedy, wry satire and a flexible cast of bizarre characters, and is very easy and economical to produce.