Adam and Evangeline

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes
• style: gothic satire
• suitable for general audiences
• 25 characters (19 female, 6 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Adam and Evangeline” is set in the Canadian wilderness in 1919. The matriarch of a wealthy family has spent the family’s fortune on the construction of an airship on which the family and their servants hope to escape from an apocalyptic fire that will consume the earth.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Aliens in Love

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2009

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 70 minutes
• style: satirical musical comedy
• suitable for general audiences
• 27 characters (14 female, 13 male)
• gender-interchangeable
• audio files for song melodies provided in the script
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Aliens in Love” is an unabashed, irreverent musical comedy that tells the satiric tale of the attempted rescue of a group of Earthlings held hostage by aliens on the planet Tantrum somewhere in the Shundula Galaxy. Despite the mayhem of the main action, all ends well as love finds a way!

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Alone

by Richard Stuart Dixon
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2007

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 40 minutes
• style: ensemble drama
• suitable for general audiences
• 26 characters (19 female, 7 male)
• gender-flexible casting
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Alone” is the story of a lonely girl who seeks meaningful connections within her family, school, and community.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Alpha Omega

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2003

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 40 minutes
• style: ensemble drama
• suitable for general audiences
• 19 characters (10 female, 9 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Alpha Omega” is an allegorical tale of rebellion against rigid dogma on an ancient space vessel that is beginning to malfunction.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Audition in Black

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes.
• style: allegorical comedy
• suitable for general audiences
• 25 characters (18 female, 9 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Audition in Black”  takes place during a rehearsal of a production of “Hamlet” in a traditional theatre. A young woman awaiting an audition witnesses the turmoil of the rehearsal, but no one but the caretaker and stage manager seems to know she’s there.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Blüddengütz

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes
• style: clown satire
• suitable for general audiences
• 23 characters (gender interchangeable)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Blüddengütz” is an impoverished medical institute in pre-World War One Europe. Doktor Gütmann, the head of the institute, tries to raise money by promoting Blüddengütz as a holiday spa for rich people.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Bulge

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 45 minutes.
• style: satire
• suitable for general audiences
• 26 characters (17 female, 9 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Bulge“ is a suburban satire about a boy who must give a speech at his high school, and who grows strange bulges all over his body as he makes his way to school on the morning of the speech day.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Canada Day

by Richard Stuart Dixon,  Good School Plays.
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2006

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes
• style: light realist drama
• suitable for general audiences
• 28 characters (21 female, 7 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Canada Day” is the story of a variety of small town characters who meet on Canada Day to celebrate their joys and mourn their sorrows. The characters engage each other with wit and whimsy, and sometimes with frustration and pain, but always with love.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Canadian Girl

by Richard Stuart Dixon,  Good School Plays.
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2004

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 70 minutes
• style: musical comedy
• suitable for general audiences
• 29 characters (21 female, 8 male)
• gender-flexible casting
• black-box staging (no set required)
• song melodies included as audio files

Summary of Script Content:

• “Canadian Girl” is a satire about a girl from Canada who must somehow survive her first day in an American high school. Beneath the turbulent antics of the stereotypical characters and easily recognized plot lies a deeper tale of the heroic journey from innocence to self-mastery.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Coldark Castle

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 45 minutes.
• style: English gothic farce
• suitable for general audiences
• 22 characters (17 female, 5 male)
• roles can be split or doubled
• gender-flexible casting
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Coldark Castle” takes place in an English castle just before World War One. A German spy and two ghosts create chaos among the quirky denizens of the castle. In the end, love and British pluck save the day!

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Cooking for Three

by Richard Stuart Dixon

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes
• style: supernatural satire
• suitable for general audiences
• 23 characters (17 female, 6 male)
• some gender-flexible casting
• black-box staging (minimal set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Cooking for Three” is the lyrical tale of a group of families in a trailer park who are committed to the promise of a magical transformation of their lives through a supernatural event that must be triggered by their eldest daughters. Thematically, the play satirizes magical thinking by giving it poetic plausibility.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Crabby Old Man

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes
• style: domestic satire
• suitable for general audiences
• 25 characters (14 female, 11 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Crabby Old Man* is the story of the last day of Chuck Mudrack’s life. He must endure the persistent bickering of his family and the aches and pains of his declining health, but he puts up a spirited resistance to the varied assaults on his human dignity.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Cyborg Alley

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes.
• style: post-apocalypse clown play
• suitable for general audiences
• 26 characters (18 female, 8 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Cyborg Alley“ is a clown play about a gritty, divided community in an impoverished post-apocalypse urban zone. When two cyborgs are discovered in a crypt, the community’s seething survivalism erupts into mayhem and  disaster.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Deep Lake

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 45 minutes.
• style: ensemble storytelling
• suitable for general audiences
• 32 characters (20 female, 12 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary Statement of Script Content:

• “Deep Lake” is the story of a group of survivors from three small towns who have gathered in front of a video camera to tell the tale of a harrowing and mystifying collective experience, in the hope that someone will find the video and come to their aid.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Diamonds and Demons

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2007

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 45 minutes.
• style: clown satire
• suitable for general audiences
• 28 characters (16f – 12m) gender-interchangeable
• black-box staging (no set required)
• offers full-cast ensemble scenes as well as small-group episodic scenes

Summary of Script Content:

• “Diamonds and Demons“ is the comic tale of an economically distressed small town’s descent into greed and resentment, followed by a painful journey of atonement, which in turn leads to redemption and the restoration of well-being.

 

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Dreaming Lady

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 40 minutes.
• style: lyrical drama
• suitable for general audiences
• 28 characters (20 female, 8 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary Statement of Script Content:

• “Dreaming Lady“  is a dreamlike tale of a group of runaway families aboard a sailing ship. They sail westward toward unknown shores, enduring dissension, hardships and doubt. Becalmed, they’re threatened by a pirate ship and must decide upon a drastic course of action.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Drowning

by Richard Stuart Dixon
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2002,  Good School Plays.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 50 minutes
• style: Gothic allegorical tragedy
• suitable for general audiences
• 22 characters (17 female, 5 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Drowning” is the story of a large family of women who gather at the family home in the Shetland Islands to grieve the loss at sea of their husbands and fathers.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Dr. Nancy

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 45 minutes.
• style: satirical realism
• suitable for general audiences
• 20 characters (11 female, 9 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Dr. Nancy“ is a young woman who is trying to get through her first day at her new counselling clinic in the inner city. She discovers that her dream of helping others is great deal more taxing than she’d anticipated.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Falling Stars

by Richard Stuart Dixon
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2005, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes
• style: dramatic realism
• suitable for general audiences
• 28 characters (20 female, 8 male)
• a gentle play suitable for introducing young actors to the basic requirements of live theatre.
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Falling Stars” is the story of a tight-knit rural community who gather on a hillside to watch falling stars. Their interactions reveal the complex yearnings of the human heart.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Fangtooth

by Richard Stuart Dixon
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2002, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 25 minutes.
• style: ensemble storytelling
• suitable for general audiences
• 13 characters (8 female, 5 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Fangtooth” is the story of a fjord-dwelling community who fear a monster that lives both in the sea and in their hearts.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Filthy Dougie

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 45 minutes.
• style: fairy tale clown play
• suitable for general audiences
• 21 characters  (gender interchangeable)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Filthy Dougie“  is a comic fairy tale about an exiled prince who is used by a witch who wants to take control of the Kingdom of Oopsy-Daisy.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Fury

by Richard Stuart Dixon
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2004, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 40 minutes.
• style: fairy tale
• suitable for general audiences
• 23 characters (17 female, 5 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Fury”  is the story of a girl whose dream shifts reality when reality tries to punish her for her unorthodox state of being.

(This play was first performed on October 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8, 2004, at Gleneagle Secondary School in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada.)

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Gallery

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 50 minutes.
• style: satirical realism
• suitable for general audiences
• 24 characters (19 female, 5 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Gallery“ is a light, quirky satire about a group of students competing to win an art contest at a newly-opened gallery.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Ghost Girl

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 50 minutes
• style: light episodic drama
• suitable for general audiences
• 25 characters (18 female, 7 male)
• gender-flexible casting
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Ghost Girl” is the story of a girl in a city park who finds herself transported through time, from 1906 to 2006. She tries to get help from the people she meets, with surprising results.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Granny Torkelson Goes to Sea

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes.
• style: clown comedy
• suitable for general audiences
• 27 characters (gender interchangeable)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Granny Torkelson Goes to Sea”  is a full-steam-ahead clown play in which the inveterate nincumpoop Granny Torkelson creates havoc on a cruise ship, causing it to run aground on an uncharted island where secret experiments are being conducted.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Greatland

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

• running time: approx. 50 minutes.
• style: tragic melodrama
• suitable for general audiences
• 25 characters (18 female, 7 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)
• audio files with recommended melodies for songs included in script

• “Greatland“ is a tragic fable about a blighted nation that oppresses an ethnic minority, resulting in the destruction of the nation.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Grimmwulf

by Richard Stuart Dixon
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2004, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes
• style: dark fairy tale
• suitable for general audiences
• 21 characters (15 female, 6 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Grimmwulf” is a dark, comedic fairy tale about a trio of thieves who attempt to cheat the embittered people of a small village, thus unleashing the predations of a terrible monster.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Gumpatch

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2007

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 45 minutes
• style: allegorical musical theatre with clown characters
• suitable for general audiences
• audio files with recommended song melodies included with script
• 26 characters (gender-flexible casting)
• black-box staging (no set required)

 

Summary of Script Content:

• “Gumpatch“, in the guise of a comedic clown play with music, offers a darkly-themed allegorical fable in which a pair of deceitful schemers lie to the gullible citizens of a little village, thus turning the villagers against their legitimate leader.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Guspeeda Gong

by Richard Stuart Dixon
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2005

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 40 minutes
• style: domestic comedy
• suitable for general audiences
• 22 characters (19 female, 3 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Guspeeda Gong” is set in a rooming house in the late 1940’s, and features a variety of characters who exhibit lonely good humour and existential anxiety as they await the gong that summons them to dinner.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Happy Face Daycare

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes
• style: satire
• suitable for general audiences
• 27 characters (20 female, 7 male)
• gender-flexible roles
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Happy Face Daycare” is set in an urban daycare centre in summertime. The staff, parents, and children begin the day in a state of confusion and conflict, but gradually find their way toward a fragile, short-lived, and hard-won state of harmony.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Harry’s Dog

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 45 minutes.
• style: clown play
• suitable for general audiences
• 17 characters (11 female, 6 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Harry’s Dog“ is an unabashed clown play in which a neurotic robot goes on a rampage in a funeral home.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Hartline Shelter for the Homeless

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Heaven

by Richard Stuart Dixon
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2007, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 50 minutes
• style: satirical morality play
• suitable for general audiences
• 26 characters (19 female, 7 male)
• gender-flexible casting
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Heaven” is the story of a corporation tasked with creating the universe, and, of course, infiltrated by a malevolent saboteur.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Hugo the Giant Baby

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2004

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 45 minutes.
• style: satire
• suitable for general audiences
• 14 characters (7 female, 7 male)
• gender-flexible casting
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Hugo the Giant Baby“ is a satire in which the birth of a giant baby triggers a series of chaotic events that lead to the end of the world as we know it. Small town Canadians tangle with each other and with American soldiers and Russian spies as divine intervention manipulates the entire epic struggle.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Jake’s Motel

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2006

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes
• style: light realist drama
• suitable for general audiences
• 30 characters (24 female, 6 male)
• gender-flexible casting
• a good play for learning how to perform vigorous arguments on stage
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Jake’s Motel” is a light drama about a group of people who arrive at a prairie motel that serves as a way station between this life and the next.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Janie’s Bedroom

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes.
• style: satirical clown play
• suitable for general audiences
• 26 characters (15 female, 11 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Janie’s Bedroom“  is a satire about a magical head who appears in a Canadian teenage girl’s bedroom, thus setting off an international uproar. Whimsical and sometimes bizarre, the play roundly lampoons various iconic cultural norms that permeate personal and public life.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Jenny Logan

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes.
• style: light dramatic realism
• suitable for general audiences
• 22 characters (18 female, 4 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Jenny Logan“  is a light realist drama set in the airport of a remote rural community in the winter of 1960. An unmarried pregnant girl challenges the social orthodoxy of that time, and helps the people in her life reconcile their prejudices by rekindling their capacity for compassion.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Johnny Flamingo and the Tough Talking Dames

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes
• style: clown parody of film noir
• suitable for general audiences
• 30 characters (20 female, 10 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary Statement of Script Content:

• “Johnny Flamingo and the Tough Talking Dames“ is a lighthearted, clownish romp through the shadowy world of film noir. Intrepid private investigator Johhny Flamingo searches for a femme-fatale’s missing sister and finds himself embroiled in the supernatural schemes of two all-female gangs, a pair of gypsy fortune-tellers, a mad doctor, and a group of zombies.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Laura Secord

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes
• style: historical fantasy
• suitable for general audiences
• 27 characters (18 female, 9 male)
• roles can be split or merged, and are gender-flexible
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• Real and imaginary people, places, and events are woven into this fictional and fantastical account of Laura Secord’s famous adventure during the War of 1812 in Canada. Laura must go into the forest on a journey to warn Lieutenant Fitzgibbon about the American plan to attack his troops. On her journey, she encounters spirits and apparitions who symbolize the Canadian wilderness, a place of deep mystery that both threatens and enchants her.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Lost in Winter

by Richard Stuart Dixon
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2007, Good School Plays.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 45 minutes.
• style: mythic allegory
• suitable for general audiences
• 26 characters (19 female, 7 male)
• gender-flexible casting
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Lost in Winter“.is a mythic tale, performed in verse, about a queen sick with grief and the descent into chaos of her withering, desperate realm.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Ludmila Pavlichenko

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

• running time: approx. 55 minutes.
• style: episodic drama
• suitable for general audiences
• 17 characters (10 female, 7 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

• “Ludmila Pavlichenko” is the fictionalized story of a World War Two sniper who fought with the Red Army during the sieges of Odessa and Sevastopol in 1941-42.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Lunatic Girls

by Richard Stuart Dixon
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2003, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 45 minutes
• style: Gothic horror
• suitable for general audiences
• 28 characters (24 female, 4 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)
• a good play for learning stillness and extreme economy of movement on stage

Summary of Script Content:

• “Lunatic Girls” is a story about a group of creative, poetic young women who are institutionalized and rendered passive, with tragic and horrific results.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Maul

by Richard Stuart Dixon
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2008, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 50 minutes
• style: allegorical satire
• suitable for general audiences
• 28 characters (21 female, 7 male)
• gender-flexible casting 
• a good play for learning how to use stylized language to reveal allegorical content
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Maul” is an allegorical tale about the denizens of a suburban mall who are gripped by fears and desires that drive them into a state of distrust and accelerating chaos.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Mobbrat Elementary

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

• running time: approx. 45 minutes.
• style: satirical realism
• suitable for general audiences
• 25 characters (17 female, 8 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

• “Mobbrat Elementary” examines the anarchic antics of a group of primary school children as they playfully test each other’s boundaries during a noon hour in May.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Morningstar

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2001

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 45 minutes
• style: fable
• suitable for general audiences
• 17 characters (11 female, 6 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Morningstar” is a fable about a young aristocratic woman who must travel alone and incognito through her country, in search of her future husband. Along the way, she meets a variety of characters and learns hard lessons about humility, responsibility, and leadership.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Moving On

by Richard Stuart Dixon
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2006, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes
• style: comedic realism
• suitable for general audiences
• 28 characters (19 female, 9 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Moving On” is a comedy about an elderly woman and two ghosts who witness a chaotic mix of events, relationships, and emotions as the woman’s family and friends help her move out of her old home.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Murkolump

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 40 minutes.
• style: allegorical clown play
• suitable for general audiences
• 27 characters (gender interchangeable)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Murkolump”  is an allegorical tale of a community who discover a “lump” in their midst. The community is divided in their opinions about the lump’s significance. This leads to suspicion, hostility, and ultimately, to civil war. They fight to defend what they love, and to defeat what they hate, but the thing they love and the thing they hate is nothing at all.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Orphans Under Ice

by Richard Stuart Dixon
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2002, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 40 minutes
• style: ensemble Christmas ghost story
• suitable for general audiences
• 21 characters (16 female, 5 male)
• gender-flexible casting
• a good play for developing disciplined ensemble performance skills
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Orphans Under Ice” is the lyrical story of a happy family haunted by the ghosts of two girls who vanished while skating on a creek on Christmas Day.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Pantalone Throws a Fit

by Richard Stuart Dixon
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2002

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 35 minutes
• style: commedia dell’arte
• suitable for general audiences
• 23 characters (gender flexible)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Pantalone Throws a Fit” is a commedia dell’arte romp about the shenanigans of Pantalone’s servant Arlecchino as he takes advantage of his master’s hypochondria. A lot of wild buffoonery takes place, but all ends well.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

 

Providence

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 45 minutes.
• style: comedic parable
• suitable for general audiences
• 27 characters (20 female, 7 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content for “Providence“:

• A group of actors arrive in a village and put on an epic play about a besieged garrison in a desert. The villagers are drawn into the play and their vices and virtues are put to the test.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Rags for Riches

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2008

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 40 minutes
• style: Gothic satire
• suitable for general audiences
• 28 characters (24 female, 4 male)
• gender-flexible casting
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Rags for Riches” is a melodrama in which some rotten rags worn by a pair of harmless old women are deemed to have magic powers. Various violent entities try to capture the rags to use them as a source of power. This leads to a chaotic and violent encounter that in turn leads to atonement, redemption, and redemption.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

 

Refugee Camp 25

by Richard Stuart Dixon,  Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 50 minutes.
• style: ensemble drama
• suitable for general audiences
• 25 characters (18 female, 7 male)
• most roles are gender-interchangeable
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Refugee Camp 25“  is an ensemble play that features five ironic stories about fictional refugees.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Reunion

by Richard Stuart Dixon,  Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 50 mins.
• style: social satire
• suitable for general audiences
• 27 characters (19 female, 8 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• In “Reunion”, a group of former students struggle with their past and present relationships as they meet at their ten year high school reunion. The reunion serves as a nexus through which they revisit the awkward confusion of their teenage years and encounter some painful truths about their current lives.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Rising and Falling – a Tragic Romance

by Richard Stuart Dixon,  Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 50 minutes.
• style: satirical realism
• suitable for general audiences
• 27 characters (14 female, 13 male)
• roles can be split or doubled
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Rising and Falling“  is a comedic cautionary tale, offering four stories that explore four stages of romantic love.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Rose-Lisa and the Magic Stones

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 45 minutes.
• style: fairy tale
• suitable for general audiences
• 21 characters (16 female, 5 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Rose-Lisa and the Magic Stones“  is a fairy tale about a fractious little village that’s visited by an old woman who offers to save the inhabitants from a natural catastrophe.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Rotten Not Forgotten

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes.
• style: satire
• suitable for general audiences
• 25 characters (13 female, 12 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Rotten Not Forgotten“ takes a wry and clownish look at death, food, and love when a small-town man and woman refuse to bury their dead spouses.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Sector Nine

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

• running time: approx. 55 minutes.
• style: post-apocalypse melodrama
• suitable for general audiences
• 27 characters (18 female, 9 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Sector Nine“is set in the future, after a catastrophic environmental collapse. An urban militia controls the downtrodden masses, using their nominal leaders as puppets. An unlikely heroine emerges, leading to the collapse of corrupt authority and the regeneration of hope.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Shiloh

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 50 minutes.
• style: ensemble tragedy
• suitable for general audiences
• 21 characters (10 female, 11 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Shiloh“  is set in a small town during the US Civil War. A Rebel deserter hides in the forest near the town and falls in love with the widow of a Union soldier killed at the Battle of Shiloh.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Snowy Mountain

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes.
• style: light dramatic realism
• suitable for general audiences
• 23 characters (18 female, 5 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Snowy Mountain“  is the story of a group of townspeople and bus passengers who find themselves changed by unexpected circumstances on the evening of December 24, 1945.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Spacebus

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 50 minutes
• style: satire
• suitable for general audiences
• 25 characters (gender interchangeable)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Spacebus” takes place on a “spacebus” travelling to a distant planet. The passengers and crew become enmeshed in a mishmash of deepening conflicts as conditions on the spacebus deteriorate and the universe teeters on the brink of disaster.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Spaceship

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 50 minutes.
• style: satirical realism
• suitable for general audiences
• 25 characters (17 female, 8 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• In “Spaceship“,  soul-searching turmoil erupts in a suburban neighbourhood when a large spaceship manifests on a family’s back lawn.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Staffroom

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 45 minutes.
• style: satire
• suitable for general audiences
• 20 characters (13 female, 7 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• In “Staffroom”,  a group of high school teachers celebrate the joys, sorrows, banalities, and absurdities of their professional lives in the public school system.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Starrla Cosmina

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2004

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 40 minutes
• style: realist drama
• suitable for general audiences
• 17 characters (11 female, 6 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)
• simple structure and clear, crisp dialogue, suitable for beginner actors

Summary of Script Content:

• “Starrla Cosmina” is the gentle story of a mysterious young woman who intervenes in the life of a family who are experiencing the loneliness and grief of separation and divorce.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Subway Redux

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes.
• style: post structural satire
• suitable for general audiences
• 27 characters (20 female, 7 male)
• roles can be split or doubled
• black-box staging (no set required)

• “Subway Redux“  examines the ambiguous converging and diverging of language and action as private and public agendas conflict deep underground in an urban subway station.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Summer Rain – An Act of Union

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 45 minutes.
• style: post-structural melodrama
• suitable for general audiences
• 26 characters (16 female, 10 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Summer Rain – An Act of Union“  is the story of a high school student trapped by cultural expectations embedded in language.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Sundenfall

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 60 minutes.
• style: gothic drama
• suitable for general audiences
• 23 characters (17 female, 6 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Sundenfall”  is a  tale set in a remote castle in Germany during World War One. A countess in the grip of madness summons her resources and her will to bring about the creation of monstrosity in the service of grief.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Swimming Hole 

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2003

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 60 minutes
• style: realist drama
• suitable for general audiences
• 25 characters (16 female, 9 male)
• a good play for learning to perform episodic realism with parallel plots
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “Swimming Hole” explores the adventures of a group of young people and their elders in a small prairie town as they try to stabilize their confused feelings during the summer of 1968.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

The Cold Gray Sea

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2006

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 50 minutes.
• style: satirical drama
• suitable for general audiences
• 28 characters (19 female, 9 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “The Cold Gray Sea“  is a mythic, satirical tale about a childlike man and woman who emerge from the sea as if in fulfillment of an ancient prophesy. Their appearance prompts a crisis in which rigid religious orthodoxy struggles to maintain legitimacy in response to a series of destabilizing events.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

The Red Flag

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2009

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 40 minutes
• style: political tragedy
• suitable for general audiences
• 12 characters (7 female, 5 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• “The Red Flag” is the story of a group of people who get drawn into the machinations of a revolutionary movement in a country in which oppressive political and economic institutions force difficult moral choices, with tragic results.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Tuffy’s Christmas Tale

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2005

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 55 minutes
• style: broad satirical comedy
• suitable for general audiences
• 27 characters (14 female, 13 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)
• an enjoyable comedic romp full of opportunities for actors and suitable for rapid production by a strong senior acting class

Summary of Script Content:

• “Tuffy’s Christmas Tale” amalgamates various comedic styles in an epic story about a diverse group of earthly and unearthly characters who seek refuge and solace in a barn on Christmas eve.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Waiting for English

by Richard Stuart Dixon

© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2007.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 45 minutes
• style: ensemble, satirical realism
• suitable for general audiences
• 23 characters (18 female, 5 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary Statement of Script Content:

• “Waiting for English“ follows the joys and sorrows of a group of high school students who explore (due to the absence of their teacher) an unexpected opportunity for group intimacy.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)

Winterfall

by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.

Production Notes:

• running time: approx. 45 minutes.
• style: ensemble tragedy
• suitable for general audiences
• 18 characters (11 female, 7 male)
• black-box staging (no set required)

Summary of Script Content:

• The citizens of the village of “Winterfall” gather to tell a tale of a dark event. There has been an insurrection in the capital. The village has been inevitably drawn into the conflict, with tragic results.

(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)