5-MINUTE PLAYS
by Tara Meddaugh
Five-minute plays are great for festivals, workshops, classrooms, competitions, scene study and performances. The actual length of performance varies, so many of these plays may run 4-8 minutes, on average. While bite-sized, they still keep the same dramatic structure, with characters you can explore, and themes you can discuss. The following plays are for 1,1, 2, 3 or 4 actors.
WHY THAT WALKING SNOWMAN DIDN’T LIKE ME
A comedic monologue play (with optional silent roles)
MADISON, a popular IG (Instagram) model, sees a snowman come to life in front of her very eyes on Christmas Eve. And sure, of course, Madison knows this is all pretty insane, but it’s also a pretty amazing opportunity for her social media presence. However, as much as she would like, the silent snowman doesn’t seem to be cooperating for her selfie. Is it intimidated? Worried about collabs? She isn’t sure, but she is shocked when the snowman leaves before she can even get a video. It makes no sense why it wouldn’t want to hang out with her and her adorable rescue doggie, Bailey, especially when they both look so cute in their winter outfits. Luckily, Madison has Bailey to help her figure out a reasonable explanation for this disappointment.
DETAILS
Cast: 1-3 actors.*
1 speaking Female.
Optional 1-2 male/female nonspeaking roles (Bailey, the dog and the Snowman)
Age: Teen-young adult
Genre: Comedy
Setting: Outside, winter, snowy, Christmas Eve
Running time: around 4-5 minutes
*This play may stand alone as a monologue, or if desired, the role of Bailey, the dog, may be added (gender inclusive). Bailey does not speak, but has noted “murmurs” of communication. The role of Snowman may be added as a third non-speaking role (gender inclusive).
Read a free digital excerpt of WHY THAT WALKING SNOWMAN DIDN’T LIKE ME here.
For the complete play, WHY THAT WALKING SNOWMAN DIDN’T LIKE ME, click below:
THE BEANSTALK
A 5-minute one-person play (with optional silent role)
Jack impulsively climbed the giant beanstalk that had somehow appeared in his backyard over night. While it was exciting climbing up, he is starting to feel kind of lonely now…missing Mother, Brown Cow and even Fence Post. And the worst part of all…while it would be nice to climb down back to home…he realizes…he’s kind of stuck. And doesn’t want to be the laughing stock of the village, once again, as the boy who got stuck in a giant beanstalk. He solicits the help of a passing raven who has taken the time to stop and observe this strange human creature way up in the clouds. And maybe Jack’s solution isn’t really about climbing down the beanstalk…
DETAILS
Genre: COMEDY/DRAMA
Cast: MALE (FEMALE)
Setting: A GIANT BEANSTALK
Age range: 12-25 years old
Running time: 3-6 minutes
*Adapted from the 10-minute play, Jack and Dear Raven.
Click for a free excerpt of the 5-minute-monologue, The Beanstalk.
Click below for the completely version of the 5-minute-monologue, The Beanstalk.
PEBBLES AND TAILS
a short children’s play
For Young Audiences or Young Actors
Scoot, Wiggles and Crunch have been friends since they hatched from eggs in the pond, hiding from predators together, protecting each other, and playing “Kick Pebble” together. But when Scoot realizes that Wiggles and Crunch have developed into froglets, while Scoot remains a tadpole, Scoot feels left behind. Is their friendship strong enough to endure these changing phases? Pebbles and Tails is a story about frogs growing up, but it’s also a story of bravery, kindness, loyalty and friendship.
DETAILS
Genre: Comedy/children/drama (teens and adults can have fun with the roles too!)
Set: Minimal, frogs in pond
Running time: around 6-8 minutes
Cast: 3 actors - any gender
Age range: child to teen; adult actors for young audiences
Good for: outdoor theater, reader’s theater, play about friendship, growing up, finding your place, gender flexible casting, classrooms, fun science
*Pebbles and Tails includes a Frog Q & A related to the script and Five (5) Cool Facts about Frogs!
Pebbles and Tails is part of Tara Meddaugh’s Reader’s Theater series. These are great plays for any age in a theater setting, competition or classroom. But as Reader’s Theater, they are designed to make reading aloud enjoyable for children. Children don’t need to memorize or “perform,” but simply benefit from the act of reading out loud together, in dramatic form. Reader’s Theater can promote fluency, confidence, creativity, empathy, oral expression and connections among peers. Children at home or in the classroom enjoy reading these fun scripts aloud.
Click to read a free excerpt to the play, Pebbles and Tails.
Click below for a digital copy of the 5-minute play, Pebbles and Tails.
FUNERAL FOR A CRAYFISH
a 5-minute children’s play
For Young Audiences or Actors
When a classroom crayfish meets an untimely demise, Ari and Queen must figure out whose crayfish suffered this unexpected fate! It’s going to take some clever detective skills though, because unfortunately, Juliet used the same color permanent marker to dot her crayfish’s back as Ari did! Will the clues they uncover be enough to solve the mystery? This is a 5-minute comedy for children which explores friendship, problem solving and working together! It also includes a fun Question and Answer page all about crayfish!
Special thanks and credit to 8-year-old, Luke B., for his awesome design work on this cover!
DETAILS
Genre: comedic, children, young audience, drama
Cast: 2 characters, flexible/inclusive casting
Set: Minimal, a classroom
Running time: around 5 minutes
Great food: reader’s theater, problem solving, working together, teamwork, science, flexible casting for any gender, animals, classroom theater, 2-hander, play for 2 actors, friendship
Click for a free excerpt from Funeral for a Crayfish.
CLICK below for a complete digital copy of Funeral for a Crayfish by Tara Meddaugh
STARING AT THE SLOTH
a 5-minute children’s play
For Young Audiences or Actors
The sloth at the zoo keeps staring at Riley. Is it Riley’s spiky hair? Long nose? Or chocolate milk stain? Can Jaime convince Riley that the sloth is not making fun, but rather, maybe, just maybe, thinks Riley is cool? Staring at The Sloth is a funny, sweet play about friendship, self-acceptance, and of course…sloths!
DETAILS
Genre: comedic, children, young audience, drama
Cast: 2 characters, flexible/inclusive casting
Set: Minimal, outside at a zoo
Running time: around 5 minutes
Great food: reader’s theater, accepting oneself, flexible casting for any gender, animals, classroom theater, outdoor theater, 2-hander, play for 2 actors, discussion about bullying, kindness, friendship
CLICK for a free excerpt of Staring at the Sloth by Tara Meddaugh.
CLICK below for a complete digital copy of Staring at The Sloth by Tara Meddaugh
What do a box jellyfish, a mako shark, an anglerfish and a tiger shark have in common? They all want to live in the same abandoned shipwreck on the ocean floor! No one wants to share, no one wants to live somewhere else and…uh oh…what if someone can’t help but want to eat someone else? Check out The Shipwreck Solution to discover if these four, very different creatures, can find a way to work it out!
DETAILS
Cast: 4 male or female (gender neutral cast)
Genre: Comedy/children (teens and adults can have fun with the roles too!)
Set: Minimal, a shipwreck in the ocean
Running time: 5-7 minutes
Great for: Reader’s theater, engaging children in theater in a fun way, learning about sea creatures (in a fun way!), equal roles for 4 children, a play with 4 non-gender-specific roles
*The Shipwreck Solution includes a “Yes, It’s True” page featuring fun facts referencing the animals you read about, as well as a glossary with a few key terms.
The Shipwreck Solution is part of Tara Meddaugh’s Reader’s Theater series. These are great plays for any age in a theater setting, competition or classroom. But as Reader’s Theater, they are designed to make reading aloud enjoyable for children. Children don’t need to memorize or “perform,” but simply benefit from the act of reading out loud together, in dramatic form. Reader’s Theater can promote fluency, confidence, creativity, empathy, oral expression and connections among peers. Children at home or in the classroom enjoy reading these fun scripts aloud.
Click to read a free excerpt to the play, The Shipwreck Solution.
Click below for a digital copy of the 5-minute play, The Shipwreck Solution.
Locked out of their house for the third time this week, Travis and Kira search for their spare key on their porch, and begin questioning their relationship (and state of mind)!
DETAILS
Cast: 2 actors (1 female, 1 male)
Genre: drama, comedy
Set: On a porch of a house on a cold day
Length: 5 minutes
*Published in Five-Minute Plays, Applause Acting
Click here for a free excerpt to The Items Forgotten.
CLICK below for a complete digital copy of The Items Forgotten.
Grace is a Catholic widow who takes in a Jewish refugee child in the 1940s. She knows very little of his experience, culture, or language and strives to find a way to connect.
DETAILS
Genre: Drama, 1940s, monologue
Running time: Approximately 5-6 minutes
Cast: Female, 40s-60s
Setting: a home, a public library
Great for: Showcases, performances, festivals, monologue competitions, forensics, dramatic interpretation, Toastmasters performance, 5-minute solo pieces, strong female role, a play about an historical issue
Click here for more information on this monologue.
*This monologue stands alone as its own piece, but it also comes from the collection of shorts in the full-length play, Victory Gardens.
Click for a free excerpt to His First English Words.
Click below for a complete digital copy of His First English Words (once purchased, you will be given a link to download the script)
Alice, a young newlywed mails a letter to her husband, who is stationed in the army overseas during WWII. The letter carries more than her love, worries and hopes for the future, but also an important revelation which she believes will bring him home safely.
DETAILS
Genre: Drama/Comedy/WW2/Monologue Play
Cast: 1 Female
Age range: Older teen to adult
Running time: Approximately 4-5 minutes
Great for: Showcases, performances, monologue competitions, Toastmasters performance, 5-minute solo pieces, strong female role, a play about an historical issue
*This story, complete as a whole play itself, comes from the collection of shorts in the full-length play, Victory Gardens.
View the excerpt below:
______________
ALICE
I’m mailing this seed today, and it will go on a greater adventure than I have ever been on. It’ll start right here, in New Rochelle. A seed I’ve taken from a watermelon I’ve grown in our backyard victory garden and dried over two weeks. It’s sealed in an envelope and it’ll be picked up tomorrow morning by Mr. Parker, our mailman. It will ride in a US Postal truck to New York City, then it will find a good long rest on a boat, or maybe a plane, which will cross the Atlantic Ocean to France. From there, it will bump along in a military vehicle, until it reaches its final destination and infantry division, and into the warm, fair hands of Mr. Richard Ayers. (pause) Richard is most likely in the trenches, because he’s 19, and in the army. The trenches often fill with mud, and it’s hard to sleep because he hears the bombs in the distance and he wonders if the sounds are getting closer or he is just imagining it. It’s getting harder to tell what is really happening anymore, because none of it seems real when he thinks about it. (pause) A year ago, when we fell in love, he was in High School, hoping to become a university professor one day. He liked English literature courses and playing the clarinet, and he had never killed anyone, or thought of killing anyone before. Then they bombed Pearl Harbor, and this caused him to be filled with a new kind of hatred he had only read about, and it made him put his books down and begin his own, real, journey that maybe he will write about one day. (pause) He’s happy when the mail comes. Mail is second only to food and munition, the government says, and he says that’s true. Sometimes, troops get a magazine with a photograph of Rita Hayworth and the men pass it around. My Richard shakes his head at the photograph of Rita Hayworth because it doesn’t seem like she can possibly be in the same world as them anymore, but he likes looking at her nonetheless. END OF EXCERPT
Click below for the complete 4-5 minute dramatic monologue, The Adventure of the Seed.
STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE LAMP
A 5-minute monologue play
By Tara Meddaugh
JANINE recounts the first few moments after she has arrived at her childhood home to see her mother whose state of health has been rapidly declining in the past few days. Janine’s mother has ALS, and while one month ago, she was sitting in a wheelchair and speaking, at this visit, she is no longer eating, only lying down, and barely speaking. When Janine first arrives to the house, she asks her mother what she would like to do. Her mother give her the simply request to “talk.” And so, Janine cuddles up in bed beside her, and talks.
DETAILS
Genre: Drama
Cast: Female (male)
Age range: 20s-40s
Setting: A Bedroom
Running time: Approximately 4-5 minutes
Click for a free excerpt to the monologue, Strawberry Shortcake Lamp.
Click below for the complete digital 5-minute monologue, Strawberry Shortcake Lamp.
While Megan and Kel are waiting for their school bus to arrive, Megan challenges Kel to prove how she received her latest Girl Scouts badge.
DETAILS
Cast: 2 females
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Children's
Set: A bus stop
Great for: Children, reader’s theater, 2 strong female children’s roles, fun simple piece with depth, competitions, brings up issues to discuss (but subtly)
My Best Myself is part of Tara Meddaugh’s Reader’s Theater series. These are great plays for any age in a theater setting, competition or classroom. But as Reader’s Theater, they are designed to make reading aloud enjoyable for children. Children don’t need to memorize or “perform,” but simply benefit from the act of reading out loud together, in dramatic form. Reader’s Theater can promote fluency, confidence, creativity, empathy, oral expression and connections among peers. Children at home or in the classroom enjoy reading these fun scripts aloud.
CLICK for EXCERPT OF FIVE MINUTE CHILDREN'S PLAY, MY BEST MYSELF.
Click below for the complete 5-minute children’s play, My Best Myself.
Dan is at work, and has just participated in the office “Secret Santa” exchange where participants were instructed to make a gift for their Secret Santa. He is speaking to Penny, the coworker he has been assigned to give a gift to. He has just given her his gift and she is not impressed, but there is a very good reason for Dan’s uncreative gift.
DETAILS
Genre: COMEDY/DRAMA/MONOLOGUE PLAY
Cast: MALE (FEMALE)
Setting: AN OFFICE
Age range: 20-50s
Running time: Approximately 5 minutes
Great for: Competitions, 5-minute solo pieces, performances, toastmasters piece, showcase, strong male monologue
Read a free excerpt below of the 5-minute monologue play, Secret Santa:
DAN
What did you expect? Me to knit a scarf? You think I’m gonna bake, what, cookies shaped like Santa and put a bow on it? (shakes head) You can’t have the same expectation on me as you do Chrissy—we all see her at lunch, reading those magazines with, I don’t know what they have on them—little crafts—and—food…things? And Gerald has his own woodworking shop in his garage. I’ve seen it. You probably haven’t, but he’s got everything. He built his kids a huge wooden fire truck. They can stand inside of it and it has a real hose installed.. They keep it in their driveway all summer. So his handcrafted Frank-shaped nutcracker is nothing for him. (pause) So. Look. It’s—you’re taking this too personally. I know the rules of Secret Santa this year were that we had to make our own gift. But…Penny. You know what I’ve been going through, right? Sarah left me right on Halloween. We’re going through the kids’ candy when they’re in bed, you know, making sure they’re fine, eating a few peanut butter cups. And she gets all excited and says she’s found one with the wrapper open. I tell her Joey was starting to open a pack of Skittles after he brushed his teeth, so I had him save it for the next day. And it’s a pack of Skittles she’s got in her hands too, so it’ gotta be the same one. I tell her all this but she doesn’t believe me and she gets hysterical that someone in the neighborhood is trying to poison the kids. I say I doubt that, but she keeps going on about it, so I shrug it off and let her get it out of her system. We’ll throw them out if it makes her happy, who cares. Joey has enough candy...END OF EXCERPT
CLICK BELOW FOR THE COMPLETE 5-minute comedic/dramatic monologue play, Secret Santa.