Melodramas & Westerns

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  Much Ado Out West

Comedy by Wade Bradford

48 pages

5 m, 9 w, extras


Pedro, Ben and Claude discover that while they've been away at the Civil War, Betty and the other womenfolk have been doing all of the roping and ranching. This Western romp is inspired from Shakespeare's hilarious battle-of-the-sexes romantic comedy, "Much Ado About Nothing." Despite how much the cowpokes and the ladies of the ranch taunt each other, love seems to be in the air. Claude falls head over heels in love with Winny, a lovely Southern belle, but Calamity Jane, a rambunctious tomboy, secretly longs for Claude's affections and is bent on stirring up ...

  Dastardly Deeds at Yoursin Mine -or- Yukon Take It With You

Farce by Squire Fridell

82 pages

Flexible cast from 16 to 50+


This great romantic melodrama of the Yukon Territory has it all! Come visit the world of Lester Lawless, Lotta Pidee, Loooney Yoursin, and many others including miners who can't find stakes, trappers who can't find pelts, and Mounties who can't find anyone as they weave a story of Wild West intrigue. Narrators and Sign Gals help dictate active audience involvement as villains are thwarted, heroes and heroines are blissfully united, enemies become friends, widowed matrons are reunited with lost children, and orphans live happily ever after. In addition to a co...

  Grand Adventures of Pip and Mimsy!

Absurdist Comedy by Jack Sale

36 pages

5 m, 4 w, 1 flexible


Follow the adventures of two Victorian street urchins—annoyingly enthusiastic and melodramatic—who still await with joy the return of their missing father after many years. As they gratefully and cheerfully accept their circumstances of foraging and freezing, Pip and Mimsy, accompanied by friend Fimm Bimbles, have a chance encounter with an evil and hypnotic puppet named Begeloits, who draws the unwitting children into his nefarious plan to kill the Queen. Coincidence and fate lead Pip and Mimsy to Court where they are reunited with their miserly Uncle Scroog...

  Last Chance Inn, Calamity Gulch

Melodrama by Whitney Ryan Garrity

60 pages

4 m , 10 w


Ma and Pa Culpepper are in danger of losing their livelihood - the Last Chance Inn - to Horace Prickley, a representative from the loan offices of Gimme, Gimme & Gimme. In need of a son or son-in-law, the Culpeppers scheme to adopt and marry off pretty (but clumsy) orphan-turned-waitress, Patience Sweetwater. The intended groom is the newly-appointed Sheriff Virgil St. Vigil, who makes the rounds with his deputy and trusted side-kick, Princess Prettyfoot. Prickley learns of the Culpeppers' plot and enlists the aid of the beautiful Sahara Hartburn to "dist...

  Harold Hardluck's Lucky Strike

Melodrama by Bill Van Horn

22 pages

4 m, 7 w, 1 flexible part


When payrolls are robbed from stagecoach runs miles apart four times in a row by a thief who smells nice, the folks in Gravestone start to wonder if something's amiss! Lovely heroine Lucy Lovelight thinks Rudolph Rumple could be involved. He's paymaster for the companies and owner of the town store/hotel/bar. Lately he's been burning his trash hourly and making a suspicious amount of smoke. Lucy's true love, Harold Hardluck, is back from another failed attempt at mining. To pay back all the money he owes Rudolph, Harold must dress as a dancing girl and work a...

  Belle of the Ball

Melodrama by Craig Sodaro

36 pages

3 m, 7 w


The fairy tales of Cinderella and Snow White are lassoed together in this high-kicking western melodrama! Goldie Miner had to give up her infant daughter, Ashabelle, 18 years ago to eke out a living panning for gold, but she thought she left her with a good family. Now she's returned with plenty of gold for her daughter but finds Ashabelle wears patched clothes and does all the stepfamily's chores. When Ashabelle isn't allowed to go to the ball, her mother fixes her right up, including a pair of new boots. The next morning Earnest Lee Feelgoode finds the bell...

  Curses, Foiled Again!

Melodrama Musical by C. Michael Perry James G. Lambert

42 pages

6 m, 5 w, extras, doubling possible


Papa Praiseworthy has mortgaged the family farm to have money to pay for the long-needed operation to cure Mama and create a trousseau for sweet Polly’s marriage to our hero, Jedediah Justice, of Justice Junction. Little does the family know when they stop to help an ill traveler on the road, the man is the evil brother of the villain, Delvin Dastardly. The Dastardly brothers frame Papa and get him thrown onto a chain gang. Now Polly will have to bring in the harvest with only the aid of her brother Penrose and sister Penny. Too proud to do less, Polly woeful...

  In Search of the Holy Grill

Melodrama by Craig Williams

28 pages

4 m, 5 w, 1 flexible


An evil banker, Char Cole, wants the land the church sits on to build a casino. He sends a bogus mortgage bill demanding the church pay a $10,000 balloon payment to scare the congregation in to selling him the property for a fraction of what it is worth. Church members hurriedly decides to submit a secret barbecue recipe to a contest in hopes of winning the huge cash prize. They even open a barbecue restaurant in the church to raise money. Meanwhile, Miss Phit, the bumbling church secretary, is constantly getting the bulletins and newsletters wrong, sending m...

  Fit To Be Tied

Melodrama by Craig Williams

28 pages

4 m, 3 w, 1 flexible


The Poor famly is struggling to keep the ROCK (Railroad of Central Kansas) on track and a large job to ship cattle back East will help. But the evil banker, Vil Lain, holds the mortgage on the railroad and he and his sidekick scheme to foreclose on the ROCK. Lain tries to entice Terri Blee Poor, the heroine and by coincidence, a train whistle virtuoso, to become his wife to save her family's railroad, but Terri Blee loves a brakeman on the ROCK, Earnest Lee. When she refuses Lain's advances, she is tied to the tracks. Will Earnest be able to pick up the cattl...

  The Adventures of Cyclone Malone

Melodrama by Lane Riosley

35 pages

14 parts. (with doubling 2 m, 1 w, 3 flexible)


Yazoo! Get ready for one tall tale of adventure as Sheriff Cyclone Malone must protect his town, Yazoo Junction, from evil pirates! The pirate captain, along with two bumbling crewmen, has somehow managed to build a submarine – with torpedoes! – and is sailing on the river outside of town. Cyclone’s gonna need help to deal with this problem. The sweet schoolmarm (and Cyclone’s gal) Cozy Dumond tries to get a message to the neighboring sheriff, but she is tricked by the disreputable Violent Lavender, captured and tied to the submarine’s periscope. Cyclone and ...

  The Double L Dude Ranch

Comedy by Margaret Witt

83 pages

9 m, 14 w, 3 flexible, some doubling possible.


Luke needs to come up with money to pay the mortgage on the family ranch, and fast. His three friends offer to help him open up a dude ranch, and he knows he has no choice but to accept their generosity. At first, Luke is a little leery over the whole plan, but how hard can it be to teach a few city folk about life on a ranch? But things start to go wrong when his quirky guests arrive. There’s Aspen and Ariel, two hillbilly sisters who can’t keep their hands off of Luke’s friends Nash and Nolan. Next to arrive are Martha, Mercy, and Grace, who want a final ou...

  Skulduggery Sails the Atlantic

Melodrama by Nelson Shreve

36 pages

4 m, 6 w


Melodrama meets the high seas when J. P. Morganfeller, mysterious millionaire, carries his priceless painting, the "Mona Lisa Unbuttoned," aboard ship. A villainous art thief and three lady cat burglars (thinly disguised as high society types) steal it and throw all the blame on officer Vance Trueblue, who must solve the case to keep his sterling reputation and his true love, Dimity Darling. About 40 minutes.

  Mastermime (Or Don’t Mime if I Do)

Comedy by Katie B. Oberlander

24 pages

3 m, 3 w, 6 flexible


Tomorrow is opening night at The Grand Old Theatre and Mastermime, a notorious criminal who distracts audiences with entrancing mime routines and then disappears with their valuables, has defaced the theatre marquee and is terrorizing the stagehands. Will hard-boiled detective Stanton Ovation and his earnest sidekick Deputy Hammet Upp capture this mute but expressive villain before he steals self-absorbed celebrity actress Ima Starr’s diamonds? Or is there more to this case than it seems? Ima’s talkative assistant Roberta, who was a forensic scientist before ...

  Candy Land

Children Melodrama by Kevin Stone

40 pages

5 m, 6 w, 8 flexible, 6 children


It is business as usual at the Mega-Bite Candy Company. Pop Tart is stirring the chocolate, Stretch is headed for the Taffy Room, Cookie the Clown is preparing to host a tour of young school children, Jan and Dean are experimenting with new flavors of candy, and--most significantly--Graham Cracker is looking for Kandy Kane. As Graham searches for Miss Kane and attempts to propose, Grimsley Krumkake, a dastardly villain posing as a vat inspector, enters with his dopey sidekick, Bink. Thus is set in motion a fiendish plan to take over the world, beginning with ...

  Sneaky Citizens of Saddlesore City

Melodrama by Jim Haun

55 pages

2 m, 9 w, 10 flex. Possible extras and doubling.


It’s the year 1890 in Saddlesore City. The Carson Hotel is a fun place to hang your hat and jist have a good ole time with friends and neighbors - playin' cards, dancin', laughin',singin', gossipin' and…drinkin' sassafras root beer by the gallons! Well, that's the way it used to be when Charles was alive but now it's just a sorry-eyed, sad-faced, ghost of a place where even the spiders are bored out of their minds! Widow Henrietta has become overwhelmed with both the duties of hotelin' and tryin' to raise Liza and Skeeter. Her once happy attitude has now turn...