Our theatre group is looking to start doing plays geared toward children.  The majority of our audience is adult & senior citizens.  So this is the first time we are doing this.  Our dilema is what show to kick it off with??  we need a good script, funny, entertaining, not too long and a fairly small cast...any suggestions??

If you're okay with a one-act, a group I belonged to did "Aesop's (Oh So Slightly) Updated Fables" (from Baker's Plays) - it has a lot of characters, but can be double cast. It was funny and I liked it - and I'm not a big fan of children's shows .

Lots of options here: http://www.lazybeescripts.co.uk/YouthTheatre/Index.htm (including a search engine which will help you narrow down the search by genre, age of children, numbers and length).  All the scripts can be read in full on the internet, so you know what you are getting, and you can make a judgement as to whether a script will suit your performing group and your target audience.

I would like to take a slightly nuanced view of jtonner's remark of "lots of scripts, not much quality".
"Quality" can be defined as "fitness for purpose", and it very much depends on what you want a script to do.  There are some very popular scripts for kids that I would not wish to stage because they don't do what I want to do in terms of drama - but they suit the purposes of other productions.  (However, the same applies to scripts for adults!)




Edited by Lazy Bee - 5/09/10 at 4:27am