Faith Healer, a drama by Brian Friehl
2 men, 1 woman

Molly Sweeney, another drama by Brian Friehl
2 men, 1 woman

Love Letters, a drama by A.R. Gurney
1 man, 1 woman

Visiting Mr. Green, a comedy-drama by Jeff Baron
2 men

A Walk in the Woods, a comedy-drama by Lee Blessing
2 men (has been done with 1 man, 1 woman)

Art, a comedy by Yasmina Reza
3 men

Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, a drama by Frank McGuinness
3 men

Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol, a new take on the timeless classic by Tom Mula
1 man - also available in a 4 character version, which I did using 6 actors

The Only Thing Worse You Could Have Told Me, a comedy-drama by Dan Butler
Written as a one-man show, but can easily be done with 2, 4, 6, or 8

Shakespeare's R&J, a re-telling of Romeo and Juliet by Joe Calarco
4 men

All of these shows will fit very, very well into the size space you have described.  All are excellent.  I have personally acted in or directed most of them.  The ones I haven't yet done are currently on my "to do" list; so if you have any specific questions about any of them, feel free to ask. 

P.S.
You might also consider Don Juan in Hell by G.B. Shaw - also known as the third act dream sequence in Man and Superman
3 men, 1 woman






Edited by edh915 - 4/28/12 at 6:22pm

Faith Healer and Someone Who'll Watch Over Me are Samuel French.

All the rest are Dramatists Play Service.

All of the shows are in the 90 minute, plus intermission, category.

Love Letters covers a romance spanning the ages of 10 and 50-plus.  In my opinion, the optimal age for actors in this play is 35 to 40 - still young enough to play the youth scenes, but with enough gravitas to handle the mature scenes.

Two other shows came to mind since yesterday.  You just need to have enough room backstage to stash a bunch of props:

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) by Jess Borgeson, Adam Long, and Daniel Singer
3 actors on a comedic romp through the entire Shakespeare canon
Broadway Play Publishing, Inc.

Then there's it's holiday-themed cousin:
Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some!) by Michael Carlson, Jim Fitzgerald, and John K. Alvarez
3 actors there, too
Playscripts, Inc.

Another two plays occurred to me while writing the above:

Somewhere In Between by Craig Pospisil - Dramatists Play Service
A romantic comedy about love in the big city.  Minimal set (I did it with six stools and a cityscape backdrop). Six to ten actors with doubling.

Almost, Maine by John Cariani - Dramatists Play Service
Twelve conversations about love (viewed consecutively, but all, in fact, taking place simultaneously) in a tiny town in rural Maine. As few as four, or as many as twelve actors.

Oooops! - One more...

Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology by Charles Aidman - Samuel French
Terrifically popular when I was your age, but now pretty much faded from view.  Tricky, but stunning when done well.
Four, six, eight, ten, twelve actors

One more thought (sorry, I'm on a roll here)...

There are a couple of plays available that tell their stories as a radio show; so all you need is actors standing around a few microphones and a guy doing sound effects. I know there's one for It's A Wonderful Life and another for A Christmas Carol.  There's also one for The 39 Steps - also a few mysteries, too. - - - In that same vein, there's a group in my area that travels around performing old radio scripts, complete with hokey commercials. Dramas, mysteries, comedies - the whole spectrum.  I'm told there are free, non-royalty scripts available on-line.

If you have a piano...

Gutenberg! The Musical!  A hilarious two-man show.
Check out www.gutenbergthemusical.com

The Fantasticks should also work well in your space.

Don't be afraid of "real" Shakespeare either.  The originals were done without sets.  And six guys on a small stage can be just as impressive as twenty on a large stage.  Just last year I saw a production of Henry V performed in an art gallery by a cast of eight women; and it was wonderful theatre.

Your only real limitation is your imagination - something that is potentially boundless.


Edited by edh915 - 4/29/12 at 1:51pm

try "Second Samuel"

If you have one really good actor, I might suggest "Barrymore's Ghost" by Jason Miller (He is the same actor who played Father Damien in the Exorcist). 

BARRYMORE'S GHOST opens up the life of the legendary actor, John Barrymore, in a unique, theatrical manner. Mr. John Barrymore, or Jack Barrymore or Jake Barrymore, is presented as a ghost haunting an unknown theater which, at the moment, is in rehearsal for a play. The gods have sentenced Barrymore to this purgatorial existence as penance for his abandonment of the theater and the squandering of his talents in the pursuit of fame, greed and dissipation. Barrymore disputes these assertions of the gods as he painfully and humorously examines the spectrum of his life. He chronicles his ascendancy to the throne as the finest classical actor of his generation; his arrival to the pinnacle of movie stardom; his intimate and compassionate relationships to his sister, Ethel, and his brother, Lionel; and the explosive debacles of his four marriages. The play has wit, terror, agony and hope, as we watch a mythological character explore the truths and deceptions of his extraordinary life.

If you've got a strong male lead who can play late 30s, you might want to check out my show, One Before Forty. First act is available at http://johnshanahan.net/playwright.