These Plays have been performed for UIL and are either 40-minutes long or have received approval at some point by the Austin Office.
All UIL contest show rates are $40 per performance, even if the play is listed at a higher rate for non-contest use.
This page will be continually updated as additional plays are either submitted by a school and approved or as we publish new plays that have been previously produced as pat of the state contest.
Two feuding brothers are killed in battle and Madam Creon becomes president of Thebes. The brothers’ sister, Antigone, wants to honor one in public through social media, even though the new Madam President has forbidden it. What follows is the battle between following law when it goes against your beliefs or following your heart. Madam Creon and Antigone battle it out amongst a chorus of news reporters and influencers all in the public eye through news and social media. Creon’s power and tenacity brings more tragedy and death to Thebes.
- Cast Size: 3M 3W 9+ ANY GENDER
- Running Time: Under an Hour
- Royalty Rate: $40 per performance
A family plagued with addiction and abuse has their world turned upside down when one member reaches a catastrophic breaking point. A grim but touching look into the origin of the all-consuming demon of shame that conspires to torture a matriarch for the sins of her husband and sons, and ultimately herself.
- Cast Size: 1F, 5M, 5+ either
- Running Time: UIL Length (Near 40 minutes)
- Royalty Rate: $40 per performance
Journey down the rabbit hole with the critically acclaimed Alice the Brave & Other Tales from Wonderland. First commissioned by and performed at Cassidy Park in Bogalusa, LA, this colorful, fun-filled adaptation of Lewis Carrol’s timeless masterpiece allows audiences to experience Wonderland like never before! While her parents are away on holiday, poor Alice finds herself bored out of her wits and forced to stay with her dreary Aunt Mathilda at her even drearier summer home. But after accidentally conking herself on the head, Alice discovers that a world of wonder and whimsy awaits her right behind Aunt Mathilda’s looking-glass. Littered with talking dodo birds and malicious Red Queens, Alice’s adventures teach her not only the importance of bravery, but that being true to oneself is the greatest conquest of all!
- Cast Size: 2M 2F 7M/F
- Running Time: 45 minutes (One-act) 90 minutes (Full-Length)
- Royalty: $40 (One Act) $60 (Full Length) per performance
In 1957 in the southern U.S., a young boy is missing and later found dead of a hit and run. Alcohol is the cause, and a family is torn apart when it is discovered that one of them is the driver. Black-out drunk on the night of the hit and run, Olivia Jacobs must deal with the realization that she could do such a thing. Broken promises, broken family…but is Olivia really the person responsible? The family is hit once again as the truth comes out.
- Cast Size: 5m 7W Plus extras
- Running Time: 40 minutes
- Royalty: $40 per performance
How do you prepare a little girl to slay a dragon? A traumatized child who has stopped speaking is helped by a therapist who struggles to peel back the layers of mistrust by entering the internal world of this little girl to help her confront the dragon that has stolen her voice and now threatens to completely destroy her.
- Cast Size: 3M 5W 1G
- Running Time: 2 hrs.
- Royalty: $75 per performance
- Available for UIL: $40 per performance for contest use.
The year is 1895 and Sarah Bernhardt is the greatest actress to ever grace the Victorian stage – just ask her! The “Divine Sarah” fears, however, her once bright star may be fading with all the attention suddenly being lavished on a talented, younger rival. When she stumbles across an incredible new script written by a naïve, but up-and-coming playwright, though, Sarah is convinced her path to theatrical immortality is assured… until her rival also gets her hands on a copy. Throw in a fuss-budget theatre manager, a stern Teutonic maid, a nimble-footed usher, plus a hilarious jumble of confusions and complications – and the stage is set for the ultimate showdown as the two dueling divas cross wits and blades in this frantically funny farce!
- Cast Size: 3M 3W 6M/W
- Royalty Rate: $75 per performance
- Running time: 90+ minutes
The Fourth Ward is a historic drama loosely based on events in the life of Jacob Riis, the author of How the Other Half Lives. It is the story of how he used his revolutionary new invention, flash photography, to bring light to the horrible living conditions of immigrants in New York City in the early 1900s. This heavy ensemble piece begins with Riis capturing photographs and crossing paths with the Vasnetov and McCauley families-Russian and Irish immigrants sharing tenement housing in the fourth ward. Riis begins a partnership with Aleksandrina Vasnetov that blossoms into romance. Meanwhile, we discover the struggles that the families must endure because of the poor living conditions-lack of space to continue dancing as they did Russia, mental health issues, separation from family members, and harsh dealings with New York City gangs. Through the heartache of these events, Riis is able to inspire the families and bring about social change.
- Cast Size: 5M 5W plus ensemble
- Running Time: 40 minutes
- Royalty Rate: $40 per performance
Adapted from Corrie ten Boom’s autobiography, The Hiding Place dramatizes one family’s efforts to do what is right during Hitler’s invasion of Holland. Spinsters Cornelia and Betsie ten Boom and their elderly father become central figures in an underground operation to rescue, house and relocate persecuted Jews. But when Nazis raid their home, they find only the family, their “guests” safely hidden. The three are brutally arrested, separated, and imprisoned. Corrie and Betsie are shipped by crowded cattle car to a German prison camp, arriving with nothing but a tiny bottle of vitamins and a contraband Bible. In unbearable conditions, they share scripture and hope with others. In a powerful moment, Corrie discovers that the seeds of faith she and Betsie sowed have begun to grow in the most unlikely of hearts.
- Cast Size: 7M 8W (flexible cast with doubling, plus extras)
- Running Time: 40 minutes
- Royalty Rate: $40 per performance
Walter L Newton’s adaptation of the Joanne Greenberg novel – Debra Klein created the Kingdom of Yr as a form of defense from her frightening reality. In childhood, Debra suffered frequent abuse from her anti-Semitic peers and neighbors. At first Yr was a safe-haven, but over time the gods of Yr became tyrannical dictators who ruled Debra’s every word and action. At the age of 16, Debra was committed to a mental hospital with schizophrenia. This is the story of her remarkable cure.
- Cast Size: 5M 6W
- Running Time: 2hrs
- Royalty: $75 per performance
Colin sits alone in the cafeteria every day. The eye patch he must wear over his injured eye makes him a favorite target of the school bullies. When Amy transfers to Colin’s school and wants to sit with him, he’s suspicious of her motives. Most of his classmates have been trying to get the secret of what happened to his eye for years, but he’s never told a soul. When Amy asks about the eye patch, Colin makes up increasingly outrageous stories (which are acted out on the stage). Finally, Amy becomes fed up with Colin’s stories and he is faced with the choice to open up to Amy and make a friend or to keep his defenses up and remain alone.
- Cast Size: 10-30 roles. Flexible Casting
- Running Time: 40 minutes
- Royalty Rate: $40 per performance
In 16th Century Hungary, working for the most powerful women in the country is the hope of any young peasant girl. Zsuzsanna’s time has come. Intelligent and independent, she is aware her future lies within the castle walls. Elizabeth Bathory, of quiet disinterest and strength of fortitude, has discovered a secret; a soothing salve to alleviate pain, slow the ravages of age, and quiet the voices. Zsuzsanna’s success could be Elizabeth’s salvation. Based on historical events shrouded in the fortress of the most prolific serial killer in history, enter a world where the fight for survival is common, but an unknowable destiny tests the tenuous grasp of sanity and soul.
- Cast Size: 6M 10W 1 Gender Neutral
- Running Time: Under an Hour
- Royalty Rate: $40 per performance
UNCLAIMED is loosely based on events leading up to the Hartford Circus Fire on July 6, 1944 and the circus performers (and sideshow freaks) who were affected by the darker side of circus life. Mixed with haunting images, humor, and humanity, UNCLAIMED will remind you that hope can be found in even the darkest of places.
- Cast Size: 7/8M 7/8W plus extras
- Running Time: 40 minutes
- Royalty Rate: $40 per performance
Ville du Havre is based on the true events that inspired the hymn, “It is Well”. The script intereaves the lives of Horatio Spafford, the man who wrote the lyrics, and Philip Bliss, the man who wrote the melody. After facing several tragic events (the death of his son, loss of property in the Chicago fire, and the drowning of his four daughters as they travelled to England on the Ville du Havre), Spafford is inspired to write the famous words as he passes over the spot where the shipwreck occurred. Throughout the play, the events that lead up to the writing occur, as Bliss struggles to find the melody and faces his own tragedy-his wife leaving him after struggling with infertility. However, the overall message is one of hope, as both men are able to arrive at peace in their own lives and the hymn comes to completion.
- Cast Size: 8M 7W
- Running Time 40 minutes
- Royalty Rate: $40 per performance
In August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina brought unprecedented devastation to the Gulf Coast. Yet in Chalmette, LA, just one mile southeast of New Orleans, residents faced more than a twenty foot wall of water. In Chalmette, the twenty foot wall of water that surged over the levees lifted an oil rig at the Murphy Oil refinery, and consequently, more than 900,000 gallons of oil spilled into the community. The result was the world’s largest residential oil spill in the history of mankind. When those that survived the storm returned to Chalmette to survey the damage, they found their homes, their belongings, and their lives covered in a dark, slimy, toxic substance. In the summer of 2006, Playwright Mary Kathryn Nagle–a law student at Tulane Law School living in New Orleans at the time–interviewed more than thirty residents of Chalmette who survived both the spill and the storm. Welcome to Chalmette is the culmination of those interviews, and tells the real stories of a community that pulled together in unity in the face of one of the worst catastrophes in the history of our Nation. Katrina was a natural disaster, but the subsequent spill of 900,000 gallons of oil was not. Thus, Welcome to Chalmette reveals the struggles and triumphs of the citizens of Chalmette–in the hopes that the man-made tragedy they were forced to survive will never be repeated.
- Cast Size: 6M 5W
- Running Time: 2 hrs
- Royalty Rate: $75 per performance
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