| ONE
ACT PLAYS & MONOLOGUES
by Bruce Kane
Available for immediate download
| One
act plays, , male monologues and female monologues about life's most
important subjects... romance, infidelity, emotional masochism, envy,
therapy, bad sex, letting go, getting caught, unbridled ambition,
baseball, the theatre and, of course... murder. |
We
are proud to say that our plays and monologues continue to be successfully
performed in theatres, play festivals, competitions, schools and
colleges across the United States, Europe, Canada, England, Australia,
New Zealand, Taiwan, Maylasia, India and South America. |
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| Comedy-mysteries
written
for the stage
The
adventures of Justin Thyme, Fictional Detective. Hard boiled
with a side of irony, Thyme takes on the toughest, dirtiest
cases in English literature.
MYSTERIES
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"The
Case Of The Prince Formerly Known As Hamlet"
Tough
talking, hardboiled detective Justin Thyme travels to 11th
century Denmark to find out who whacked Hamlet's old man
and runs into a king named Claudius who wants him dead,
a prince named Hamlet who doesn't know what he wants and
a dame named Ophelia who wants everything including Thyme.
"The
Maltese Falcon" meets "Hamlet."
Productions:
Pasadena City College
Cambridge
Theatre Festival-UK
Crestwood Preparatory College
Listen to the opening moments:
Download full audio production |
"The
Case Of
The Tale Told By An Idiot"
Justin
Thyme, the hard boiled fictional detective, is hired to
find out who killed the King of Scotland and runs into complications
in the shape of the shapely Lady MacBeth, a sexy, devious
femme fatale and Thyme's flame from the old days when she
was just known as Nola MacDougal and she was no lady. |
"The
Case Of The Really Big Dog Of The Baskervilles"
"Film
noir" meets Sherlock Holmes when Justin Thyme, the
hard boiled fictional detective, is summoned to eighteenth
century England to discover his client dead and a list of
suspects that includes the heir to the murdered man's fortune,
the man's butler, a butterfly collector, a beautiful woman
who isn't what she seems to be and a four hundred year old
dog.
Recent
productions:
West Valley High School, Fairbanks, Alaska
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Monologue
- Male or Female |
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Instructions
about turning off cell phones, etc. turn hysterically hostile.
Why bore your audience with standard instructions when you
can entertain them at the same time. Works with any theatrical
production.
Productions
Central College
Indio
Performing Arts Center
(Read
review) |
Male
Monologues |
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Prince
Charming gives the lowdown on his ex-wives Sleeping Beauty,Snow
White and Rapunzel , wicked stepmothers-in-law and the perils
of trying to fulfill every woman's fantasy.
Read
A Review Read Second Review
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An
insecure and paranoid playwright talks about writing and
women two things he seems to know little about.
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1
minute monologue
The trouble with a woman who keeps changing.
(Read
the companion monologue "Dolores On Jeff" further
down this column) |
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A
manifesto for men saddled with dorky names. |
Female
Monologues |
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Ophelia
dishes on the royal family while explaining why she has
to marry Hamlet or die |
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A
sexy superhero talks about sexism among the caped crusader
set, her fling with Superman and why only Julia Roberts
can play her on screen. |
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1
minute monologue
The trouble with a man
who's taste in women keeps changing. |
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Cinderella
and Juliet commiserate about romantic love, happily ever after
and what went wrong with their marriages.
(One Act Comedy - Three women)
Read A Review
Read Second Review
Recent
Productions:
Oregon
State U.
Sonoma State U. |
With
a reptilian bartender acting as matchmaker, the future of
the human race looks anything but promising when a sophisticated
Eve meets the hunky but dim Adam over apple martinis at the
Garden of Eden Bar & Grill.
(One Act Comedy - 2 Males, 1 Female)
Recent
Productions:
Gordon
College
GRAPA, Australia
Firestone Theatre
Sonoma State U. |
"We
staged a cabaret-style season of your plays and songs –
the whole concept was enthusiastically received…the
audiences particularly enjoyed "In the Beginning"
and "Cindy & Julie." We are aiming to do it
all again towards Christmas."
Bernie
Maxwell
GRAPA
(Griffith NSW Australia) |
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Two
masochists form a relationship based on mutual rejection.
(1
male, 1 female)
"...If
I tell you that the text has been inspired by Bruce Kane’s
Masochism Tango , it should give you some idea of the nature
of the verbal exchanges. If Woody Allen or Mike Nichols and
Elaine May had gone in for movement theater, they might have
talked like this."
Allan
Ulrich
© VoiceofDance.com 2007
Recent
Productions:
West Wave Dance Festival
Coffee Creek Playhouse |
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Four
friends participate in a dance of shifting romances, friendships
and betrayals.
..."I Can Explain," by Bruce Kane, is a short
American play on the same theme, more implicit, but also more
extravagant and just as funny!"
Claude Vedder
Strasbourg
(One
act comedy -2 males, 2 females, 2 off-stage voices)
Recent Productions
FEATS Festival, Strasbourg, France
Comments
from Europe's Tagora Theatre Group |
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An
open marriage almost collapses when the husband admits he
hasn't been sleeping with anyone.
(1
male, 1 female)
Recent Productions:
RAF Lyneham Theatre Club |
A
man and woman who might have been perfect for each other meet
at exactly the wrong time in their lives... or is it?
(1
male - 1 female) |
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What
goes through the mind of two people involved in a one night
stand that is going nowhere.
(1
male, 1 female) |
An
insecure super hero has trouble completing a liaison with
his rival's wife.
(One
act comedy - 1 man, 1 woman)
Upcoming
Production
Indio
Performing Arts Center
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A disatisfied wife and an unhappy mistress each
wants what the other has... until they get it.
(1 male, 2 females)
Recent
Productions:
Coffee Creek Playhouse
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An
actress refuses to play her scene in the nude only to become
jealous of her replacement, who does not actually exist.
(One act comedy - 1 female, 4 males , 1 role either male or
female)
Productions:
Oregon State U.
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A
relationship between two people taken with their own sense
of emotional honesty and openess quickly rises and falls from
a lack of emotional honesty and openess.
(1 male, 1 female)
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Dating
after divorce can be a frightening experience especially if
the men you're going out with are Frankenstein, The Wolfman
and Dracula.
(One
Act Comedy - 1 major female & 5 small male roles)
Recent
Production
Bancroft Theater Guild
(Read
review)
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| Plays
that run less than 5 minutes |
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A
baseball/softball catcher uses the rules of grammar to drive
opposing batters crazy.
(One Act Comedy - 4 characters) |
What
looks like an intense confrontation between a couple facing
a break-up over his infidelities turns out to be something
quite different. Think cellphones in public places.
(1
male - 1 female) |
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 With
a hip hop style Roman Chorus providing narration, Julius Caesar
tries to prevent the luscious Cleopatra, the ambitious Brutus,
the lean and hungry Cassius and the dim witted Marc Antony
from knifing him in the back in this bawdy romp about the
folks who ran the Roman Empire - right into the ground.
(This
is the full length, unabridged version) |
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"Caesar
and Cleo"
She
was the most beautiful woman in the world. He was the most powerful
man in the world. Everybody wanted him dead. She wanted his power.
He wanted... well, what men usually want. A timeless story of passion,
intrigue, betrayal and politics involving those zany folks who ran
the Roman Empire... right into the ground. |
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"The
Case Of The Prince Formerly Known As Hamlet”
A Justin Thyme Mystery
“It
ended like most of my cases… with everybody dead." And
so begins the greatest murder mystery ever told.
My
name’s Thyme… Justin Thyme. I’m a fictional detective.
I take on the toughest, dirtiest cases in English literature. That’s
why King Hamlet had dropped a dime to tell me something was rotten
in the state of Denmark. But, before the old guy could cry “murder
most foul” somebody croaked him and I was up to my peepers
in betrayal, revenge, another murder, a duel to the death, a couple
of more murders, a king named Claudius who wanted me dead, a prince
called Hamlet who couldn’t decide what he wanted and a heavy
breathing skirt named Ophelia who wanted everything, including me.
And did I mention… murder? |
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Two
characters trapped in a one act play try to break free whileworking
out their relationship in a scenario that the unseen writer
keeps re-writing.
One Act Play - 1 man, 1 woman
"Thanks
for your brilliant play – the audience loved it!"
Rebecca E. (Becky) Grewer
Medicine Hat Musical Theatre
Recent
Productions
John Carroll University
U. of Central Missouri
U. of Wisconsin - La Crosse
Kyogle Theatre Society-Canada
Woking Drama Festival
Thompson Rivers U.
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Winner
- East Division
All England Theatre Festival
"Mirror,
Mirror" took home a record six awards for acting, directing
and production.
In
a land where "beauty is only skin deep - thank God"
a "woman of a certain age" takes drastic action
when she learns that she's been surpassed in the looks department
by her sexy stepdaughter as the tale of "Sleeping Beauty"
gets a 90210 face lift.
Recent
Productions
Rennsalear Polytechnic Inst.
Southend Drama Festival, UK
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"Winner
of the All-Ireland One Act Play Competition in 2007"
Winner "Most
Original Contribution" 2008 Cork, Ireland‘ Youth
Drama Festival
A
slovenly and indecisive Hamlet, a marriage bent Ophelia, a
horny Gertrude, a power hungry Claudius and a ticked off Ghost
let their hair down to Elsinore's hippest hair dresser.
"...we
won the Adjudicator's prize for Artistic Originality and my
actress playing 'Ophelia' won the Adjudicator's prize for
acting achievement (equivalent to best supporting actor/actress
prize). The Adjudicator even described the production as "a
breath of fresh air". I was very pleased to have won
2 out of the 7 trophies up for grabs as we were up against
some very good productions. Most importantly everyone enjoyed
our production - from the actors to the audience and we had
some wonderful feedback.
Julie
James
Woodlands Drama Group
Harrogate, England
Recent
Productions
Malthouse Players, Ireland
Goderich Theatre
- Canada
The Burnavon - Ireland
Theatre
Prelude - Lima, Peru
Dewdney
Players, Canada
Crestwood Preparatory College
Listen
to BBC interview with the Cookstown Drama Society talking
about winning the All-Ireland One Act Play Competition performing
"Ruby Of Elsinore"
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Vignettes
investigating the premise that the seeds of all disastrous
relationships are sown at the very begining.
Current
Production
Teatrul Metropolis -
Romania
Fall
2008
Scla'ka
Si Teatre at the
Centre Cultural Cardedeu, Spain
"10
quick takes on the dating game... the sketches move quickly
and devastatingly".
Los Angeles Dramalogue
Recent
Productions
Fresno Fringe Festival
St. Bonaventure U. |
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Facing
a mid-life crisis, a man calls on his reluctant conscience,
in the form of his leather clad, whip cracking ex-wife, for
help in choosing between his prudish fiancee and a nubile
fantasy woman who only exists in his imagination.
One
Act Play - 1 man, 3 women
"...a
psychologically brilliant and funny piece of work!" -
Marsha M. Morgan, Associate Professor of Theatre, Park University
Recent
Productions:
Montgomery Playhouse
Park University |
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Shakespeare's
famous balcony scene goes slightly askew when a fleeing Casanova
shows up to turn Romeo from a lover to a seducer under Juliet's
balcony.
(One Act Comedy - 2 males, 1 female)
Read A Review
Read Second Review
Recent
Productions:
Friends University
Pasadena College
Arden Club Theatre |
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In
a comedy about love and men, Shakespeare's Juliet gets conflicting
advice from “Othello’s” Desdemona, “Taming
of the Shrew’s” Katherine and Henry VIII’s
beheaded wife Anne Boleyn.
(One Act Comedy - 5 females)
Recent Productions:
Freeport Community Players
Pasadena
College |
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Julius
Caesar tries to prevent the luscious Cleopatra, the ambitious
Brutus, the lean and hungry Cassius and the dim witted Marc
Antony from knifing him in the back in this bawdy romp about
the folks who ran the Roman Empire - right into the ground.
(35
minute abridged version)
Download
audio version (mp3)
Listen to Audio Clip
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