September Reading List: Plays for Competition

As you gear up for competition season, why not check out some of our top picks for standout plays? These scripts are bursting with memorable characters and fantastic stories, giving your students the perfect material to showcase their talent.

The right play can really set your students apart in the competition scene. These selections are not only engaging but also offer plenty of moments for your actors to shine. Add one of these plays to your competition lineup, and get ready to see your students make their mark!

Agatha’s two brothers have broken a school rule on a dare. One of them is expelled and the other is not. When Agatha demands equal treatment for her brothers, she finds that standing up for what’s right comes with consequences.

Set in a modern-day high school, the play translates the original Greek chorus into a fantastic ensemble opportunity.

Learn more about Agatha Rex - Competition Version now!

Stories all over the world are under attack. Storybooks are going blank in a pandemic so big, the government is involved.

SynCryn has come up with a “foolproof” plan: the Rebootilization process! What could go wrong? How about glitches in the software, a director who can’t function without electronic devices, and stories thawing out too quickly…

Learn more about Rebootilization - Competition Version now!

If you found a massive picnic and a sign saying FREE FOOD what would you do? Would you take it all for yourself? Share it with your family? Share with those in need? These are the questions the people of Promisetown have to answer in this social drama. How do people reconcile their belief systems with their greed?

This play is an excellent competition piece with a great ensemble opportunity. Building the picnic offers a terrific challenge for your tech students!

Learn more about Free - Competition Version now!

In the future, a class war has confined the poor to “The City” and placed struggling families in the Bobby Sue program. Bobby Sue tells its owners when to wake up, when to apply for jobs, and how to be good. Doesn’t everyone want to be a good, shining star? There’s cake for shining stars! Doesn’t everyone want to be told what to do? What to think?

But what happens when people want to think for themselves? And why isn’t anyone allowed to leave?

Learn more about Sweep Under Rug - Competition Version now!

Why did the chicken cross the road? Why is the sky blue? What’s two plus two? Why did he kill himself?

A group of teenagers grapple with unanswered questions as they struggle to understand why someone who appeared to have everything chose to end their life.

Here’s a chicken. Here’s the road. There’s the other side. What do you do when there is no answer?

Learn more about Chicken. Road. - Competition Version now!

Dallas is a real smarty pants; he can read Hamlet in half an hour! He can't wait to show off in his new Advanced Placement class. But there's more Play-doh than Plato and more colouring than Van Gogh. What kind of advanced class is this? Will Dallas figure out Kindergarten High or will he flunk? Who's the real smarty pants?

A fantastic competition piece that encourages students to develop strong characterizations.

Learn more about Smarty Pants now!

Do ghosts make a house haunted, or are houses evil to begin with? This question and others are answered in The House.

Join the Grey One as they share the stories of houses that hold lost children, jealousy gone wrong, and things beyond explaining.

Do you believe in haunted houses? Did that door just creak open on its own? Who’s walking upstairs? Only the house knows…

Learn more about The House - Competition Version now!

Not all ghost stories are created equally: Some were never that scary. Some get lost in translation. Some lose their impact over time and fade into obscurity.

But what happens when a story is so timeless - so terrifying - it takes root in your brain and demands to be told?

An ill-fated storyteller is under the control of five very old, very dangerous stories from around the world: The Shadow Stories. The Shadows have a curse and a plan. Now all they need is an audience…

Competition cutting suggestions included in the script.

Learn more about The Shadow Stories - A Cursed Play now!

Charlie is surrounded by ghosts. The ghost of an estranged father who leaves her an antique musket. The ghost of a classmate’s sister who cautions Charlie, The Grey will hear you.

Who are the Grey? Ghosts of Lost Confederate soldiers ambushed following the first battle of Fredericksburg, 1862.

As the Aurora Borealis light up the Virginia night sky Charlie must confront the living and the dead. She’s trying to find peace but will she make the right choice? What brings her to the centre of a barely frozen lake with the musket and her ghosts? Beat! Beat! Drums! Blow! Bugles! Blow!

This award-winning piece is haunting, exhilarating and theatrical.

Learn more about The Blue and the Grey now!