Do you have an abundance of actors who want to be involved in your next production? We’ve rounded up a list of 10 favorites that each boast 10 or more speaking roles so you’ll have plenty of parts to go around.
Great for Community Theatres
You Can’t Take It With You by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman
The family of Martin Vanderhof lives “just around the corner from Columbia University—but don’t go looking for it.” Grandpa, as Martin is more commonly known, is the paterfamilias of a large and extended family: His daughter, Penny, who fancies herself a romance novelist; her husband, Paul, an amateur fireworks expert; their daughter, Alice, an attractive and loving girl who is still embarrassed by her family’s eccentricities—which include a xylophone player/leftist leaflet printer, an untalented ballerina, a couple on relief, and a ballet master exiled from Soviet Russia. When Alice falls for her boss, Tony, a handsome scion of Wall Street, she fears that their two families—so unlike in manner, politics, and finances—will never come together. During a disastrous dinner party, Alice’s worst fears are confirmed. Her prospective in-laws are humiliated in a party game, fireworks explode in the basement, and the house is raided by the FBI. Frustrated and upset, Alice intends to run away to the country, until Grandpa and Co.—playing the role of Cupid—manage not only to bring the happy couple together, but to set Tony’s father straight about the true priorities in life. After all, why be obsessed by money? You can’t take it with you.
Cast: 9 men, 7 women (3 men extras)
Clue adapted from the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn, written by Sandy Rustin, additional material by Hunter Foster and Eric Price
Based on the iconic 1985 Paramount movie which was inspired by the classic Hasbro board game, Clue is a hilarious farce-meets-murder mystery. The tale begins at a remote mansion, where six mysterious guests assemble for an unusual dinner party where murder and blackmail are on the menu. When their host turns up dead, they all become suspects. Led by Wadsworth – the butler, Miss Scarlet, Professor Plum, Mrs. White, Mr. Green, Mrs. Peacock and Colonel Mustard race to find the killer as the body count stacks up. Clue is the comedy whodunit that will leave both cult-fans and newcomers in stitches as they try to figure out…WHO did it, WHERE, and with WHAT! A High School Edition is also available.
Roles: 6 men, 5 women
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Widely considered a masterpiece, this timeless classic challenges American ideas of power, intolerance, and justice. In the Puritan community of Salem, Massachusetts, a servant girl accuses a farmer’s wife of witchcraft. One accusation spirals into many, uncovering a web of bigotry and deceit that changes their lives forever. Among the most produced plays since its 1953 debut, The Crucible is both a gripping historical drama and an evergreen parable of contemporary society.
Roles: 10 men, 10 women
Is He Dead? adapted by David Ives
Jean-Francois Millet, a young painter of genius, is in love with Marie Leroux but in debt to a villainous picture-dealer, Bastien Andre. Andre forecloses on Millet, threatening debtor’s prison unless Marie marries him. Millet realizes that the only way he can pay his debts and keep Marie from marrying Andre is to die, as it is only dead painters who achieve fame and fortune. Millet fakes his death and prospers, all while passing himself off as his own sister, the Widow Tillou. Now a rich “widow,” he must find a way to get out of a dress, return to life, and marry Marie.
Roles: 7-12 men, 4-6 women
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
This lively courtroom drama dives into the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, where a Tennessee teacher was tried for teaching the theory of evolution. Two persuasive attorneys argue the case in an effort to determine the balance of church and state.
Roles: 21 men, 6 women, 2 boys, 1 girl, extras
Great for Educational Theatre
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (High School Edition) by Jack Thorne, based on an original story by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne
Nineteen years after Harry, Ron, and Hermione saved the wizarding world, they’re back on a most extraordinary new adventure–this time, joined by a brave new generation that has only just arrived at the legendary Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When Harry Potter’s head-strong son Albus befriends the son of his fiercest rival, Draco Malfoy, it sparks an unbelievable new journey for them all—with the power to change the past and future forever. Prepare for spectacular spells, a mind-blowing race through time, and an epic battle to stop mysterious forces, all while the future hangs in the balance. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (High School Edition) is a special adaptation of the beloved worldwide hit. Tailored for high school theatre productions, it provides young actors the opportunity to play Harry, Hermione, Ron, and all of their favorite characters on their very own stage and bring the wizarding world to life for their communities. Your students will be empowered to conjure the magic through their own creativity, making it a truly exciting and engaging experience for students and audiences alike.
Roles: 16 men, 14 women, 4 any gender
12 Incompetent Jurors by Ian McWethy
When a man is accused of abducting half a dozen cats, it’s a simple open-and-shut case, even for a jury that’s filled with oddballs like a dim-witted PR guy, a bickering couple, and a man obsessed with french fries. After all, every scrap of evidence indicts the accused. (I mean so clearly. The man is very, very guilty of stealing cats. Case closed.) And yet, Juror #8, a wannabe lawyer, believes that the “Cat Burglar” is innocent. Will he be able to sway the other jury members? Or will they side with Juror #3, the only sane man in the room?
Roles: 12-17 any
Empowered by Don Zolidis
Amaryllis is determined to win her Girl Scout troop’s cookie-selling contest, but she’ll need more than charm to win first prize (a unicorn!) and avoid last place (which means getting kicked out of the troop!). So when sales droop, she naturally turns to the financial sector for advice. Soon she’s faking a terminal illness, franchising her methods, and contracting with a payday lender to offer 30-year loans for cookies. A hysterical homage to Glengarry Glen Ross and send-up of the wild excesses of the financial crisis.
Roles: 3-11 men, 7-21 women
The Lost Boy by Ronald Gabriel Paolillo
Despite finding success and fame as a writer, James M. Barrie is dissatisfied with his work and his life. He returns to his hometown in Scotland to visit his mother, who still blames him for the long-ago death of his older brother in a skating pond. Haunted by the tragic accident and his mother’s harsh words, James slowly begins to confront his family’s tragic past with the help of an unexpected friendship and his own gift for storytelling. This fictionalized account of the birth of Peter Pan will warm the hearts of audiences everywhere who remember the magic and mystery of The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up.
Roles: 4-8 men, 3-10 women
The Young and Fair by N. Richard Nash
The scene is a fashionable Junior College for young women, and the story shows how a sincere and intelligent alumna returns to her Alma Mater with her idealistic younger sister, who enters as a student. The director of the college, a conscientious elderly woman, is responsible to a hard-headed board of directors, one of whom has a daughter who is a student. This student, a twisted and jealous girl, uses the threat of her father’s influence to throw a suspicion of guilt on two students, not to mention a servant, all of whom are innocent. One of the students implicated refuses to be blackmailed and the director of the college must face the issue of compromising with her own best standards of right and wrong. Eventually she takes matters into her own hands, and decides—with the help of the alumna and the latter’s sister—to stand by her guns. The director, though she realizes at last that the alumna is right in fighting compromise and deceit, has not the courage to see the fight through to the end, though the alumna and her sister do. Incidentally, one of the forms of blackmail used by the unscrupulous girl who precipitates the crisis is to force a Jewish girl, whose religion has been concealed, to do her bidding.
Roles: 21 women
