ACTOR
1: (M)
Plays
MARK TWAIN, BEN ROGERS, KING HUBERT, COLONEL SHERBURN; also acts as NARRATOR.
ACTOR
2: (F)
Plays
HARRIETTE THE REPORTER, JESS, PEASANT MAID, EVE; also acts as NARRATOR.
ACTOR
3: (M)
Plays
MARK TWAIN, TOM SAWYER, DONKEY, ADAM, BOGGS; also acts as NARRATOR.
THE
MARK
TWAIN SHOW
WHY
IS THIS PLAY BEST FOR YOUR SCHOOL?
Easy
Choice! Top Quality! All
of these plays were professionally developed by ArtReach Touring
Theatre or were commissioned by Professional LORTS like Florida Rep
and Rep of St. Louis. All have had professional tours to
theatres and schools across the country. Many have won awards
in High School One Act Play Contests, Drama and Thespian Speech and
Theatre Competitions.
Easy Staging and Travel! Competitions
rarely take place on your own stage! These One Act Plays have
been designed to travel to the Contest Host Theatre on that important
competition day. All have easy staging, simple sets & costumes,
minimal props, flexible tech for a mainstage or gym/open facility
performance space. At last your students can worry about their
performance, not the set!
Easy to Adapt with Flexible Casting!
When you license any of our One Act Plays you have permission to cut,
adapt and adjust cast size! You also have permission to make a
video or DVD of the production! At last, you are allowed to
adapt a play to your students' needs!
Easy Budget! These
One Act Plays, can be successfully produced on limited budgets and
by small or expanded student casts with little or no tech
assistance. Many have great background CDs for an easy,
inexpensive professional touch!
Easy Ordering! Follow
the steps to order and pay your royalty, once you've paid,
you're good to go! No complicated applications and the
endless trouble of getting permission to make changes for your
students' needs!
Tried
and True! Our
One Act Plays have been performed literally thousands of times by
many professional theatres such as Stella Adler Theatre, Solano Youth
Theatre, Nebraska Theatre Caravan, Singapore Repertory Theatre,
George Street Players, Fulton Theatre Company, Indiana Repertory
Theatre, Boarshead Theatre, Virginia Stage, Honolulu Theatre for
Youth, Kennedy Center and Sundance Children's Theatre, to name a
few. High Schools, Junior Highs, Middle Schools have been
performing these plays for over 30 years!
ACTOR
2: (Reads.) "Saturday morning was come, and all the
summer world was bright and fresh, and brimming with life." (Moves
around STAGE and gestures as the action she describes takes place.
To AUDIENCE.) Tom Sawyer appeared on the sidewalk... (ACTOR 3
appears as TOM.) ...with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled
brush. (ACTOR 1 hands him these things, then EXITS.) He
surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him.
ACTOR
3/TOM: Thirty yards of fence! Betcha it’s nine feet high. (Does
the following as ACTOR 2 speaks following lines.)
ACTOR
2: (To AUDIENCE.) Sighing, he dipped his brush and passed
it along the topmost plank, repeated the operation, then sat down on
a tree-box, discouraged.
(ACTOR
2 EXITS to become JESSICA.)
TOM: (Groans
and drops his brush in the bucket, then sits with his head in his hands.)
Aw, shucks.
ACTOR
2/JESS: (ACTOR 2 has become JESS by putting on a cap. She too
has a bucket. ENTERS singing.)
Buffalo Gals, won’cha come out tonight? Come out tonight!
Come out tonight! Oh, Buffalo Gals, won’cha come out tonight and
dance by the light of the moooon?
TOM:
Say, uh, Jess...
JESS: (Smiles,
coquettish.) Yeah, Tom?
TOM:
I’ll fetch the water for ya if you’ll whitewash some.
JESS: (Shakes
her head.) Can’t, Tom. Aunt Polly, she told me to go and
get this water and not to stop to fool around with anybody. She says
she expected Tom was going to ask me to whitewash some, and so she
told me to go along and tend to my own business.
TOM:
Oh, never mind what she said. That’s the way she always talks.
Gimme the bucket. I won’t be gone only a minute. She won’t
ever know.
JESS:
Oh, I better not, Tom. Aunt Polly, she’d tear my head off a me.
Indeed she would!
TOM:
Aw! She never licks anybody. Whacks ’em over the head with her
thimble—and who cares for that, I’d like to know. She talks
awful, but her talk don’t hurt.
JESS:
But, Tom, I’m powerful afraid of Aunt Polly. (They have a tug
of war over the bucket.)
TOM: (Gives
up. Thinks.) If you let me fetch the water, I’ll show you
my sore toe.
ACTOR
1: (ENTERS. To AUDIENCE.) Well, Jess was only human, and
this attraction was too much for her. (TOM starts to take off his
shoe. Both huddle over the toe. JESS is very interested. Still
huddled over, speaks as Aunt Polly, in falsetto.) Tom! Thomas! (EXITS
to become BEN.)
TOM: (Looks
up, startled. Looks off as if he "sees" Aunt Polly in the distance.) Oh!
JESS: (As
if to the unseen Aunt Polly.) Oh, how dee do, Miss Polly. I was
just&ldots; just...
(JESS
Runs OFF in fear. TOM smiles falsely and waves to the unseen Aunt
Polly, following her as she "passes by," pretending to be
working very hard. When she has gone, he sits on the cube and throws
his brush in the bucket again and groans.)
ACTOR
2/NARRATOR: (ENTERS as NARRATOR again, carrying a triangle or
a small bell. To AUDIENCE.) Tom tried again, but his energy did
not last. He began to think of the fun he had planned for this day,
and his sorrows multiplied. At this dark and hopeless moment an
inspiration burst upon him... (Hits a triangle "ding" as
TOM’S face suddenly brightens with an idea.) Nothing less
than a great, magnificent inspiration! (TOM’S energy is
renewed as he paints again. Now he works happily. Soon ACTOR 1 ENTERS
up the aisle from the AUDIENCE, carrying an apple.) Presently,
Ben Rogers hove into sight. The very boy of all boys, whose ridicule
Tom had been dreading.
(ACTOR 1/BEN enters, chomping on an apple.)
ACTOR
1/BEN: Hi-ya! You’re up a stump, ain’t you! (TOM
continues to act as if he is enjoying himself, humming happily. Sees
BEN’S juicy apple but doesn’t let BEN notice.) Hello,
old chap, you got to work, hey?
TOM: (Pretends
not to have noticed BEN until now.) Why, it’s you, Ben! I
warn’t noticing.
BEN: (Shows
off.) Say, I’m going in a-swimming, I am. Don’t you
wish you could? But of course you’d druther
work—wouldn’t you? ’Course you would!
TOM:
What do you call work?
BEN: (Dull.)
Why, ain’t that work?
TOM:
Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain’t. All I know is, it suits
Tom Sawyer.
BEN:
Oh, come now, you don’t mean to let on that you like it?
TOM: (Continues
to brush enthusiastically.) Like it? Well, I don’t see why
I oughtn’t to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a
fence every day?
BEN: (Watches
TOM earnestly, nibbling his apple and trying to get this straight.
He considers, then speaks.) Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little.
TOM:
(Considers but shakes his head.) No. No, I reckon it
wouldn’t do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly’s awful particular
about this fence. It’s got to be done very careful. I reckon
there ain’t one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can
do it the way it’s got to be done.
BEN:
Is that so? Oh, come on now, lemme just try. Only just a little.
I’d let you, if you was me, Tom.
TOM:
Ben, I’d like to, honest. But, Aunt Polly—well, Jess wanted
to do it, and she wouldn’t let her. Now, don’t you see how
I’m fixed? If you was to tackle this fence, and if anything was
to happen to it—
BEN:
Oh, shucks, I’ll be just as careful. Now lemme try. Say,
I’ll give you the core of my apple.
TOM: (Acts
reluctant.) Well... here... (Starts to hand brush but pulls
it back.) No, Ben, now don’t. I’m afeard...
BEN:
I’ll give you all my apple!
TOM: (Hides
his smile.) Well, okay.
(MUSIC
that introduced the scene is heard as ACTOR 2 narrates. TOM has
lovely time munching away as BEN works.)
Note:
This is a sample from the actual script. To review the entire
play, order the PERUSAL SCRIPT (online instant download).
