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A Thousand Cranes
Small Cast (Touring) Play for Theatres, Schools
Medium Cast Version | Large Cast School Play Version

Even Youngest Audiences are Spellbound!

A Thousand Cranes

Cast: 3 (1M, 2F), expandable, adults
Time: about 40-45 minutes
CD: sound FX, background music
Audience: primary-intermediate, families
Published by: Dramatic Publishing
(Arrangements for scripts, performance rights)

The true and poignant story of Sadako Sasaki. A touching play about strength, hope and peace for the world.

A Thousand Cranes

Cast: 3 (1M, 2F), expandable, adults
Time: about 40-45 minutes
CD: sound FX, background music
Audience: primary-intermediate, families
Published by: Dramatic Publishing
(Arrangements for scripts, performance rights)

The true and poignant story of Sadako Sasaki. A touching play about strength, hope and peace for the world.

A Thousand Cranes is an extraordinary departure from children's theatre as usual.  Thought provoking and dramatic, even the youngest audiences can understand the play's deepest meanings.

A Thousand Cranes for Professional Theatres
A Thousand Cranes, Sadako's Story Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes Sadako, A Thousand Cranes
Syracuse Stage Company, NY

"A Thousand Cranes is one of those rare experiences that teaches you what theatre for young audiences, in its highest form, is all about."
 Hugh Murphy, for the Ohio Arts Councilil.

A Thousand Cranes is an extraordinary departure from children's theatre as usual. This play may be staged with a few simple props and unlimited imagination. The result is always elegant and moving.

"It is obvious why it has won so many awards and hearts."
A Thousand Cranes, Play for Professional Theatres Children's Play for Theatres - A Thousand Cranes Children's Play for Theatres - A Thousand Cranes
Syracuse Stage Company, NY - Stella Adler Academy, Los Angeles, CA

"A Thousand Cranes is one of the most moving pieces of American playwriting I have ever had the privilege of experiencing, It has a timely theme and universal appeal.  It is obvious why it has won so many awards and hearts."
Suzanne Larson, Artistic Director - Lady's Island Dinner Theatre


A Thousand Cranes is the true and poignant story of Sadako Sasaki, a young victim of the Hiroshima atomic bomb disaster.

"The girl who sparked a movement of peace."
Sadako Sasaki in Japan
Flat Rock Playhouse, NC - The Gemini Collective - Adelaide Fringe 'A Thousand Cranes'

Sadako was only two years old when the bomb fell and seemed to be unharmed, but at twelve she was diagnosed with "radiation sickness" an aftermath of the bomb's effects.

"It is such a well-done, wonderful script..."
A Thousand Cranes Kenji and Sadako in A Thousand Cranes Children's Play for Theatres - A Thousand Cranes
Syracuse Stage Company, NY - Honolulu Theatre for Youth

With boundless optimism, she takes an old story to heart: If a sick person folds a thousand paper origami cranes the gods will grant her wish and make her well again. She begins to fold her thousand cranes.


Extraordinary Theatre for Children
Children's Play - A Thousand Cranes Children's Play for Theatres - A Thousand Cranes Children's Play - A Thousand Cranes
A Thousand Cranes, Lexington Children's Theatre - Childsplay, Arizona's Professional Theatre for Young Audiences

Before Sadako is able to complete her task, she is visited by her Grandmother who lovingly carries her on the back of a glorious crane to the land of a thousand, thousand spirits. There she joins her ancestors and learns that her true wish may be granted. Her friends and classmates finished Sadako's work. They folded enough cranes to make a thousand... 

Sadako Folds Her Thousand Cranes
Children's Play for Theatres - A Thousand Cranes Children's Play for Theatres - A Thousand Cranes
Repertory Theatre St. Louis - Hexagon Theatre, So Africa -  Honolulu Theatre for Youth


"Everyone who worked on the show was profoundly moved.”
ArtReach's A Thousand Cranes Secondstory's production of A Thousand Cranes Sadako's Family in A Thousand Cranes
A Thousand Cranes, SecondStory Repertory, Redmond, WA

Today children in Japan and all over the world fold a thousand cranes and lay them at the feet of Sadako's statue in the Hiroshima Peace Park. Their wish is engraved at the bottom of the monument: 

"This is our cry, This is our prayer, Peace in the world"

Children's Museum & Theatre of Maine, Portland


 "In one precise, economical line, the playwright frees Sadako from her task, shifts emphasis from an individual child to the greater community, and expands the story's scope from sustaining a single life to that of a global effort toward peace. "It is better," says her grandmother," for others to finish the cranes."

Joseph T. Rozmiarek, The Honolulu Advisor

"Strikingly Simple -- Strongly Theatrical"
Children's Play for Theatres - A Thousand Cranes A Thousand Cranes - Beautiful, Simple Set Design! Children's Play for Theatres - A Thousand Cranes
Barter Theatre, VA - Adventure Stage, Chicago - Childsplay, AZ

"It is an extraordinary opportunity to share in a multicultural experience that has wowed family audiences throughout America."
Stephanie Riven, Center of Contemporary Arts, St. Louis

"A tremendously moving piece..."
Children's Book and Play Review


A Thousand Cranes has three versions:

Large Cast School Play Version
Flexible Cast of 17-38 (2M, 4F, all others M/F) for grades K-6

Medium Cast Version
Flexible Cast of 13 (4M, 4F, 5M/F) for grades 6-12

Small Cast (Touring) Version (this page)
Cast of 3 (1M, 2F) for adult actors.

"Elegant, sophisticated and imaginative."
Cast of A Thousand Cranes Ariel Gymnastics in A Thousand Cranes
Adelaide Fringe Festival 2019. The Gemini Collective.


A Thousand Cranes is the Winner of National Endowment for the Arts Playwriting Award
  A Thousand Cranes!  One Act Play for Professional Theatres! Children's Play for Theatres - A Thousand Cranes Plays for Children - A Thousand Cranes

ArtReach's Famous Award-Winning Play A Thousand Cranes. This touring version has been performed world-wide and inspired young people to strive for peace.

Twenty Great Plays for Children!Scholastic Publishing
Published:  20 Great Plays for Children - Scholastic

 Performed at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington DC.  Winner of an Ohio Arts Council Playwriting Award.


More Great Comments...
Who's producing A Thousand Cranes?  Click for Productions

Boys and Girls Clubs Pima Arts Blue Ridge Now Second Stage Repertory Theatre CSM College of Southern Maryland

 Grand Rapids Herald Review Adelaide Festival Grand Rapids Players  Denver Academy of Musical Arts

Arizona Daily Star Salisbury Post Childsplay Theatre for Everyone ACT Academy Children's Theatre Junior Theatre Festival Online

The Rep Imagination Theatre Company St. Louis Piedmont Players Theatre Adelaide Fringe Festival Fremont Civic Theatre International Schools Through Theatre

Canon City Schools Texas Thespians  Flat Rock Playhouse Studio 52 Theatre Arts Education Adelaide Fring Winner 2018 The Majestic Theatre Marianapolis Schools

Asheville NC Mountain Express  ASU Arizona State University  Academy of the Lakes  Honolulu Theatre for Youth

Scholastic PCPA Pacific Conservatory Theatre Bland County Public Schools McGraw Hilll - Studysync Online Learning

Free Resources: In the News, Behind the Scenes, Directing Tips, Classroom Activities 


Children's Play for Theatres - A Thousand Cranes Children's Plays - A Thousand Cranes Small Cast Children's Plays - A Thousand Cranes Children's Play for Theatres - A Thousand Cranes
Asian Children's Festival, Singapore - ArtReach Touring Theatre - Wild Swan Theatre - St. Louis Rep


"Kathryn Schultz Miller's A Thousand Cranes is the moving, true story about the effects of war on the life of a 12-year-old girl, told in strikingly simple, but strongly theatrical terms."
Stephanie Riven, Center of Contemporary Arts, St. Louis


"The play is deeply spiritual. The message is that hope rises from the ashes of tragedy."
Dori Baker, Washington Post


 "I cannot recommend this piece highly enough."
Daniel Higgins, KDHX 88.1 FM, St. Louis


 "It is such a well-done, wonderful script that is really appropriate for so many different age groups.  Some of the schools brought kindergarten classes and teachers said that the kids were mesmerized."
  Katy Brown, Barter Theatre, Abington, VA


"A Thousand Cranes is a play about connecting to the past in order to see the present more clearly."
Esther, "A Catholic Mom in Hawaii"


"Director Jeffery Matthews has fashioned a moving presentation out of very simple materials: four actors, a basic set, and a few simple props. Sadako sees her grandmother again and flies on a crane's back to heaven, an illusion beautifully realized."
Sarah Boslaugh, TalkinBroadway, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis


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