playS and MuSicalS - Contemporary Drama Service

Theatre Games and Comedy Melodramas
Persuade ®
by NANCY K. KIENZLE
A classroom game for
developing persuasion skills
Complete game with elements for
a class of 30 students. Replayable
components for long-term use.
Boxed game: $15.95
Order #R-G15
The basic unit works wonderfully to develop students’
persuasion skills so needed in our increasingly
competitive society. English and speech teachers,
especially, will find this game the perfect means of
introducing the basic elements of persuasion as
related to interpersonal communication. The game
literally plays itself. The teacher need only be a
moderator for post-game discussion. Class is divided into
groups of six students. Each group is given
several decks of Persuade cards. A card from each deck
creates a unique situation for role-playing. Persuasion
effectiveness is rated on a scorecard. Game can be
adapted to any number of rounds for several days’ use.
Successfully tested in classrooms for several years.
Designer Nancy K. Kienzle was selected Outstanding
High School Speech Teacher in Ohio.
Bravo!
by ALVIN J. SCHNUPP
A game for improvisational role-players
Complete game book with
reproducible components: $15.95
Order #R-G17
Four categories of components challenge role-players to
create several hundred different dramatic situations.
These role-plays may be used for developing
improvisation skills, values education or simply for the
fun of being spontaneously creative. The game book
provides seventy different units in four categories:
1. Scene Situations, 2. Scene Locations,
3. Character Vocations, 4. Character Traits. There
are no winners or losers in any of the role-play games.
Each scene ends when the situation is resolved, time
runs out or a powerful punch line signals the end. Full
of laughs, surprises and insights. Included are 280
reusable cards printed in the game book. Cards may be
reproduced as needed.
Wait ’Til The Sun
Shines Nellie or
So Long,
Snivelheart
by CRAIG SODARO
A one-act comedy melodrama
Cast: 7F, 6M
Age level: Junior High to High School
Playing time: 20 to 30 minutes
Complete playkit with 10 scripts and
rights to reproduce copies: $20.95
Order #R-P471
www.contemporarydrama.com • toll-free 800-937-5297 • toll-free 24-hour fax 888-594-4436
57
Simon Snivelheart and his sidekick, Bungles, scheme
to get the land deed to the Hubbards’ Rest ‘n Peace
Hotel, and Nellie Hubbard in the bargain. Unknown to
the owners, the hotel is sitting over a long-lost
goldmine. Heroic Hector, the hero and Nellie’s beau,
manages to get the mortgage money on time, but
dastardly deeds thwart the payment. This can be
played to the hilt for laughs.
An
Old-Fashioned
Soap Opera
by PAUL LESLIE
One-act melodrama
in five pun-filled scenes
Cast: 3F, 7M, 2F extras
Age level: Junior High to High School
Playing time: 30 to 40 minutes
Complete playkit with 10 scripts and
rights to reproduce copies: $19.95
Order #R-P231
Strictly silly stuff for actors who really like to ham it up.
This one is as much fun for the players as it is for the
audience, and it’s hard to tell them apart. Everybody
participates. The audience is expected to hiss, groan,
cheer and boo. The completely predictable plot is
about how Sudsly Doorite saves Prell Pureheart from a
horrible demise at the hands of Dirty Dan
Dinglethorpe. It’s frothy and bubbly, but it’s fun.
Left in the
Wicker Basket,
or Right Under
the Ol’ Boarding
House Steps
by PAUL COLLETTE
and ROBERT WRIGHT Royalty play
A melodrama for multiple villains,
heroes and heroines (many female roles)
Cast: 11F, 2M, 2 M or F
Playing time: 45 minutes, 1 act
Order #R-R167 Script: $6.00
Order #R-RP67 Royalty: $40/performance
Everyone gets a great melodramatic part in this epic of
comedy and confusion. There’s the sweet orphaned
Trueheart Twins, the greedy headmistress Rhonda
Reevil and her dastardly daughters, Nasturtium and
Geranium. The arch villains are Sylvester Snodgrass
and his assistant, Sylvia, in search of the missing letter
that tells who is heir to a secret fortune. The struggle of
evil against good climaxes in a crazy event when all the
good guys are tied to the railroad tracks. Lots of sight
gags and funny lines. Excellent for a troupe of energetic
thespians.