Halloween plays

for young adults

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SHORT ONE ACT PLAYS

One-act plays for college drama groups, high schools, university drama, graduate drama, undergraduate drama, thespian productions, youth theatre, community theatre, professional and amateur theaters and other entertainment production groups.

3 royalty free public performances 
included in the purchased drama script.   TERMS

About "Gothic Tale"

Lukas Leonards is the brash arrogant banker to the gangsters of 1920s New York.  He’s sure he’s going places; he’s successful and invincible.  He uses and discards people without remorse.  But, Lukas has dark fears and, as the Devil conjures up a demon rat to haunt him, Lukas becomes frantic with fear and he is driven to the depths of insanity and despair. The Devil offers Lukas a deal and Lukas accepts the price: his soul.  The Devil keeps his word...

Play Excerpt

Copyright Robert Reed All rights are strictly reserved.

SCENE ONE

(1920s New York, the house of Lukas Leonards.)

NARRATOR: 1920s New York was my fiefdom. You’ve heard of Carnegie and Rockefeller; I wasn’t quite in their league, yet. But, I had my empire and was determined enough to conquer all before me. Politicians and police chiefs took my bribes and gangsters trusted their money to me.

(Enter LEONARDS lighting a large cigar and reading a newspaper.)

NARRATOR: Everything was changing: skyscrapers were rising, like victorious obelisks to modern capitalism; Ford Model Ts crowded the roads; homes had phones, radios, vacuum cleaners and washing machines. Jazz was an obsession; hot dog stands grew up on the sidewalks; everyone went to the movies.

(Leonards checks his watch and puts on his tie in front of a mirror and then picks up the phone and dials.)

NARRATOR: It was age of Jack Dempsey, The Marx Brothers, the New York Yankees, Rudolph Valentino; hoodlums like Al Capone and ‘Lucky’ Luciano made fortunes from Prohibition and immortalized the Thompson sub-machine gun.

LEONARDS: Hi, Honey (Pause). What’s eating you? Okay, so I forgot Jimmy’s birthday. I’ll take him to the Red Sox game. He’ll forgive me. Listen I can’t make it home this weekend: I’m just going to have to work all weekend. I need to meet with some important clients. You understand, Honey. (Pause) Honey? (Slowly lowers the phone.) It’ll cost me a diamond ring this time.

NARRATOR: I cared about money and power. I didn’t care about my family. I certainly didn’t care about the 42% Americans below the poverty line. I was invincible. (Pause.) Until Hell came scurrying for me.

(Knocking on the door...)  
...

SCENE FIVE

... (Leonards goes to the kitchen area and pours drinks. Janette picks up a picture of Leonards’ family.)

JANETTE: You didn’t say that you had a family.

LEONARDS: Does it make a difference?

JANETTE: It will to your family. I’m hungry. Can you fix me something?

LEONARDS: Sure, Janette. (Leonards starts to prepare a sandwich.)

NARRATOR: ‘Sure, Janette’. Lukas Leonards doesn’t fix sandwiches. My emotions were a violent maelstrom: from blind panic to anger in 30 seconds. I was going to call Madden: Flint had some more work on his capable hands. My conscience had now evaporated. I don’t make sandwiches.

...

SCENE SIX

(Leonards’ home. The Rat stares at Leonards.)

NARRATOR: I felt eyes feeding on the sight of me defenselessly at rest. Eyes with the desire to maim and blind, rip and chew flesh. I woke with a jump, nauseated and disgusted.

LEONARDS: You dirty scum. You dare to sit in my chair?

NARRATOR: The Rat began to nibble the cigar in its paws and lap at the drink in an obscene parody of myself.

LEONARDS: You think that’s funny?

THE RAT: An eye for an eye.

LEONARDS: You can’t talk. You’re a stinking miserable rat.

THE RAT: What you do to me will return to you.

LEONARDS: You can’t talk. I don’t believe in this voodoo rubbish.

NARRATOR: My brain was frozen, my body would not move. Was this creature here to devour my body and soul? I would not let it. I didn’t know how it was speaking, but I had to break its spell. ...

(The Rat cleans its whiskers and laughs at Leonards.)

NARRATOR: The spell was broken. I attacked with my book: the complete works of Shakespeare.

...

Copyright Robert Reed All rights are strictly reserved.

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HORROR PLAYS

Scary horror script
for Halloween

Community, amateur and professional theatre play script.

Perfect playscript for Halloween,
but at any time of the year. 
The play will leave the audience with an uneasy night’s sleep...

Dramatic and scary
theater script for amateur
and professional theatrical companies (15+). 

FUNNY "HORROR" PLAYS FOR KIDS

  If you need Halloween play for children, see > HALLOWEEN FOR KIDS