A Box of Puppies

by Billy Houck

We can all relate to feeling small in a big world. The characters in A Box of Puppies share their insecurities, their frailties and their coping mechanisms with that big bad world.

This collection holds four short plays. Each are fresh, honest, and true. You know each of these characters. Perhaps they mirror your own insecurities and frailties.

Each play can be performed independently, or perform all four together for an outstanding competition piece.

Drama Character Study Issue-Based Monologue-Friendly Plays Student Directors

Average Producer Rating:

Recommended for High Schools

Times given are approximate and do not include intermissions/scene changes/breaks

14 Characters

2 M | 2 F | 10 Any Gender

Simple Set

31 pages

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Performance Royalty Fees

Royalty fees apply to all performances whether or not admission is charged. Any performance in front of an audience (e.g. an invited dress rehearsal) is considered a performance for royalty purposes.

Exemption details for scenes and monologues for competition.

14 Characters
2 M, 2 F, 10 Any Gender

Characters in this play are currently identified as male or female. Directors are welcome to assign any gender (binary or non-binary) to any character and modify pronouns accordingly.

Constantly, Incessantly, All The Time:

Rikki [F]

A backpack wearing student, burdened in more ways than one. 1 extended monologue

Huge Hands:

Sparky [M] 29 lines

A small adolescent boy, several monologues

Sparky’s Mom [F] 5 lines

Considers putting Sparky on Ritalin.

Sparky’s Friend, but not really [A] 9 lines

They’re on speaking terms.

A Random Kid [A] 2 lines

Just a kid in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A Gang of Kids (6) who bully Sparky [A]

One line, laughter, pointing

Diatom:

Dale [A] 89 lines

Teenager with a curious mind.

Robin [A] 87 lines

Teenager. Friend to Dale. More grounded in reality.

One Beer Too Many:

Skip [M]

An average kid. Once wrote a play that earned them a world of hurt. 1 extended monologue

Praise for A Box of Puppies

Joy Grabow

Hands on Stage Players

We chose this play to be our annual student directed/student tech directed one-act that deals with issues today's teens face. We really enjoyed working on this play.