800-448-7469 Mon-Fri 8:30am - 5:00pm CST

Welcome to Dramatic Publishing!

Ship times are not guaranteed. Learn More.

I Have a Story: Plays From an Extraordinary Year

I Have a Story: Plays From an Extraordinary Year

Edited by Jenny Millinger and Julia Hogan Laurenson. Written by Phoebe Anderson, Tom Arvetis, Braulio Arquilla, Mabelle Reynoso, Sonii Bora, Barry Kornhauser, Abby Bosarge, Tonya Hays, River Bratton, Brian Guehring, Eden Burnett, Max Bush, Anka Chiorini, James Still, Samantha Chuck, John Glore, Jaren Davis, Reginald André Jackson, Jonah Dean, Gabriel Jason Dean, Hanna Dziadurski, Lee Cataluna, Aditi Ganesh, Suzan Zeder, Sofia Gomez, Ramon Esquivel, Taos Goodwin, Idris Goodwin, Anaysa Gradillo-Hoover, José Cruz González, Makenzie Greer, Gloria Bond Clunie, Kira Hopgood, Eric Coble, Amari Howard, Caleen Sinnette Jennings, Ella Kohring, Dwayne Hartford, Isabella Marie Lucas, Silvia Gonzalez S., Madisyn Marchetti, Anne Negri, Alexis Muturi, Shay Youngblood, William Page-Dale, John Dilworth Newman, Augosto Rios, Alvaro Saar Rios, José Joaquín Salazar, José Casas, Genevieve Schroeder-Arce, Roxanne Schroeder-Arce, Salome Stein Kokin, Sandra Fenichel Asher, Amity Warren, Julie Jensen, Alexis Wiley, Jonathan Graham, Nathaniel Wiley, Eric Pfeffinger, Danger Zeiler and Allison Gregory.

Product Code: IG2000

  • Collection

Rights and availability
Please note: The titles in this collection must be licensed through the collection book itself. None of the titles within have a separate playbook.

* Please note the royalty rate listed is the minimum royalty rate per performance. The actual royalty rate will be determined upon completion of a royalty application.

$35.95 /book

Min. Royalty Rate: $15/perf

In stock

Synopsis

A historic offering from a truly exceptional year, this collection consists of 31 short plays written in collaboration between young people and acclaimed TYA playwrights during 2020/21. Filled with vitality, wit and love, the stories reflect a moment of seismic change, a moment when we lived and lost and mourned and protested and created and connected in ways unfathomable before—in ways that will forever shape our lives and the tapestry of our storytelling. The plays, written from the perspective of young people and suitable for TYA and middle/high-school performers, provide a powerful range of experiences and perspectives and can be combined for full performances or used for monologue and scene work. They are a revelatory response to this moment in time, but also to the larger question of what it means to be a young person, to inherit a world not of your making, but one that will shape your life—and be shaped by you.

Notes

Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

To review some frequently asked questions about streaming, please click here.

To apply for livestream or record & stream rights, please complete this form.

Digital Script Available

Click here to visit the digital script product page.

Details

  • Status

    In stock
  • Type of Show Collection
  • Product Code IG2000
  • Min. Royalty Rate $15/perf
  • Cost $35.95

Categories

  • ISBN(13) 9781619592735
* Please note the royalty rate listed is the minimum royalty rate per performance. The actual royalty rate will be determined upon completion of a royalty application.

Included Titles

Whoosh! By Aditi Ganesh and Suzan Zeder.

11-year-old Terra is having a weird summer. First, COVID strikes, leaving everyone quarantined at home, then she gets sucked into her computer and stuck in Google Earth! At least there’s a way home, but to do so, Terra must find three magical ingredients to save the planet and bring them back to the place where the earth meets the sky. Time is running out, for Terra and for the Earth!

  • Product Code: WK8000
  • Genre: Comedy|Drama
  • Cast Size: 1w., 4 to 11 any gender.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 12 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

One Barrel at a Time By Phoebe Anderson and Tom Arvetis.

Phoebe would so much rather be out horseback riding. After all, today’s the day she’d normally get her weekly lesson. Instead, like the rest of the world, she’s stuck at home. But when her horse pays her a surprise visit, it’s the power of her imagination that puts everything into perspective and makes the circumstances just a little easier.

  • Product Code: OB6000
  • Genre: Comedy|Drama
  • Cast Size: 1w., 3 any gender.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 15 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

The Scariest Movie By Braulio Arquilla and Mabelle Reynoso.

Paco is having the worst Halloween ever. Thanks to the pandemic, he is bored and alone on what was supposed to be the greatest night of his life. When watching his favorite scary movie fails to lift his spirits, its characters join forces to change the course of the night for Paco, who feels like he is living in his own scary movie.

  • Product Code: S4R000
  • Genre:
  • Cast Size: 1m., 2 any gender.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 15 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

An All-American Monologue Through Asian Monolids By Sonii Bora and Barry Kornhauser.

This monologue is written in the manner of a spoken word poem. It sheds light on what it is like to live life in America as a young Asian teen through this time of pandemic, touching on many social injustices including, but not limited to, the recent rise of anti-Asian hate.

  • Product Code: AN7000
  • Genre: Drama
  • Cast Size: 1 any gender.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 3 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

Galveston By Abby Bosarge and Tonya Hays.

This monologue is based on the real-life experiences of Abby Bosarge. Abby is a high-school senior who is battling leukemia during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Product Code: GE8000
  • Genre: Drama
  • Cast Size: 1w.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 4 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

Jesse the Great's Guide to Surviving a Depressing Pandemic By River Bratton and Brian Guehring.

Jesse is a brave, awesome middle-school theatre kid who uses they/them pronouns, deals with depression, and just had a crushing breakup right before the COVID pandemic shut everything down. Jesse is now sharing their survival guide (with some uninvited help from their loving mom) on what young people should and shouldn’t do when navigating depression during a pandemic. You know, so you are ready for the next pandemic … or robot uprising … or zombie apocalypse.

  • Product Code: J78000
  • Genre: Comedy|Drama
  • Cast Size: 1w., 1 nonbinary., 6 to 8 any gender.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 10 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

Yearbook 2020 By Eden Burnett and Max Bush.

Allison’s eighth-grade class has had everything fun taken from them during COVID—the camping trip at the beginning of the year, mall day, all sports, the play and the yearbook. Allison decides to ask her teacher to support her and the other students when she goes to the principal to ask if the yearbook committee could be permitted to create a yearbook of just the eighth grade. Allison wants to be able to look back on the year when she’s older and say: “I lived through that year, and this is the class that had to watch me slowly go insane.”

  • Product Code: Y39000
  • Genre: Drama
  • Cast Size: 1w.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 1 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

Four Horsemen and a Funeral (a eulogy in less than ten minutes) By Anka Chiorini and James Still.

As if being a high-school freshman isn’t weird enough—what do you do when a pandemic suddenly shows up and shuts down your life? Flash-forward and you’re an eleventh grader, and now it’s finally time to go back to school. How do you make sense of all the strange and surreal stuff that has been disguised as your life? For Annie and four of her theatre friends, you throw a funny funeral so you can kiss all that goodbye. With irreverent humor and wry geekiness, this is how it felt to one teenager as she navigates her way through the pandemic.

  • Product Code: FG5000
  • Genre: Comedy|Drama
  • Cast Size: 1w., 4 any gender.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 10 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

Tap Dance By Samantha Chuck and John Glore.

14-year-old Emily, housebound because of the pandemic, is forced to take her tap-dance class via Zoom—and the only room in the house that isn’t carpeted (and thus suitable for tapping) is the kitchen. It’s bad enough that her mother and obnoxious kid brother keep interrupting her, but she can’t master some of the steps, and she finally gives up in complete frustration. Mom offers some words of wisdom that save the day, and the play ends with a joyous group tap-dance number.

  • Product Code: TX3000
  • Genre: Comedy|Drama
  • Cast Size: 1m., 2w.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 15 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

The Great Zoom Battle for 6th Grade By Jaren Davis and Reginald André Jackson.

An incoming seventh grader, Roman Shepard, has called for a school assembly. He comes armed with horrifying experiences from sixth grade. With his first year of middle school having been hijacked by the COVID-19 pandemic, he has gathered both teachers and students together in hopes of preventing an equally disastrous experience in seventh grade. But will his fellow students allow him to tell the story his way?

  • Product Code: GF1000
  • Genre: Comedy|Drama
  • Cast Size: 4m., 5w., 4 any gender. Can be doubled.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 12 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

Jonah Pedals Out of the Whale By Jonah Dean and Gabriel Jason Dean.

Jonah is a thirteen-year-old football player who gets benched because of slipping grades. When he gets swallowed by a whale, he learns the meaning of persistence.

  • Product Code: J79000
  • Genre: Drama
  • Cast Size: 1m.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 10 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

Riding the Waves By Hanna Dziadurski and Lee Cataluna.

When the pandemic reaches Hawaii’s shores, two girls realize that even though they can’t play together or sit on the beach together, they are still allowed to surf together. Taking on the challenge of surfing a big wave helps one of the girls regain her confidence, and the experience helps both of them look past the pandemic.

  • Product Code: RE7000
  • Genre: Drama
  • Cast Size: 2w.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 6 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

The Right Kind of Noise By Sofia Gomez and Ramon Esquivel.

Isabel is excited to finish eighth grade, celebrate her quinceañera in the summer, and then start high school in the fall. Then COVID hits. Stuck at home with Dad and her brother Enrique, and feeling helpless while Mom works at the hospital, Isabel laments all she has lost on her podcast. But Isabel’s family helps her realize that she may not be as helpless or isolated as she thinks.

  • Product Code: RE6000
  • Genre: Drama
  • Cast Size: 2m., 2w.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 12 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

Dear Future 7-Year-Olds Who Will Be Surviving a Pandemic By Taos Goodwin and Idris Goodwin.

In this Mad Libs-inspired monologue a young person living through a pandemic pens a letter of advice for fellow young people in some possible distant future.

  • Product Code: DH7000
  • Genre: Comedy|Drama
  • Cast Size: 1 any gender.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 7 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

A Good Day for Jordan By Makenzie Greer and Gloria Bond Clunie.

When a 16-year-old Black boy is gunned down by a police officer, citywide protests and demands for justice prompt talented lawyer and truth seeker Makenzie Greer to confront the chief of police. Her memories of a similar childhood incident before the pandemic and her educational choices during the pandemic fuel her arguments as she gives the chief the choice of making this the best day of his life or the worst.

  • Product Code: GE9000
  • Genre: Drama
  • Cast Size: 1w.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 7 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

ChicaWow By Anaysa Gradillo-Hoover and José Cruz González.

In her own words, ChicaWow, a teenage girl of mixed heritage tells her story about how she managed during the COVID-19 pandemic to attend school, care for her younger siblings and face the loss of her grandfather and a best friend. It is a tale of love, family and the human spirit.

  • Product Code: CS8000
  • Genre: Drama
  • Cast Size: 1w.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 4 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

Big Changes By Kira Hopgood and Eric Coble.

Health class … the big talk about human sexuality … on Zoom! As a hapless teacher battles technical problems, horrified students, bewildering drawings and that kid who keeps watching Fast & Furious, best friends Naomi and Raphael wildly text each other just trying to stay sane … good luck with that.

  • Product Code: BM7000
  • Genre: Comedy
  • Cast Size: 2m., 2w.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 10 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

Out of the Box By Amari Howard and Caleen Sinnette Jennings.

Elliot, Renee and Graciela have each been struggling in their Zoom classes for a variety of personal reasons. Their teacher sets up a series of Zoom peer counseling sessions for them based on the belief that they can help one another overcome their problems. Elliot, Renee and Graciela must discover how to break the ice, let down their guards, share their secrets and help one another heal.

  • Product Code: OB7000
  • Genre: Drama
  • Cast Size: 1m., 2w., 1 any gender.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 12 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

You're the Reason By José Joaquín Salazar and José Casas.

A young boy plays his favorite game, Fortnite, while his uncle tries to interview him for a play they are supposed to work on together. As the game action ends, uncle and nephew begin talking about the game as a catalyst for exploring how the world has changed during the pandemic as well as the shared fears that COVID will continue to affect the world as we know it.

  • Product Code: Y38000
  • Genre: Comedy|Drama
  • Cast Size: 3m.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 15 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

W.W.H.G.D.? By Ella Kohring and Dwayne Hartford.

Ella is celebrating her birthday by wearing a purple princess dress and riding around downtown St. Louis in a carriage. As she waves to people, she recalls marching on that same street a few months earlier in protest of the murder of George Floyd. Thinking about our nation's long history of injustice, Ella channels her inner Hermione Granger and embraces her own new-found power to help fix the world.

  • Product Code: WK9000
  • Genre: Comedy|Drama
  • Cast Size: 1w.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 4 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

Isabella By Isabella Marie Lucas and Silvia Gonzalez S.

The realization of malice from random people toward a child can have lifelong ramifications—especially if the instance is overt racism. Here, a child opens the door for their family to exit from a pleasant meal at a fast-food restaurant when they are met with eyes of disdain for no reason other than the color of their skin and the culture they represent.

  • Product Code: IG1000
  • Genre: Drama
  • Cast Size: 1 any gender.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 5 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

Stay Peculiar By Madisyn Marchetti and Anne Negri.

Molly is stuck in her room during a pandemic shutdown, finding solace in songwriting and her TV show fan page. She meets Frankie online, who seems to share her passion for the show and music. They swiftly become digital BFFs. However, after Molly shares one of her songs with Frankie, he turns into a menacing bully. With the help of her music and inner strength, Molly frees herself to stay peculiar.

  • Product Code: S4S000
  • Genre: Drama
  • Cast Size: 2 any gender.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 12 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

Picture Me Better By Alexis Muturi and Shay Youngblood.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a teenager takes walks in her neighborhood and discovers that she is an introvert.

  • Product Code: PN8000
  • Genre: Drama
  • Cast Size: 1w.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 5 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

The Caged Bird By William Page-Dale and John Dilworth Newman.

A third-grade student shares their frustrations with the isolation of the pandemic and how they coped by playing and creating video games.

  • Product Code: CT1000
  • Genre: Drama
  • Cast Size: 1 any gender.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 5 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

Pandemic Kickball By Augosto Rios and Alvaro Saar Rios.

Augosto, a fifth grader, is not excited about his first day back to school, mostly because he has to wear a mask all day. But when something unexpectedly hilarious happens while playing kickball, he rushes home and shares the tale with his mom.

  • Product Code: PN7000
  • Genre: Comedy
  • Cast Size: 1w., 7 any gender.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 9 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

Closure By Genevieve Schroeder-Arce and Roxanne Schroeder-Arce.

A teenager shares her experiences with loss and grief during the COVID-19 pandemic. The monologue begins with a trip to a family gathering, which quickly turns tragic. As the young person experiences multiple surprises and turns, she learns about the importance of connection, family and things she may have taken for granted—like an opportunity for closure.

  • Product Code: CS9000
  • Genre: Drama
  • Cast Size: 1w.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 6 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

Climbing the COVID Wall By Salome Stein Kokin and Sandra Fenichel Asher.

As COVID isolation goes on and on, looming over her life much like the impossibly challenging climbing wall at summer camp,12-year-old Eli struggles to keep her spirits up. Her preoccupied older sister is no help, and her parents have decided that her much-anticipated bat mitzvah celebration with family and friends will be held online. Just when all seems lost, Eli turns 13, and everything changes.

  • Product Code: CT2000
  • Genre: Drama
  • Cast Size: 4 any gender.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 10 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

Falcon's Fury By Amity Warren and Julie Jensen.

Young Harper takes her friends to a theme park for her 13th birthday. It’s all perfect until her friends decide she should go on the most feared ride, Falcon’s Fury. But she’s got an idea to subvert their plan. Will it work? But of course—it’s her 13th birthday!

  • Product Code: FG4000
  • Genre: Comedy
  • Cast Size: 1w.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 9 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

Out of the Ordinary By Alexis Wiley and Jonathan Graham.

This monologue tells the story of a 9-year-old girl who uses her creativity and resilience to redefine the limits that the pandemic places on her world. Told with good humor, hopefulness and stuffed animals.

  • Product Code: OB8000
  • Genre: Comedy|Drama
  • Cast Size: 1w.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 5 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

First Nether By Nathaniel Wiley and Eric Pfeffinger.

Part of what makes Drew and Riley’s friendship so rewarding and enduring are their shared interests and natural rapport. Being together is just so easy—until a pandemic comes along and suddenly being together isn't easy for anyone. In the new normal, will talking about Minecraft ever be the same again?

  • Product Code: FG6000
  • Genre: Drama
  • Cast Size: 2 any gender.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 10 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

What in This World By Danger Zeiler and Allison Gregory.

The world outside is changing (and not in a good way), and life inside is feeling very uncertain—and crowded. How is a person supposed to figure things out when things keep disappearing? What does it mean to be an artist in troubled times? And how can you recreate the world with one crayon and a unicorn?

  • Product Code: WL1000
  • Genre: Comedy|Drama
  • Cast Size: 1m., 4w., 1 any gender.

    Livestream and Record & Stream Rights Available

  • Approx. Run Time: 10 minutes

License Available:
Through Collection

Media Reviews

Audio/Video

Downloads

Poster Suggestions

  • Each poster includes a text box which allows you to customize it with your production information. Once a poster has been opened, position your mouse over the lower third portion until you see a label with instructions on entering your production information. Use the Text Select Tool to customize your poster.
  • You can print the poster in its original format and hand write your information.
  • Your local copy shop should be able to create prints from a file saved to disk. They might even be able to increase the size of the poster for you (although some loss of resolution will occur).
Poster permissions: Please note that while the posters are customizable, the graphics and credits on each poster are not. The permission to manipulate any of the posters on our website is strictly limited to the production promotion box at the bottom of the poster. The graphics and all other text including author credits, title, etc., may not be manipulated in any way. This permission does not include the right to reproduce the graphics on any other media without the express written consent of Dramatic Publishing.

Also By This Author