The Online Books Page

Amateur plays

Here are entered collections of plays, skits, recitations, etc. for production by nonprofessionals. Works about, including history and criticism of, such plays are entered under Amateur theater.

See also what's at your library, or elsewhere.

• Amateur theater
• Drama

• Amateur theater
• Bible plays
• Charades
• Children's plays
• College and school drama
• Pageants
• Tableaux

• Amateur theatricals
• Drama for amateurs
• Plays for amateurs
• Women in amateur theatricals

• Drawing-Room Plays and Parlour Pantomimes (London: S. River and Co., 1870), ed. by Clement Scott, contrib. by E. L. Blanchard, J. Palgrave Simpson, W. S. Gilbert, Tom Hood, Charles Smith Cheltnam, Robert Reece, Arthur Sketchley, Alfred Thompson, Thomas Archer, John C. Brough, J. Ashby-Sterry, Sidney Daryl, and A. B. (multiple formats at Google)
• Festival Plays: One-Act Pieces for New Year's Day, St. Valentine's Day, Easter, All Hallowe'en, Christmas and a Child's Birthday (New York: Duffield and Co., 1913), by Marguerite Merington (page images at HathiTrust)

• The Witmark Amateur Minstrel Guide and Burnt Cork Encyclopedia (revised edition, c1905), by Frank Dumont (page images at HathiTrust)

• Strolling Players: A Harmony of Contrasts (London and New York: Macmillan and Co, 1893), by Charlotte M. Yonge and Christabel R. Coleridge (multiple formats at archive.org)

• Revolutionary Acts: Amateur Theater and the Soviet State, 1917-1938 (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 2000), by Lynn Mally
  • PDF files at Project MUSE
  • PDF files at JSTOR

• The Ancient Cornish Drama (translation of the Ordinalia plays; 2 volumes; Oxford: At the University Press, 1859), ed. by Edwin Norris
  • Volume I: multiple formats at Google
  • Volume II: multiple formats at Google

• The N-Town Plays, A Modernization (c1999), ed. by Stanley J. Kahrl and Alexandra F. Johnston (HTML at chass.utoronto.ca)
• "Everyman," With Other Interludes, Including Eight Miracle Plays (London: J. M. Dent and Sons; New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., reprinted 1914), contrib. by Ernest Rhys (Gutenberg text and illustrated HTML)
• The N-Town Cycle, ed. by Gerard NeCastro (HTML at Maine)
• The York Plays, ed. by Richard Beadle (HTML at Michigan)

• Christian Rite and Christian Drama in the Middle Ages: Essays in the Origin and Early History of Modern Drama (originally published 1965; open access edition Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019), by O. B. Hardison (HTML and PDF files with commentary at Project MUSE)

• Broken Words: A Fifth Century of Charades (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1911), by William Bellamy (PDF at djm.cc)
• A Century of Charades (1894), by William Bellamy (PDF at djm.cc)
• More Charades (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1909), by William Bellamy (PDF at djm.cc)
• Open Sesame: One Hundred Answers in Rhyme to William Bellamy's Century of Charades (Boston: Joseph Knight Company, 1896), by Harlan Hoge Ballard (PDF at djm.cc)
• A Second Century of Charades (1896), by William Bellamy (PDF at djm.cc)
• A Third Century of Charades (1904), by William Bellamy (PDF at djm.cc)

• Historical Acting Charades: or, Amusements for Winter Evenings (new edition; London: Griffith and Farran, 1858), by Julia Charlotte Maitland (multiple formats at archive.org)

• Children's Classics in Dramatic Form: A Reader for the Fourth Grade (1908), by Augusta Stevenson (Gutenberg text and illustrated HTML)
• A Treasury of Plays for Children (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1921), ed. by Montrose Jonas Moses, illust. by Tony Sarg (multiple formats at archive.org)
• Dramatized Scenes From American History (Boston et al.: Houghton Mifflin Co., c1916), by Augusta Stevenson, illust. by Frank T. Merrill
  • multiple formats at Indiana
  • page images at HathiTrust

• Tit for Tat: A Play for Little Folks (Chicago and New York: Dramatic Pub. Co., c1906), by Marjorie Benton Cooke (multiple formats at Indiana)

• Dreaming America: Popular Front Ideals and Aesthetics in Children's Plays of the Federal Theatre Project (Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, c2013), by Leslie Elaine Frost (PDF at Ohio State)

• Trickster's Famous Deeds: A Trilogy of Theatrical Plays For Children, by Florentin Smarandache (HTML at UNM)

• Pedantius, by Edward Forset, ed. by Dana F. Sutton (HTML with commentary at the Philological Museum)

• The Coming of the Mayflower: A Pilgrim Pageant (c1920), by Rosamond Kimball and Youth's Companion
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust
• The Making of South Carolina: A Historical Pageant, Presented by the Students of Winthrop College, Rock Hill, S.C., Friday, May 6, 1921, 2:00 P.M. (Rock Hill, SC: Record Printing, ca. 1921), by James Elliott Walmsley (page images at HathiTrust)
• Pageantry and the Pilgrim Tercentenary Celebration (1620-1920): With Sample Pilgrim Pageants, Suggestions for Programs, Bibliographies, etc., for the State of Utah (Salt Lake City: University of Utah, 1920), by B. Roland Lewis
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust
• The Path of Progress: A Pageant Drama of the Nation (Memphis: Press of Early Printing Co., c1920), by Annah Robinson Watson (page images at HathiTrust)
• "Scenes from Dreamland": or, "Christian and Christina's Journey", Arranged from "Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress" (New York: Hints Pub. Co., c1902), by Margaret Holmes Francisco, contrib. by John Bunyan (page images at HathiTrust)

• The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England (enlarged edition, 1903), by Joseph Strutt and J. Charles Cox (illustrated HTML at sacred-texts.com)
• The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England: Including the Rural and Domestic Recreations, May Games, Mummeries, Shows, Processions, Pageants, and Pompous Spectacles, From the Earliest Period to the Present Time (new edition; London: Printed for W. Reeves, 1830), by Joseph Strutt and William Hone (multiple formats at archive.org)

• Between the Acts (1941), by Virginia Woolf (text in Australia; NO US ACCESS)

• How the Pilgrim Spirit Came to Illinois: A Pageant Written and Presented by the Students and Faculty of the New Trier Township High School in Commemoration of the Tercentenary of the Landing of the Pilgrims (1921), by New Trier Township High School
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust

• The Pilgrim Spirit: A Pageant in Celebration of the Tercentenary of the Landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts, December 21, 1620 (pageant script by Baker, with poems by others; Boston: Marshall Jones Co., c1921), by George Pierce Baker, contrib. by Robert Frost, Hermann Hagedorn, Josephine Preston Peabody, and Edwin Arlington Robinson (multiple formats at archive.org)
• Plymouth Tercentenary: Illustrated, With a Brief History of the Life and Struggles of the Pilgrim Fathers (with program for a pagaent by Baker; 1921), by Harry Bloomingdale, contrib. by George Pierce Baker (multiple formats at archive.org)
• "The Pilgrim Spirit", Shown in the Pilgrim Pageant Staged at Plymouth, Massachusetts, July and August, 1921; Supplemented by an Illustrated Portrayal of the Separatists' Struggles From Spiritual and Bodily Bondage to Freedom (New York: Century History Co., c1921), by Joseph Dillaway Sawyer
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust; US access only

• The Book of the Words: Westchester County Historical Pageant, 1614, 1846 (c1909), by Violet Oakley
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust

• The Spirit of the Roanoke: A Pageant of Halifax County History (Roanoke Rapids, NC: Herald Publishing Co., 1921) (HTML and page images at ecu.edu)

• Coronations: Medieval and Early Modern Monarchic Ritual (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), ed. by János M. Bak (HTML at UC Press)

• The History of the Coronation of the Most High, Most Mighty, and Most Excellent Monarch, James II (London, 1687), by Francis Sandford and Gregory King (frame- and JavaScript-dependent page images at rarebookroom.org)

• Designs by Inigo Jones for Masques and Plays at Court: A Descriptive Catalogue of Drawings for Scenery and Costumes Mainly in the Collection of His Grace the Duke of Devonshire, K. G. (Oxford: Printed for the Walpole and Malone Societies at the University Press, 1924), by Inigo Jones, ed. by Percy Simpson and C. F. Bell (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• Masques and Entertainments (London et al.: G. Routledge and Sons, 1890), by Ben Jonson, ed. by Henry Morley
  • page images at HathiTrust
  • multiple formats at archive.org

• The Discription of a Maske, Presented before the Kinges Maiestie at White-Hall, on Twelfth Night last, in Honour of the Lord Hayes, and His Bride (London: John Windet for John Brown, 1607), by Thomas Campion (multiple formats at archive.org)
• Lords' Masque, by Thomas Campion (HTML at luminarium.org)

• The King and Queenes Entertainement at Richmond (HTML at Renascence Editions)

• The Peace Egg and a Christmas Mumming Play (London; Brighton: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; New York: E and J. B. Young & Co., 1887), by Juliana Horatia Ewing, illust. by Gordon Browne (illustrated HTML at Celebration of Women Writers)

• Miracle Plays and Sacred Dramas: A Historical Survey (London: Trübner and Co., 1880), by Karl von Hase, ed. by William Walrond Jackson, trans. by A. W. Jackson (page images at HathiTrust)

• A Study of the Noah and Isaac Miracle Plays, With Reference to Their Sources and Anachronisms (University of Illinois thesis, 1903), by Stella Webster Morgan (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)

• The Creation of the World, With Noah's Flood, Written in Cornish in the Year 1611 (London: Printed for J. B. Nichols, 1827), by William Jordan, ed. by Davies Gilbert, trans. by John Keigwin (page images at HathiTrust)
• The Old Cornish Drama: With Illustrations From Ancient Cornish Sacred Poems and Miracles Plays of Other Lands (A Lecture) (London: E. Stock, 1906), by Thurstan C. Peter
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust

More items available under narrower terms.