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.

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• 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)
• Entertainments. Comprising directions for holiday merry-makings, new programmes for amateur performances, and many novel Sunday-school exercises. (Boston, D. Lothrop and company, [1879]), by Elizabeth W. Champney (page images at HathiTrust)
• Easy entertainments for young people. (Philadelphia, Penn. Pub. Co., [1920]), by Louise A. Bradbury, E. J. H. Goodfellow, Harriet D. Castle, S. Jennie Smith, Ruth Alden, Verend Minster, and E. C. Whitney (page images at HathiTrust)
• Sergel's acting dialogues; selections for amateur and parlor theatricals and school exhibitions ... (Chicago, The Dramatic publishing company, c1904), ed. by Charles H. Sergel (page images at HathiTrust)
• Sergel's comic dialogues; selections for amateur and parlor theatricals and school exhibitions ... (Chicago, The Dramatic publishing company, c1904), ed. by Charles H. Sergel (page images at HathiTrust)
• Sergel's humorous dialogues; selections for amateur and parlor theatricals and school exhibitions ... (Chicago, The Dramatic publishing company, c1904), ed. by Charles H. Sergel (page images at HathiTrust)
• Book of mock trials : containing fourteen original plays, representing humorous court-room scenes, adapted to the limits of the parlor, and arranged for public or private performances / (New York : Excelsior Publishing House, c1886), by John P. Ritter and William Timothy Call (page images at HathiTrust)
• A practical guide to private theatricals. Giving directions for arranging, decorating and lighting the stage, painting the scenery, making-up, preparing the costumes, mounting, rehearsing and performing plays. To which is added a collection of charades, plays and tableaux. For private performance. (New York, O. A. Roorbach, [c1881]), by Orville Augustus Roorbach (page images at HathiTrust)
• 300 pies v kratkom ikh soderzhanii, s oboznacheniem dieistvuiushchikh lits i dekoratsii dlia liubitelskikh spektaklei. (Moskva : Pechatnia S.P. IAkovleva : Izd. Volkovskoi teatralnoi biblioteki, 1873), by Volkovskaia teatralnaia biblioteka (page images at HathiTrust)
• Dilettanten-Bühne für 1826 / (Wien : J.B. Wallishausser, [1826]), by Franz von Holbein (page images at HathiTrust)
• The School stage : A collection of juvenile acting plays / (Cincinnati, Ohio ; New York : Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co., c1873), ed. by William Henry Venable (page images at HathiTrust)
• Dramatic leaflets : comprising original and selected plays for amateur clubs, parlor theatricals, temperance societies, church entertainments, exhibitions, sociables, &c. (Philadelphia : P. Garrett & Co., c1887), by Phineas Garrett (page images at HathiTrust)
• ...II. Play production for amateurs, (Chapel Hill, N.C., The University, [1922]), by Frederick H. Koch, Norman M. Paull, John Emery Lear, and Elizabeth Atkinson Lay Green (page images at HathiTrust)
• Massey's exhibition reciter, and drawing-room entertainments; being choice recitations in prose and verse: together with an unique collection of petite comedies, dramas and farces ... (New York, S. French, 1856), by Charles Massey (page images at HathiTrust)
• Evening amusements and book of drawing-room plays: a comprehensive manual of in-door recreation, including all kinds of acting charades, proverbs, burlesques, and extravaganzas ... (New York, Cassell, [1883]), by Henry Dalton (page images at HathiTrust)
• One hundred one-act plays for school, college and educational dramatics, with a bibliography of aids for directors. (Menasha, Wis. George Banta pub. co., 1918), by A. M. Drummond (page images at HathiTrust)
• How to produce amateur plays; a practical manual, (Boston, Little, Brown, and company, 1919), by Barrett H. Clark (page images at HathiTrust)
• Select catalogue of plays for use in amateur theatricals. (Cincinnati : Pettibone Bros. Mfg. Co., 1914-15), by Pettibone Bros. Mfg. Co (page images at HathiTrust)
• Plays for amateurs & professionals. (Cincinnati : Pettibone Bros. Mfg. Co., [1915]), by Pettibone Bros. Mfg. Co (page images at HathiTrust)
• The sociable, or, One thousand and one home amusements : containing acting proverbs, dramatic charades, acting charades, or drawing-room pantomimes, musical burlesques, tableaux vivants, parlor games, games of action, forfeits, science in sport and parlor magic, and a choice collection of curious mental and mechanical puzzles, &c., &c. : illustrated with nearly three hundred engravings and diagrams, the whole being a fund of never-ending entertainment / (New York : Dick & Fitzgerald, c1858), by George Arnold (page images at HathiTrust)
• Schul- und Bürgeraufführungen in Köln bis zum Jahre 1700 ... ([Köln, Druck von P. Gehly, 1914]), by Carl Niessen (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• Kavanaugh's humorous dramas for school exhibitions and private theatricals. Containing original dramas expressly for school and parlor performance. (New York, Dick & Fitzgerald, [c1878]), by Russell Kavanaugh (page images at HathiTrust)
• Parlor dramas, or, Dramatic scenes for home amusement / (New York : Collins and Brother, 1859), by William Bentley Fowle (page images at HathiTrust)
• Production notes. (New York, Federal theatre project. Play bureau, [1936]), by N.Y.). Play Bureau Federal Theatre Project (New York (page images at HathiTrust)
• Drama und Theater im Österreich ob den Enns : bis zum Jahre 1803 / ([Linz : Museum Francisco-Carolinum, 1904?]), by Konrad Schiffmann (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• A dream of the centuries, and other entertainments for parlor and hall, (Boston, W.H. Baker, 1889), by George Bradford Bartlett (page images at HathiTrust)
• Amatorskyĭ teatr : pidruchnyk dli︠a︡ kulʹturno-prosvitnykh organizat︠s︡iĭ ta amatorsʹkykh hurtkiv / (Lʹviv : Nakl. avtora, 1921), by Anko (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• Acting charades, or, Deeds not words : a Christmas game to make a long evening short / (London : D. Bogue, 86 Fleet Street, [between 1850 and 1857?), by Augustus Mayhew, Henry Vizetelly, Henry Mayhew, and Henry George Hine, contrib. by David Bogue (page images at HathiTrust)
• Forever this land! : souvenir program, 1831-1952 : one hundred twenty-first anniversary celebration of the historic beginning of Abraham Lincoln's larger life with his advent at New Salem Village. (Petersburg, Ill. : New Salem Lincoln League, [1952]), by Ill.) New Salem Lincoln League (Petersburg (page images at HathiTrust)
• How to put on a musical and make a profit / (Boston : Tracy Music Library, 1959), by Boston Tracy Music Library (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• Amateur theatricals : the amateur's hand-book and guide to home or drawing room theatricals and how to get them up and how to act in them, to which is added How to "get up" theatricals in a country house and a supplement containing a list of suitable plays... / by Thomas Hailes Lacy. (London : T.H. Lacy, 1871), by Thomas Hailes Lacy and W. J. Sorrell (page images at HathiTrust)
• Making of a minstrel show; a help-u book for amateurs. (Franklin, Ohio : Eldridge entertainment house, c1920), by Seymour S. Tibbals (page images at HathiTrust)
• Ballads in black : a series of original shadow pantomimes : with forty-eight full-page silhouette illustrations and full directions for producting shadow pictures with novel effects / (Boston : Walter H. Baker & Co., 1881), by F. E. Chase, illust. by J. F. Goodridge (page images at HathiTrust)
• Margaret of Anjou : an historical drama for parlor or school / ([New York] : [Ursulines of St. Teresa's], [1896]), by N.Y.) Ursulines of St. Teresa (New York and Georgiana Fullerton (page images at HathiTrust)
• Plays for private acting / (New York : United States Book Co., successors to J.W. Lovell Co., c1878), by Bellevue Dramatic Club of Newport (page images at HathiTrust)
• Practical instructions for private theatricals, (Chicago, The Dramatic publishing company, [c1899]), by William D. Emerson (page images at HathiTrust)
• Greek costume plays for school or lawn performance, (Boston, Walter H. Baker & Co., 1914), by Ella Skinner Bates, English Sophocles. Antigone, Mary L. Gaddess, and M. Nataline Crumpton (page images at HathiTrust)
• Six more dramatic stunts. (New York, [19__]), by National Recreation Association (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• Six new dramatic stunts. (New York, [19__]), by National Recreation Association (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• Scenes for acting from great novelists, (London : G. Routledge & sons, ltd., 1913), by Guy Pertwee (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• The exhibition drama: comprising drama, comedy, and farce, together with dramatic and musical entertainments, for private theatricals, home representations, holiday and school exhibitions. (Boston : Lee and Shepard; New York, Lee, Shepard, & Dillingham, 1875), by George Melville Baker (page images at HathiTrust)
• Jolly plays for holidays, a collection of Christmas entertainments, (Boston : W.H. Baker & Co., 1914), by Carolyn Wells (page images at HathiTrust)
• Plays for the home, (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1913), by Augusta Stevenson (page images at HathiTrust)
• Four plays for young performers, (London, G. Routledge & Sons, Ltd., [1919]), by S. C. Woodhouse (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• Persephone; a play for schools, (London, G.G. Harrap & Co., [1917]), by Katherine Merryman (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• How to put on an amateur circus / (Chicago : T.S. Denison & Company, c1923), by Fred A. Hacker and Prescott W. Eames (page images at HathiTrust)
• Exhibition reciter, & drawing-room entertainments; being choice recitations in prose and verse: together with an unique collection of petite comedies, dramas and fárces. (New York, S. French, c1856), by Charles Massey (page images at HathiTrust)
• Monologues and novelties, (Philadelphia, The Penn publishing company, 1896), by B. L. C. Griffith (page images at HathiTrust)
• A scrap of paper. Eliot Hall, Jamaica Plain, May 4-5, 1906. ([Cambridge, Mass, The Riverside Press, 1906]), by Jamaica Plain Footlight Club (page images at HathiTrust)
• Montclair Dramatic Club. Organized April 17, 1889. ([Montclair?, N.J.], 1914), by Montclair Dramatic Club (N.J.) (page images at HathiTrust)
• Plays for young people for school entertainments and home theatricals, (London, New York [etc.] Cassell and co., ltd., 1911), by Frances Helen Harris (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• Bunkum entertainments : being a collection of laughable skits on conjuring, physiognomy, juggling, performing fleas, waxworks, panorama, phrenology, phonograph, second sight, lightning calculators, ventriloquism, spiritualism, etc. : to which are added humorous sketches, whimsical recitals, and drawing-room comedies / (London : L.U. Gill, [1895]), by Robert Ganthony and Harry Kellar (page images at HathiTrust)
• Short plays from Dickens for the use of amateur and school dramatic societies / (London : Scribner's, 1910), by Horace B. Browne and Charles Dickens (page images at HathiTrust)
• Easy entertainments for young people. (Philadelphia, Penn. Pub. Co., [1920]), by Louise A. Bradbury, E. J. H. Goodfellow, Harriet D. Castle, S. Jennie Smith, Ruth Alden, Verend Minster, and E. C. Whitney (page images at HathiTrust)
• The amateur's hand-book and guide to home or drawing room theatricals. How to get them up and how to act in them, (New York, S. French, [1866]), ed. by Tony Denier (page images at HathiTrust)
• Educational dramatics, (Evanston, Ill., New York [etc.] Row, Peterson, [c1930]), by Donald MacLean Tower (page images at HathiTrust)
• Story plays old and new : one- / (New York ; Cincinnati [etc.] : American book company, [c1915]-), by Alice Sumner Varney (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• Parlor varieties, plays, pantomimes, and charades, (Boston, Lee and Shepard; New York, C. T. Dillingham, 1881), by Emma E. Brewster (page images at HathiTrust)
• Amateur theatricals and fairy-tale dramas : A collection of original plays, expressly designed for drawing-room performance / (New York : Dick & Fitzgerald, publishers, [1868]), by S. Annie Frost (page images at HathiTrust)
• Plays for amateurs, (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1920), by Frederick H. Koch and Elizabeth Atkinson Lay Green (page images at HathiTrust)
• War bond plays, and other dramatic material for use in connection with war finance promotion. ([Washington : U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1943]), by United States. War Finance Division (page images at HathiTrust)
• Parlor dramas, or, Dramatic scenes : for home amusement / (Boston : M. Cotton, 1857), by William Bentley Fowle (page images at HathiTrust)
• Parlor dramas, or, Dramatic scenes, for home amusement. (Boston, S.F. Nichols, [c1856]), by William Bentley Fowle (page images at HathiTrust)
• Twenty-six short and amusing plays for private theatricals : being Howard's Drawing room theatricals and Hudson's Private theatricals combined in one volume. (New York : Dick & Fitzgerald, 1871), by Francis Hudson and Clarence J. Howard (page images at HathiTrust)
• Parlor tableaux and amateur theatricals / (Boston : J. E. Tilton, 1867, c1866), by William Fearing Gill (page images at HathiTrust)
• Grand Dickens cosmorama, comprising several unique entertainments capable of being used separately or in combination, for school, home, and hall, (Boston, Lee and Shepard; New York, C.T. Dillingham, 1885), by George Bradford Bartlett (page images at HathiTrust)
• Drawing-room plays and parlour pantomimes / (London : S. Rivers and Co., 1870), by Clement Scott (page images at HathiTrust)
• Little comedies ... (N.Y., Appleton, 1880), by Julian Sturgis (page images at HathiTrust)
• Home dramas for young people. (Boston, Cambridge, J. Munroe and Company, 1859), by Eliza Lee Cabot Follen (page images at HathiTrust)
• The boys' entertainment book; (Minneapolis, T.S. Denison, [1957]), by Robert G. 1910- Smith (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• Fairy plays for children / (Chicago, New York : Rand, McNally & company, [1915]), by Mabel Ray Goodlander (page images at HathiTrust)
• Short plays from Dickens for the use of amateur and school dramatic societies / (London : Chapman and Hall, [1908]), by Horace B. Browne, Marcus Stone, George Cattermole, George Cruikshank, Hablot Knight Browne, and Charles Dickens (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• Fink's magazine : devoted to elocution - physical training - amateur plays. (New York City : Ernest A. Fink & Co.) (page images at HathiTrust)
• Dramatic stories for reading and acting, (New York, Cincinnati [etc.] American Book Company, [c1914]), by Ada M. Skinner (page images at HathiTrust)
• A little book of plays for professional and amateur actors adapted from the French ... (London, George Newnes, 1897), trans. by Constance Beerbohm (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• Short comedies for amateur players, as given at the Madison Square and Lyceum theatres, New York, by amateurs; (New York, The DeWitt Publishing House, [1889]), ed. by Mrs. Burton Harrison (page images at HathiTrust)
• Everyman, a morality play. (New York : S. French, c1925) (page images at HathiTrust)
• De Witt's how to manage amateur theatricals. Showing the easiest way for arranging drawing room performances; and giving plain directions for making scenery, getting up dresses, giving out parts ... (New York, De Witt, c1880) (page images at HathiTrust)
• "Shows and stunts": practical entertainment for everyone, for fun or funds! (St. Charles, Ill. : The Universal Press, 1925), by Frederick Valentine Degenhardt (page images at HathiTrust)
• Love by induction, and other plays for private acting. (New York, The De Witt publishing house, [1889]), by Forbes Heermans (page images at HathiTrust)
• Haustheater. Sammlung kleiner Lustpiele für gesellige Kreise. (Leipzig, Weber, 1891), by Roderich Benedix (page images at HathiTrust)
• Drawing-room plays, selected and adapted from the French, (London, S. Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, limited, 1888), by Lady Adelaide Cadogan (page images at HathiTrust)
• Acting charades and proverbs arranged for representation in the drawing-room / (London ; New York : G. Routledge, 1891), by Anne Bowman (page images at HathiTrust)
• Schoolroom and home theatricals / (London : Cassell & Co., 1890), by Arthur Waugh (page images at HathiTrust)
• Zur Geschichte des Liebhabertheaters; (Berlin, Brachvogel & Boas, 1887), by L. Forck (page images at HathiTrust)
• The book of entertainment and theatricals, (New York, R. M. McBride & company, 1923), by Helena Smith Dayton and Louise Bascom Barratt (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• Short plays for amateur acting (London, Chapman & Hall, ltd., 1906), by Amelia Lehmann Pain (page images at HathiTrust)
• Comedies and farces for amateurs. (New York, F. M. Lupton, [1894?]) (page images at HathiTrust)
• The home theatre. (London, S. Low, Marston, Low & Searle, 1871), by Marie Healy Bigot (page images at HathiTrust)
• Creative drama in the lower school, (New York, London, D. Appleton and company, [c1929]), by Corinne Brown (page images at HathiTrust)
• Tennyson's Princess adapted & arranged for amateur performance in girls' schools, (London, S. Sonnenschein & co., 1907), by Alfred Lord Tennyson and Elsie Fogerty (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• The cave (a comedy in three acts) and The woman's masquerade (a comedy in one act) (New York, Washington [etc.] Broadway publishing co., [c1911]), by Nora Del Smith and Nora Del. Woman's masquerade Smith (page images at HathiTrust)
• Amateur clubs and actors, (London, E. Arnold, 1898), by W. G. Elliot (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• Proverbs & comediettas, written for private representation, (London, Strahan & co., 1869), by Percy Fitzgerald (page images at HathiTrust)
• Creative dramatics, for the upper grades and junior high school, (New York, London, D. Appleton and Company, [c1930]), by Winifred Ward (page images at HathiTrust)
• Scenes from the great novelists adapted and arranged for amateur performance (London, Swan Sonnenschein & co., lim., 1906), by Elsie Fogerty (page images at HathiTrust)
• Short plays from Dickens for the use of amateur and school dramatic societies; (London, Chapman and Hall, ltd., 1908), by Horace Baker Browne and Charles Dickens (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• The drawing-room stage : a series of original dramas, comedies, farces, and entertainments for amateur theatricals and school exhibitions / (Boston : Lee and Shepard ; New York : Lee, Shepard and Dillingham, 1873, c1872), by George Melville Baker (page images at HathiTrust)
• Amateur entertainments; how to produce and how to act them, (London : G. Routledge & Sons, limited; New York, E.P. Dutton & Co., [1916]), by Cranstoun Metcalfe (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• The circus comes to school; a plan whereby the circus becomes recreational and educational, (New York, A. S. Barnes, 1937), by Averil Tibbels (page images at HathiTrust)
• 300 pīes v kratkom ikh soderzhanīi, s oboznachenīem di͡eĭstvui͡ushchikh lit͡s i dekorat͡sīĭ dli͡a li͡ubitelʹskikh spektakleĭ. (Moskva : Pechatni͡a S.P. I͡Akovleva : Izd. Volkovskoĭ teatralʹnoĭ biblīoteki, 1873), by Volkovskai͡a teatralʹnai͡a biblīoteka (page images at HathiTrust)
• Yuletide entertainments: Christmas recitations, monologues, drills, tableaux, motion songs, exercises, dialogues and plays. suitable for all ages, (Chicago : T. S. Denison & company, [c1910]), by Ellen M. Willard (page images at HathiTrust)
• Amateur theatricals / (London : Macmillan and Co., 1879), by Walter Herries Pollock, Kate Greenaway, and Juliet Pollock (page images at HathiTrust)
• Historical plays for children, (London, G. Allen & sons, 1909-10), by Amice Macdonell (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• The Queen's jest & two other plays. (London, S. Sonnenschein, 1908), by Elsie Fogerty (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• The Shakespeare tercentenary. Suggestions for school and college celebrations of the tercentenary of Shakespeare's death in 1916; (Washington, D.C., National capital press, inc., [1916]), by Drama League of America, Herman H. B. Meyer, Wm. E. Bohn, Mary Wood Hinman, Mary Porter Beegle, and Percival Chubb (page images at HathiTrust)
• Ochotnické divadelnictví / (Praha : Československé podniky tiskařské, 1922), by Adolf Chaloupka and Leo Richter (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• Theatre & school. (Berkeley, Calif. [etc.] Drama Teachers' Association [etc.]), by Drama Teachers' Association of California (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• Dramatic scenes from great novelists, (London, G. Allen & Unwin Ltd., [1913]-), by Rose Isabel Patry (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• One hundred and thirty comic dialogues and recitations : being Barton's comic recitations and humourous dialogues, and Spencer's comic speeches and dialogues, combined in one volume. (New York : Dick & Fitzgerald, [1871]), ed. by Jerome Barton (page images at HathiTrust)
• Four plays for children: The rose and the ring, The goody- witch, The goosegirl, Boots and the north wind, (London, Sidgwick & Jackson, [1913]), by Ethel Sidgwick (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• How to produce amateur plays; a practical manual, (Boston, Little, Brown, 1917), by Barrett H. Clark (page images at HathiTrust)
• Pour monter et jouer une pièce en famille, à l'école, dans les sociétés, dans le monde. (Paris, A. Colin, 1912), by Jean Blaize (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• The dramatic festival: a consideration of the lyrical method as a factor in preparatory education, (New York and London, G.P. Putnam's sons, 1912), by Anne Abbot Craig (page images at HathiTrust)
• Short plays about famous authors, (New York : H. Holt and company, 1915), by Maude Morrison Frank and Thomas Hood (page images at HathiTrust)
• The Mimic Stage: A Series of Dramas, Comedies, Burlesques, and Farces for Public Exhibitions and Private Theatricals, by George M. Baker (Gutenberg ebook)
• The Exhibition Drama: Comprising Drama, Comedy, and Farce, Together with Dramatic and Musical Entertainments, by George M. Baker (Gutenberg ebook)
• How to Produce Amateur Plays: A Practical Manual, by Barrett H. Clark (Gutenberg ebook)

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