Plays for Middle School
Bullies Anonymous
Grades 3-7 • 30 minutes
It's the weekly meeting of Bullies Anonymous, and bullies (and ex-bullies) from all over are sharing their stories. Well, when they're not trying to bully their way out of it! Between the silly jokes, students will learn serious lessons about different kinds of bullying, what makes a bully (and what happens to them), and how to deal with bullying at school.
Munchkin Mediation: Conflict Resolution in Oz
Grades 2-6 • 35 minutes
It's one year later and all the famous characters have returned to Oz. They've been having trouble readjusting, and their quarrels have led to the throwing of more than one yellow brick. Munchkin Madness introduces and reinforces strategies for controlling anger, using "I-statements," active listening, sharing perspectives, and finding win-win solutions to conflict.
Dude, Where's My Lungs?
Grades 4-9 • 20 minutes
We're proud to present an anti-smoking musical play that takes a Bad Wolfian approach (you know---fun songs, silly dialogue, bad jokes) to a serious topic. The show is designed to raise questions for discussion that can help lead students to make wise choices. Dude, Where's My Lungs? uses information from a variety of research and advocacy groups, including the American Cancer Society and the University of California, Irvine, Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center.
Good Manners: A Medieval Quest for Polite Behavior
Grades 2-6 • 30 minutes
It's the Middle Ages, and a wicked spell has been cast on the kingdom: good manners have suddenly disappeared, and it's up to Sir Gwendolyn and Sir Dancelot to bring them back.
Test-Taking Strategies
Grades 2-6 • 20 minutes
This short play will get your kids focused and ready for regular testing as well as year-end standardized tests. They'll learn about healthy behaviors, good study habits, and strategies for solving multiple-choice questions. And of course they'll learn some tips for handling stress and anxiety -- and get an important reminder that they are not their score!
13 Colonies
Grades 3-8 • 30 minutes
Hosted by George and Martha Washington, our musical review of early American History covers the period from before the arrival of the Europeans through the signing of the Bill of Rights. This is the show that will have your kids eating American History for breakfast.
The American Revolution: 1763 - 1789
Grades 3-8 • 40-50 minutes
Betsy Ross -- a bit prone to exaggeration -- tells her grandkids how the colonies became a nation. From the French and Indian War to the election of George Washington as the first president. The American Revolution gives students the chance to sing their way through the most exciting period in our nation's formation.
California Missions -- and More!
Grades 2-6 • 25 minutes
We're in Hollywood, watching the filming of the next great epic movie, California Missions. The director will spare no expense -- she wants a life-size mission built out of sugar cubes. In this "show within a show," students take the audience on a tour of early California up to statehood.
European Explorers in the New World
Grades 3-8 • 45 minutes
This play focuses on the Age of Exploration: its motives, challenges, and consequences. Students will meet -- among other folks -- Leif Ericson, Columbus, Cabot, De Gama, Cortez, Pizarro, Drake, Champlain, Hudson, and LaSalle.
Gold Dust or Bust
Grades 2-6 • 30 minutes
Our musical review presents the highlights of the great stampede of forty-niners to the California goldfields. From Sutter's Mill to Mad Mule Gulch, Sacramento to Fiddletown, the land's gone nuts with Gold Fever. So whether you set your wagon on the Overland Trail, sail around Cape Horn, or wade across the swamps of Panama, Gold Dust or Bust is designed to fit directly into your U.S. and California history curriculum.
Great Americans of the Twentieth Century
Grades 3-8 • 30 minutes
It's the greatest awards show ever seen on TV, for the greatest Americans of the 20th century! Statesmen, artists, athletes, musicians, scientists, and many more are honored in a prime-time presentation (complete with commercials). Students are introduced to many of the major figures in modern American history in a fun and tuneful show.
Hatshepsut, Queen of Denial
Grades 4-8 • 30 minutes
It's early in the New Kingdom and something strange is happening in the land of the Nile. Egypt has a female pharaoh! Our show follows Hatshepsut through her two decades as pharoah, culminating in the building of her magnificent mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri) and the mysterious efforts after her death to remove her from Egyptian records). Written specifically to align with 6th grade social studies standards, Hatshepsut promises to bring the dead to life in your classroom.
The Incredible Westward Movement
Grades 2-7 • 25 minutes
Delivery boys and girls race across the country trying to deliver packages to Americans who keep "movin' West." We meet familiar friends (e.g. Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea) and make new ones (e.g. 49ers, Prairie Children). Your unit on the Westward movement will come to life as never before.
Map of the World (Mini)
Grades 3-6 • 10 minutes
Students get a chance to brush up on the key elements of the global map in this mini-musical. Covered in silly scenes and catchy songs are the parts of the map: the legend, oceans, continents, longitude and latitude (including the Equator, Prime Meridian, Tropic of Cancer, and Tropic of Capricorn). 
Martin Luther King, Jr. (Mini)
Grades 3-6 • 10 minutes
This ten-minute show highlights the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and his contribution to the civil rights movement. Topics include civil disobedience, the Montgomery bus boycott and Rosa Parks, King's letter from Birmingham jail, and the March on Washington.
The Texans: Birth of the Lone Star State
Grades 2-6 • 25 minutes
Our review of early Texas history covers from the arrival of the European explorers through annexation in 1845. Stephen Austin, Sam Houston, Susannah Dickerson, and Jose Antonio Navarro are just some of the colorful characters in this amazing story. From Moses Austin's Promised Land to the rise of cotton and cattle, The Texans is a tuneful exploration of the birth of the 28th state.
U.S. Constitution: Revivor Philadelphia
Grades 4-8 • 35 minutes
Watch the exciting hit reality show, Revivor, as it takes on its most challenging venue yet: Philadelphia. The contestants are the actual writers and framers of the Constitution, duking it out to be the last Founding Father standing. After doing this play, your students will have learned just about everything there is to know about the Constitution!
U.S. Geography
Grades 2-6 • 35 minutes
Aliens have decided to settle down in the United States -- but where's the best place to make their home? They take a grand tour through the land, learning about the major geographical features that influenced exploration. U.S. Geography is a great complement to the study of U.S. history, geography, the Westward movement, immigration, and aliens.
U.S. Presidents: Washington to Lincoln
Grades 3-8 • 35 minutes
A fifth-grade class is visiting a museum of American history, and boy are they in for a surprise: the actual presidents are there to greet them! U.S. Presidents introduces students to the first sixteen presidents of the country, from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln.
The Turkeys Go On Strike
Grades 2-6 • 20 minutes
At last -- a classroom holiday show with dancing cranberries! Thanksgiving is in danger of being cancelled because of some extremely dissatisfied poultry. While negotiations go on around the clock -- an event covered by TV reporters and influenced by ambitious members of the Squash family -- students learn about he historical origins and the real meaning of the holiday.
America's Tallest Tales
Grades 3-7 • 30 minutes
Paul Bunyan, with the help of Bess Call, the strong-armed, cattle-friendly heroine of the Andirondacks, is crisscrossing America in search of his missing companion. In the course of their adventures Paul and Bess run into John Henry, Alfred Bulltop Stormalong, and a host of other stars of America's Tallest Tales.
The Case of the Missing Paragraph: Bad Wolf's Guide to Composition
Grades 3-7 • 35 minutes
It was a sweltering afternoon when she knocked on the door. She was looking for a detective. Someone to find her paragraph. It was missing. She'd come to the right place: The Expository Detective Agency. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.In our new guide to writing techniques, students will have a great time working through the mystery as they review the basic elements of narrative and expository composition.
Little Red Riding Hood
Grades 2-6 • 25 minutes
Does your class find traditional folk tales a bit too, well, traditional? Then our "fractured" version of Little Red Riding Hood may be just what you're looking for! The Wolf needs some ketchup, Granny is a math whiz, and Little Red learns how to do the Acorn Dance with an odd band of Squirrels.
Macbeth, The Musical Comedy
Grades 6-9 • 35 minutes
You've read the famous story of greed, guilt, and gore in Scotland - but do you know the catchy tunes? Our Macbeth, a tad confused, keeps spouting lines from Hamlet (much to the annoynance of the other characters), Lady Macbeth is obsessed with dry-cleaning the castle drapes, and King Duncan boasts that he invented plaid.
Noun and Verb (Mini)
Grades 3-6 • 10 minutes
Our quick blast of grammar explores nouns and verbs, focusing on nouns as subjects and their agreement with the verb of the sentence. Compound subjects and the difference between active and passive sentences make this show a great way for students to explore basic sentences.
Pirates from Grammar Island
Grades 3-6 • 25 minutes
Pirates is a great way to energize your Language Arts curriculum. Your students will love instead of hate antonyms. No more confusing or confounding synonyms. How can they ever fail again to identify interrogative sentences? Pirates from Grammar Island will even help them learn to capitalize things like, well, the titles of musical plays!
Shakespeare Unshackled
Grades 5-9+ • 35 minutes
Want a fun and funny musical introduction to the background of Shakespeare's plays? This show touches on many cool aspects of Elizabethan theater, and contains fractured scenes from Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Topics include: Shakespeare's life, the nature of theatrical productions (actors, staging, audience, especially as regards to the Old Globe Theater), acting companies and patronage, Elizabethan and Jacobean London, the language of the plays.
Tale of the Chinese Zodiac
Grades 1-6 • 30 minutes
This fun multicultural folk tale reveals how twelve special animals got their places in the Chinese zodiac. It's long ago in ancient China and the Jade Emperor has a great idea: he'll set up a race across the river, and the first twelve animals to cross the finish line will represent the years in the Chinese zodiac.
Theseus and the Minotaur
Grades 4-8 • 30-40 minutes
The Cretan Minotaur - half man, half bull - has been devouring so many Athenians that it's getting impossible to organize a softball game. Can the young prince Theseus, son of Poseidon, save the day?
Conservation (Mini)
Grades 3-6 • 10 minutes
Coming February 2011! Conservation is the theme of this musical play. What can students do -- and why should they bother -- to reduce the consumption of energy? Particular emphasis is put on the little things that can be done to save electricity and water.
The Environmental Show
Grades 3-6 • 35 minutes
The Environmental Show teaches students simple things they can do to cut down on pollution, save water, use less energy, and avoid the landfill.
Geology ROCKS!
Grades 1-5 • 25 minutes
Professor Rock has vanished, and it's up to his geology students to find him. With a little help from Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, they set out to find their beloved teacher. Students sing about the layers of earth, erosion, plate tectonics, the rock cycle, and energy sources. Geology ROCKS! is designed specifically to supplement the study of the composition and changing nature of the earth.
Geometry (Mini)
Grades 3-6 • 10 minutes
The Greek hero Isosceles, accompanied by his trusty horse Equilateral and Scalene the Squire, is on a quest for the perfectly shaped table for his group of heroes. Their travels take them to strange lands filled with angles (which can be quite obtuse) and triangles (some of which insist they are always right).
It's Electrifying!
Grades 2-6 • 30 minutes
This is Bad Wolf's shocking story about the nature and uses of electricity. From the production of sparks by rubbing amber, through Leiden jars and voltaic piles, to electromagnets and television, our show takes students through important moments of discovery and application of electricity.
Mastering Math: A Sherlock Holmes Problem Solving Mystery
Grades 2-6 • 30 minutes
Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson return to help us learn techniques of mathematical problem solving. This is his first case - ever - and he gets a lot of help in learning how to problem solve. By the time he solves the crime, he's learned how to use six basic techniques for solving the math problems he's been faced with: guess and check, draw a picture, draw a chart, look for a pattern, work backwards, and act it out. This is a great show for reviewing ways to set up and answer word problems.
Name That Internal Organ!: The Bad Wolf Guide to the Human Body
Grades 4-7 • 35 minutes
Respiration. Blood circulation. Digestion. The topics virtually cry out for a musical comedy. And that's why there's Bad wolf. You're just in time to witness the annual induction ceremony at the internal Organ Hall of Fame. Who will be elected this year? The liver? Lungs? (The Spleen is a crowd favorite). Name That Internal Organ! is a terrific complement to your life science curriculum.
The Oceanography Show: Tide Pool Condos
Grades 3-7 • 25 minutes
Study one of the earth's natural habitats. Tide Pool Condos tells the story of Elizabeth, who wants to destroy some tide pools so she can erect luxury condominiums. Poseidon, Greek god of the sea, has other ideas. To settle the dispute, the two of them set out to visit the wonders of the ocean. This show works beautifully with your ocean-study curriculum.
