Fractured Favorites turns eighteen stories everyone already knows into fast, funny interpretation scripts. Fairy tales, superheroes, Shakespeare, Genesis, and classic video games all get flipped inside out.
Sample scripts include: Maleficent workshops her curse on baby Aurora like a comic testing new material in Malfeasance. A documentary crew tracks down the Mario Brothers fifteen years after their glory days in Pipe Dreams: A Mockumentary. Master Splinter keeps restarting his origin story while the turtles try to rescue April O'Neil in Heroes in a Half Shell.
Judges and audiences already know these classic stories, so performers can skip the setup and go straight to the twist.
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Format: Humorous Interpretation, original comedies; Many scripts work as Duo Interpretation as well
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Cast: 1 performer, multiple characters
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Tone: Parody, satire, and messed-up reinterpretations, from wordplay-heavy classics to pop culture send-ups
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Content: All plays appropriate for high school competition, with content notes and themes included in description.
All eighteen scripts are NSDA-eligible and properly formatted with copyright and ISBN. It's a season's worth of parody HI in one purchase, all tournament-proven for speech competition, with two duos included for partners. Plus, they work well for comedy showcases, one-acts, and classroom character work, too.
Download digital files instantly after purchase. These parodies are ready for rehearsal and performance right now!
SCRIPTS INCLUDED
The Apple Never Falls Far — Natalie Pronk
Humorous Interpretation · 1 performer, multiple characters
God builds Adam as a rough draft, needs a do-over, and ends up refereeing humanity's very first sibling-style fight.
Adam's big discovery is that he has limbs, and he is thrilled about it. God is less impressed, swipes a rib, and makes Eve, who promptly out-talks and out-thinks her new roommate. Things go downhill fast once naming rights come up (Adam's pick: "Fishdog"), and the insults fly until God threatens to scrap the whole project. A pair of sincere apologies saves the day, though the truce lasts about as long as you'd expect. Light, sweet, and powered by two characters who can't stop poking each other.
Clean throughout, light religious-themed comedy suitable for any audience.
The Boyhood Adventures of Clark Kent: Episode One — Anthony Doyle
Humorous Interpretation · 1 performer, multiple characters
Baby Superman crash-lands in 1950s Kansas, and all he wants out of life is a Boy Scout badge.
Jonathan and Martha Kent find a spaceship in the field, briefly suspect the Soviets, then do the sensible thing and adopt the baby inside. Young Clark can bend metal, catch arrows, and start fires with a look, which makes him perfect for exactly one thing: getting disqualified from every Boy Scout test. (He's in it for the badges. Badges impress girls.) The other scouts call him a cheater and a freak, and Clark comes home crushed, until Martha makes him a badge of her own: an "S," for being different and not apologizing for it. Big, fast laughs with a genuinely warm finish.
Clean throughout, suitable for any audience.
Canada, Eh! A Salute to All Things Canuck! — Frank and Jack Walston
Humorous Interpretation · 1 performer, multiple characters
An American ad agency gets hired to save Canada's dying tourism industry, and every idea they pitch somehow makes the country look worse.
Canada's patriotic new tourism ad tests well with exactly two groups: chimpanzees and algae. Enter Joel and Corey, American admen with big ideas and zero restraint. Their pitches include a hip-hop ode to Canada, slogans like "You've Arrived in Canada... Sorry Aboot That!," the War of 1812 replayed as a hockey broadcast, a Keanu-and-Celine infomercial for Canadian World Domination, and Benny the Beaver. Then the client flips the script and blackmails them right back. Rapid-fire, accent-heavy, and stereotype-happy on both sides of the border.
Broad stereotype humor about Canadian and American culture throughout; no profanity or graphic content.
Coming Up Short — Ellen McKinney and Tracy Cohen
Humorous & Dramatic Interpretation · 1 performer, multiple characters (the seven dwarfs)
Snow White's seven roommates each get a turn to set the record straight, and their stories don't match the fairy tale everyone thinks they know.
Seven dwarfs, seven confessionals, and the fairy tale starts coming apart. Happy misses being the only lady of the house. Bashful finally owns up to his crush. Sneezy blames the shampoo. Grumpy unloads a bitter, misogynistic rant about the women who've burned him. Then the laughter stops. Sleepy remembers finding Snow White dazed on the bathroom floor, staring at her own blood. Doc lingers on the poison hidden in a "ripe and noble apple." And Dopey, silent until now, tells the truth: Snow White was privately consumed by depression and took her own life, and the evil queen and the prince were a story the dwarfs built to protect her memory. Sharp character comedy that turns devastating.
Note: This dark piece, which has also been played as a dramatic interpretation, includes themes of mental illness and self-harm.
Genetically Altered Genesis — Connor McElvoy
Humorous Interpretation · 1 performer, multiple characters
God creates the universe like he's winging a stand-up set, and his first two human test subjects are the worst audience imaginable.
Creation starts with a pile of rejects: a talking bed, a squabbling Dark and Light, a rude amoeba, and a T-Rex with a biting problem. God finally gets Adam right with help from an assistant named Igor and a full mad-scientist "throw the switch" moment. Adam turns out to be a little slow (he tries to eat a rock and envies the chimps for using tools), so God trades a rib for Eve. A lisping serpent sells her the apple by calling it "organic," and soon everybody gets caught, everybody gets dressed, everybody gets evicted, and a worn-out God heads back to bed. Fast gags, zero reverence.
Light, irreverent riff on the Genesis creation story; no profanity or mature content.
Malfeasance — James Canon
Humorous Interpretation · 1 performer, multiple characters
Maleficent workshops her curse on Sleeping Beauty like a comedian who can't stick the landing, and her own assistant crow keeps getting turned into furniture instead.
Maleficent can't quite nail her curse, so she workshops it on baby Aurora like a comic testing new material before landing on the classic: spinning wheel, pricked finger, eternal sleep. Her crow Diaval, meanwhile, keeps getting turned into things he never asked to be, including a desk, a getaway car, and the narrator. Years later the fairies have Aurora hidden in the forest, Maleficent shows up as her "secret Fairy Godmother" bearing one very deadly gift, and Prince Phillip arrives unable to pronounce a single name correctly. Cue a dragon fight, a counterattack of rock-hurling, tree-swinging forest friends, and true love's kiss for the win. Wall-to-wall wordplay at full gallop.
Comedic sword-and-dragon battle violence and running jokes about death threats; clean language throughout.
My Mother Named Me Hamlette — Anthony Doyle
Humorous Interpretation · 1 performer, multiple characters
Hamlette's mother is a Shakespeare scholar, her seven-year-old sister is a genius, and both of them are coming to eighth grade with her.
Mom speaks only in thee-and-thou. Little sister Desdemona is seven and a genius. And thanks to Mom's plan to build Dez some social skills, both of them are now in Hamlette's eighth-grade classes. Dez quotes the Bard mid-lecture and gets scooped up by the two most popular (and least kind) girls in school, who mostly want help with their Shakespeare project. Hamlette's warning just sparks a sister fight, but Dez gets the last word: the mean girls' big report is full of nonsense she fed them on purpose. Dense wordplay, quick jokes, and an ending that earns its warmth.
One performer plays Hamlette, Mom, Desdemona, both Gwens, and two teachers. Clean throughout, and safe for any audience.
Operation Saving Time — Frank Joseph
Humorous Interpretation · 1 performer, multiple characters
A police department's least competent officer gets handed a time machine and one job: save Abraham Lincoln. It does not go well.
The department's two bumbling scientists have built a time machine. It also makes toast. The Chief sends Officer McAllister, a lifelong Time Cop wannabe, back to 1865 to stop John Wilkes Booth. Instead, McAllister bonds with Booth over being lonely, loses his gun to a very literal theater bouncer, knocks Booth out with toast, and accidentally makes him president. Every fix makes things worse: he shoots Hitler, erases the Holocaust, turns Europe into the Soviet Union, and somehow puts Al Gore in the White House with Gary Coleman as VP. He swears off meddling and destroys the machine. Or does he? Escalation comedy that never runs out of gas.
Includes a comedic scene depicting the assassination of Hitler, a joke referencing drug use, and a bit of gross-out humor; no profanity.
Pinnochia — Natalie Pronk
Humorous Interpretation · 1 performer, multiple characters
Geppetto builds his puppet daughter out of fashion magazines instead of wood, and her fairy godmother swears the answers to becoming a real girl are all right there on the page.
Brought to life and shipped off to high school, Pinny arrives armed with nothing but glossy-page wisdom and tries to learn "real girl" from queen bee Foxy, who mocks her strings and her name every chance she gets. A well-meaning principal makes them partners, which goes about as well as you'd guess: first a disastrous cheerleading tryout, then an overheard phone call where Foxy tears Pinny apart. Pinny decides the mold isn't worth chasing and being herself is, and the Blue Fairy confirms that was the whole point of "real" all along. Sharp, funny satire of teen-magazine culture with a pointed edge.
Includes a bullying character's callously joking reference to suicide (played as satire, not endorsement), alongside typical mean-girl put-downs; otherwise clean.
Pinnochiante — Allen Harris
Humorous Interpretation · 1 performer, multiple characters
A fairy who raps her entrances and exits grants Pinocchio real-boy status, and he immediately ends up drunk and turning into a donkey on Paradise Island.
The wood starts talking before Geppetto has even finished carving, a rapping Fairy brings the puppet to life, and Jimminy Cricket tries to explain conscience through a series of truly baffling analogies. Then a fast-talking Fox steers Pinocchio to Paradise Island, where a few drinks with a Gypsy leave him sprouting hooves, ears, and a tail. He and Jimminy hurry home only to learn the whale Monstro has swallowed Geppetto and Figaro, so naturally they get swallowed too, and one big sneeze later everyone is back on dry land. Asides about Oprah, Michael Jackson, and Nemo keep the classic delightfully off-balance.
Comedic scenes involving drinking and mild innuendo at "Paradise Island"; no profanity.
Pipe Dreams: A Mockumentary — Andy Birge
Humorous Interpretation · 1 performer, multiple characters
A documentary crew tracks down the real Mario Brothers fifteen years after their glory days, and nothing about their lives turned out the way the games suggested.
Luigi is out of shape, still bitter about the sidekick thing, and more than happy to spill. Bowser found love online and swapped fireballs for IBS meds. Wario can only shout his old world-domination catchphrase. Donkey Kong gets misty about the good old rivalry. When the crew finally lands Mario, he's done rescuing princesses, counting his carbs, and pretty cynical about "the game," right up until breaking news: the Princess has been kidnapped again, by a mysterious man with a mustache. Cue one last reunion. Bone-dry mockumentary delivery sells every beat.
Comedic references to drinking, including a supporting character who's visibly drunk in the morning; no profanity or explicit content.
Reggie Wilson: Boy Detective — Christopher Rife
Humorous Interpretation · 1 performer, multiple characters
Fourth-grade detective Reggie Wilson is convinced his teacher is a robot, and his investigation moves a lot faster than his evidence does.
Mr. Bailey talks in a monotone, guards his privacy, and is definitely a robot, at least according to Reggie. With best friend Fenton and a reluctant Susie (bought off with a rare trading card), Reggie builds his case: a suspicious CD collection, a remark about recharging batteries, and a full name that spells U.S.B. Flimsy? Sure. But it gets the principal involved, and Bailey confesses: he is a robot, quietly trying to figure out human emotion. The school keeps him on (thanks to some questionable government grants), and Reggie is back on the case by the last line. Tight, rapid-fire runs of jokes throughout.
Brief innuendo built around a punchline referencing an STI; otherwise clean and suitable for most audiences.
The Remarkable Adventure of …States the Obvious Girl — James Sweeney
Humorous Interpretation · 1 performer, multiple characters
Remarkable Man's daughter narrates every plot development out loud the instant it happens, and it turns out that's exactly what makes her the real hero.
Her dad, Remarkable Man, foils bank robberies and ticking bombs. She narrates. Every twist, out loud, the instant it happens, while Dad treats her more like an afterthought than a partner. Then the villain Ambiguous Woman kidnaps her as bait, and it turns out a girl who says exactly what's going on is the perfect match for a villain who never does. Girl out-talks her, out-fights her, and gets hailed a hero by the police chief and the press. Dad's reaction back home? Another flat "good job," and Girl is left wondering out loud whether it will ever be enough. Clever wordplay that stays fresh scene after scene.
Clean throughout, suitable for any audience.
Terrestrial News at Five — Matt Mills
Humorous Interpretation · 1 performer, multiple characters
Two none-too-bright local news anchors interview an alien that two hunters just captured, and it takes them far too long to notice it wants to destroy humanity.
Two hunters bag a crash-landed alien in the local park, and reporters Stacy and Randy are on the scene for what they assume is a fun human-interest piece. The alien calmly answers every question with some version of "destroy humans," and it takes the reporters an embarrassingly long time to catch on. A general shows up to negotiate (using his own assistant as a human shield) and gets mentally zapped. Soon the whole crowd is worshipping the visitor, and the broadcast jumps ahead to a future where Earth goes by "Blorgmerica," anchors included. Perfect deadpan news voice, from puff piece to planetary takeover.
Clean throughout, with cartoonish sci-fi peril; suitable for any audience.
The Toychest Chronicles — Natalie Pronk
Humorous Interpretation · 1 performer, multiple characters
The toys on a store shelf come alive the second the customers leave, and a homicidal battle-robot toy shows up looking to melt every one of them.
Once the customers leave, the shelf comes alive: astronaut doll Arnold, feuding dolls Beth-Ann Barbie and Surf's Up Stan, a singing iPod, an overeager Teddy, and a gallant LegoMan, all gossiping about a mysterious new shipment until DoomBot marches in, ready to destroy them all. The toys' secret weapon isn't firepower. It's Teddy on a Guitar Hero guitar, shredding endless variations of "I love you" until DoomBot's circuits overload and its batteries die. Everyone pairs off happily before opening time, and a kid finally takes Arnold home. A gag a minute, start to finish.
Clean throughout, suitable for any audience.
Wretched: A Wickedly Funny Parody — James Cronan
Humorous Interpretation · 1 performer, multiple characters
Glinda tells the munchkins the real story of her college friendship with the witch everyone now calls Wretched, and it isn't the story they expect.
Glennda's story starts at Whiz University, where green-skinned Alphalbah gets mocked by classmates and teachers alike, Glennda very much included. The two eventually become friends and get summoned to meet the "great" Whizard, who tests Alphalbah's magic on his monkey servants. One accidentally dies; another becomes a flying spy-drone. When the Whizard plans to frame Alphalbah as the villain of his own scheme, the pair run, and Alphalbah heads off to fight back her own way. Which leads, eventually, to that famous splash of water, delivered by Glennda to a munchkin audience that is unimpressed and mostly distracted. Wicked and Oz riffs pile up fast, puns on every name included.
Includes a scene of a spell accidentally killing a monkey and mild fantasy peril; otherwise clean and suitable for most audiences.