Theatre Licensing
The agency specializes in representation of live stage rights, more formally identified as dramatic-musical rights, including dramatic, musical, live stage works, opera, operetta, dance, and puppetry. The agency represents playwrights and composers, as well as negotiating these rights on behalf of producers for third parties in domestic and foreign markets. For more information, please email susan at schulman agency dot com or to fill out a production request form, click here.
HOLES, Adapted for the stage by Louis Sachar from his National Book Award winning novel.
Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys “build character” by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment--and redemption.
Cast: 7 children, 7-12 adults — The play includes a minimum of 7 parts for children but 18 speaking parts which can be played by individuals or utilize duel casting
Location: Camp Green Lake past and present
Running Time: Two versions are available: Two act version running 2 hours with a 15 minute intermission; One act version running 45 minutes suited to classroom presentation
SIDEWAYS STORIES FROM WAYSIDE SCHOOL, Adapted for the stage by John Olive
Bestselling and Newbery Medal-winning author Louis Sachar knows how to make readers laugh. And there are laughs galore in perennial favorite Sideways Stories from Wayside School adapted from three chapter books (Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Wayside School Is Falling Down, and Wayside School Gets a Little Strange)
Accidentally built sideways and standing thirty stories high (the builder said he was very sorry for the mistake), Wayside School has some of the wackiest classes in town, especially on the thirtieth floor. That’s where you’ll meet Bebe, the fastest draw in art class; John, who only reads upside down; Myron, the best class president ever; and Sammy, the new kid—he’s a real rat. Enter the world of Wayside School in this wacky adaptation by Louis Sachar and laugh your way through a not so typical school day!More than fifteen million readers have laughed at the clever and hilarious stories of Wayside School. So what are you waiting for? Come visit Wayside School.
Cast: 5 adults (which can also be played by student actors) and 7-up to an entire classroom of children
Location: The 30th-floor classroom of Wayside School. Up there everything is sideways!
Running Time: Two versions are available: Full length version for family audiences running 2 hours with 15 minute intermission; 45 minute version suited to assemblies or class time
BEAST ON THE MOON by Richard Kalinoski
Inspired by harrowing true events, Beast on the Moon follows the lives of an immigrant refugee and his teenage, mail-order bride.
Seta and Aram are two polar opposites who have one tragic experience in common. The play, set in early 1920s Milwaukee, unfolds around the effort of the couple to have a child. Infertility threatens not only their dreams, but also their relationship, until the presence of an orphaned boy forces them to reckon with each other and the past. Peppered with humor, irony, and bittersweet surprise, theirs is a universal story of hope, healing, redemption, and finally, love.
Beast on the Moon has been performed in over 20 countries and has been translated into 19 languages, the latest being in Turkish.
Cast: 4 Characters: 1 Female – 3 Males
1 set: Interior House
KINDERTRANSPORT by Diane Samuels
A modern classic about one woman's struggle to come to terms with her past.
Brutally separated from her German Jewish parents at the age of nine, Eva is brought to England with the promise of a new life...
Between 1939 until the outbreak of World War II, nearly 10,000 Jewish children were taken from their families in Nazi-occupied Germany and sent to live with foster families in Britain. Diane Samuels' seminal play, Kindertransport, imagines the fate of one such child. Now widely considered a modern classic, Kindertransport has been read and studied the world over.
Kindertransport won the 1992 Verity Bargate Award and was subsequently staged by the Soho Theatre Company at the Cockpit Theatre in London in 1993. It also won the Meyer-Whitworth Award in 1993.
Cast: 6 Characters: 5 Females – 1 Male
1 set: Interior of a House
CORKTOWN 39 by John Fazakerley
Corktown ’39 is a political thriller about an Irish Republican army plot to assassinate the King of England on American soil, and the tragic romance that develops between the assassin and the woman in whose home he is being sheltered. The play, which deals with the rise of fascism in America in the 1930s, dramatizes these events in a light that is relatable to a modern audience for the purpose of sparking a discussion about the morally repugnant use of terror tactics in the furtherance of what many would consider a just cause.
Cast:Six male and 1 female. All are Caucasian of Irish ancestry
1 set: A Victorian Parlor that is also used as an office
Period: Early May, 1939
FOREVER POPPY by José Cruz Gonzalez
A magical realist play that intertwines history, fantasy, and family legacy.
Forever Flor William Isla Baptiste Poppy is a curious, imaginative nine-year-old girl born in New Orleans to loving, eccentric parents—Maricela “Sky Spirit” and William “Coco.” They run an experimental bakery and tattoo parlor, infusing their lives and community with love and whimsy.
The play opens with a Shakespearean prologue: a legendary lost manuscript by William Shakespeare is stolen by John Blackwood, sparking a centuries-long feud with his twin brother, Robert. Shakespeare curses the brothers with immortality until the manuscript is returned. This mythic theft echoes across time, ultimately connecting to Forever Poppy’s modern-day story.
In New Orleans, Forever’s life is full of joy, storytelling, and baked goods until tragedy strikes: her parents perish in a mysterious explosion—possibly linked to the Blackwoods’ ancient curse. Orphaned, Forever is taken away from the loving motorcycle gang community that embraced her, thrust into an uncertain future as dark forces (including Helmut Schmidt, John Blackwood in disguise) close in, still seeking Shakespeare’s manuscript.
Through rich language, playful characters, and heartfelt emotion, the play celebrates legacy, imagination, and resilience. Forever emerges as a new kind of heroine: the spiritual and familial heir of Shakespeare’s creativity and her parents’ generosity. The message is timeless—stories, love, and honor can defy even the most powerful curses.
Cast: Six characters (three females, three males)
Setting: A wooden platform stage like Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. A place that is magical and transformative.
Running Time: 70 minutes.
Target Audience: Elementary, middle and high school students.
