Introducing students to the magic of theater and helping them develop dramatic skills, this book presents nine reproducible scripts for short plays (15 to 25 minutes) with characters and story lines that will appeal to young people. The scripts in the book encompass a variety of story types, from adaptations of well-known fairy tales to original fantasy and science fiction stories. Each script in the book presents a list of characters, a brief description of characters and costumes, a diagram of a stationary set, a list of minimal props required, and suggestions on how to use the play within the classroom environment. Designed around the guidelines for the theater discipline of the National Standards for Arts Education, the scripts in the book are short in length, affordable to produce, and offer educators a fresh and simple approach to teaching students acting, design, directing, and research. After an introduction and play synopses, the scripts in the book are as follows: (1) "The Tinder Box" (A Fairy Tale); (2) "Casings" (A Space Yarn); (3) "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" (A Little Comedy); (4) "The Quib Blaster from Zantar" (A Space Farce); (5) "Beauty and the Beast" (A Romantic Tale of Enchantment); (6) "Opposing Forces" (A Space Drama); (7) "Koba and the Red Lion" (A Jungle Fable); (8) "The Phantom of the Crystal Chasms" (A Space Masque); and (9) "Winds of Silk" (A Minispectacle). (RS)