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A Time for Dolls - Classroom Performance License
A Time for Dolls: A One-Act Play by Shantell Powell

A Time for Dolls is a powerful, darkly comic one-act play rooted in Inuit storytelling, myth, and coming-of-age ritual. Set within the traditional home of an Inuit family, the play unfolds as a mother tells her teenage daughter a series of ancestral stories—stories of survival, hunger, sexuality, transformation, and resilience—on the eve of the girl’s transition from childhood to womanhood.
 
Blending folklore, ritual performance, and stark honesty, A Time for Dolls explores what it means to grow up in a world where survival is never guaranteed and knowledge is passed through story rather than instruction. Dolls become symbols of care, preparation, and endurance, marking the moment when imagination must give way to responsibility.
 
The play features a small ensemble cast and fluid staging, with mythic figures—including the Sun Woman, Moon Man, giants, shamans, and ancestral elders—emerging alongside realistic domestic scenes. Humor and brutality coexist, reflecting the complexity of oral traditions that teach through both laughter and discomfort.
 
Written with cultural specificity and theatrical boldness, A Time for Dolls is particularly well suited for classroom performance, theatre studies, Indigenous literature courses, gender studies, and ensemble-based training. Its one-act structure and episodic storytelling make it accessible for student actors while offering rich material for discussion around mythology, survival ethics, bodily autonomy, and rites of passage.

A Time for Dolls - Classroom Performance License

$99.99Price

  • Classroom Performance License - One-Act Script

    This Classroom Performance License grants permission for the educational, non-commercial use of a licensed one-act script under the following terms:


    Permitted Uses

    Upon purchase or approval of this license, the licensee is granted the right to:

    • Conduct unlimited in-class rehearsals with enrolled students

    • Present up to two (2) or three (3) unpaid, non-ticketed classroom performances during a single academic term

    • Photocopy or digitally distribute scripts solely for use by students currently enrolled in the licensed course

    • Use the script for instructional, rehearsal, and performance purposes within a classroom or campus educational setting

     

    Restrictions

    This license does not permit:

    • Ticketed, commercial, or public performances

    • Recording, streaming, or broadcasting of rehearsals or performances

    • Use of the script outside the licensed academic term

    • Distribution of scripts beyond enrolled students

    • Alteration of the script without written permission from the rights holder

     

    Royalties

    • No royalties reporting is required for performances covered under this license

    • No additional fees are owed beyond the classroom license fee

     

    Credit Requirement

    All rehearsals and performances must include the following credit:

    A Time for Dolls by Shantell Powell

     

    Licensed by Kinsman Avenue Publishing, Inc.

     

    Term

    This license is valid for one academic term (semester or quarter) and expires at the conclusion of that term unless renewed.

     

    Rights

    Copyright remains with the author.


    Copyright for the published collection or anthology (if applicable) remains with Kinsman Avenue Publishing, Inc.

© 2024 by Kinsman Avenue Publishing, Inc.

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