alphabetical author index

Best Mistake, The

  • Jim Knable
  • Full Length Play, Comedy, Present Day
  • 2M, 2F
  • ISBN: BH3

"With the adult literacy rate shockingly high in this country, anything that publicizes the problem is a bonn to all. In The Best Mistake, playwright Jim Knable has managed to bring the issue to light in a smart, hip and engaging way."

Pat Launer, San Diego Broadcast Theatre Critic

  • Full Length Play
  • Comedy
  • 50 minutes

  • Time Period: Present Day
  • Target Audience: Pre-Teen (Age 11 - 13), Teen (Age 14 - 18), Adult
  • Set Requirements: Bare Stage/Simple Set

  • Performance Group:
  • High School/Secondary, College Theatre / Student, Community Theatre
Becky and her embarrassingly over-the-top father, Roy, have never gotten along, so when she brings her first high-school boyfriend home to meet him, the last thing she expects it to be is the best mistake she has ever made.

When Roy becomes a hero to boyfriend, Will, things look bad. And when Becky's drama teacher assigns them Hamlet to present and Roy bursts in on Becky and Will rehearsing, only to recite from the play as the accomplished actor he was before he opened his furniture store, things look worse. Then Becky asks her dad to read from the play and discovers he can't, and things get much more complicated.

All of Becky's assumptions about her father fly out the window, and, with help from her mom, Will and even Ms. Newstrom, the drama teacher, Becky pieces together the truth behind her father's illiteracy. She confronts her father and then comes to understand him in all his contradictions. Becky manages to get her dad to start going to a literacy center with the reward being that he gets to play Hamlet's father's ghost in the school production. 

REVIEWS:

"With the adult literacy rate shockingly high in this country, anything that publicizes the problem is a boon to all. In The Best Mistake, playwright Jim Knable has managed to bring the issue to light in a smart, hip and engaging way."

 Pat Launer, San Diego Broadcast Theatre Critic

"The performance of The Best Mistake was not "glowing" -- It was other-worldly, transcendental, magical... amazing! My regrets were for the people who were not there... The audience was stunned!"

 Jose Cruz, San Diego Council on Literacy

  • Casting: 2M, 2F
  • Casting Attributes: Reduced casting (Doubling Possible)
  • Casting Notes: With doubling.

Name Price
The Best Mistake Script Order Now

Becky and her embarrassingly over-the-top father, Roy, have never gotten along, so when she brings her first high-school boyfriend home to meet him, the last thing she expects it to be is the best mistake she has ever made. When Roy becomes a hero to boyfriend, Will, things look bad. And when Becky's drama teacher assigns them Hamlet to present and Roy bursts in on Becky and Will rehearsing, only to recite from the play as the accomplished actor he was before he opened his furniture store, things look worse. Then Becky asks her dad to read from the play and discovers he can't, and things get much more complicated. All of Becky's assumptions about her father fly out the window, and, with help from her mom, Will and even Ms. Newstrom, the drama teacher, Becky pieces together the truth behind her father's illiteracy. She confronts her father and then comes to understand him in all his contradictions. Becky manages to get her dad to start going to a literacy center with the reward being that he gets to play Hamlet's father's ghost in the school production. Simple staging. Approximate running time: 50 minutes.

$19.95