Scenes for teens: free acting scripts with teenage characters
Scenes where a lead character is a teenager in the play, each with the line that shows the age and how long it runs.
The Offbook team
Nov 11, 2026
Teen actors are often handed scenes about middle-aged marriages. The scenes below have a lead who is a teenager in the play as written: Juliet, who is not yet fourteen; Miranda, about fifteen; Cecily, eighteen; and Joan of Arc, who says she is seventeen. Each entry quotes the line that gives the age, so you can tell a teacher or a casting panel why you chose it.
Every scene comes from a play in the public domain, so the text is free to read, copy, and perform in class, at a festival, or in a competition.
The scenes, shortest first
Listed here: scenes where the text shows that a lead character is a teenager. Many other young characters, such as Hermia, Helena, and Viola, are probably teenagers too, but their plays never give an age, so they are left off. The full list of scenes has them.
| Scene | Characters | Run time |
|---|---|---|
| Romeo and Juliet meet (Romeo and Juliet) | Romeo, Juliet | 1.1 minutes |
| It was the lark (Romeo and Juliet) | Juliet, Romeo | 2.2 minutes |
| Miranda and Ferdinand (The Tempest) | Ferdinand, Miranda | 3.6 minutes |
| Juliet waits for the Nurse’s news (Romeo and Juliet) | Juliet, Nurse | 4.8 minutes |
| Algernon proposes to Cecily (The Importance of Being Earnest) | Cecily, Algernon | 6.2 minutes |
| The balcony scene (Romeo and Juliet) | Juliet, Romeo | 6.9 minutes |
| Joan puts courage into the Dauphin (Saint Joan) | Charles, Joan | 8.6 minutes |
| Gwendolen and Cecily take tea (The Importance of Being Earnest) | Gwendolen, Cecily | 9.7 minutes |
A two-person scene here is one that two characters carry; when someone else speaks once, the entry says so. Times are spoken words at 140 words a minute, stage directions removed, the same method as the play library.
Romeo and Juliet meet
Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare · Act 1, Scene 5
At the Capulet feast, Romeo takes Juliet’s hand. Their first words to each other form a sonnet they share between them, and it ends in a kiss.
- Characters
- Romeo and Juliet
- Age
- Juliet is not yet fourteen (“She’s not fourteen,” Act 1, Scene 3).
- Length
- About 1.1 minutes, 155 words
- Words per part
- Romeo 90 · Juliet 65
- Starts
- Romeo: “If I profane with my unworthiest hand / This holy shrine, the …”
- Ends
- Juliet: “You kiss by the book.”
It was the lark
Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare · Act 3, Scene 5
Dawn after their wedding night. Romeo is banished and will be put to death if he is found in Verona, but Juliet wants him to stay a little longer.
- Characters
- Juliet and Romeo
- Age
- Juliet is not yet fourteen (“She’s not fourteen,” Act 1, Scene 3).
- Length
- About 2.2 minutes, 307 words
- Words per part
- Juliet 166 · Romeo 141
- Starts
- Juliet: “Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day: / It …”
- Ends
- Romeo: “More light and light; more dark and dark our woes!”
Miranda and Ferdinand
The Tempest, William Shakespeare · Act 3, Scene 1
Prospero has set the shipwrecked Prince Ferdinand to carrying logs, and his daughter Miranda, who has never seen a young man before, offers to carry them for him. They confess their love and promise to marry, while Prospero watches unseen.
- Characters
- Ferdinand and Miranda, with one speech for Prospero
- Age
- Miranda is about fifteen: she was “not out three years old” when she came to the island twelve years ago (Act 1, Scene 2).
- Length
- About 3.6 minutes, 497 words
- Words per part
- Ferdinand 261 · Miranda 220
- Starts
- Miranda: “You look wearily.”
- Ends
- Ferdinand: “A thousand thousand!”
Juliet waits for the Nurse’s news
Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare · Act 2, Scene 5
Juliet sent the Nurse to Romeo at nine and has waited three hours to hear whether he will marry her. The Nurse is back, and complains about her aching bones before she gives the answer.
- Characters
- Juliet and Nurse
- Age
- Juliet is not yet fourteen (“She’s not fourteen,” Act 1, Scene 3).
- Length
- About 4.8 minutes, 671 words
- Words per part
- Juliet 353 · Nurse 318
- Starts
- Juliet: “The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse; / In …”
- Ends
- Juliet: “Hie to high fortune! Honest nurse, farewell.”
Algernon proposes to Cecily
The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde · Act 2
Algernon has come to the country posing as Jack’s wicked brother Ernest, and falls for Jack’s ward Cecily. When he proposes, she tells him they have been engaged for three months: she wrote it all in her diary.
- Characters
- Cecily and Algernon
- Age
- Cecily is eighteen (“I am really only eighteen,” Act 3).
- Length
- About 6.2 minutes, 874 words
- Words per part
- Cecily 581 · Algernon 293
- Starts
- Cecily: “Uncle Jack would be very much annoyed if he knew you were …”
- Ends
- Cecily: “… his hair so much. I must enter his proposal in my diary.”
The balcony scene
Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare · Act 2, Scene 2
After the feast, Romeo has climbed into the Capulet orchard and hears Juliet at her window, saying aloud that she loves him. He answers her, and before the Nurse calls her in they have promised to marry.
- Characters
- Juliet and Romeo
- Age
- Juliet is not yet fourteen (“She’s not fourteen,” Act 1, Scene 3).
- Length
- About 6.9 minutes, 962 words
- Words per part
- Juliet 683 · Romeo 279
- Starts
- Juliet: “O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? / Deny thy father and …”
- Ends
- Juliet: “… foot I’ll lay / And follow thee my lord throughout the world.”
Free text of the play · Juliet’s monologue, “’Tis but thy name that is my enemy” (What’s in a name?) · Romeo’s part · Juliet’s part
Joan puts courage into the Dauphin
Saint Joan, George Bernard Shaw · Scene 2
Joan, a country girl who hears voices, has just picked out the Dauphin from the whole court. Alone with him, she tells this frightened, mocked young man that God means him to be crowned king, and that he must give her the army.
- Characters
- Charles and Joan
- Age
- Joan says she is seventeen (“Seventeen: so they tell me,” Scene 1).
- Length
- About 8.6 minutes, 1,205 words
- Words per part
- Charles 664 · Joan 541
- Starts
- Joan: “Who be old Gruff-and-Grum?”
- Ends
- Charles: “… no matter: here goes! Call for silence, you little beast, will you?”
Gwendolen and Cecily take tea
The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde · Act 2
Gwendolen and Cecily meet for the first time and promise to be great friends, then discover they are both engaged to “Ernest” and fight it out over the tea things.
- Characters
- Gwendolen and Cecily, with one speech for Merriman
- Age
- Cecily is eighteen (“I am really only eighteen,” Act 3).
- Length
- About 9.7 minutes, 1,359 words
- Words per part
- Gwendolen 867 · Cecily 484
- Starts
- Cecily: “Pray let me introduce myself to you. My name is Cecily Cardew.”
- Ends
- Cecily: “… many other calls of a similar character to make in the neighbourhood.”
Practice it out loud
A scene only comes alive when the other part answers you. If you do not have a scene partner tonight, upload the scene to Offbook as a PDF or text file and pick your role: realistic voices read every other part, and it listens through your microphone and plays the next cue when you finish your line.
You can hide your own lines as you learn them, or show only the first letters of each word. Want classical speeches instead? See the monologues with run times.
For more on rehearsing without a partner, read how to rehearse a scene alone and how to prepare a scene for acting class.
More scenes
- Scenes for two women
- Scenes for two men
- Every scene in the library: comedy, drama, and group scenes
- Monologues with run times and line-by-line guides
Questions actors ask
What is the shortest scene on this list?
Romeo and Juliet meet (Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5), about 1.1 minutes of spoken text. The longest is Gwendolen and Cecily take tea (The Importance of Being Earnest, Act 2), about 9.7 minutes. Pauses, movement, and reactions add time to the spoken words.
What is a good Shakespeare scene for teenagers?
Romeo and Juliet’s first meeting is about a minute long and complete in itself, a shared sonnet that ends in a kiss. For something longer, the balcony scene and Juliet waiting for the Nurse are both on this list, and Miranda and Ferdinand from The Tempest is a gentler love scene of under four minutes.
Can teens perform these scenes in competitions?
The texts are in the public domain, so there is no license to buy. Check the competition’s own rules for length and for whether classical or published scenes are allowed, and use the run time on each entry to pick one that fits.
Keep reading
- Classical Monologues for Teens, TimedSpeeches by characters the play shows to be teenagers, timed from the exact text, each with a guide to every line.
- Acting Scripts to Practice: Free Two-Person ScenesReal scenes from classic plays, with the setup, the characters, where to find them, and how long each one runs.
- How to Play a Character Much Older or Younger Than YouA stoop and a quaver, or a squeaky voice and a bounce, read as a sketch, not a person. How to build age from the script’s facts, the body, and the voice, how adults play children without playing cute, and how to rehearse it until it holds, with old Adam from As You Like It.
- Classical Monologues for Teen Actors: Nine Speeches by Young Characters, All Under Two MinutesNine public-domain Shakespeare speeches spoken by characters who are young in their plays (Juliet, Miranda, Hermia, Julia, Puck, Arthur, Romeo, Prince Hal, and Orlando), each with what just happened, what the character wants, our word count, and a run time, plus what high school programs and competitions actually ask for.