Year of Thirteen Moons

Year of Thirteen Moons

Germaine Shames
Script Fee: $150.00 Licensing: $65.00 per performance
Read This Play for Free! Access Classroom Resources for This Play

Be the first to bring this new play to life. We’ve waived the World Premiere script fee — simply add the script to your order, and the discount will apply. You’ll only pay the standard performance licensing.

As the premiere producing school or theatre, you’ll receive:

  • Official “World Premiere with Gitelman & Good Publishers” credit
  • Recognition on our website and in our catalog
  • Optional feature in our educator newsletter and social media

In return, we ask that you share:

  • At least 5 high-quality production photos
  • Brief testimonials from the director and student performers

This helps us celebrate your students’ achievement and inspire other theatre programs nationwide.

Genre:  Contemporary Dramedy

Format: Live In-Person Performance

Keywords: coming-of-age, blended families, heartwarming, identity, racial justice, trauma recovery, sibling relationships

Cast Size: 5 (1 male, 3 female, 1 flexible); with doubling, 4 (1 male, 3 female)

Duration: Approximately 65 minutes

Time Period: 2020

Cautions: Mild language; discussion of historical racism and slavery; references to rape, foster care, and drug-related legal trouble; brief mentions of domestic abuse and incarceration; some scenes include masks and COVID-19 lockdowns

2020: the year of thirteen full moons. Under quarantine lockdown skies and the hum of BLM protests, 13-year-old Sam Baron is watching the stars—and watching her family drift out of orbit. Her mother, a renowned historian, is brilliant and driven, yet emotionally unavailable. Her newly-discovered half-brother is prickly, asthmatic, and possibly vanishing again. And the only adult who consistently shows up in Sam’s life isn’t technically family, but she might be the closest thing Sam has to home.

As the moon waxes and wanes, Sam turns to her telescope, her therapist (who sometimes appears with a third eye), and to the people around her for steady ground...yet finding shifting stars instead. But clarity doesn’t come from the constellations above; it comes from the fierce gravity of love.

Wry, warm, and full of cosmic wonder, Year of Thirteen Moons is a coming-of-age play that finds humor in the heartbreak, strength in the stillness, and hope in the most unexpected alignments.

How We Price

Our pricing is simple and transparent. Each play includes two parts: a one-time script fee of $150, which grants you immediate access to the play and permission to copy and share it within your program; and a performance license of $65 per performance, which covers your live productions for the selected license duration.

How You License

At checkout, select your license duration (for example, the current or next school year) and the number of performances you plan to give. Each license covers live, in-person performances.

What You Get

You’ll receive an instant PDF download of the full script. During your license period, you’re free to copy, print, and share the script within your school or theatre program for rehearsal and performance use—no per-script fees or copy limits.

Praise for Germaine Shames

“Shames creates the intense atmosphere of an unstable world with grace and a sort of lyric power.” - NPR

"Germaine advocates for social justice with refreshing maturity, structural elegance, and gut punching dichotomies." - Claire Beckman, Artistic Director