I wrote this play for middle and high school students in an acting class I was teaching. We had less than three weeks to prepare a play for production. That in itself was a challenge, but the greater challenge was that there was only one male in the class! Any director knows that females usually far outnumber males in theater, but I’d never had this kind of gender unbalance. So I abandoned the play I had planned to use and wrote
Home to Roost, shaping it as I worked with my student actors. As I revised the play for subsequent publication, I added another male (Tony), with the option of casting Higglesbottom as a male (as either Mr. Higglesbottom or a male playing Mrs. Higglesbottom - a la Monty Python!).
The play is an extremely fast-paced farce, played entirely for laughs (and laughs are plentiful). It’s great fun and simple to produce. Set and costume requirements are minimal (another real challenge for school directors). You might use this play alone or pair it with another one-act. I’ve paired it with A Buffalo in Sheep's Clothing with great success.