Bücher veröffentlicht von Samuel French Ltd

A collection of short plays selected by New York theatre critics, professionals, and the editorial staff of Samuel French, Inc. as the most important plays of the Thirty-second Off-Off Broadway Original Short Play Festival sponsored by Love Creek Productions.

Two Full Length PlaysComedyCharacters: 2 male, 2 femalsInterior At the start of a typical day in the Northeast Office, Beverly deals effortlessly with ringing phones and her colleague's romantic troubles. But the appearance of a charming rep from the Central Office disrupts the friendly routine. And as the true nature of the company's business becomes apparent, The Receptionist raises disquieting, provocative questions about the consequences of complicity with ev

Full Length, Comic Drama / 3m, 4f / Unit Set It's June 16, 2004. Samantha Blossom, a chipper woman in her 40s, wakes up one June morning in her Upper East Side apartment to find her life being narrated over the airwaves of public radio. She discovers in the mail an envelope addressed to her husband from his lover, which spins her raw and untethered into an odyssey through the city.... a day full of chance encounters, coincidences, a quick love affair, and a fixation on the mysterious Jewel Jupi

Please add item description:Short Play, Comedy / 3W /Unit SetSet in the formerly oil-rich desert Southwest, this play explores the lives of two generations of women living under one roof. The story centers on Jo who, after her father dies, takes in her feisty mother. The dialogue between them and with a long-time neighbor is, at once, outrageously funny and heart-breakingly tragic. These women tear and rip into each other¿s psyche with reckless abandon and something barely resembling love.

In the Continuum puts a human face on the devastating impact of AIDS in Africa and America through the lives of two unforgettably courageous women. Living worlds apart, one in South Central LA and the other in Zimbabwe, each experiences a kaleidoscopic weekend of life-changing revelations in this story of parallel denials and self-discoveries.

These 12 monologues were originally performed in New York by the author."Cleverly written [...] It sinks its teeth deep into American and gives us something to chew on." - New York Magazine

A collection containing the following three plays by Harvey Fierstein: Manny and Jake Two young men meet in a bar. Manny is literally praying for sex; Jake is only too eager to oblige. What the latter does not know is that Manny has AIDS. Safe Sex Two recently reconciled male lovers confront the challenge of their on-again, off-again relationship in the time of AIDS. Ghee, an aging, congenial gay man, may be using guidelines for safe sex as an excuse for his fading sex drive. This dismays Mead, a virile and no-nonsense blue-collar type. The emotional seesaw of their interactions creates the compelling dynamics of this fascinating short piece. On Tidy Endings A man has died of AIDS, leaving behind a son, a male lover, and an ex-wife. She still loves him and accepts the fact that he was gay, and that he died in the arms of his male lover, who selflessly cared for him right up until the end.

Set in a one room shack out west at the turn of the last century, this at times funny and at times chilling play concerns Pat Garrett, the man who shot Billy the Kid. Now, many years after the famous deed, Garrett lives alone with his memories. Enter the man who wrote the dime novel that immortalized Billy and Garrett. He brings with him a man who he claims is the real Billy the Kid, now middle aged and very much alive. Is this man Billy the Kid? And, if he is then who is Pat Garrett?

It's New York, 1952. Welcome to Broadway, the glamour and power capital of the universe. J.J. Hunsecker rules it all with his daily gossip column in the New York Globe, syndicated to sixty million readers across America. J.J. has the goods on everyone, from the president to the latest starlet. And everyone feeds J.J. scandal, from J. Edgar Hoover and Senator Joe McCarthy down to a battalion of hungry press agents who attach their news to a client that J.J. might plug. When a young press agent, S

Based on actual events, White Buffalo tells the story of the miracle birth of a white buffalo calf on a small farm in southern Wisconsin. When Carol Gelling discovers that one of the buffalo on her farm is born white in color, she thinks nothing more of it than a curiosity. Soon, however, she learns that this is the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy believed by the Sioux to bring peace on earth and unity to all mankind. Her little farm is quickly overwhelmed with religious pilgrims, brin

Thriller / Characters: 4 male, 1 femaleScenery: InteriorFive people are coerced into a bank vault during a violent robbery. Camaraderie gives way to conflict as the will to survive spawns paranoia and deception. One by one, the captives turn on each other, create alliances, reveal their true selves and even resort to murder. This dark comic thriller, part survival story and part cautionary tale, enthralls and surprises from the opening scene to a final haunting discovery. "Outlandishly amusing. A guilty pleasure.''-NY Times "A riveting piece of drama, sprinkled liberally with comedic confrontations and maddening mind games.''-Backstage "A no holds barred version of 12 Angry Men [that has] the makings of an Off-Broadway success and regional theatre hit.''-Theatre Mania

Full Length, Comedy Charaters 4 male, 1 female Unit Set When uber-popular Vickie Martin joins the all-male math team, chaos theory becomes the rule at Longwood High School. Can this goddess of Pi possibly make the mathletes victorious? Totally."The tale about overcoming odds is surprisingly touching." - Time Out New York"The biggest and best surprise of the season so far ... puts the nerds next to the popular kids as they join forces to prove their worth to the world. Victoria

Full Length, Tragedy Characters: 7 male, 4 female Various sets This incisive translation of the classic drama is by the noted British playwright, translator and director.

This madcap comedy follows three actresses across the footlights, down the rabbit hole, and into a strangely familiar Wonderland that looks a lot like American theatre - the resemblance is uncanny! As these women pursue their dream of performing Chekhov in Texas, they're whisked through a maelstrom of "good ideas" that offer unique solutions to the Three Sisters' need to have life's deeper purpose revealed. In the tradition of great backstage comedies, Anton in Show Business conveys the joys, pains, and absurdities of "putting on a play" at the turn of the century.

Drama John LoganCharacters: 5 male, 2 female Various sets. This compelling drama by the author of Never the Sinner begins just moments before the 1936 execution of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, the German immigrant who was convicted of murdering the Lindbergh's baby. With prison guards doubling as other characters in flashback, Hauptmann tells his gripping story. "It is one of rising anti German sentiment in America, of rich versus poor, of the state versus the indivi

Farce CharacterS: 3 male, 4 female Int. The wealthy owner of a 200,000 acre Texas ranch has died. His butler Jarvis, an alluring maid, the rancher's niece his only living relative and her husband are gathered for the reading of the will. Oddly, Miss Tammy Jo Harper, a neighbor, has also been invited. As expected, the niece inherits everything. Jarvis then produces from the safe a reputed love potion. Does it work? Before long, everyone is sipping the sample with hilarious re

Sparkling dialogue, fascinating characters, satirical insights, and laughs galore abound in this tale of mistaken identities that begins when three mystery buff s who e-mail chapters to each other meet for two weeks to polish off their first book. The publication enjoys mild success until their literary agent hints that Sarah Trent, the pen name they adopted, is a real person. Book sales soar. Meanwhile, a Washington socialite being blackmailed over a possibly illicit weekend intends to send

Each play is an absurdist take on marital infidelity, one instance set on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and the other in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Fred Savage, a homicidal, paranoid, schizophrenic vagrant ex-copywriter, has been stalking a screenwriter for weeks, convinced that his prey stole his idea - in fact, his life - to create a successful movie plot. In an orthodontist is hosting her sister and golf-mad brother-in-law, a plastic surgeon, at her grand suburban house. When a couple who once owned the building stops by, they spark an old fashioned sex farce that is full of verve and cunning.

A. A. MilneComedyCharacters: 4 male, 2 female Interior SetA terribly exciting little affair happens in the humdrum life of John and Mary, a tempest in a teapot, but while it lasts--well, it's high comedy, at least for the audience!

Jason Milligan's anthology of one-act plays set in New York City features a wide range of styles and tones, ranging from wacky comedy, to romance, to drama. This collection includes: Best Warm Beer in Brooklyn, John's Ring, Next Tuesday, Nights in Hohokus, Shoes.

Drama / Characters:1 male, 1 femaleScenery: InteriorA couple sit at opposite ends of a table reminiscing about their life together. Each has a point of view and they rarely address each other directly. They are young to begin with, then middle aged, then old, then one dies. The anecdotes they relate are both humorous and tragic. Their lives seem wasted, yet the wife's muted final gesture of affection conveys a love that endured through years of bickering. A critical success in London, Irel

The Insanity of Mary Girard is the real-life story of a Philadelphia woman who spent the last 25 years of her life in a mental institution. In 1790, Mary Girard is committed to an asylum. After she became pregnant by another man, her husband had her declared legally insane. Now, she sits in a chair as the "furies" dance around and impersonate people from her past. By the end of this haunting and highly theatrical piece, Mary has grown rather convincingly into her diagnosis.

Short Plays, DramaScenery: InteriorsComanche Cafe: 2 femalesIn the late 1930's outside the seedy "Comanche Cafe", two waitresses pass the time: the older, Mattie recalls a fling; Ronnie, a regretful virgin, plans a bright future... Domino Courts: 2 males, 2 femalesFour years later, at a tourist cabin in the Oklahoma dust bowl, Floyd (now married to waitress Ronnie) and Roy, former bank robbers and self-proclaimed "Hot Grease Boys", meet up for an ill-fated reunion. "Haunting, t

Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna Comedy Interior Set Plays include: Alan, Betty and Riva (1 male, 2 females) Alan gets his mistress Betty to agree to join him in a menage a trois with Riva, a hooker who calls herself a sex therapist. Betty gets cold feet and acquiesces only when Alan convinces her it will help him make the decision to finally leave his wife. Afterward, Betty is depressed and, when she realizes Alan still isn't going to leave

DramaCharacters: 2 male, 3 female Combination interior and exterior set. Loved by audiences and critics nationwide, this compassionate and reflective play about two women coping with loneliness and loss was also successfully presented Off Broadway. The women are the last members of a rural commune founded in the 60's. One's husband was killed in Vietnam and she still clings to his memory. The other's wisecracking husband is hospitalized and dying. Both women find the

Comic drama / Characters:2 male, 3 femaleScenery: InteriorA lesser known but wonderful play by the acclaimed author of Extremities and The Woolgatherer . The story concerns a young hemophiliac youth named Chandler who has been kept, of necessity, by his cab driver mother in a very sheltered sort of existence. Chandler is desperate for contact with the world. He is also highly intelligent; but is supremely naive about the ways of the world. He pays a neighbor to bring him a girl; but he can

Takes a different approach to mystery as a ghost tries to find out who murdered her in a witty, sophisticated, yet suspenseful look at the upper crust of Hollywood. The curtain rises to find Jane, Oscar winning screen writer, dead at the bottom of the stairs in a Vermont ski lodge. Her four friends and husband are saying she fell. 'I was pushed!' she says as her ghost rises. Aided by Kitty, a rather wanton adviser from 'up there,' Jane is brought ahead to the present, three years after the murder, where the same group is gathered. They are all famous film makers with an intense hate love relationship; Janes husband who has married an ambitious ingenue, a heading for middle age leading lady, an arrogant director, and Hollywoods reigning gossip columnist. The five suspects join together to keep the possible murder quiet for reasons of their own but their relationship busts apart with their mutual distrust. Woven through the suspense in humorous, acidic, and revealing comedy is an extraordinary whodunit with a surprise denouement when the murderer is revealed. All the roles are lengthy with well defined characters. For the unusual and audience pleasing combination of comedy, intrigue, and suspense, this is a must!

Comic DramaCharacters:1 male, 4 female, 3 children (2 male, 1 female) Exterior Set The play is set in the coal mining country of southern Indiana. Carla, a twenty six year old high school dropout, wife, and mother, dreams of packing up and moving to escape her dreary existence. She is teased, threatened, and cajoled by her friends as they settle into an ordinary day of trading gossip, reading magazines, and prattling about sex while the children dart in and out. An ordin

Adapted by Norman CorwinDramatic ComedyCharacters: 2 male, 1 femaleSimple Set Carl Sandburg's works, adapted by Norman Corwin, as first performed by Bette Davis and Lief Erickson, and a host of others in New York and on tour. The best of the Pulitzer Prize-winner's verse, including some previously unpublished; and prose, including the biography of Lincoln; and interspersed with optional American folk songs from his songbag. "Playful and serious, childlike and wise, com

Genre: Comedy Characters: 10f, 1m (to play several roles) Scenery: Unit set In this hilarious satire on B-movies of the 1950's, Mary Eleanor, an innocent duped into crime, lands in the Greenwich Village Woman's House of Detention, presided over by a massive matron with a taste for sadism and female flesh as our heroine, now Caged in the Big House, learns about life The Hard Way... "Sex is rampant and comically cheerful!...A delirious evening of Grade-A tomfoolery!"-