Böcker utgivna av Samuel French Inc

Dramatic Comedy / 3m, 3f / Unit SetWoodie Guthrie had it. Arlo may have it. It's usually hereditary, but not always passed on to every offspring. The symptoms do not normally appear until a person reaches their mid-forties. Referred to as "The Dance of Death," Huntington's Disease is a complete degeneration of the nervous system. Recently, medical researchers developed a blood test to determine if the disease is present in young people. The question is: Should we know? There are over 100,000 p

Comedy / Casting: 3 male, 2 female When low morale threatens the Toronto branch of Chime Communications Canada, five ordinary office workers must mount a team-building talent show to savetheir jobs. Meet Stuart, the lovable yet inappropriate office manager, Marcus, the smooth talking sales rep, Diane, the tough as nails marketing manager, Brie, the perky and scheming receptionist, and Jack, the awkward guitar-playing intern. Together, they must use their hidden talents to sing, dance and manipulate their way through the talent show, which ultimately degenerates into a every-man-for-themselves battle of office skills, where only one will walk away without a pink slip. Featuring a sales versus marketing salsa, a fowl-mouthed printer puppet, and more office backstabbing than HR can handle, the team must learn to keep it together without tearing each other apart.This fast-paced, comedic romp through office culture features a catchy, original pop-musical score, and five unforgettable characters that you're bound to recognize from around the water cooler. An exciting and fun new musical, Funny Business is the perfect production for cubicle dwellers and blue collars alike. "A Runaway hit" - Classical 96FM (Toronto)Fresh, tuneful, and full of talent...a guaranteed good time!" -Toronto Star

Comedy This three part "slice of life" takes place in three different condos and has audiences laughing at the truth they see in what might be their own neighbors - only zanier. Flamingo Court has ten characters. In the New York production, five actors played all the roles. Producers may want to follow the above pattern, or cast up to ten actors. In any case, audiences respond to this trilogy with uproarious laughter and leave feeling they have experienced great entertainment. ANGELINA, in 104,

Dramatic Comedy / Flexible casting: 2-5m, 2-5f This brilliant collection of Horovitz's newest one-act plays can be mixed and matched to form several "theme" evenings. For example, nine of these plays formed the highly-successful off-Broadway show "Israel Horovitz's New Shorts" The Bridal Dance, Affection In Time (The Prologue), The Fat Guy Gets The Girl, Beirut Rocks, The Audition Play, The Hotel Play, Cat-Lady, Inconsolable and The Race Play . Additionally, six of these plays were joined to c

1m, 2f / DramaSheila Gold, 55, a successful Jewish businesswoman suffering from terminal cancer, is spending the end of her life in a comfortable hospice where her only companion is her 30 year old daughter, Rachel. The two have a tense relationship as Rachel has spent most of her adult life working at Planned Parenthood and is generally a disappointment to her entrepreneurial mother.While in the hospice Sheila has become fascinated by a late night televangelist, Dr. Julian Strong, a black man in his 50's. She finds his message inspiring and comforting and she writes Strong, offering to make a sizable donation to his ministry. Much to her surprise, Strong flies out to visit Sheila, presumably to see her sign the check in person. His physical presence is even greater than his TV persona and the two fall head over heels in love. Sheila begins to toy with the idea of converting to Christianity and spending her final days with Strong's church in California. This revelation upsets her daughter to no end as Rachel is certain that Strong is a crook, promising hope and salvation, when all he really wants is to come between her and her inheritance.Is Strong truly in love with Sheila or is he only out for her money? Sheila must choose between her daughter and a new love and lifestyle, in what will certainly be her final days."When Sheila Gold announces to her grown daughter, Rachel, that she is thinking of trading in her barely used Judaism for late-model, born-again Christianity, it looks as if we're being set up for a play about religious faith. But Gino DiIorio has something else up his sleeve in Apostasy, the absorbing new drama running through Aug. 13 at the New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch. Sheila's flirtation with Jesus is going to turn into a flirtation of an entirely different kind. And abortion politics will intrude messily on the play's relationships. " - The New York Times

Murder Mystery Farce / 6m, 3f InteriorThe police are baffled after Wilbur Smith, "The Sausage King," is strangled with a roll of his own sausage. After several months, the authorities, unable to unscramble the dilemma, call in the services of Farlow Cranston, ace private investigator and renowned solver or arcane cases. Cranston, with unflappable grandiloquence and fractured logic, unravels the mystery via a farcical route that leads to its conclusion. Expect the unexpected in this delightful melange.

Drama / 2m, 4fBased on police case-files, Beachwood Drive is a smart, character-driven drama that tells the story of Nadya, a Ukrainian prostitute and single mother smuggled into Los Angeles. Nadya attempts to free herself from the snares of both the Russian Mafia and the Los Angeles Police Department after she's arrested in a sting operation. The mystery of Nadya's disappearance unfolds Rashomon-style, as the story is retold from four different perspectives: first, that of Hansonia, Nadya's A

5m, 5f (with doubling) / Ints. This girl loves ghoul rock and roll Off Broadway musical is set in the atomic 1950s at Enrico Fermi High, where the law is laid down by a zany, tyrannical principal. Pretty senior Toffee has fallen for the class bad boy. Family pressure forces her to end the romance, and he charges off on his motorcycle to the nuclear waste dump. He returns glowing and determined to reclaim Toffee's heart. He still wants to graduate, but most of all he wants to take Toffee to the

Full Length, Comedy / 2m, 2f / 2 ints. This laugh filled comedy by the author of Same Time, Next Year explores differences in British and American attitudes and manners that surface during an unlikely romantic liaison. Libby Daniels, a New York film producer, hopes to revive her fading career by acquiring the movie rights to Giles St. James's popular British mysteries. She tracks down the reclusive, eccentric writer, only to discover that he loathes Americans as much as she dislikes the Britis

Comedy / 1m, 1f / Int.A memorable evening with two of the world's favorite characters, this sequel to Same Time, Next Year continues the saga of an extramarital affair conducted one weekend a year into the last quarter of the twentieth century. Maturing into their late sixties, Doris and George share the inevitabilities of aging and the convolutions of parenting and grandparenting as they redefine love outside of their annual tryst and romance within it. Hilarity and tenderness are perfectly b

"Adapted from Willa Cather's novel My Antonia."

Based on the novel by Frances Hodgson BurnettFull Length, Musical / 12m, 10f, 1 girl (doubling possible) / Ints., exts. This enchanting classic of children's literature is reimagined in brilliant musical style by composer Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of 'Night Mother. Orphaned in India, 11 year-old Mary Lennox returns to Yorkshire to live with her embittered, reclusive uncle Archibald and his invalid son Colin. The estate's many wonders include a magic g

Comedy / 3f, 3m Here is an hilarious romantic comedy bursting with witty dialogue about a couple who take their two daughters and their husbands on a cruise from Copenhagen to St. Petersburg. Before the boat docks, the course of all three marriages changes drastically and unpredictably in a laugh filled, comedy that enjoys record breaking runs in theatre after theatre. "Delightful." - Variety "Sails on a sea of comedy." - L.A. Times"Ironic and wise. Clever and perceptive. Superb." - Holl

Drama / Characters: 4 male, 4 femaleScenery: Unit setA finalist for the National Play Award, this funny drama takes place in Vienna, 1900. A beautiful and brilliant young girl enters the office of Sigmund Freud to begin the most famous and controversial encounter in psychoanalysis. Dora is funny, suspicious, sarcastic and elusive. Freud becomes obsessed by her and he moves like a detective through the mystery of her mind, finding a lecherous father, an obsessed mother, an irritating brothe

Comedy / 4 m., 3 f. / Int. Before Daddy's Dyin' Who's Got the Will? there was this award winning comedy set in the west Texas watering hole of Lowake. Gossip, the town's major pastime, ignites a blaze of infidelity that engulfs three couples with the zany precision of a Feydeau farce. The clan includes Bo Bob, the dimwitted mailman, and Clarence, local stud and mechanic who's been messin' with Ovella since high school. His faithful girl is Sara Lee Turnover, the beautician. Teddy Joe, Ovella's

Mystery / 1m, 5f / Simple unit setThis psychological drama is a thinking person's Gothic thriller, a dark comedy that is both funny and frightening. On a snowy night, Inspector Ruffing is called to a remote house to investigate the headlong plunge of Patrick Roarke down the main staircase. He becomes involved in the lives of five alluring and dangerous women: Marcy, the beautiful Viennese governess with a past; Mrs. Ravenscroft, the flirtatious lady of the manor; Gillian, her charming but po

Adaptation from the Italian by Mario FrattiMusical / 1m, 22f, 4 boys (or 10 m, 13 f, 4 boys) / Unit setThis spectacular winner of the 1982 Tony Award for Best Musical delighted Broadway theatergoers in a hit revival in 2003 starring Antonio Banderas. Based on Fellini's classic film 8 1/2, Nine is the story of a celebrated film director Guido Contini and his attempts to come up with a plot for his next film as he is pursued by hordes of beautiful women, all clamoring to be loved by him and hi

One act review / 6 to 30 children (10 to 15 is ideal), ages 5 to 15Area staging; unit set.This musical romp through the joys and sorrows of being a child is hilarious. Children give 23 lessons in such subjects as how to beg for a dog, how to torture your sister, how to act after being sent to your room and how to laugh hysterically. The pace is fast, the tone subversive and the recognition instant. "Applause, applause, applause!"-- Steve Allen "Delightfully clever."-- Hollywood R

Based on Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. Musical Drama / 9m, 6f, chorus and extras / Unit setThis winner of Tony and Grammy awards as Best Musical ran for three years on Broadway and enjoyed a record breaking national tour. A proud family's quest for a better life meets conflicts that span three generations and set the stage for a drama rich in emotion and laughter. Taking place on Chicago's Southside, it explodes in song, dance, drama and comedy. "Pure magic ... dazzling! Tremen

Drama / 2f, 1m It is 1994 and Naomi Goldman, recently widowed, is living in an apartment in upper Manhattan. Her son Tony, separated from his wife, lives with her. When Tony's old college girlfriend Aviva contacts him with the ulterior motive of interviewing and videotaping his mother for a Holocaust memorial project, Tony is appalled. Naomi, reluctant at first, eventually agrees to the interview. Though appearing to be forthright in her story Naomi clearly is hiding a devastating secret. When Aviva pushes her to admit the truth the consequences are life-changing. The Goldman Project is a play about family relations, the lingering legacy of the Holocaust and the catharsis of self-renewal. "Introducing Naomi, a Romanian-born widow, as a lovably comic, more than a little stereotypical character...a smart decision on the part of Staci Swedeen" - Anita Gates, The New York Times "Swedeen has an ear for dialogue, even the passages in Yiddish fit the moment nicely. (Don't worry: The Yiddish is instantly translated in the course of the conversation.)" - Peter D. Kramer, The Journal News "This fine play is less about the past than about living with honesty in the present." - James F.Cotter, Times Herald-Record

Comedy/Murder Mystery / 4m, 2f / Unit SetIt's New Year's Eve at the Perry mansion, and Julia and Matthew Perry seem to have it all. But Matthew wants something more -- to be rid of his wife Julia so he can have some real fun! He resolves to murder Julia by the new year's end, and tells her so. She vows to stay alive, and tells him so. And so the game begins -- a hilarious year-long match of wits and the witless. While Julia cleverly dodges Matthew's devious murder attempts, the Perry friends a

One of Manhattan's most established play festivals, the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival fosters the work of young writers, giving them the exposure of publication and representation.The festival resulting in this collection was held July 15th-20th, 2008 at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre on 42nd Street in New York City.From the initial submission pool, approximately 50 plays were chosen to be performed over a period of one week. A panel of judges comprised of New York area the

Dramatic Comedy / 2m, 2f, 2 either m or fA dark comedy about a clown from the "unhappiest country in the world", Moldova, who pins her hopes on a US work visa. Chased by Homeland Security, a deportation letter deflates Nadia's enthusiasm and a pair of spike heels might be all it takes to burst her American Dream (or turn it into a nightmare...). New York City, with its special energy, seems like the perfect solution for her problems, but is it really? Luckily, Nadia is not alone in her journey

Dramatic Comedy / 5m, 3f Approximate running time: 1 hour and 45 minutes, no intermission. Various settings, some real, some imaginary, in Pennsylvania When Gordon's wife vanishes, the only clue to her whereabouts is a bookmark in dog-eared copy of Traveling to Montpelier. With little help to be found at work, from his son, or from the police, Gordon takes off to a rural bookstore to find some answers. His journey brings him to the town of Cornersville, in the wilds of Pennsylvania. Through

Ron Blicq / Drama / 4m, 3f / Unit SetWinner of the Samuel French Canadian Playwrighting CompetitionDonald Barlow, who lives in Nottingham, England, decides to search for his father who, he has discovered, was a visiting Canadian serviceman during World War II. Following his mother's death, Donald engages a search agency to find his father (Gordon Devereaux) and establish contact. But when the agency does find Devereaux, the elderly man vehemently denies his involvement with Donald's mother a

4m, 3f / Comedy / Unit Set Fortune 500 business tycoon Roger Cabot has given up his power and possessions for a bohemian life in a loft in New York City to become the artist he always wanted to be. But not everyone is happy with Roger's new lifestyle. Richard Borman (Roger's business protégé) is convinced that Roger's surreal, erotic paintings, his frolics with female models, his cultivation of a Zen rock garden, and, worse, his development of a strange ability to see sounds amounts to evidence of insanity. Persuaded by Richard, Rebecca (Roger's only child and Richard's fiancée) agrees to a plan designed to return Roger to the man he once was. In the end, schemes and dreams are revealed, and everyone gets what they deserve in this farcical comedy that is fast and furious and great fun along the way. This play was a finalist in the McLaren Memorial Comedy Competition.

Thriller / 1m, 2f / Interior Fit to Kill is a thriller about strategy, deception, and betrayal. Adrian, a charming but self-indulgent chess master, enjoys a life of luxury thanks to his marriage to Janice, an older but still sexy and vibrant woman who has made her fortune as the CEO of an exercise empire. The arrival of Amy, a reporter with an agenda of her own, unleashes a whirlwind of deadly schemes that will keep audiences guessing until the final seconds. "Deliciously scary...an event wo

Comedy / 6m, 5f / Interior Across the street from the 'mad men' of Madison Avenue live the Ten Percenters of the National Talent Agency. It's the same time, 1962, a secretary is still a toy, boys will still be boys, but the times they are a changin'. Audiences will love to hear what's happening on The Whole Ninth Floor "First impression is that it is a string of jokes tied together rather loosely. A moment's concentration brings home however the basic fact that Seff weaves a story based on the young man's intense and insistent desire to do the right thing. The laughs come fast, and they are plentiful." - The Patterson Call "The comedy construction of The Whole Ninth Floor is made up of wall-to-wall witticisms. Seff has a good ear and facile pen for manufacturing witty dialog. Also he obviously knows, from first hand experience, Madison Avenue and the talent agency area of show business, for his prototypes and inside trade references are accurate and appropriate." - The Scotch Plain Times "A sparkling new comedy, a tremendously funny play." - The Herald News

3m, 1f / Comedy / Interiors The intersecting lives of four "Save-a-Bundle Discount Mart" employees are explored in Additional Particulars. In the first act, Glenda Balitski, an optimistic but lonely young woman who works in housewares, has recently moved into her tidy apartment after the death of her invalid mother. Assistant Manager Warren Grippo, a generous but awkward man of unflagging good manners, has unexpectedly dropped by Glenda's apartment after work. After the lonely couple disc

Comedy / 3m, 3f / InteriorSam Price, a wealthy entrepreneur, has just recently passed away and, at his request, has been laid out in his townhouse. With the corpse in the bedroom, his immediate family-sister, brother, nephew and niece-have gathered to discuss their inheritance, a meeting that descends into acrimony over the division of property. Much to their chagrin, they learn that Sam has left his entire estate to the church, a discovery that results in them reluctantly seeking the advice of