Books published by Samuel French Inc

Dramatic Comedy / Characters: 4m, 3f / Interior SetBekah Brunstetter makes her Off Broadway debut in September 2009 at the Atlantic Theatre Company! Ron is back from his third and final tour in Iraq, and his wife Sara is excited to restart their life together in their new home. When a young marine visits the family, life is turned upside down. Sara's sister is swept off her feet; her daughter Lacey trades her dresses for combat boots, and Ron gets hungry for real military action. In this disar

Farce / 3m, 5f with doubling /InteriorBridget and her Grandmother are about to become roommates. However, what Bridget saw as a unique opportunity to stay with her favorite Nana in New York for the summer quickly turns into an experience she'll never forget. It seems her sweet Grandma is running an illegal boutique from her apartment, selling hand-made naughty knickers to every senior citizen in the five borough area! Will Bridget be able to handle all the excitement? Will her Nana get arres

Drama/ Characters: 3m, 2f Mary and David, camped out amidst the boxes her abused mother left behind, are unpacking a small San Francisco apartment. Outside, people self-actualize like crazy, riding the bubble. When Mary herself is the victim of an unprovoked act of violence, it leads the pair down different paths of addiction and realization: one to the violence itself, one to the abuse of cat tranquilizers. Meanwhile, Richard is a benevolent drug dealer working on his book while Sylvia want

Comedy with Music / 11 characters (m or f)...And Then There Was Nun is written in the style of a classic 1940's murder mystery; and is a blend of humor and who-dun-it as the actors emulate iconic movie stars of the past.Take one foreboding mansion on a secluded island, throw in ten whacked-out members of The Holy Order of the Sisters of San Andreas, stir in their unseen and mysterious leader, add an assortment of the sharpest tongues this side of Hollywood and Vine; then infuse with a health

Based on the novel by Frances Hodgson BurnettCharacters: 8m, 7f, 1f child, 1m child, Readers (chorus) as many as you want /Unit SetThe long-awaited new 70-minute version of the beloved musical is as beautiful and spirited as the original in just half the time. Adapted by Marsha Norman from her Tony-award winning book, it tells the story of Mary Lennox, orphaned in India, who returns to Yorkshire to live with an embittered, reclusive uncle and his invalid son. On the estate, she discove

At the dawn of the Cold War, the early 1950s, a young, brash, Army major, Hamilton Pike, brings famed German rocket scientist and former Hitler employee Wernher Von Braun to Huntsville, Alabama, a cotton town selected to become America's "Rocket City." But Huntsville is a Jewish community over a century old. Sparks fly and tempters explode when Amy Lubin, the Jewish fiancaee of local war hero Jed Kessler learns of Von Braun's Nazi past.

Various AuthorsOne of Manhattan's most established play festivals, the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival fosters the work of emerging writers, giving them the exposure of publication and representation. The festival resulting in this collection was held July 14th-19th, 2009 at The Main Stage Theatre on 42nd Street in New York City. From the initial pool of over 715 submissions, the Final Forty plays were chosen to be performed over a period of one week. A panel of judges compr

Full Length, DramaDrama / Characters: 2m, 2f (Conceived for African-American actors, but casts of other races are possible) / Multiple sets The play follows an African-American family in a low-income neighborhood whose lives are ultimately ruined by their surroundings. Clive arrives unexpectedly at the house of his mother and his sister. He says that he is fleeing from the police - but perhaps it's another one of his delusions. Unbeknownst to him, he has shown up on a tragic anniversary. Three years prior, his sister's child was killed in a brutal shooting. As fate seems bent on shattering the walls, mother Mae valiantly attempts to keep house. Mr. Lodato is a 2002-2003 Guggenheim Fellow, as well as the recipient of the 2002 L. Arnold Weissberger Award for Motherhouse

Full Length / Comic Drama / 4m, 2f / InteriorDonna is nearly at the end of her rope, and her only option is to return to the less than welcoming embrace of her younger sister, Ros. In this bitingly funny and provocative tale of obsession and consumption, the author unfurls a story which asks whether it's ever really possible to save another person from herself. "A fantastic production packed with a beautiful 'arrangement' of hilariously inventive comedy and well developed, touching drama."- San Diego Playbill

Drama / 3m, 2fSteeped in the difficulty of reunification and reconciliation, American Hwangap tells the story of Min Suk Chun, who some 15 years earlier left his family in a West Texas suburb to return to his native Korea. On the occasion of his 60th birthday (hwangap), a milestone signifying the completion of the Eastern Zodiac and a type of rebirth, he returns to his ex-wife and now adult children as they struggle to reconcile their broken past with the mercurial, verbose and often exasperat

Love Person is a four part love story in Sanskrit, ASL and English in which love transcends sexual orientation, physical attraction, and social structure and rests instead on the ways in which we communicate and how communication bonds or breaks us. The play is structured around four Sanskrit love poems that influence and reflect the journeys of the characters. Free, a Deaf woman in a relationship with Maggie, accidentally falls into a deceptive email correspondence with her sister Vics love interest Ram, a Sanskrit professor. Free and Ram discover a connection, based largely on an affinity between their two languages. As a result of the deception, Vic and Ram also begin to fall in love. Meanwhile Free and Maggies relationship struggles to survive.

Comedy / 3m, 1f / Simple setFollow Daisy the sassy Westie through her dating adventures with Itchy, Champ and Bogie at the hippest, hottest place in town: Central Bark, where every dog has his day, and love conquers all. Daisy has promised her BFF (Best Friend Forever) she'd give the dating scene one more chance. She meets Champ the Collie, a charming but full of himself show dog; Itchy, a "humperactive" Jack Russell terrier; and Bogie, the darkly mysterious Lab/mutt who sticks his neck out for no one. This unusual quartet make their way through the day's scheduled events which include Singles With Friends, Agility Class, Speed Mating, Yappy Hour and Lovers with Leashes, which is when they pair up and leave the park. Daisy comes to the conclusion that Champ only has eyes for himself, Itchy can only be a friend, and Bogie is the dog for her. But when Daisy makes her desires known to Bogie, she gets a rude awakening; we learn that Bogie, a stray, has been living at the Dogpark for six months. Bogie confesses his love for Daisy just as Animal Control arrives to take him away. Will Bogie and Daisy ever be reunited? Fresh off its sold-out run at Milwaukee Rep comes Dogpark: The Musical, created by the team behind the hit Chaps! and Chaps! A Jingle Jangle Christmas!

Comic Drama / 4m, 1f / Unit setThe author doesn't claim it happened exactly this way; he has just taken five real life characters and some basic biographical facts and supposed what it was like for Orville and Wilbur growing up in the dysfunctional Wright family. Flight takes place in Dayton, Ohio, and at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in the early 1900s. Not a documentary, the play explores the lives of the Wright family in in warm and comic theatrical terms. "A witty, touching flashback ... T

Max Forrestal is going to fail biology if he doesn't complete a 20-page paper on extinction by 2pm on Tuesday, but his mother, Lily, is dying of cancer, and school is the last thing on his mind. His father, Ellery, a biologist obsessed with saving a rare Bolivian insect, is incapable of dealing with his wife's impending death, or his son's distress. Max's biology teacher, Khim Phan, tries to figure out why Max is failing the class. Helping Max, however, pushes Khim into a magical journey of his own, from the Cambodian fields of his youth into the undiscovered country beyond.

Drama / Characters: 2m, 4f, plus 1 male or female character and 1 male voice over / Simple Set / Dawn revolves around Hampton, an abusive alcoholic who has completely alienated his wife and children. Can he stop drinking and make up for the past, even amidst some very dark revelations of incest and pedophilia? Dawn is one father's story of redemption and reconciliation - with a twist. Bradshaw was named Playwright of the year by the theater blog KUL-That Sounds Cool and Dawn was named among th

Comedy / 5m Not long after moving to the small town of Randolphsburg, PA, uptight lawyer Joel Bixby is invited by Leo Applegate, an avuncular fast food connoisseur, to join a group of townsmen who meet in a ramshackle room at the edge of town. Leo has chosen Joel as a replacement for the late - and greatly beloved - Walter Deagon. Despite protesting that he's just not an organizational man, Joel finds himself mesmerized by Leo's ebullient manner and agrees to drop by - without ever asking just

Every actor knows that the secret to a successful audition is finding the perfect monologue - one that seems as if it were written exclusively for you! Mr. Milligan is our foremost author of original audition material, having already written or co-written Actors Write for Actors, Encore, Going Solo, His & Hers, Next! and Both Sides of the Story. In this, his latest volume, he has created 50 new audition pieces (25 for men and 25 for women, all various character types and situations). Each monologue comes with two possible endings - for a total of 100 variations. But Mr. Milligan goes one step further by giving you an opportunity, if you wish, to create your very own ending! He provides you with clear, concise guidelines that will help you craft your own customized conclusions! In this way, the collection provides an infinite source of possibilities for variety, spontaneity and individuality.

Comedy / Characters: 4m, 2f / Unit set A faded screenwriter in the 1940's woos her troubled ex-writer son into collaborating on a screen play. The gangster/sci fi B-movie in their imagination unfolds before us, involving a chic crime czarina, a beautiful but icy lady scientist and her failed and understandly bitter human cloning experiment. A third story is the Russian fairy tale the screenwriter told her son as a child about a painfully shy princess who forges a diabolical pact with a terrifying but surprisingly vulnerable old witch. The fairy tale inspires the movie which inspires the mother and son screenwriters to mend their fractured relationship. "Plays-within-plays require such intricate tailoring. So it's a pleasure to report that with The Third Story, the ever-captivating Charles Busch proves equally deft as both performer and seamstress." -Theatermania. "The main joy of The Third Story is that its foolery embodies something substantive...No wonder The Third Story feels like such an energizing event." -Village Voice.

Various m and f rolesFrom the author of Cabo San Lucas, Waiting, and Truth be Told, comes six new one act plays about love and relationship. Perfect for any theatre. Included in this book are: The Man in the Grey Suit, Different, Red Roses, The Same Thing, Knots, and Come to the Garden. All have simple casting and production requirements, all are easy to stage. "Ms. Soland has developed several plays...all interesting, all clever, all unique. She is gorgeously talented." -Charles Nelson Reil

In the Rest Room at Rosenblooms author Ludmilla Bollow presents four short plays depicting various aspects of the American scene. These award winning productions will take you cross country - to a group on the beach, to a selective animal shelter, a firefly get-together in the woods, and a secret government gathering. All can be presented in one evening, or each performed separately. Contains: Saving America Flickering Fireflies Shelter Skelter The Beach Club

Dramatic Comedy / Characters: 2 males, 2 females, doubling possibleAnne and Don, married ten years, are on vacation in Florida. As the play begins, Anne is inanely chattering on about beaches, seagulls and garbage dumps. Don, fed up with Anne's incessant chatter, walks away leaving Anne, much to her surprise, sitting on the beach alone. Don has gone to visit his friend Jim, a man of little insight but great obsession about golf, to tell him that he has left Anne. Jim, in turn, has just returned from a golfing vacation to discover his wife, Sandy, has apparently left him. George, a seagull who lives a contented life with his wife, Ethel, on the Staten Island landfill, has just arrived on the Florida beach and meets Fred, a seagull without ties but with a dark past. The Secret Life Of Seagulls follows these four humans and Fred as they attempt to define themselves, their lives, relationships and values. George, the Staten Island seagull, however, is quite content being who he is.

Drama / Characters: 6m, 2fBiographer Bill Lauder has penned a ruthless tell-all about Karla Daven, a long dead legendary 1950's starlet. As a result, he is summoned in the middle of the night to the dilapidated mansion of Karla's celebrity husband, Harold Bachman, a reclusive director who makes the outlandish claim that Karla's ghost has threatened to kill him this very night unless Bill calls off the publication of his tawdry book of lies. What follows is an intense evening where memory wrestles with myth in order to find the truth. As Harold gets deeper into exposing Bill's lies about Karla, he is forced to confront the lies he's told himself - lies about himself as a filmmaker, a husband, and as a man. Harold must not only save himself from Karla's ghost, but from the ghosts of an unrealized life.* WINNER *1994 Drama-Logue Critics AwardOutstanding Achievement in Writing "Steven Peros' intriguing play is a well wrought tale of love and loss, set against the sweeping background of the golden era of Hollywood ... while the characters are fictional, they take on a life of their own and end up eerily reminiscent and real ... Karlaboy could rightly take its place among the more innovative and involving productions currently on the Los Angeles theatre scene." - Elias Stimac, Drama-Logue"A wonderful experience ... what rings through this totally fascinating play is the brilliant dialogue. Steven Peros has an ear for dialogue of this type - highly intelligent, witty and on the mark. You'll see many a show before you come across talk this stimulating." - Maurice Keller, The Tolucan

Truth Be Told is a full-length play that consists of eleven, one-person stories shared by a variety of personalities, all focused on getting at the truth. "Lisa Soland's characters are quirky, heartbreaking and enchanting. In these short, expertly-tuned monologues, we understand the entire life of the characters by focusing in on events that define their lives. The characters stay with us because there are pieces of them in us all." -Lloyd Noonan, Dramatic Writing Editor, Quay Journal."An extraordinary, well-balanced and perfect evening of theatre - so clever, so witty, so insightful and so moving."" -Kieron Barry, Metro Pulse."Having incarnated a few of Ms. Soland's characters, I am always struck by her profoundly unique voice that somehow finds a way to touch us all. Disarmingly, her characters in Truth Be Told engage the audience like candy to a child, until she invites us to grow up by exposing old wounds and adding salt where we need to heal."" -John D'Aquino, Actor/Writer.

DramaCharacters: 3 male, 3 femaleSet Requirement: SimplePrayer for my Enemy was produced Off-Broadway as part of the 2008-2009 Season at Playwrights Horizons.In Prayer for my Enemy, two middle-class families in suburban New York State confront their private demons against the public backdrop of the American incursion into Iraq. As their paths cross in ways that are both comic and terrifying, lies and secrets are at last exposed and an honest, hard-earned redempt

Comedy / Character: 3m, 1w / Unit SetPhil, an average nice guy, is madly in love with the beautiful Sophia. The only problem is that she's unaware of his existence. He tries to introduce himself but she looks right through him. When Phil discovers Sophia has a glass eye, he thinks that might be the problem, but soon realizes that she really can't see him. Perhaps he is caught in a philosophical hyperspace or dualistic reality or perhaps beautiful women are just unaware of nice guys. Armed only

Comedy / Characters: 2m, 3f / Unit SetKosher Lutherans centers on Hanna and Franklyn, the seemingly perfect couple who desperately want to have a child of their own, but are unable to do so. As the couple begins to wonder if they'll ever become parents, they have a chance encounter with a God-fearing pregnant girl from Iowa who offers to let the couple adopt her out-of-wedlock baby.Just before the adoption papers are signed, Hanna and Franklyn discover the girl is unaware that they are Jewis

Winner! 2009 FringeNYC Overall Excellence Award for Outstanding Play!Nominee! 2010 GLAAD Award for Outstanding New York Theater: Off-Off Broadway!ComedyCharacters: 4m, 4f (all female roles can be played by men in drag)Unit SetFlying Saucers! Backstabbing Bitches! Muscle Hunks and Men in Pumps! Wake up and smell the alien invasion in this outrageous comedy by the author of the off-Broadway hit play, Crumple Zone"***** [FIVE STARS]! Buddy Thomas's deliriously campy sci-fi spoof-one of the m

Drama / Characters: 3 maleIt is April, 1865. The Civil War is over and throughout the south, slaves are being freed, soldiers are returning home and in Jewish homes, the annual celebration of Passover is being celebrated. Into the chaos of war-torn Richmond comes Caleb DeLeon, a young Confederate officer who has been severely wounded. He finds his family's home in ruins and abandoned, save for two former slaves, Simon and John, who wait in the empty house for the family's return. As the three

Drama / 4m, 3f Walter is a quiet man who must lead a quiet life. As a convicted sex offender fresh out of state prison, he sees no choice. He works in a warehouse. He lives alone. He sees a therapist named Rosen. His only visitor is his brother-in-law Carlos. He also gets visits from a demon in the form of a beautiful Girl. Often brooding by his window, Walter watches children as they head for school. One day Nikki, a tough-talking woman from work, drops by. She doesn't waste time making the fi