Books published by Samuel French Inc

Full Length, Drama / 11 m / Int. This volatile, incendiary drama premiered in 1976 under the direction of Mike Nichols, produced by Joseph Papp at New York's Lincoln Center. Revived in 2008 by the Roundabout Theatre, the third in author Rabe's quartet of "Vietnam Plays" is set in the Army barracks housing a group of young men, the "streamers" of the title: hapless parachutists who streak to certain death when their parachutes fail to open. This group includes Billy, a new recruit; Roger, a str

ComedyCharacters: 6 maleInterior Set Despite the title, it has intense meaning for these times. The scene is a room in a wealthy country club, to which the men's committee is hastily summoned early one morning after a carousing dance. Problem: what to do about the 16 luscious but low life females who drove up in a Rolls Royces and then proceeded to the tennis courts, where they are now disporting. While the committee huddles, we learn that they are the vulgar, crass peopl

Drama / 9m, 2f / Int.From the author of I Never Sang for My Father, this groundbreaking drama explores a sensitive young man's coming of age amid the taunts and suspicions of his classmates and teachers at a private boy's academy. Only a sympathetic act of compassion by the wife of the headmaster gives young Tom the courage to grow into a man. A hit onstage and film with Deborah Kerr.

This is a witty version of the story of a suave vampire whose passion is sinking teeth into the throats of young women. There are many surprising but uncomplicated stage effects including mysterious disappearances, secret panels, howling wolves and bats that fly over the audience. Magically, Dracula vanishes in full view of the spectators.

Common sense has become rather desperately needed in regard to the Method which may simply be defined as a codified formalization of the technique of acting. The author is trying to make the point that there is an historical or chronological correspondence between the realistic school of dramaturgy and the Method, the Method relates to every kind of acting - good acting - and not narrowly to realistic acting as such.

The 'Pump Boys' sell high octane on Highway 57 in Grand Ole Opry country and the 'Dinettes', Prudie and Rhetta Cupp, run the Double Cupp diner next door. Together they fashion an evening of country western songs that received unanimous raves on and off Broadway. With heartbreak and hilarity, they perform on guitars, piano, bass and, yes, kitchen utensils.

When Harry Douglas, the new American Ambassador to England, tells his family he is going to Scotland to play golf, his wife and daughter announce plans of their own. Their Butler, Perkins, watches stoically as each leaves then secretly returns for a romantic rendezvous in the empty house.

Ivan MenchellComedyCharacters: 1 male, 5 femaleMultiple SetsThree Jewish widows meet once a month for tea before going to visit their husband's graves. Ida is sweet tempered and ready to begin a new life, Lucille is a feisty embodiment of the girl who just wants to have fun, and Doris is priggish and judgmental, particularly when Sam the butcher enters the scene. He meets the widows while visiting his wife's grave. Doris and Lucille squash the budding romance between Sam and

Set in an empty Greek amphitheater, this mad play within a play switches back and forth between ancient Athens and modern Broadway. A Greek actor and a writer are discussing how to end a play. Actors, including Doris Levine from Great Neck, Blanche DuBois, and Groucho Marx, pop out of the audience. Peppered with metaphysical and philosophical questions, the play skids along farcically until the actor and writer conclude that it lacks a beginning as well as an end.

Comic Drama / Casting: 4m, 3f / Interior SceneryWinner of the 1991 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award By America's great comic playwright, this memory play is set in a Yonkers in 1942. The hit Broadway production featured Irene Worth, Mercedes Ruehl and Kevin Spacey in award-winning performances. Bella, is 35-years-old, mentally challenged and living at home with her mother, stern Grandma Kurnitz . As the play opens, ne'r do-well son Eddie deposits his two young sons on the old lady's doorstep.

Winner! 1938 Pulitzer Prize for DramaIn an important publishing event, Samuel French, in cooperation with the Thornton Wilder estate is pleased to release the playwright''s definitive version of Our Town. This edition of the play differs only slightly from previous acting editions, yet it presents Our Town as Thornton Wilder wished it to be performed. Described by Edward Albee as "...the greatest American play ever written," the story follows the small town

Drama / Characters: 1 male, 3 femaleScenery: InteriorThe Associated Press described Extremities as "a searing play about rape". This incredibly gripping drama portrays the act and it's aftermath as the victim turns the tables on her attacker, reaching a climax of fever pitch suspense. "A good, jolting evening."-N.Y. Daily News "A white knuckle psychological thriller."-USA Today

A collection of short plays Black and SilverCharacters: 1 male, 1 female Interior Set In this short, affecting and laughable scene parents are awakened in the middle of the night by the baby. They stumble about trying to pacify the infant. At one point the husband panics because he cannot hear the baby breathing in the cradle, which is only reasonable because the wife has put it on their bed.Mr. FootCharacters: 1 male, 1 female Interior Set A

A prima donna, a young man, an old man, an old lady, and a young lady are all trying to get into a bathroom in a hotel. The door will not open, and at last the prima donna declares that her husband, with whom she has had a quarrel, must have locked himself in the bathroom and done away with himself.

AmericaΓÇÖs premier funny man and the Tony Award-winning composer of A Chorus Line; collaborated on this hit musical; a funny, romantic show about an established composer and his relationship with an aspiring young female lyricist, not unlike Carole Bayer Sager. Professionally, their relationship works beautifully, but ultimately leads to conflict on the home front. Of course, thereΓÇÖs a happy ending.

Meet George and Maggie Antrobus of Excelsior, New Jersey, a suburban, commuter-town couple (married for 5,000 years), who bear more than a casual resemblance to that first husband and wife, Adam and Eve: the two Antrobus children, Gladys (perfect in every way, of course) and Henry (who likes to throw rocks and was formerly known as Cain); and their garrulous maid, Sabina (the eternal seductress), who takes it upon herself to break out of character and interrupt the course of the drama at every o

Successful Long Island businessman Joe Benjamin is a modern-day 'Job' with a demanding wife, ungrateful children, and wise-cracking household employees. Just when it seems things couldn't get any worse, he is visited by Sidney Lipton, a.k.a. A Messenger from God (and compulsive film buff) with a mission: test Joe's faith and report back to "the Boss." The jokes and Tests of Faith fly fast and furious as Neil Simon spins a contemporary morality tale like no other in this hilarious comedy.

Drama / Characters: 3 FemalesSummoned to a covent, Dr. Martha Livingstone, a court-appointed psychiatrist, is charged with assessing the sanity of a young novitiat accused of murdering her newborn. Miriam Ruth, the Mother Superior, determindly keeps young Agnes from the doctor, arousing Livingstone's suspicions further. Who killed the infant and who fathered the tiny victim? Livingstone's questions force all three women to re-examine the meaning of faith and the power of love leading to a dramatic, compelling climax. A hit on Broadway and later on film. "Riveting, powerful, electrifying drama...the dialogue crackles."-New York Daily News "Outstanding play (that)...deals intelligently with questions of religion and psychology."-The New York Times"Unquestionably blindingly theatrical...cleverly executed blood and guts evening in the theatre."-New York Post

Drama / 7m, 7f / Unit setImmortalized onstage and screen by Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke, this classic tells the story of Annie Sullivan and her student, blind and mute Helen Keller. The Miracle Worker dramatizes the volatile relationship between the lonely teacher and her charge. Trapped in a secret, silent world, unable to communicate, Helen is violent, spoiled, almost sub-human and treated by her family as such. Only Annie realizes that there is a mind and spirit waiting to be rescued from the dark, tortured silence. With scenes of intense physical and emotional dynamism, Annie's success with Helen finally comes with the utterance of a single, glorious word: water. Interesting, absorbing and moving.- New York Post

DramaCharacters; 15 male, 4 female1 set (other locations simply suggested); optional projections and slides. Maximilian Schell and George Gizzard starred on Broadway in the powerful stage version of an Academy Award winning film. Ernest Janning, one of the most influential German legal minds of the pre war era, and other influential Nazis face a military tribunal in the second wave of post war trials at Nuremberg. Issues at the forefront of this trial reverberate through h

"This play is a rewritten version of the play "The merchant of Yonkers" which was directed in 1938 ..."--P. (4).

Comedy / 5m, 3f / Unit set. In this hilarious comedy by the author of Lend Me A Tenor and Moon Over Buffalo , two English Shakespearean actors, Jack and Leo, find themselves so down on their luck that they are performing "Scenes from Shakespeare" on the Moose Lodge circuit in the Amish country of Pennsylvania. When they hear that an old lady in York, PA is about to die and leave her fortune to her two long lost English nephews, they resolve to pass themselves off as her beloved relatives and

Full Length, Farce/ 5 m, 3 f, extras / 2 ints.Here is the hilarious frolic that launched Feydeau in Paris as the Neil Simon of his day. Take one philandering husband; add his virtuous wife set on revenge, and a doctor determined to be her instrument of revenge; mix well with the husband''s friend who is eager to trap his spouse in flagrante delicto and a young nephew with a cocotte to round out his education; toss them together at 13 Rue de L''Amour where a love starved German countess is the co

Winner! 2005 Samuel French Canadian Playwrights Contest Isobel Lomax and Dolly Biddle are two "mature" cable-access cooking show hostesses who have hated each other for 30 years, ever since Larry Biddle dated one and married the other. When circumstances put them together on a TV show called The Kitchen Witches, the insults are flung harder than the food! Dolly''s long-suffering TV-producer son Stephen tries to keep them on track, but as long as Dolly''s dressing room is one in

The Duck variations copyright: 1971. Sexual perversity in Chicago copyright: 1977.

This varied collection of short sketches and monologues by the author of NOISES OFF, BENEFACTORS and others is essential to any actor's library. Most pieces are comic and all are perfect for classes and auditions.Contents:At the Sign of the Rupture Belt (2m, 1f) Blots (Monologue) Confession (Monologue)Do You Think You Are? (1m, 1f)Glycerine (1m, 1f)Head to Head (Monologue)Heaven (1m, 1f)Listen to This (1m, 1f)A Little Peace and Quiet (1m, 1f)The Messenger's