Books published by Samuel French Inc

Musical / 3m, 5f (Doubling) / Unit Set The People vs. Mona revolves around Mona Mae Katt, who is accused of murdering her husband on their wedding night. The resulting trial brings out the worst and the funniest of the citizens in the tiny town of Tippo in this love story, murder mystery, courtroom shenanigans, fate-of-a-small-town-hinging-on-the-verdict musical.

Bingo is a splashy, zippy, fun new musical comedy - great for theatres looking to produce a small musical with a big heart. Bingo is about a group of die-hard bingo players who stop at nothing to miss their weekly game. In between the number calling, strange rituals and fierce competitions, love blossoms and long lost friends reunite. These lovable characters spring to life with a smart, funny script and bouncy, hummable score. Audiences will be laughing in the aisles when they aren't playing games of bingo along with the cast!Best friends and Bingo pals Vern, Honey and Patsy brave a terrible storm in order to attend the yearly celebration of the birth of Bingo and tribute to its founder, Edwin S. Lowe. As the storm knocks out power at the Bingo Hall, Patsy and Honey remind each other of the ominous night fifteen years ago that began in the same way. In flashback, Honey tells us about the night Vern and her best friend, Bernice, had their falling out. Bernice's sweet, yet headstrong daughter, Alison, enters the Bingo hall in disguise - Bernice's health is failing, and Alison is determined, with the help of Bingo, to reunite her mother with her long-lost best friend.

Full Length, Comedy Characters: 3 male, 4 female Huge oil reserves have been discovered in the Chagos Islands. O.P.E.C. is pressuring the Chagosians to join the cartel. A C.I.A. agent and an under Secretary of State, whose life appears to be run by her libido, are sent to a C.I.A. safe house in the mountains of Virginia to begin negotiations for the U.S. to place the Chagos Islands under their protection. Unfortunately, no one knows who the islands' representative r

Nominee! 2012 Drama League Award for Distinguished Production of a Play In Seminar, a provocative comedy from Pulitzer Prize nominee Theresa Rebeck, four aspiring young novelists sign up for private writing classes with Leonard (JEFF GOLDBLUM), an international literary figure. Under his recklessly brilliant and unorthodox instruction, some thrive and others flounder, alliances are made and broken, sex is used as a weapon and hearts are unmoored. The wordplay is not the only thin

Characters: 4 male, 2 femaleTony Award Winner, Best Play 1983 Includes: The International Stud, Fugue in a Nursery, Widows and Children First! "A very funny, poignant and unabashedly entertaining work that, so help me, is something for the whole family...the zappiest evening of theatre you could ask for." - Newsweek "Under the tragedy, the play is gorgeously funny." - N.Y. Post

Genre: Drama Character: 1 male and 3 females Scenery: Interior After suffering a major loss while he was on a cross-country bike trip, 21 year-old Leo seeks solace from his feisty 91 year-old grandmother Vera in her West Village apartment. Over the course of a single month, these unlikely roommates infuriate, bewilder, and ultimately reach each other. 4000 Miles looks at how two outsiders find their way in today's world. "A funny, moving, alto

Musical comedy Based on the story by James ThurberCharacters: 5 male, 6 female, and as many extras as desired.Scenery: Various simple sets (or one basic set).On his fortieth birthday Walter Mitty reflects on his drab, ordinary life. Defeated in his quest for wealth and glory by family responsibilities, a mortgage, and a routine job, he creates elaborate fantasies in which he is the hero. His secret world is so enticing that he often loses sight of the boundary between dream and reali

"Here is the greatest account ever written of the destructiveness of missionary zeal. Gregers Werle enters the house of photographer Ekdal preaching 'the demands of idealism' (a nicely ambiguous phrase in Hampton's translation) and systematically destroys a family's happiness"--Page 4 of cover.

One 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 October 23rd - 28th, 2012 at Theatre Row on 42nd Street in New York City. From the initial pool of over 900 submissions, 40 were chosen to be performed over a period of one week. A panel of judges comprised of professional pla

Diana has it all. Beautiful, intelligent, sweet natured. The sort of rare girl that all men swoon over. What's more she is the daughter of that most reviled of species, a wealthy banker. The three men in her life are Jamie, the much envied man to whom she is officially betrothed; Tom, the attractive boyfriend of Jamie's sister; and Geoff, the oldest friend who is to be best man. Diana's insurmountable problem is that, during the course of the longest weekend of her life, she finds herself having

Welcome to another stellar season at the Neighborhood Actors Summerfun Repertory Theatre. a friendly little playhouse where, due to a lack of wing space, the company spends their downtime in the parking lot around an aging hippie/now turned techie's van. Those looking for refuge at the asphalt oasis include: a stressed-out artistic director grappling for funding, a wanna-be diva who's realizing her ingenue expiration date has just about passed, a board member's nephew vying to direct the musical

A dark, comic look at China/U.S. relations - economic, political, and sexual. In modern-day Beijing, a young American guy falls for a Chinese girl and then struggles to understand where she's coming from. A play about loneliness, culture-shock, language, and trying to make connections across borders.

A provocative, intelligent, and deeply felt play from the author of Crooked and The Bridegroom of Blowing Rock, Catherine Trieschmann, that earned critical acclaim Off-Broadway at The Women's Project. A Manhattan woman travels to a rural town in Kansas recently devastated by a tornado to take a teaching job in a makeshift high school. But when she makes an off-handed remark regarding the origins of life, she unleashes community outrage and the particular distress of a disturbed young boy. In an intimate and artful inquiry of her character's very souls, Trieschmann invites audiences to consider their own beliefs and their perhaps unspoken opinions of others.

The Mystery of Miz Arnette is set in Oklahoma's devastating Dust Bowl. The time is 1934 when Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd along with their gangs roamed the territory. Out of the desolate nowhere arrives Miz Arnette to rent the room that had been advertised and leased four months ago. With the family farm at stake and desperate for the additional income, young Floy Kate strikes a deal and takes in the intriguing stranger that would forever change her life.

Breathless from running and staggered by a startling incident, Bailey Bryce dashes into a deserted bus depot in the dead of night desperately clutching a travel bag. He's glad to be alone; to think fast, to collect himself, to figure things out before it's too late. But he won't be alone for long. Enter Rhonda Claire, a stunning stranger tightly gripping her own travel bag and frantically looking over her shoulder. She's clearly unnerved by Bailey, harmless though he may appear. How can she trus

What happens when you mix the brilliant wit of Noel Coward with the intricate plotting of Agatha Christie? Set during a weekend in an English country manor in 1932, Death by Design is a delightful and mysterious "mash-up" of two of the greatest English writers of all time. Edward Bennett, a playwright, and his wife Sorel Bennett, an actress, flee London and head to Cookham after a disastrous opening night. But various guests arrive unexpectedly - a conservative politician, a fiery sociali

Longing and confusion. Hearts pounding, time ticking away. Early 1960s in a Midwestern town. Danny Mueller's working class life is one of fierce loyalty to childhood friends, Jake and Terry. But the bigger world is stirring once he meets Karen, back from college in the east and alluring because of what she knows, and unsettling for that same reason. The grip of Danny's past is intensified by his father, a German immigrant mourning a vanished world of lost prestige. For Pop the question is how to

The Days Are as Grass is a full-length performance consisting of eight short plays by Carol Hall. They were written to be performed by two actors, one man and one woman. However, they can also be performed by a larger cast. The actors portray more than a dozen characters ranging in age from 40 to 85, exploring the fragility of hope, memory, old friends, lost loves, and the inevitability of time. The tone is always a blend of the funny and the touching, as the characters march bravely into

"A mouse is stirring--because Santa missed his house last year, Before you can say 'Merry Christmas!,' we're off on the wild adventures of a mouse, an elf, and a spunky little girl who just won't take 'no' for an answer"--Back cove

Full Length, DramaCharacters: 5 male, 4 femaleInterior Set In this compelling dramatic triptych, three terminal cancer patients dwell in separate cottages on a hospital grounds. The three are attended and visited by family and close friends: Agnes and her mother Felicity, estranged further by the latter's dementia; Brian and Beverly whose martial complications are exacerbated by Brian's new lover, Mark; and Joe and Maggie, unready for the strain of Joe's impending death and it's

Full Length, Comedy Characters: 1 male, 1 femaleInterior SetIn a San Francisco loft, aspiring author Felix focuses his binoculars on a prostitute plying her trade. He complains to the landlord, has her evicted, and finds he has trouble pounding on his door in the form of Doris, not a prostitute but an aspiring "model and actress," thank you very much. She figures he owes her a bed for the night, an arrangement that leads to hilarity. Alan Alda and Diana Sands took the roles on Broadway, George Segal and Barbra Streisand on film."The first nighters laughed maniacally."-New York Daily News "Animated, vivid, and comic (with) startling intensity and truth."-The New York Times

Agnes Under the Big Top: A Tall Tale explores the intersecting lives of several immigrants in a US city. It is a magical tale of hope and disappointment, identity and reinvention, narrated by an itinerant subway busker. Against the subterranean rhythms of a subway train, a Liberian home care worker, a former Bulgarian ringmaster and his wife, an Indian call center escapee, and a bed-ridden American woman, find and redefine themselves in today's America.

Based on the true story 1932 Lindbergh Kidnapping Case, Violet Sharp is named for the young British maid working at the home of Anne Lindbergh's mother. In the wake of the historic kidnapping of beloved aviator Charles Lindbergh's 20-month-old son, Violet raises the suspicion of the police with a contradictory testimony about her whereabouts to police investigator Officer Walsh. Under pressure from her own personal demons as well as the police, Violet's efforts to clear her name cannot se

Lovin' ain't easy in this one-honky-tonk town, so when the bartender and the bandleader fall for the same dance hall girl, you're in for an evening of showstoppers and toe-tappers, cat fights, and love quadrangles that'll keep any joint jumpin' till way past last call. And if you think you got the gumption, you're welcome to get up and dance along.

Together Again spans a touching and stormy relationship through three reunions. When Chrissie and Joe meet, something both dreadful and wonderful occurs. The story begins in the apartment of an aspiring young actress. Chrissie, an acting student, is about to host her acting class' fifth reunion, when her hero, Joe, a rising young Hollywood star, arrives an hour too soon. Ten years later, at the fifteenth reunion party, Chrissie is still studying drama, while Joe has won an Academy Award.

Characters: 1 male, 2 femaleSimple SetWinner of the 2010 Samuel French Canadian Playwrights ContestAlone on a vast stretch of water, Annie Iversen recounts the strange chain of events that left her stranded in her son's old kayak. A doting suburban mother, Annie is blindsided when her son, Peter, falls in love with Julie, a passionate environmental activist. Unable to reconcile herself to Julie's radical worldview, Annie struggles desperately to keep Peter from falling further into the young woman's dangerous world. Climate change, S'mores, SUVs, and Noah's Ark are all onstage as Annie sets out to save her son, and unwittingly throws herself into the path of events larger than she ever could have imagined. Touching and provocative, Kayak invites us all to confront our choices in the landscape of the growing environmental crisis."Gripping, heartbreaking." -Lynn Slotkin, CBC Radio"A trio of vivid, memorable characters." - Jon Kaplan, NOW Magazine"Stellar, insightful writing." - Dave Deveau, Plank Magazine

Characters: 3 male, 3 femaleInteriorWith the kids away, three married couples get together for an evening of relaxation and laughs. But as the liquor flows and secrets are revealed, trust is tested and boundaries are broken. It's Just Sex is a comedic and thought-provoking look at fidelity, lust, communication, and what it really takes for a marriage to survive and thrive. By the end of the evening, what should have been just an innocent party turns into an event that c

Comedy / Characters: 2m, 3f / Unit Set"LOL! An audience is guaranteed to do just that" at this hilarious broadband comedy of errors. You've Got Hate Mail is Billy Van Zandt and Jane Milmore's comic answer to A.R. Gurney's Love Letters. In You've Got Hate Mail, love "bytes" all when an extra-marital affair goes horribly wrong, thanks to a juicy e-mail left sitting on a desktop. The story is told entirely in e-mails from laptop computers, although the play still manages to have an unforgettable