Books published by Samuel French Inc

Fantasy William Saroyan Flexible cast. Simple sets. Mr. Saroyan has shown with considerable beauty, humor, and dramatic effect the dreams of some of the people who ride in a metropolitan subway.

Drama Characters: 8 male, 3 female Unit set. Harold Prince staged this drama on Broadway with Donald Moffat starring as a Canadian salesman and father determined to drink himself to death. Cam MacMillan he is full of pride for in his heritage as a descendant of the Scottish laird who originally settled the area and for his success as a salesman. His downfall begins during World War II when he gets involved in black marketing gas rationing coupons. Although he does not go to

Drama Characters: 1 male, 1 femaleInterior SetRose, a shy dimestore salesgirl whose life centers around reveries and daydreams, lives in a dreary Philadelphia apartment. Into her life saunters Cliff, a hard working, hard drinking truck driver. He is rough and witty and just as starved for love as she is. Produced to great success at New York's Circle Repertory, this delicate two-character drama starred Peter Weller and Patricia Wettig. The Woolgatherer feat

Characters: 3 male, 4 femaleInterior and Exterior Set Scottie Templeton's a charming, irresponsible fellow. A sometime Broadway press agent and former scriptwriter, he's everyone's friend, nobody's hero and a great womanizer who's managed to live over fifty years without taking anything seriously including love, marriage and fatherhood. Life's been one continuous gag. But at fifty one, he finds the script's been rewritten as a tragedy: he is fatally ill. His son Jud, alienated b

Drama Charcters: 2 male, 3 female Interior Set As Fidel Castro storms Habana, a wealthy Batistlano is forced to flee to America with her husband and unborn child. Adria begs her cook, a proud and loyal woman who values her mistress's friendship, to promise she will protect the mansion from the communist upheaval. Over the next forty years Gladys keeps this promise, despite tremendous emotional and physical loss. When Adria's daughter vacations in Cuba and comes to

> Dramatic comedy Cahracters: 3 male, 2 female A hip and inventive new play by Walter Mosley, best-selling author of more than 25 books and most widely known for his popular Easy Rawlins mysteries, including "Devil in a Blue Dress". Tempest Landry, a street-wise young man living in Harlem, unexpectedly finds himself at the Pearly Gates. When Saint Peter orders him to hell, the quick-witted Tempest refuses to go. A technical loophole forces heaven to send Tempest back to Earth w

For audition, performance and classroom use these highly diverting pieces are a perfect fit. From the foreward by Greer Garson, "A kindly sense of humor and acute observation illumine his gallery of recognizable contemporary portraits."

Various AuthorsOne of Manhattan's most establishedplay festivals, the Samuel French OffOff Broadway Short Play Festival fostersthe work of emerging writers, givingthem the exposure of publication andrepresentation. The festival resultingin this collection was held July 13th-18th, 2010 at Theatre Row on 42nd Street in New York City.From the initial pool of over 850 submissions, the FinalForty plays were chosen to be performed over a periodof one week. A panel of judges compri

A two act play about an Iraqi museum curator who, on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Baghdad, plots to save the statue of Inana from destruction. Fleeing to London, with his bride, he makes a life-altering deal to assure the statue's preservation.

MusicalCharacters 8 male, 7 female, plus 18 childrenCarol Ryrie Brink's Newberry Award-winning novel Caddie Woodlawn is brought to exuberant life as a musical. Caddie (the iconic, high-spirited Wisconsin pioneer girl beloved by generations of readers) leads her willing siblings in a series of thrilling adventures, not always with the approval of her traditional Bostonian mother. Her father, however, encourages her antics, that she might thrive amidst the new, tougher ways of

Characters: 3 male, 3 femaleComedyThe Wongs are American as apple pie. Desdemona dreams of Princeton but could use some help with her calculus. Her brother Upton wants to be a World of Warcraft champion but needs more free time to train. Upton solves both their problems by bringing an indentured servant home one day, but they soon discover that "Ching Chong" has American dreams of his own!An irreverent new comedy by Lauren Yee is skewering every cliché about Asian American identity.

ComedyCharacters: 3 males, 4 femalesInterior SetIn Tina Howe's comedy, Chasing Manet, a rebelliouspainter from a distinguished family in Boston and anebullient Jewish woman with a huge adoring familyform an unlikely bond. Inside the confining walls ofMount Airy Nursing Home, the two plot an escape toParis aboard the QE2. But can they possibly pull it offamidst the chaos of their surroundings? The tension andcomedy grow as they struggle to take wing for the lasttime.

ComedyCharacters: 4 femaleInterior Set We are backstage in the girl's locker room, at the annual Queen of Hearts Beauty Pageant at a high school in a small town in Alabama in 1976 with two girls who are competing in the pageant, and two who aren't, for reasons which supply a lot of the humor, and a lot of the drama, in this much produced and much acclaimed new play. Feathers fly when the "new girl", Sherri Lee, wins she is very popular with the boys, which makes her

Characters: 13 male, 6 female. Various sets. Winner! 2010 New York Musical Theatre Festival Award for ExcellenceWinner! National Music Theatre Network Award!This charming rags to riches romp with a melodic score follows Ragged Dick, Horatio Alger's first best selling hero, from penniless bootblack to budding Wall Street entrepreneur. His adventures bring him face to face with scheming ex convicts, vicious comic villians, kind benefactor

A Victorian romp with music Cleve Haubold, Music by James Alfred Hitt.Characters: 6 male, 4 female Interior Set This Sherlock Holmes adventure in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan brings the great detective and Dr. Watson up against the evil wiles of that master of disguise, Sir Sullivan Sinister. The world of New Year's Eve, 1899, in London is a sparkling background against which Holmes wrestles with the puzzle of the Clockwork Prince, a brass key held for ransom, a stolen formula and a curiously missing cook who is nowhere and everywhere at once. Holmes makes the most of his gifts of deduction and disguise in a riotous race against the stroke of midnight with fatal results.

Comedy / Characters: 2 male, 2 femaleScenery: InteriorThe celebrated co authors of such classics as Norman, Is That You?, Murder at the Howard Johnsons and Wally's Cafe and his wife have created another sure fire winner in which two couples rent the same Catskills cabin for the same weekend by mistake. One couple is staid and middle aged; the other free wheeling and young. They decide to share and before the weekend is over the youngsters have learned how to add stability to their relation

Melodrama / Character: 7 male, 7 female, extrasHere's the dramatization of a bloodthirsty dime novel just like those Grandfather used to read in secret. The lure of the Old West of heroes, of redskins biting the dust, of lily pure maidens and black hearted gamblers, of the never ending "Game of Gold" is still with us. In 1876 Edward L. Wheeler started turning out novels about a Robin Hood of the Black Hills whom he named Deadwood Dick. Overnight Dick became so popular that the series continue

This collection of eight 10 minute plays include: PERFECT WEATHER (2m) - When a strange man interrupts Jim's meditative morning ritual, what begins with small talk about the weather, soon devolves into a bizarre interrogation. THE MERRY-GO-ROUND (1 m, 1f) - After a vigorous morning of work, two porn actors get lost in a circular conversation. COMMUNION (1m, 2f) - When a dying man's request for a strawberry milkshake is denied by his long-suffering wife, the couple descend into a batt

With backbreaking work in a ramshackle lab in Paris, Marie Curie and her husband Pierre achieve a revolutionary understanding of radiation and share a Nobel Prize. When her beloved Pierre dies in an accident, Marie is plunged into depression. Paul Langevin, fleeing an unhappy marriage, gives her the strength to return to her work. But the scandal over their affair threatens to end her career - just when she might become the first person ever to receive a second Nobel Prize. --back.

Drama / Character: 1fThe story of the unsinkable Molly Ivins, the famously brassy newspaper columnist and best-selling author. A true Texas original, Ivins was a sharp-tongued wit who skewered the political establishment and the "good ol' boys" with her unforgettable humor and wisdom. Written by twin sisters, themselves longtime journalists, the play celebrates Ivins' courage and tenacity - even when a complacent America wasn't listening. "Red Hot Patriot is an inspiring piece of theater."

ComedyCharacters: 4 maleThe Bomb-itty of Errors is an Ad-Rap-Tation, hip-hop theatre retelling of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors. It was nominated for Best Lyrics at the Drama Desk Awards, nominated for Outer Critics Circle Awards, and received the Jefferson Award in Chicago and the Grand Jury Prize at the HBO US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen.The show lasts one hour and thirty minutes and is part play and part rap concert."This energetic twist on Shakespeare

MusicalCharacters: 7 male, 7 female (including pianist). Conceived by Carol Hall, who wrote the music and lyrics to The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, this joyful musical took Off Broadway by surprise. It is a tuneful, warm and witty observation of what really goes on in the hearts and minds of people as they participate in a church service. The ninety minutes of song, monologue and poetry require almost no set and only one piano. Done in a theatre or church sanctuary, To Whom It May Concern is perfect for all church and theatre groups, especially those with access to glorious voices. "A celebration! ... Communities will be presenting To Whom It May Concern for years to come."-- N.Y. Times. "A melodic score and a joyous communal spirit which doesn't end until the house lights come up!"-- A.P. "Witty, inspiring. It's applications are universal."-- N.Y. Daily News.

Caroline Cromelin, Eric Nightengale, Monica Read, Kimberly Reiss, Troy W. Taber and Toby Wherry Comedy Characters: 2 male, 3 female Unit set. This high altitude comedy of errors based on the true story of Larry Walters, a man dedicated to getting the best view, was developed through improvisation at the78th Street Theatre Lab. Larry, with the help of fifty surplus weather balloons, launched himself to 1,600 feet in an aluminum lawn chair and lived to tell about it. After being spotted by passing aircraft, he descended by shooting several of the balloons with a pellet gun, got entangled in power lines and was arrested by the FAA for violating commercial airspace in an unauthorized vehicle. Mr. Walters dropped out of sight after a brief time in the spotlight including an appearance on the David Letterman show, but not before securing his place as a cult hero for weird daredevils everywhere. A radio version aired on the BBC. Winner of the Edinburgh Festival's Best of the Fringe.

Comedy Characters: 1 male, 2 female Youthful parents suddenly feel old when they realize their children are now adults. This is what happens to John and Marie Grant while they are preparing for the 21st birthday party of their daughter. In the privacy of their bedroom, John reverts to the clown he was as a young man and sweeps Marie along with him into sheer zest of being alive. They realize that, for each other, they will always be the same in this charming and very funny comedy.

FarceCharacters: 14 male, 4 female (including 1 male narrator guitarist and 1 male or female piano player), plus extras. Area or platform staging. After many failures due to ineptitude, the notorious Rawlins gang rides into Gopher's Breath to rob the bank. While Rawhide Rawlins dreams of a farm for his ma, Sheriff Crutchwaffle representing all that's rotten in town also has his designs on the loot. He needs money to escape the clutches of Fat Jack Caldwell, the most feared man in the West. The outlaws and the sheriff force each other to alter their plans and the banker's niece enters the plot. Stricken by love, a Rawhide tries desperately to go straight, but his gang carries on and Crutchwaffle manipulates them to his own evil ends. Predictably, love deals Crutchwaffle a bad draw in the end and Bambi and Rawhide ride happily into the sunset. Riddled with all the traditional cliches of the classic western, Gopher's Breath becomes the setting for hilarious happenings.

Drama Characters: 11 male, 4 female Interior Set Two of Hollywood's top-drawer writers have here written a play that begins with an American family on any normal morning, and culminates in one of the most chilling dilemmas in the literature of the theatre. Davie's father is a rich manufacturer who promises to help him build a tree-house when he comes home from school. But Davie does not come home today. From their worried calls, his mother and father learn that he has been kidnapped from school by a woman impersonating his pediatrician's nurse. Then comes the demand for ranson: half a million dollars. His father is to give the kidnappers a signal on the TV program which his firm sponsors. Meantime, they sweat out the waiting period and wonder if Davie will ever be seen alive again. At the very last moment, Davie's father makes the ultimate moral decision in the life of himself and his family. He preempts the MC's spot to make one of the most startling extemporaneous speeches ever heard. He shows the money and then says that he will not pay it. He demands the return of the boy unharmed, and promises not to prosecute. But failing this, he promises to offer the half million as a reward for the apprehension of the kidnappers, and he asks if they think their associates would prefer them to half a million dollars. For this speech, Davie's father is universally condemned, and the mother collapses in hysterics. In the calm eye of this storm comes the shattering denouement. "Appeals to the noblest, most decent, most universal emotions in all humanity."� Hollywood Reporter. "Tense, harrowing, and well worthwhile."�London Daily Herald.

Farce Characters:4 male, 8 female Interior Set Barry Hollis, Princeton graduate, has just inherited his father's fortune. Barry meets and falls in love with Gladys Vance. He persuades his aunt to invite Gladys for a visit. Another note goes to Patsie Linder, old flame of Barry's, saying it's all over. Alas, the notes get mixed! Patsie arrives and threatens a breach of promise suit unless Barry marries her. But he can't marry her if he's already married. so he gets the butler