Books published by Samuel French Inc

Comedy / 2m, 3f / Simple SetA scream is heard throughout the stratosphere. It is the voice of the lamp. Louise is selling this expensive family heirloom to keep her daughter April in school and cease her more sordid "consultant" profession. April rushes home with lover in tow to halt the proceedings and save the lamp, but it has been intercepted by a quiet and bizarre middle-aged couple with a haunting secret.Attempts to reclaim the lamp are made, as a misplaced father slowly fades to white in the background. "...A gutsy writer with a gift for creating vivid images rooted in the emotional life of her characters." - The New York Times"...Troubled and precocious college dropout April is described to her mother, Louise, as 'stunningly brilliant' - a line that fits her creator, Sheila Callaghan. The odd characters populating Crawl, Fade to White frantically eat dirt and twist menacingly. Audiences trying to process this engagingly quirky new play might find themselves gaping 'like they're watching the cosmos disrobe.'"- Time Out New York

Character: 1 femaleIn this play, Marilyn confronts voices in her head to validate her life as an actress. She finds in the afterlife that she must audition and interview to get into heaven and that her judges are her enemies and aborted children. Along the way she is confused and intrigued by the signs she must follow to climb her way into heaven. The play explores the multi-levels of complexity of cult goddess Marilyn Monroe--her vulnerability, anger, and loneliness and the ways that America

Musical Comedy3 m, 2 fToo Old for the Chorus is a smart, funny musical revue about men and women who find themselves suddenly 50! Set in their neighborhood retro coffee shop, five characters express in 18 musical numbers the gamut of their frustrations and joys - from troublesome relations with still demanding parents and cutting edge technology to finding delight in second careers (and second chances), getting smarter, and finally knowing that "Age is just a Number." The title

Characters: 12 female (can be performed by 4f, or any number in between) Monologues & ScenesDramatic Comedy A familiar adage states, "Men may work from sun to sun, but women's work is never done." In BIue Yonder, the audience meets twelve mesmerizing and eccentric women including a flight instructor, a firefighter, a stuntwoman, a woman who donates body parts, an employment counselor, a professional softball player, a surgical nurse professional baseball player, and a darede

Full Length, Southern ComedyCharacters: 3 male, 2 femaleInteriorThe Mississippi Gulf Coast estate of Irene Dubbonet is an unforgetable place to visit, but who would want to live there? All of her relatives, who hope to inherit it! This is a play about manipulation and what happens to family members' dreams when the odds are stacked against them. A cloud of doom hangs over Serenity Manor, until at last, virtue triumphs. Irene's son, the artist, Rooster, deeply anxious to prove himself, connives a scheme to help his "down and out" brother-in-law seize the estate. Funny situations sparked by witty lines bring the audience into an intriguing overview of topsy-turvy privileged life today. Also available in A Louisiana Gentleman and other New Orleans Comedies.

Full Length, Southern Comedy CharacterS: 2 male, 4 femaleUnit SetBlackjack follows an eccentric Southern family as it is squeezed into the close quarters of a Mississippi cruise ship for the New Year's holiday. Kaitlyn is convinced that she is channeling the poet Baudelaire, and certain that her husband is having an affair with a larger-than-life ship entertainer. Irene, the matriarch of the family, suspects a rift in her daughter's marriage. Her sexy maid sets her sights on the grandson, a successful Southern rock star. Everyone dons costumes for New Year's Eve, casting off their old identities and trying on new loves. Also available in A Louisiana Gentleman and other New Orleans Comedies

Full Length, Southern ComedyCharacters: 1 male, 3 femaleUnit SetBlaine Ashton, a medical student in his mid-twenties from a prominent New Orleans family, has fallen in love with a middle-aged actress and is getting married, much to the chagrin of his mentally disturbed sister and his eccentric, alcoholic old Aunt. His Aunt forces him to take care of his sister after he's married and all the southern belles in the household are almost too much to bear. The histrionics never sto

Full Length, Comedy Characters: 5 male, 4 femaleOne integrated int/ext set.John Singer Sargent, an up-and-coming American artist, is eager to collaborate on a portrait that would catapult him and Madame X, the most beautiful woman in Paris, to the pinnacle of society. With its revelations about Madame X's identity and an eyebrow-raising cast of characters, including Richard Wagner, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, Sarah Bernhardt, and Dr. Samuel Pozzi (Madame X's notorious gynecologist/lover), this romantic comedy exposes the tale of beauty, infatuation, obsession, and betrayal that lies behind Sargent and Madame X's masterpiece. Also available in Ghosts of New Orleans

Full Length, Historical Comedy Characters: 3 male, 4 femaleInteriorUncle Victor is a historical comedy inspired by the classic Russian play, Uncle Vanya, by Anton Chekhov. In this version O'Neill takes the structure of Uncle Vanya and some characters and places them on Waverly Plantation in 1899 Louisiana. While the dialogue and characters are typically Southern, the Louisiana story perfectly parallels the situation of turn-of-the century Russia, where a new urban economy was destroying the country's agrarian base. While Russians were suffering from typhoid and peasants were going hungry, Southerners were dying from yellow fever and displaced farmers were starving. In Uncle Victor, the Mallory family, running Waverly Sugar Plantation, confronts a totally changed Louisiana.Also available in Ghosts of New Orleans.

Characters: 1 femaleA single woman's desire to experience motherhood without a husband at her side sends her through the world of adoption. Her path leads her through an array of characters and situations rife with drama. Settling on private adoption through an attorney she suffers an unfathomable heartbreak at the death of her newborn son. She is somehow able to rise out of despair to try again and meets Elizabeth who is looking for someone to adopt her unborn child. A new family is for

Characters: 4 male, 6 femaleInteriorInspector Ruffing, the troubled hero of Nigro's Ravenscroft, Demonology, Creatures Lurking In The Churchyard, The Rooky Wood and Mephisto returns in this baffling mystery that was an audience favorite at the First International Mystery Festival in 2007. In a peaceful house near the Welsh border, an entire family has vanished suddenly without a trace one evening with supper on the table and no apparent violence. Ruffing's atte

DramaCharacters: 2 male, 1 femaleUnit SetPeter Quint is sent by his lifelong employer, the Master of Bly, to be the servant in charge of a remote English country house where Miss Jessel has just arrived to be governess to the orphaned children of the master's brother. The ultimately deadly love triangle that results forms a darkly funny and erotic Gothic love story. These are the lovers who haunt Henry James's The Turn of the Screw. Quint is brilliant, sardonic and angry, a man of great abilities trapped by birth into a subservient role he hates. Miss Jessel is beautiful, headstrong, troubled, and deeply infatuated with the master. As Quint and Miss Jessel's affair develops, the rivalry between servant and master builds to a frightening and haunting climax.

Comic monologues Characters: 1 male Bare stage This non-stop tour through some oddball minds by the author of Talk Radio and Drinking in America enjoyed a lengthy run Off-Broadway. Originally performed as a one man show, the hilarious, riveting and often disturbing monologues can be presented by several actors or actresses. "With this brilliant show, his funniest and scariest yet, Mr. Bogosian has crossed the line that separates an exciting artist from a

Musical comedy Book by Peter DePietro. Music by Galen Blum, Wayne Barker and Vinnie Martucci. Lyrics by Tom Chiodo. Based on the Parker Brothers' Board Game. Characters: 5male, 3female Unit set. The internationally popular game is now a fun filled musical which brings the world's best know suspects to life and invites the audience to help solve the mystery: who killed Mr. Boddy, in what room and with what weapon. The audience receives forms to help

Abe Burrows' adaptation from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Helen Jerome's play Music and Lyrics by Robert Goldman, Glenn Paxton and George WeissCharacters: 14male, 12female 7 sets. Mrs. Bennett, rural, prosaic and the matriarch of five daughters has her gaze on the social whirl of London while her husband and farm languish. The eldest, headstrong Elizabeth has her own ideas on life and love. With her eyes on the 'prize' and "a house in town", Mrs. Bennett sets about bringing stubborn Elizabeth into the social orbit of upscale snob William D'arcy, with classic, hilarious results. The original cast on Broadway included Polly Bergen, Hermione Gingold and Farley Granger as D'arcy.

Cover title: The Ridiculous Theatrical Co. presents Charles Ludlam's The mystery of Irma Vep.

Adapted for the stage by Terry Johnson Based on the novel by Charles Webb and the screenplay by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry Comedy Characters: 6 male, 5 female Unit set. A hit in the West End and a popular show on Broadway starring Kathleen Turner, The Graduate brings the inspired movie hit of the Sixties vividly to life on stage. Benjamin Braddock, recent college graduate and prodigal son, returns home and promptly becomes embroiled in a

5 one act plays by accomplished playwright Jason Milligan. Contents: Rituals One Way Street Paul's Ghost The Fire-Breathing Lady and the Sugarplum Fairy Key Lime Pie

Plays included in this collection: The Daughters of Edward D. Boit The Green Man Hieronymus Bosch Specter The Woodman and the Goblins

Drama3m, 3f Simple Set When Zell Preston inherits her father's struggling pecan farm and moves back to her childhood home in Fronteras, New Mexico, she fi nds that the once tight-knit border community has changed radically. The government has cracked down on the undocumented immigrant population, dividing families and pitting neighbor against neighbor. Chuy Gallegos, foreman at the Preston farm for 30 years, wants the piece of land he says Zell's father promised him long ago. Ines Sa

Dramatic Comedy CharacterS: 2 male, 3 female Unit set. In the first years of the twentieth century, Evelyn Nesbit, the beautiful, teen-age pin up and chorus girl, was the entrancing center of an explosive and deadly love triangle involving Stanford White, her married lover and the architect of many of the most famous buildings in New York, who liked to push her naked on a red velvet swing, and Harry K. Thaw, the wealthy, manic and demented roller-skating

Full Length, Comedy Characters: 7 male, 8 female Unit set. Television mogul Jacque St. Yves invites eleven has been comics to his island lodge off the Canadian coast to audition for the central in role his new TV series. It's an opportunity to die for ... and that is someone's intention! Shortly after arriving, the comics find they are stranded along with the pilot of St. Yves's private jet, the attractive flight attendant and the couple employed as housekeeper and hand

ComedyCharacters: 4 femaleSimple SetThis original comedy about motherhood rips away the gauzy mask of parenthood to reveal what all mothers know but don't always talk about: it's overwhelming and exhausting, but also very, very funny. From the joys of infertility, through reading the same books over and over and over, to finally seeing your baby get on that school bus, this play mines the laughs and tears of the early years of motherhood. Four separate characters tell their individual

ComedyCharacters: 1 male, 2 female Interior SetAn efficient suburban matron, chairing an evening meeting, finds that she has to cope with a strange, offstage intruder who claims he knows her. The meeting degenerates step by step into a wild party, even as the intruder becomes increasingly insistent and insulting to the leader. Ultimately, the lady finds herself confessing to the lure of a liaison with this representative from the under side of society, and by going off with him, she manages to appease whatever it is that tears groups apart.

Mystery/Thriller Paul Giovanni Characters: 11 male (with doubling), 1 female Several sets. The Crucifer of Blood is an ingenious pastiche of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, primarily The Sign of Four. Taking place in 1887, it deals with the Agra Treasure stolen 30 years before by two English officers who are finally overtaken by the curse that has bedeviled them with foul horrors. The action moves from India to Baker Street to spooky Pondicher

FarceCharacters: 4 male, 6 female Interior Set Dr. Moulineaux has been out all night in a futile attempt to meet his mistress Suzanne. He tells his wife he has been with Bassinet who is near death, but in walks Bassinet. He decides it is no longer wise to have Suzanne pretend to be a patient and rents an apartment that formerly belonged to a dressmaker. He and Suzanne are discovered in this hide away by her husband, so the doctor poses as a dressmaker and is caught in a desp

2005 Baker's Plays High School Playwrighting Competition Looking for the thrill of exploration, gold, and adventure in a faraway land, Maria accompanies her Uncle Francisco to Peru only to watch him turn from brave captain to a greedy ruler.

"Drama / 4m, 3f / interior"--P. [4] of cover.

Matt returns from a break at work to the company lunch room, where he meets new employee Melora. A spark ignites almost immediately, but the blossoming friendship is still subject to life's realities of age, responsibility, and commitment. Meanwhile Matt's wife Arianne has plans for a celebratory evening at home that get interrupted by an unintentional spark of her own. Birthday Boy is about what happens when there's a sudden connection between two people that if pursued could interfere with a life that has been going along just fine; about the paths we choose to take and those we choose not to; the commitments we do honor, the worthwhile sacrifices we must make. In short, a celebration of the messy, imperfect, life that being a husband, a wife, a father, a mother, all entails in order to evolve into the grownups we're meant to be.