Books published by Samuel French Ltd

MusicalCharacters: 10 male, 7 female, Cast can be expanded for large groupsThis abridged, 90-minute version, is perfect for school groups.Goodbye gray skies, hello blue! Happy days are here again with Richie, Potsie, Ralph Malph and the unforgettable "king of cool" Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli. Based on the hit Paramount Pictures television series, Happy Days, A New Musical reintroduces one of America's best loved families, the Cunninghams -- yes, Howard,

Comedy / Characters: 7 male, 3 femaleScenery: InteriorA cast of has been actors plan to revive their careers in Drop Dead!, a potboiler murder mystery directed by "Wonder Child of the Broadway Stage" Victor Le Pewe (a psychotic eye twitching megalomaniac). At the dress rehearsal the set falls, props break, and the producer and an actor are murdered. During the opening night performance, the murders continue. The remaining thespians must save the show and their careers, solve the mystery

MemoirCharacters: 2 maleRemembering Mr. Maugham is an intimate glimpse into the life of W. Somerset Maugham - one of the most brilliant, prolific and secretive writers of the 20th century. This graceful two-character, one-act play adapted by Garson Kanin from his memoir is a treasure trove of private conversations, amusing anecdotes and candid recollections of his beloved friend and confidant. Through decades of friendship, Kanin and Maugham poignantly reminisce about life, art and the unconquerable human spirit.

ComedyCharacters: 6 male, 3 female (w/ doubling) Interior set Deanne and Robert, a May-December couple, have just returned from their honeymoon, and Deanne is shocked to find that Robert has unwittingly bought the very same apartment that she used to live in with her ex-husband, Skip. Not only that, but Skip has also bought the apartment right next door to theirs. It becomes apparent in time that Deanne and Skip are still in love, and getting the couple back together is facilitat

Drama Characters: 8 female 2 interior sets or one unit set. Set in suburban New Jersey in the early 1980's, this potent drama is about a reunion of former college classmates, now in their thirties, at the funeral of a friend who killed herself. These women are prosperous, professional Black women who have gone through the sixties and come out on top of the eighties. At the wake, they confront the truth about their own lives and about the suicide which has again brought them

Tragedy Alfred Hayes, adapted from his best seller Characters: 7 male, 4 female Complete interior set Here is a merciless picture of hardened American conquerors abroad and their impact on pitifully defenseless people. A young American soldier takes on a pretty, fearful Italian girl to while away the tedious occupation. She consents with deep bitterness and restraint; the only jobs and bread are in the American kitchens. The country's pride is fiercely moral and the

ComedyCharacters: 4 male, 7 femaleSimple Set Two one-act plays by internationally known playwright Jean Lenox Toddie celebrating with poignancy and humor the struggle of the heart to find its way home. Eleven colorful characters range in age from a sassy teen, to a middle-aged professor, to an old woman waiting for a bus. What bus? The bus for which we all will wait.Plays include Did You Hear the Owl Last Night? and Once Again in Glyn Kerrie.

ComedyCharacters: 2 male, 2 femaleUnit SetFrom the author of the hit plays Devil Boys From Beyond and The Crumple Zone comes this hilarious one-act about college theatre majors waiting for the cast list for West Side Story to be posted.....and the aftermath. A finalist in HBO'sNew Writer's Workshop and a Second Place winner at American College Theatre Festival, Spotlight is a fast-paced comedy about the desperate drive to succeed, and delusions that get

A fictional exploration of the Nickel Mines schoolhouse shooting in an Amish community and the path of forgiveness and compassion forged in its wake.

Drama / Character: 1 maleScenery: Bare stage This moving account of the author's struggles against neurofibramotosis, a progressively debilitating disease for which there is no cure, won the 2001 American College Theatre Festival Award. It was performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

DramaCharacters: 3 males, 2 femalesA Cool Dip offers glimpses into the lives of Abebe, a young Ethopian man with a passion for the unlikely combination of Christianity and ecology, and the family that houses himduring his college studies in Maryland. Through their interactions, the play uncompromisingly tackles the issues of drought and social injustice,combining a realistic evocation of human emotion with the fantastical to bring attention to the scarcity of something we so o

Musical Book and Lyrics by Bill Russell. Music by Janet Hood. Characters: 20-25 males, 11-16 females (doubling or expanding possible.) Unit set A celebration of lives lost to AIDS told in free verse monologues with a blues, jazz and rock score, this piece is designed to include the community in a theatrical response to the AIDS crisis. It is often performed as a benefit for fund raising and consciousness raising. "Dramatic."---Spectator

Adventure Charaters 8 male, 4 female (doubling) Unit sets This adaptation is based on the timeless swashbuckler by Alexandre Dumas, a tale of heroism, treachery, close escapes and above all, honor. The story, set in 1625, begins with d''Artagnan who sets off for Paris in search of adventure. Along with d''Artagnan goes Sabine, his sister, the quintessential tomboy. Sent with d''Artagnan to attend a convent school in Paris, she poses as a young man - d''Artagnan''s servant - and quickly beco

Characters: 4 male, 4 female, possible doublingUnit SetYoung Lord Arthur is deliriously happy - just down from Oxford and engaged to be married - when a mysterious palm reader predicts that he will commit a murder. A proper English gentleman, Arthur believes it is his Duty to get this killing business over with before he marries. But his education has not provided him with the required skills, and a hilarious series of mishaps ensues as he sets about finding a victim."Oscar

Father Patrick is newly appointed to a parish in Dublin, and needs to be alone.

"We all have one thing we''re ashamed of. All those out there have. Even the judge has, who''ll be peering at you over his glasses, making you feel like dirt. His secret may be the nastiest of the lot. Only you have committed the sin of being found out..."London, 1950.Private and public worlds collide when author Will Trenting''s knighthood attracts the glare of the British press. Will is forced to battle against the exposure of his secret life and the double standards of a society bent on destroying him.

From the novel by Jane AustenAdapted by Michael Bloom6m, 6f, plus ensembleComedyPledging never to marry, the mischievous Emma Woodhouse is nevertheless the "matchmaker of Highbury." Her newest project, Harriet Smith, has already received a proposal, but Emma insists she marry the eligible vicar Mr. Elton, while, an older family friend, Mr. Knightly, warns her to give up matchmaking. When Emma discovers Mr. Elton is more interested in her, she is forced to fend him off and f

Dramatic Comedy Characters: 3 male, 3 femaleRural New England, just before Reagan's secondterm. Meg and Ben are a creditor away fromlosing their family farm. To the rescue flies ahigh-powered businessman - in a private chopperno less - offering a tidy sum for a taste offarm life and the pure, raw milk that goes withit. Even before locavores roamed the earth,"back to the land" was hardly as simple as itspromise; livestock and humans aren't knownfor behaving as expected. And so it

Characters: 4 male, 2 femaleMurder Mystery, ComedyAdam Webster, a down-on-his- luck writer, in desperation to make the rent, has put a sign in his apartment window, "Psychic Readings $25". The characters it draws in lead into a tangled murder mystery of sorts in this hilarious original comedy. "The play's clever, Pirandello-esque twists make for a pleasant divertissement... satisfyingly unpredictable" - LA Times "Surprise plot twists, and all-around hilarity. It's on

Characters: 2 males, 1 femaleSingle setWinner! 2005 BBC International Playwriting ContestTyrus Cole, a horse trainer, lives on a ranch with his invalid sister Mary. Because he can't watch her during the day, Tyrus has Mary confined to a root cellar. When Dwight Foley arrives at the ranch seeking help with his horse, he and Mary fall in love and begin plotting the demise of Tyrus and their eventual escape. Their plan escalates and in the end, the three find themse

Full Length, Musical Comedy Characters: 2 male In this two-man musical spoof, a pair of aspiring playwrights perform a backers' audition for their new project - a big, splashy musical about printing press inventor Johann Gutenberg. With an unending supply of enthusiasm, Bud and Doug sing all the songs and play all the parts in their crass historical epic, with the hope that one of the producers in attendance will give them a Broadway contract - fulfilling their ill-advised dr

From the play by George FarquharComedyCharacters: 8 male, 5female, with doubling Various Locations The play tells the story of two young bucks who, having spent all their money by living too well, leave London and roam from town to town in search of love and fortune. In order to find a wealthy heiress for at least one of them, they pose as master and servant - exchanging roles from one town to the next. In Lichfield, Aimwell is the master and Archer the servant, and there they m

Dramatic Comedy Characters: 6 male, 3 female Unit Set After a scathing review 15 years ago, a once-celebrated painter faded into impoverished obscurity. Can one chance encounter resurrect this volatile artist from obscurity and re-launch him to overnight success? Theresa Rebeck skillfully compares the gritty urban realities of lives lived on the edge with the capricious intrigues of the uptown gallery scene where fame might just be a matter of who you know and re

The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild Operatic Society's Production of The Mikado - and the ladies outdo even themselves in this hilarious staging of the classic operetta.-Large flexible cast

Dan and Margaret have come to spend Christmas with Rachel and Edmund in their renovated seventeenth-century labourer's cottage. Later, as Rachel plays the piano, she suddenly gets a sinister feeling of d¿j¿ vu. Shortly afterwards, the electricity fails and the phone is out of order too. It is the start of a series of macabre events which mount relentlessly to a bizarre and terrifying climax culminating in a tragic report coming from the TV into an empty brightly-lit room.2 women, 2 men

It's Downstairs areas in a modern town house. Winnie is nearly nine. Her mum, Laverne, is second-generation Afro-Caribbean and heavily pregnant but continues with her cleaning job since her husband left while she dreams of moving the family back to Martinique.

Dark ComedyCharacters: 4 males, 3 femalesAre news and entertainment interchangeable? A cocksure TV bigshot faced with dwindling ratings installs America's favorite news anchor as host of a popular reality show. Meanwhile, in Middle America, a houseful of roommates bickers over high-stakes real-world conflicts: Merv doesn't clean the bathroom. Someone ate Alice's yogurt. And the rent is long past due. When reality collides with reality TV, we find ourselves front and center in a drama

DramaCharacters: 1 males, 2 femalesCongressman Dan Ferris is being questioned about the disappearance of intern Ilona Waxman. Sound awkward? Imagine if he was your dad... "A genuine thrill ride. As dizzying as a Nabokov-written episode of The West Wing."-The New York Sun "Handel intelligently weaves together the threads of the story, and the characters shift voices and perspectives with little or no advanced warning... This lends much of the dialogue a witty, unpredictable texture..." -talkinbroadway.com "A cynical black comedy that's bathed in a kind of playfulness." -Denver Post