Titles

Scott Miller explores what he learned when working on Sweet Smell of Success.

Treem reminds us that the underlying problem still lurks: could it be that, no matter how hard Amanda works, or how talented she is, she will always come in second, simply for being female?

“America is not a country, but a world,” Wilde said admiringly. It was a world that welcomed him and gave him an audience, that allowed him to develop his nascent thoughts on art, that gave him the opportunity to travel and live off his considerable wits, and that took him seriously and produced his first play.

Happy Embrace Your Geekness Day! For those out there who have a passion for World of Warcraft, enjoy live action role play, or are a Comic Con enthusiast, here is a list of our top eight plays and musicals for you!

Happy Fourth of July! For the star-spangled occasion, we’ve compiled a list of our top ten favorite plays and musicals that celebrate and reflect on American life

I had that chill, just as I had experienced in the Library of Congress reading room. There was this palpable feeling that I was connecting, being pulled towards another time and place.‘Rumor has it a woman has come in here after her man.’

We have compiled a list of some Samuel French titles that may surprise you when you learn that they were the source for some well-known or otherwise musicals.

Janice Goldberg, one half of the writing team behind Rose Colored Glass reflects on creating and mounting the touching play.

“The Night of the Iguana is a play,” Tennessee Williams said, “whose theme, as clearly as I can put it, is how to live beyond despair and still live.”

2017 has left many Americans stunned by our nation’s politics, and artistic communities around the country are finding ways to get politically involved on a local level. Today we chat with playwright, professor, and theatre historian Helen Richardson. Richardson is an authority on most things theatrical, and she joins us today to talk about her adaptation of Alfred Jarry’s seminal play, Ubu.

In this article you’ll find a list of eight screen-to-stage, stage-to-screen and page-to-stage adaptations that we’ve been obsessing over lately. A few are from the last few years, while others stretch back 50 years or more. What other adaptations would you add to the list?

Theatre has always provided a wealth of great roles for women of all ages, but especially for those who’ve outgrown the role of ingénue.

Nearly 18 years ago when Frank Haney, Carol Kimball, and Dave Stratton got together to write a country-western musical set in a trailer park, they knew that the loss of jobs due to corporate outsourcing had to be central to the story.

From the start, Rosary envisioned this play as a tour de force of obsession, rooted in the real life of the famous first great American novelist, based on detailed and shocking facts from her life.

According to Murphy, the Off-Broadway version was R-rated, “If we wanted Heathers to work for high schools, we’d have to find new ways to tell the same story in a PG-13 context. So we wrote and workshopped a brand new draft with the fantastic support of Samuel French and iTheatrics, and were surprised to discover that many of the changes turned out to be improvements.”

Paddy Briggs writes about the new production of Present Laughter including reporting on extended interviews he had with the Director Stephen Unwin prior to the first rehearsals, at the first night and later in the run when it arrived in Richmond.

The Waverly Gallery revolves around a family’s experience as their matriarch slips further and further into dementia. Despite the gravity of the subject matter, the play is filled with comedy and delightful characters.

A high school student’s perspective on the joy and purpose of performing Heathers The Musical.

In many plays written about young people, some by writers I admire, one can feel the adult hand shaping a moral universe for the characters to inhabit. I chose to avoid this when writing Hazelwood Jr. High. I wanted the play to feel as if it were written by a junior high school student.

At its core, Caddie Woodlawn is about family. It tells the story of a year in the life of a young pioneer girl, growing up in Wisconsin. Her tomboyish struggles with her strictly traditional mother and her devotion to her more indulgent father are at the heart of this coming-of-age tale. 

The four-time Emmy nominated, Writer’s Guild Award nominated, and Peabody Award winning writer, Erik Weiner, documents the explosive rise of his college project, The Bomb-itty of Errors.

When famous superhero Blackjack the Bold is kidnapped by an evil sorcerer, it’s up to his assistant Inky to step up and save the day!

Simple enough for young audience members but witty enough for their parents, this bighearted adventure will thrill the entire family. Plus, there are ninja koalas.

Amanda dreamed of being a famous composer – not the daughter of an almost-divorce, the fiancée of an almost-celebrity, the ex of an almost-lover, and the writer of mediocre jingles. Maybe it’s a ridiculous dream – after all, how many brilliant female composers are there?

A story of a man’s final dream to put on a play. He chose Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days.

Samuel French’s Literary Associate Garrett Anderson discusses Bathsheba Doran’s The Mystery of Love and Sex.

Michael and Linda are a married couple, both writers. Michael is a successful household name, while Linda now teaches and has only had one hit book. Near the beginning of the show, Linda is diagnosed with cancer, and her dying wish is to be granted the opportunity to read Michael’s journals.

Samuel French’s Corporate Communications Associate, Alejandra Venancio, unveils the ghosts of Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit.

Grab your ghouls and ghosts, and gear up for a night of horror! These ten goosebumps inducing shows are sure to keep you occupied in between trick-or-treaters.

Writer and Hip Hop Theatre Artist, Nsangou Njikam, congratulates honoree Keith Josef Adkins of The New Black Fest as part of the Samuel French Awards 2016 Series.

Literary Associate Garrett Anderson explains why you, too, will love Linder & Hobgood’s hysterical play set in a bomb shelter.

Contributor Eliza Skidgel gives her take on Treem’s Mirror, Mirror.