Books published by publisher Samuel French Inc.

A Slave Ship emerges out of the Hudson River in front of the Statue of Liberty sending NYC into a frenzy. Emergency is an intricately woven, urgent, witty and moving exploration of our shared humanity and what it means to be free. An explosive play where rhythm, rhyme and remembrance rise."Daniel Beaty is a name to remember, as is this vivid portrait of the African- American experience in present day New York." -TheaterMania.com"Daniel Beaty's explosive, affecting solo play Emergency may be the most important new American drama since Angels in America." -NYTheatre.com"A funny, passionate show." -Variety THROUGH THE NIGHTThrough the Night is a timely and inspiring story of possibility and hope, weaving together a unique blend of humor, poetry, music, and drama. It portrays a community of people who experience an unexpected epiphany on the same evening that changes their lives forever."May be one of the most uplifting and inspiring pieces of theater you'll see this year." -TheaterMania.com"Daniel Beaty's poetic solo show is a thing of beauty, wit, grit and piercing lyricism." -The New York Times

Thriller / Characters: 8 male, 5 female Scenery: 2 InteriorsOnly Agatha Christie could have conceived such a suspenseful thriller and then capped it with an uncanny triple flip ending. A young married man spends many evenings with a rich old woman. When she is found murdered, the naive young man is the chief suspect. The testimony of his wife is expected to result in an acquittal, but she is a shrew who damages his case and all but hangs him before a vindictive mystery woman appears with letters against the wife. After the man is freed, it is revealed that mystery woman is actually the wife. She discredited and perjured herself because she felt that direct testimony on her husband's behalf would not have been sufficient to free him. When he turns his back on his wife and goes off with another woman, we realize that he was the murderer. He does not get away it, for there is one turn of plot remaining. "A walloping success."-Herald Tribune "Packs plenty of surprise in its cargo of suspense."-Daily Mirror Winner of the New York Critics Circle Award

Three actors. One desk. Three chairs. Theatre at its most elemental. Seven Interviews offers up seven different short plays, each with an interview format, and each of which illuminates some aspect of the human condition. The seven pieces range from the broadly comic to the achingly tragic. Among the situations set up in the seven pieces are a job interview to replace a secretary who is giving her employer nightmares, a biographer's horrible realization that she doesn't know her subject at all, the matter of a baseball team mascot who is frightening children at the ballpark, a dialogue between psychiatrist and patient with an unexpected outcome, a conference between parent and school principal over the expulsion of the woman's son; along with pieces about a very unlikely customer for a professional hit-man, and an office cleaning lady caught red-handed on Christmas Eve.

Drama / Characters: 17 Male, 3 Female Scenery: 5 interior SpacesIncriminating letters written by a young European prince to the English girl he betrayed are in the hands of the dead girl's sister. She is in the clutches of a nefarious man. All this and Moriarty and Dr. Watson too. "A prime evening of entertainment." N.Y. Daily News."Constant stage magic to delight the audience." Women's Wear Daily. "A theatrical triumph ... one of the jolliest treats of the season." Christian Science Monitor. "The most enjoyable show in town ... a great evening in the theater. I ... might find it difficult to like someone who did not love it." N.Y. Times.

DramaDorothy Parker and Arnaud d'UsseauCharacters: 7 male, 9 female, 1 dog5 Interior SetsAlthough THE LADIES OF THE CORRIDOR is not strictly a thesis play, its authors do have a point to make. It is that when widowhood comes to American middle-aged women, only those prepared for a career have any chance for happiness. They are mostly bitter, frustrated, bored, and driven to suicide, kleptomania or constant attendance at the movies. In particular, the dramatists are concerned with three of the women. One takes a younger lover and, despite her momentary happiness, proceeds to drive him from her by her nagging doubts of his fidelitv. Another becomes a solitary drinker, has a sordid affair with a bellhop and ends by jumping from a window. The third is a invalid who wrecks the life of her son by blackmailing him into serving her. The kleptomaniac, and the woman seeking refuge in the movies from her knowledge that her children don't want her, are less dramatic figures who add to the drab and hopeless picture of doomed widowhood. THE LADIES OF THE CORRIDOR is an episodic drama, a sort of "Grand Hotel" of widowhood. Opened at the Longacre with Edna Best, Betty Field. Frances Starr, and Vera Allen. "There are three brilliant�and, I may sav. blood-curdling�performances in the new play at the Longacre."�N.Y. Herald Tribune.

Mystery Comedy Characters: 5 male, 7female. Interior Set When a houseful of sweet little old ladies discover that a handsome bachelor lives across the street, they are delighted. When they learn that he is none other than Detective Dennis O'Finn, of Homicide, they are faced with the problem of how to attract his attention. The answer is simplicity itself: a nice, genteel homicide with a cup of tea as the murder weapon. When a brash young woman reporter begins to suspect the truth, she becomes the next target. O'Finn is terribly embarrassed when at last he discovers that he himself is the motive for these madcap goings-on, and, in desperation, manages to solve the case. But the dear old ladies are too fond of him and in the end they turn the tables on him! First a short story in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, later a success on "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," and now a stage veteran of hundreds of performances around the country, Bull in a China Shop continues to enchant audiences everywhere!

"Joe Orton's last play, What the Butler Saw, will live to be accepted as a comedy classic of English literature" (Sunday Telegraph) The chase is on in this breakneck comedy of licensed insanity, from the moment when Dr Prentice, a psychoanalyst interviewing a prospective secretary, instructs her to undress. The plot of What the Butler Saw contains enough twists and turns, mishaps and changes of fortune, coincidences and lunatic logic to furnish three or four conventional comedies. But however the six characters in search of a plot lose the thread of the action - their wits or their clothes - their verbal self-possession never deserts them. Hailed as a modern comedy every bit as good as Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, Orton's play is regularly produced, read and studied. What the Butler Saw was Orton's final play."He is the Oscar Wilde of Welfare State gentility" (Observer)

Drama / 7m, 7f / Unit set Immortalized onstage and screen by Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke, this classic tells the story of Annie Sullivan and her student, blind and mute Helen Keller. The Miracle Worker dramatizes the volatile relationship between the lonely teacher and her charge. Trapped in a secret, silent world, unable to communicate, Helen is violent, spoiled, almost sub-human and treated by her family as such. Only Annie realizes that there is a mind and spirit waiting to be rescued from the dark, tortured silence. With scenes of intense physical and emotional dynamism, Annie's success with Helen finally comes with the utterance of a single, glorious word: "water". "Interesting, absorbing and moving." - New York Post

FarceCharacters: 13 male, 7 female, plus extras. Multiple sets The lady has two lovers: a ne'er do well who is secretly affianced to a Baroness' daughter and a flamboyant Spanish general who challenges to a duel any man who comes near her. An amateur composer who hopes the lady will sing his song places his card in a bouquet sent anonymously and thereby seals his fate: the ne'er do well uses him to divert the general's flashing sword. Meanwhile, the ne'er do well is trapped in his skivvies outside his apartment. When the cops come to arrest him for indecent exposure, you can be sure it is the songwriter who goes to jail. The comedy vibrates with farcical situations and extrications before the truth is revealed. "A triumph of ingenuity, gaiety, absurdity and laughter." Daily Telegraph