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MICHAEL LOUIS WELLS |
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Nationality: n/a Email: Click here to contact Website: Click here to visit |
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Literary Agent: Elaine Devlin Literary, Inc. UK representative: Meg Davis, Ki Agency Ltd. 48-56 Bayham Place, London NW1 0EU. +07813 798 665. meg@ki-agency.co.uk |
MICHAEL LOUIS WELLS - His writing praised by The New York Times (June 2011) as "LaBute territory with fresh angles and sustained tension", Michael is a winner of The London New Play Festival, two-time finalist for the Actors Theatre of Louisville's Heideman Award, inaugural recipient of a First Light commission from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and finalist for the Verity Bargate Award at London's Soho Theatre & Writers Centre. His plays have seen production, publication, workshops and readings in New York, London, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington, DC and elsewhere. Wells made his professional debut in New York with Real Real Gone (published by Smith & Kraus), which The Star Ledger observed "heralds a new writer with an acute sense of language and a special ability to dramatize human behavior" and Variety pronounced as "the best of the bunch -far and away - with language that laces the natural poetics of the street with erudition". Other works include The "I" Word: Interns (Faber & Faber), about idealistic Clinton staffers, , cited by Show Business as "ripe with political savvy" and The Village Voice for "handling the Beltway lingo with brains and Shavian brio!" as well as Detail, winner of The London New Play Festival and produced in a new version in New York in June 2006. Most recently (June 2011) his one-act, Two From The Line, saw production Off-Broadway at New York's Ensemble Studio Theatre as part of their Annual Marathon of One-Act Plays. Cited by The New York Times as "La Bute territory with fresh angles and sustained tension" it was also selected for publication by Smith & Kraus for their "Best Short Plays" anthology. In July 2010 Michael adapted this work for the screen overseeing casting, rehearsals and principal photography. And in February 2011 the film version of Two From The Line took Best Screenplay and Best Film honors at the 11th SC Independent Film Festival in San Francisco. His play, District of Columbia, set in a cooperative house on the eve of the 1988 US Presidential election, was workshopped in March 2007 at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and given a subsequent developmental reading off-West End at The Finborough in November 2007 - both under the direction of Wilson Milam. Another full-length, Seven Pages Unsigned- was workshopped in New York in August 2007 under the direction of Pamela Berlin and, simultaneously in development with San Francisco's Magic Theatre under Artistic Director, Chris Smith, received a workshop in December 2007 as one of three plays selected for "New Voices West", a programme dedicated to new works from emerging American playwrights. 7PGS has received subsequent fully-staged readings in October 2008 and February 2009 at LA's Road Theatre and Rogue Machine Theatre companies, respectively. And the play saw its European premiere in May 2010 with a workshop reading directed by Wilson Milam at London's Finborough Theatre as part of their "Vibrant" festival, curated by Finborough Artistic Director Neil McPherson in celebration of the theatre's 30th anniversary. Several other works are currently in development. Wells is a member of New York's Ensemble Studio Theatre (Founding Artistic Director- the late great Curt Dempster), The Dramatists Guild of America and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
Plays by Michael Louis Wells
"I" Word, The : Interns | ||
| 1st Produced: | Ensemble Studio Theatre, NY | 1999 | ||||
Company: | Annual Marathon of One Act Plays | |||||
| 1st Published: | Faber and Faber, London, 2000 | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #45730 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Drama One Act | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 1 | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | describes the original (one-act) version of the play. There is also a full-length version of the same title. | |||||
Synopsis: | Idealistic Clinton White House interns face-off after one of their number is dismissed for leaking inside info to the press. Finally coming to grips with their disillusionment when challenged by their superior, herself a one-time intern for Senator Robert F. Kennedy, they find a renewed sense of hope in "the lifetime of work" required to further their shared beliefs and the understanding those beliefs can and must overcome the frailties of any one individual. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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All Shook Down | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #45739 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Light Drama/Serious Comedy Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 1 | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Ex-lovers wake up the drunken morning after in bed with each other (and some even more ill-advised take-out) to horror, coffee, confessions and passionate resolves, in exactly that order. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Brief History Of Technology, A | ||
| 1st Produced: | Off-Broadway, NY | 1999 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #45733 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | First Light Festival of plays concerning Science and Technology. Commissioned by The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation | |||||
Synopsis: | Last day of business in a typewriter repair shop. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Deepest Play Ever, The: The Catharsis of Pathos | ||
| 1st Produced: | 2006 | |||||
Company: | CollaborationTown | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #139662 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Comedy 105 min Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 5 | Female | 5 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | VENUE 10: The Village Theatre. Music and additional lyrics by Michael Wells | |||||
Synopsis: | Before Mother Courage there was Mother LaMadre. In The Deepest Play Ever, an unrivaled masterpiece of modern dramatic writing, our antiheroine Mother LaMadre and her rag-tag crew drag their wagon through the Fifth World War and the post-post-apocalyptic wasteland that is New Europe. Together they must navigate all the pitfalls (and rewards) of the dramatic art of drama to find the few remaining books the art-abolishing Evil Empire have yet to destroy and maybe, just maybe, find a way to replace violence with art. If the zombies don't eat them first, that is. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Detail |
| 1st Produced: | Gielgud Theatre, London | 2001 | |||
Company: | n/a | ||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | ||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #45731 | ||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | ||||
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Genre: | Drama One Act | ||||
| Parts: | Male | 1 | Female | 1 | |
Parts other: | - | ||||
Notes: | Winner 2001 London New Play Festival; Finalist 2001 Heideman Award, Actor's Theatre of Louisville. New version- produced June 2006, 28th Annual EST Marathon of One-Act Plays, NYC | ||||
Synopsis: | Brother and sister meet in a bar the week before Christmas to exchange gifts and warily attempt coming to terms with the family from which they're both estranged amidst a sudden and secretive crisis. | ||||
Further Reference: | - |
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District of Columbia (new version) | ||
| 1st Produced: | Workshop - Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, London - directed by Wilson Milam | 2007 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #45645 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 4 | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Other workshops and readings include Boston's Huntington Theatre Co. (dir: Darko Tresnjak), Washington's Arena Stage and production, in an earlier version, at New York's Ensemble Studio Theatre | |||||
Synopsis: | On the eve of the 1988 Presidential election, a group of activists, loafers, students and ex-punkrockers must ask: what are one's morals really worth when idealism becomes inconvenient? And where does one go when it's time to leave your youth behind? - "All this was supposed to change in the 60's. It's twenty years later. What happened? Where are those people? They were going to make politics - and everything else - RELEVANT. Their big word, remember? The mainstream ate 'em up. They became as deaf as the generation they were dyin' to replace. Just look at the music, for one thing. Nothin' that came after they took off their big Koss headphones around 1973 mattered anymore. They stopped LISTENING. They don't hear us. They got too busy inventing Classic Rock Radio and a national advertising strategy for The Gap. These people are not our friends!" | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Fourth Time Around | ||
| 1st Produced: | Ensemble Studio Theatre, NY (workshop production) | 1994 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #45738 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Valentines Day Night, 1994. The loft apartment of former punkrock guitarist and club owner, Tommy "Fitz" Fitzgerald and his neurotic best friend, Paulie, a Columbia University pedant. Whatever can go wrong, probably will. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Friends | ||
| 1st Produced: | Off-Broadway, NY | 1995 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #45734 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | 1995/1996 New York, Off-Broadway, "Hell's Kitchen Sink", "Sex & Violence - West Bank/Ensemble Studio Theatre. Finalist 1998 Heideman Award, Actor's Theatre of Louisville | |||||
Synopsis: | revised as Two From The Line | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Gary X-Mas | ||
| 1st Produced: | The New Directors Lab, NY | 1998 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #45742 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 1 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Home for the first Christmas since the death of her father, a woman's magazine editor has trouble facing the past with her kid sister as well as an uncertain future with the man she's brought home to meet what's left of her family | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Hermit Of Ninth Avenue | ||
| 1st Produced: | West Bank Theatre | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #45736 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Man stages "intervention" of sorts forcing his way into the apartment of his friend a traumatised, young, New Yorker who has vowed never again to leave. Or, apparently, bathe. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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My Before And After | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #45737 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 5 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | reading - Dramatists Guild, New York, 2004. In development | |||||
Synopsis: | Noted graphic artist "in recovery from EVERYTHING" enjoins his sister, an Medieval Art scholar and an archivist friend in cataloguing the vast repository of artwork left behind by a mysterious, storied and largely unknown Modernist, moving into his abandoned Brooklyn warehouse/studio, and in the job ("like Summer Stock for Art Historians") of uncovering the dead man's life and work, begins to salvage his own. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Prosaic Nation | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #45741 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Appearing in yet another godawful "experimental" work, an actress and her husband consider her leaving the Theatre and perhaps the marriage during a cigarette break on the street between entrances. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Real Real Gone | ||
| 1st Produced: | Ensemble Studio Theatre, NY | 1997 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Smith & Kraus, 1998 | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #45729 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Drama One Act | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Two men brought together by the sudden and coincidental deaths of their fathers on the same day five years before, meet on its anniversary in an abandoned cemetery, ultimately confronting the past, each other and themselves. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Seven Pages Unsigned | ||
| 1st Produced: | workshop production premiere, Magic Theatre, San Francisco, CA | 2008 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #45735 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | workshop production premiere, Finborough Theatre, London, 2010. New Voices West honoree, San Francisco's Magic Theatre (Artistic Director, Chris Smith); European premiere, directed by Wilson Milam -London's Finborough Theatre at invitation of Artistic Director, Neil McPherson for Vibrant Festival, in celebration of Finborough's 30th anniversary. | |||||
Synopsis: | December 21, evening of the Winter Solstice. "The Darkest Night of the Year". Still reeling from the suicide of one of their number, friends gather for an engagement party, escaping to the roof but unable to elude the difficult choices each of them now face. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Taken By Faeries | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #45732 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Drama/Fantasy Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 4 | Female | 4 | ||
Parts other: | 1 | |||||
Notes: | Finalist 2000 Verity Bargate Award, Soho Theatre & Writers Centre, London | |||||
Synopsis: | Estranged Irish-American family attempt to reconcile, decamping to the Old Country after the death of their patriarch. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Two From The Line | ||
| 1st Produced: | Ensemble Studio Theatre | 09 Jun 2011 | ||||
Company: | Ensemble Studio Theatre - 2011 Marathon of One-Act Plays | |||||
| 1st Published: | Smith & Kraus - "Best Short Plays - 2008" | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #78426 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Comedy one act | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Cited by The New York Times as "LaBute territory with fresh angles and sustained tension" it was also selected for publication by Smith & Kraus for their "Best Short Plays" anthology. In July 2010 Michael adapted this work for the screen overseeing casting, rehearsals and principal photography. And in February 2011 the film version of Two From The Line took Best Screenplay and Best Film honors at the 11th SC Independent Film Festival in San Francisco. | |||||
Synopsis: | Two men a get a little too personal watching a basketball game on television. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Where the Ocean Meets the Eye | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #70223 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | 1st reading - "Octoberfest" , Ensemble Studio Theatre, NYC, October 2006 | |||||
Synopsis: | Labour Day Weekend and Rhys's young wife, Beth, has invited friends to the island for his 50th birthday. But once assembled the festivities give way to the unforeseen and what may well mark the end of far more than just the summer. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Zeroes | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #45740 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Comedy/Fantasy Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Five insomniacs walk into a bar and out of life as they know it | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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