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NEAL BELL |
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Nationality: n/a Email: n/a Website: n/a |
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Literary Agent: The Gersh Agency, NY represented by Carl Mulert |
Neal Bell. Neal Bell's plays -- including Two Small Bodies, On The Bum and Spatter Pattern -- have appeared at Playwrights Horizons in New York, and at regional theatres including the Mark Taper Forum, Denver Center Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville and Berkeley Rep. The recipient of grants from the NEA, Rockefeller and Guggenheim Foundations, Mr. Bell has also received an Obie Award for sustained excellence in playwriting. Mr. Bell is currently teaching in the Theater Studies department at Duke University.
Plays by Neal Bell
Cold Sweat | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Dramatists Play Service, NY, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #2757 | |||
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 | 6 | Female | 4 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Frustrated in her attempts to deal honestly with terminal patients, Dr. Alice Franklin is dismissed from one hospital and moves on to another, only to find herself faced once again with the same dilemma-a cancer patient who is held hostage to the fervent beliefs of her husband, a faith healer who is convinced that there is really no such thing as death. All those close to Alice also seem to draw her further into a confrontation with mortality: her father is dying; her relationship with her mother grows more strained as a result; and she begins an affair with another doctor just as he learns that he too has cancer. Alice writes a successful book about her work with the terminally ill and, in a series of spare, sharply drawn scenes, she is brought face-to-face with such complex issues as life after death, New Age medicine, and euthanasia, as well as the realization that her increasingly radical approach to these subjects could have a harmful effect on her life and career. She remains throughout, however, a cons | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Drive | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | in Ten Minute Plays From Actors Theatre Of Louisville, Vol 3, Samuel French NY | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #96454 | |||
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: | Ten Min | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Elsewhere | ||
| 1st Produced: | King's Head Theatre, 115 Upper Street, Islington, London N1 1QN >>> | 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 | #2758 | |||
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 | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: |
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Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Monster | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | 2004 | ||||
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 | #65047 | |||
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: | Adaptation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Based on "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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On The Bum, or The Next Train Through | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Dramatists Play Service, NY, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #2759 | |||
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 Drama Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 9 | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | 1g | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | In the waning days of the 1930s Great Depression, an out-of-work actress hits the road again, after her first New York show collapses before it can open. Through the Federal Theatre Project, Eleanor's landed an acting job in the kind of tiny town she'd hoped to escape forever. So she hops a train to Bumfork-meeting suspicious tramps and angry railroad cops-to perform in an innocuous pageant-in-verse by a stuffy local authoress, about the Great Flood that destroyed the town fifty years before. While rehearsing at an abandoned farm, Eleanor meets and falls in love with Frank, an out-of-work, unhappily married man, who's more and more disillusioned with the world around him. Or maybe he's seen more of the truth-his version of which he teaches to Eleanor. With an irate government-inspector on his way to sniff out any traces of bias in the upcoming pageant, Eleanor discovers the very political truth beneath the rhyming couplets of the pageant-that the Great Flood was the fault of greedy local fat-cats (who built a | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Operation Midnight Climax | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Dramatists Play Service, NY, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #2760 | |||
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 | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | The scene is a small control room, where three CIA agents are closeted behind a two-way mirror, taping the offstage actions of a fourth agent, a young woman who is having a prearranged passionate liaison with a suspected drug pusher. Ostensibly they are gathering information on the narcotics trade, but as they swap anecdotes and information the fact of their own moral decadence becomes increasingly evident. The men represent three contrasting faces of espionage: One is coldly authoritative; another, an older man, approaches his work with humorous detachment; while the third, an eager trainee, is learning the business "from the ground up." When the fourth agent, the woman, joins the others, the play takes on a special urgency. She, beautiful and seductive, had been romantically involved with the two older men, and she now seeks revenge for their complicity in the downfall of her father, a former colleague destroyed by drugs. In the end, however, she cannot wield the power she has over them for she, like the ot | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Out The Window | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Samuel French, Inc. in More Ten-Minute Plays from Actors Theatre of Louisville and by Smith & Kraus in 20/20: Twenty One-Act Plays from the Twenty Year History of the Humana Festival of New American Plays, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #2761 | |||
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: | Ten Min | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 1 | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Pandora's box is opened when a young man awakens in a wheelchair atop a kitchen table. How did he get there? What happened last night? And will his girlfriend tell him the truth? This comic tale of hope and devotion is co-winner of the 1990 Heideman Award for ATL's "best of the shortest" National Ten-Minute Play Contest. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Raw Youth | ||
| 1st Produced: | 1984 | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Dramatists Play Service, NY, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #2762 | |||
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. - - Gay, full length | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Sam, a young former policeman who has been drummed out of the force because of suspected corruption, is approached by his father, Mel, to act as a gay decoy to entrap a reportedly homosexual congressman. Mel, a convicted confidence man, is cooperating with the FBI in the hope of having the charges against him dropped, and he has long been aware of his son's bisexuality-a knowledge which, until now, has been a source of concern and dismay for him. Sam, embittered and empty but still hopeful of regaining his father's love, agrees to the scam, and the trap is set. But Congressman Gary proves to be much more than just an easy mark, and the sudden, unexpected bond that occurs between him and Sam becomes increasingly poignant with the congressman's growing realization and resigned acceptance of the manner in which he has been used. He too has lost a son, but somehow, in Sam, he has found him again. As the play ends Mel, strolling on the beach with Sam, also comes to realize that the love of a father for his son tra | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Ready For The River | ||
| 1st Produced: | 1989 | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Dramatists Play Service, NY, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #2763 | |||
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 | 2 | ||
Parts other: | male roles can BF doubled | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | The drama begins on the site of the foreclosed farm of Doris, her estranged husband, Jim, and her daughter, Lorna. As Doris and Lorna reminisce about life before the foreclosure, they witness Jim take a shotgun, stalk and shoot the banker who came with the foreclosure notice. Doris and Lorna flee the scene, fearing the same fate. On the highway, as mother and daughter relentlessly drive, the question Lorna asks, "How far away is far enough?" is also telltale of the stormy relationship between the scenes blur reality, memories and dreams create powerful descriptions of lives as desolate as the abandoned farms of the heartland. Along the way, Lorna and Doris have some strange company in the car, including the son of the dead banker and also what seems to be the dead banker himself. After a series of stops and close calls, mother and daughter arrive exhausted at a motel where they learn that they are free of the threat of violence. With this news, Doris must face the fact that the independence she and Lorna fina | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Shadow of Himself | ||
| 1st Produced: | Duke Department of Theater Studies, Durham, NC | Mar 2007 | ||||
Company: | ||||||
| 1st Published: | The Civilians: An Anthology of Six Plays, Playscripts, Inc - New York (2009) >>> | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-0-9819099-0-5 | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #55854 | |||
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: | 80-90 min Comedy/Mythic Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 4 | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Commissioned by The Civilians, written by playwright Neal Bell | |||||
| Moving backwards and forwards in time Shadow of Himself combines a retelling of the ancient epic of Gilgamesh (where an arrogant king first fights, then loves, then loses his only friend to the land of the Dead) with the story of two soldiers in the modern world, caught up in the terror of battle. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Sleeping Dogs | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Dramatists Play Service, NY, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #2764 | |||
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: | Black Comedy Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 5 | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | The play begins on the roof of a Manhattan office building where Park, a hard-driving (and dishonest) insurance executive, and Sling, his protege, are discussing the dire trouble Park has gotten them, and the company, into by selling policies to bogus clients (Judge Crater, Jimmy Hoffa, Amelia Earhart, to name a few) and then pocketing the proceeds after declaring them dead. Sling, who confides that his wife is pregnant and he is suffering from terminal brain cancer, is also the holder of one of Park's worthless policies, an aggregation of problems which he solves by leaping from the roof-only to turn up later in the play as a grisly ghost who communes with Park's dissatisfied suburban wife, Sally. But, for Park, the more pressing concern is to retrieve a collection of incriminating computer discs which are locked up in his sealed office, a maneuver which involves a burnt-out, sleazy private detective and Park's brash, sexy secretary (who is not overly pleased to find her own name on one of Park's phony polic | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Somewhere in the Pacific | ||
| 1st Produced: | Atlantic Stage 2 | 2008 | ||||
Company: | Potomac Theatre Project | |||||
| 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 | #86178 | |||
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: | One Act | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | takes place on a troop ship at the end of World War II. The ship's captain is haunted by the death of his son in battle; the young Marines under his command are terrified and restless as they are stalked by an invisible enemy. Sex and violence underpin every interaction | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Spatter Pattern: or, How I Got Away With It | ||
| 1st Produced: | Atlantic Stage 2 | 10 Jul 2011 | ||||
Company: | Potomac Theatre Project | |||||
| 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 | #66764 | |||
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 | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | In Neal Bell's Spatter Pattern: or, How I Got Away With It, a screenwriter becomes entangled in the life of a university professor under investigation for a grisly murder. What begins as self-interest soon gives way to empathy, and a bond between men from seemingly opposite worlds inexorably deepens. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Therese Raquin | ||
| 1st Produced: | Looking Glass Theatre, NY | 2007 | ||||
Company: | City Attic Theatre | |||||
| 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 | #62367 | |||
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 | 3 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Adapted from the novel by Emile Zola | |||||
Synopsis: | A dark, surreal exploration of the human subconscious, Therese Raquin tells the tale of a young woman trapped by circumstance, whose desperate stabs at freedom only drive her further towards her own destruction. Told through a stream of short scenes, alternately comic and horrific, the play fluidly combines images of beauty and brutality | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Time / Unstuck | ||
| 1st Produced: | 2006 | |||||
Company: | Ensemble Studio Theatre and Horse Trade | |||||
| 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 | #84330 | |||
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: | n/a | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | written by Neal Bell and Bathsheba Doran | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Time-Piece, A | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | in Tough Acts To Follow, Alamo Square, | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-0962475160 | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #47349 | |||
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 One Act. - - Gay, one act | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
| A man haunted by his past falls into the memory of a seminal moment in his relationship with his father and faces what happened in the two hours wiped from his memory during one sweltering night in August fifteen years prior. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Two Small Bodies | ||
| 1st Produced: | 1977 | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Dramatists Play Service, NY, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #2765 | |||
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 | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Estranged from her husband, and working as a cocktail waitress, Eileen has perhaps neglected her two small children-whose disappearance has brought about a visit by the tough-talking Lt. Brann. Obviously suspicious, the detective plays a cat-and-mouse game with Eileen, suggesting that the children may have been kidnapped; or perhaps gruesomely murdered; or perhaps are safely with their father; or may have become victims of the dissolute life style which he attributes to Eileen. Comprised of a series of contiguous, interconnected scenes, the play pursues the growing love/hate relationship which begins to build ominously between the tired, conservative-minded police officer, and the voluptuous woman who both intrigues and repels him. He drops by at odd hours of the day and night; he is sometimes sympathetic and confiding; sometimes hard and abrasive; until, at last, he drives her to confess. Then, in a startling turnabout, the detective tells Eileen that the bodies of the children have been found and the vagran | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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What Will I Do When You're Gone? | ||
| 1st Produced: | 2002 | |||||
Company: | Market Theatre | |||||
| 1st Published: | in Boston Theatre Marathon of Ten Minute Plays Volume 4, Bakers Plays, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #56796 | |||
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 Ten Min | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Will You Accept The Charges? | ||
| 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 | #2766 | |||
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: | Phone Play | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Audience members enter one of several phone booths, pick up the receiver and listen to a three-minute play unfold in conversation | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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