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MICHAEL PARKER |
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Nationality: n/a Email: Click here to contact Website: Click here to visit |
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Literary Agent: n/a |
Michael Parker has been active in the theatre almost all his life. At age fourteen, in England where he was born and raised, he won the title role in a regional production of Terrence Rattigan's play, "The Winslow Boy", for which he received a "Best Actor of the Year" award. By age seventeen he was touring with The National Shakespearean Youth Company. He graduated in the top 3% of his class from The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, but describes his five years of military service as "uneventful". There being few employment opportunities in civilian life for infantry anti-tank specialists, at age twenty-three he emigrated to Canada where he began a Temporary Office Help business, which proved so successful that he was able to retire ten years later and move to the Caribbean. Over the succeeding years, while living in Bermuda, Grand Cayman, and The Turks and Caicos Islands, he was free again to indulge his passion for the theatre. Never far from The United States, he was able to audition for roles in many Florida Theatres. As an English actor, working in America, Parker became acutely aware of the difficulties experienced by American theatre companies, in producing English works, in particular modern farces. Re-creating the wide range of English dialects is almost impossible, and many of the best farces simply do not "translate" well into "American". The subject matter of the British political and social systems, or scandals of which the American public is unaware, are other examples which seemed to deter many theatres from producing farces. SO. . .Parker challenged himself to write a play which would integrate all the best loved and most familiar devices of the traditional Britsh farce into a distinctly American setting. This had to be a play in which the verbal, visual, and above all, the circumstantial humor would be immediately available to American audiences. The result was an "American Farce", THE SENSUOUS SENATOR, which was inspired by the then current sex scandal involving Senator Gary Hart. Produced in the summer of 1988, by the first theatre to read the script, The Delray Beach Playhouse, it was an immediate hit with both audiences and critics. Encouraged by the success of his first play, and the popularity of the British "naughty but nice" concept, he went on to write a sequel called THE AMOROUS AMBASSADOR. The rest, as they say, is history. Samuel French Inc. New York, the largest play publishing company in te world, published THE AMOROUS AMBASSADOR in 1996, THE SENSUOUS SENATOR in 1998, THE LONE STAR LOVE POTION in 1999, HOTBED HOTEL in 2000, THERE'S A BURGLAR IN MY BED and WHOSE WIVES ARE THEY ANYWAY? in 2002, and WHO'S IN BED WITH THE BUTLER? in 2003. Parker's plays continue to set box office records for non-musicals across America, from Florida to New England, from Texas to Wisconsin, from Southern California to Alaska. These American Farces are just now finding the "export market" with recent productions in, Canada, England, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Australia, Pakistan and Mexico. A new and exciting play co-authored by Michael and his wife Susan "SIN, SEX and the CIA" Available from Samuel French, Inc., in the fall of 2006. We currently reside at 868 Saranac Lake Dr. 202 Venice, Florida, 34292 941-493-8333
Plays by Michael Parker
Amorous Ambassador, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | Delray Beach Playhouse, Delray Beach, Florida | 1990 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Samuel French, London, 1990 | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #26962 | |||
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: | Farce | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 4 | Female | 4 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | When Harry Douglas, the new American Ambassador to Great Britain, tells his family he is going to Scotland to play golf, his wife Lois and daughter Debbie announce plans of their own. Their newly hired butler, Perkins, watches stoically as each leaves and secretly returns for a romantic rendezvous in the empty house. In the wake of a bomb threat, the Embassy is sealed off - with hilarious results. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Hotbed Hotel | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Samuel French, NY, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #50675 | |||
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 | 4 | Female | 5 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Terry and Brian Cody are hoping to sell their "One Star Hotel" in the Florida Keys to the only man who has expressed any interest in buying it, a Mr. Lewis from New York. Unfortunately they have so few guests, they're afraid Mr. Lewis will see at once that the hotel is a bad investment. So in order to bolster his interest, they devise a lan to make the hotel appear busier and more prosperous that it actually is by having their staff masquerade as paying guests, thereby giving Mr. Lewis the impression that the hotel is overflowing with loyal customers and vacationers. But their plan has one hitch. Their entire staff consists of a bibulous maintenance man named Hopkins and a sexy, scatterbrained housemaid who can't seem to remain completely clothed for longer that a few moments at a time! Add to these ersatz guest, a predatory nymphomaniac who is affectionately known as "The Barracuda", a wealthy Arabian Sheik named Abdul, and a humorless old battleaxe, and you have a "hotbed" of intrigue culminiating in a show-stopping coup-de-theatre. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Lone Star Love Potion, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Samuel French, NY, 1999 | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #26963 | |||
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: | Farce | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 4 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | at the reading of the rich man's will his erstwhile butler produces a love potion from the safe with devastating results | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Never Kiss A Naughty Nanny | ||
| 1st Produced: | Early Bird Dinner Theatre, Clearwater, Florida | 2007 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | - | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #89988 | |||
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: | Farce | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 4 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Mr. Broadbent, a developer and builder, has created 'THE HOUSE OF THE FUTURE'. He has filled it with gadgets such as: self lighting fire places, a self cleaning bathroom, central trash disposal units, automatic closets, hidden telephones, and his masterpiece 'The Personal Ion Chamber'. The house, however, has remained unsold for four years, probably because, as we see in the course of the play, most of the innovations of the future fail to work properly. He has, at last found prospective buyers, Fred and Gladys McNicoll, and invites them to stay in the house. He is determined to offload this huge 'White Elephant'. He bribes two members of his staff, Casey Cody and Ben Adams, to pose as a married couple, who are renting the house. They are to extol its virtues and explain how everything works. He is pulling out all the stops. The fridge is full of expensive wine and he has hired a chef to prepare a gourmet meal. Unknown to The McNicolls', he even has his maintenance man Eddie Cott on hand to make running repairs. He thinks he has all the bases covered. When Gladys hears Casey refer to Mr. Cott by name, the cat seems to be out of the bag, but Casey quickly recovers by saying she didn't say 'Mister Cott' but 'Mm Turcotte', the children's nanny. Eddie Cott now spends the rest of the play as Nanny Turcotte. A surprise visitor, Mr. Brooks, takes an almost insane fancy to 'Nanny' who now has to defend 'her' honor, as well as fix the gadgets, all of which, without exception, misbehave. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Sensuous Senator, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Samuel French, NY, 1998 | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #26964 | |||
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: | Farce | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 4 | Female | 5 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Senator is running for President on a morality platform, as usual he is caught in bed with his secretary | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Sex Please We're Sixty! | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-0-573-66386-4 | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #96263 | |||
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: | Farce | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | 4 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | written by Michael and Susan Parker | |||||
| Mrs. Stancliffe's Rose Cottage Bed & Breakfast has been successful for many years. Her Guests (nearly all women) return year after year. Her next door neighbor, the elderly, silver-tongued, Bud 'Bud the Stud' Davis believes they come to spend time with him in romantic liaisons. The prim and proper Mrs. Stancliffe steadfastly denies this, but really doesn't do anything to prevent it. She reluctantly accepts the fact that 'Bud the Stud' is, in fact, good for business. Her other neighbor and would-be suitor Henry Mitchell is a retired chemist who has developed a blue pill called 'Venusia,' after Venus the goddess of love, to increase the libido of menopausal women. The pill has not been tested. Add to the guest list three older women: Victoria Ambrose, a romance novelist whose personal life seems to be lacking in romance; Hillary Hudson a friend of Henry's who has agreed to test the Venusia: and Charmaine Beauregard, a 'Southern Belle' whose libido does not need to be increased! Bud gets his hands on some of the Venusia pills and the fun begins, as attempts to entertain all three women! The women mix up Bud's Viagra pills with the Venusia, and we soon discover that it has a strange effect on men: it gives them all the symptoms of menopausal women, complete with hot flashes, mood swings, weeping and irritability! When the mayham settles down, all the women find their lives moving in new and surprising directions. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Sin, Sex & The CIA | ||
| 1st Produced: | 2006 | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | - | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #50677 | |||
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 | 4 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | written by Michael and Susan Parker | |||||
Synopsis: | Huge oil reserves have been discovered in The Chagos Islands. O.P.E.C. is pressuring the Chagosians to join the cartel. A C.I.A. agent and an under Secretary of State, whose life appears to be run by her libido, are sent to a C.I.A. safe house in the mountains of Virginia to begin negotiations for the U.S. to place the Chagos Islands under their protection. Unfortunately, no one knows who the islands' representative really is. We are left to wonder how the C.I.A. agent ever got the job. He gets caught in all his own booby traps, he electrocutes himself, he sets fire to himself, he gets a bucket stuck on his head, and finally locks himself in his own handcuffs! Add to the inevitable chaos, a stranded televangelist, his innocent secretary (or is she?), an ex-marine caretaker, who isn't what he seems to be, and a mysterious, glamorous neighbor, and you have a complex, laugh out loud farce, that can be played on any stage. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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There's A Burglar in My Bed | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Samuel French, NY, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #50674 | |||
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: | William W. Worthington III and his wife, Ashley, are both going to be away for the weekend from their 200 acre Massachusetts estate and the 26 bedroom mansion. He to Delaware to shoot ducks with the DuPonts, she to her mother's in Boston. Both, in fact, have arranged weekend trysts with their respective lovers in the estate's beach cottage. Inevitably their paths cross and divorce is in the air. Neither is willing to give up the world famous Worthington necklace, so each devises a separate plan to steal it by enlisting the help of their lovers. True to the laws of farce, both simulated burglaries are scheduled to take place on the same night. Fun-filled chaos reigns, involving mistaken identities, a bumbling private detective, (who trained under Mrs. Malaprop!) one very determined nymphomaniac, and two scantily dressed nuns sharing one skirt. (Where did they come from?) The bed is the busiest place, as confusion is piled on confusion, to end somewhat unexpectedly in the romantic liaisons of some unlikely partners. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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What is Susan's Secret? | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-0-573-69961-0 | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #133709 | |||
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 | 3-7 | Female | 3-7 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | written by Michael and Susan Parker | |||||
| The Cider Mill Inn is an old, rustic and somewhat run down country inn owned and operated by an endearing elderly couple, Michael and Susan Edwards. At first they appear to be bordering on senility. We quickly learn however that they are very clever con artists, preying on their unsuspecting guests, by advertising huge discounts to various tradesmen. Using an elaborate check-in form with duplicate copies, guests are, in fact, signing a work contract, requiring them to perform various tasks and improvements at the inn. Over the course of three weekends, plumbers, tile layers, carpenters and electricians are recruited to do work they never expected. This unique play offers theatres the opportunity for the other twelve characters (Besides Susan and Michael) to be played by either two males and two females, or twelve different actors, or any number in between. The characters vary from the world's most boring man, (his wife says he's had charisma bypass surgery), to a young couple on their honeymoon. Audiences will fall in love with each of these distinctive characters, but especially the loving relationship between the two main characters, Michael and Susan, so touching that this play might be called a love story, if it wasn't first and foremost a farce. So, what is Susan's secret? On this subject the authors remain silent, preferring instead to let the audience decide on the truth, which of course, in a Parker play, is only revealed in the last few seconds of the show. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Who's In Bed With The Butler? | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Samuel French, NY, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #50676 | |||
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: | William Olden, a California billionaire, has died leaving almost all his assets to his only child, Constance. The exceptions are a $22 million yacht bequeathed to an English woman, Josephine Sykes, a $25 million art collection to a French woman, Renee LaFleur, and an antique car collection to a California girl, Marjorie Merivale. Constance arrives at the mansion with her lawyer, Roy Vance, determined to find out who these women are and to contest the will. Clifton, the butler, seems to hold the key. She learns from him that they were, each in turn, her father's mistresses in the years immediately prior to his death. They have been contacted by Vance, who has arranged for them to meet at the mansion so he can attempt to "buy them off". Vance and Constance quickly discover that the yacht is missing, there is no art left in the mansion, and the car collection has been sold. Everything is now owned by "The Bimbo Corporation". Who owns The Bimbo Corporation? Could it be the butler, and is he having simultaneous affairs with each of these three women? Add to this, an elderly deaf housekeeper with a pet rat, an accident prone detective who, like his father in THERE'S A BURGLAR IN MY BED, studied under Mrs. Malaprop, and an actress hired by the butler to play the role of his wife. Then the "piece de resistance"- the audience is held spellbound as they slowly come to realize that the roles of the three women are all being played by the same actress! | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Whose Wives Are They Anyway? | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Samuel French, NY, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #48159 | |||
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: | Farce | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 5 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | The Ashley Maureen Cosmetics Co. has been sold, and two of its Vice Presidents, David McGachen and John Baker, have planned a weekend off before their new C.E.O. arrives on Monday. Their wives safely out of the way on a weekend shopping spree to New York City, they check into the Oakfield Golf and Country Club intending to "golf their brains out." There, they unexpectedly meet their new boss, Ms. Hutchinson, who insists on meeting their wives, adding blithely, "No one who went off golfing for a weekend without his wife, would ever work for me." So. . .they have to produce two wives. John persuades the sexy hotel receptionist, Tina, to play the role of his wife, but the only one left to play the role of David's wife is - JOHN. As John now moves in and out of bedrooms, changing from male to female at a frantic place, inevitably, eventually everything goes wrong. Chaos ensues when, the entire hotel phone system goes "on the blink", Tina has a little too much champagne and can't seem to keep her clothes on, and YES- The real wives arrive. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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