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Mary Chase

MARY CHASE

  (1907 - 1981)
Nationality:    USA
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    n/a

Mary Coyle Chase was born on February 25, 1907 in Denver Colorado. She attended the University of Colorado, and worked for the Rocky Mountain News as a reporter and served as publicity director for the National Youth administration. Chase was also a playwright and author, her most famous works being the play Harvey and the book Loretta Mason Potts (Mickey). Harvey won a Pulitzer Prize and was made into a movie starring James Stewart, and her book the Wicked Pigeon Ladies in the Garden was nominated for the Dorothy Canfield Fisher award in 1969. She married Robert Lamont Chase (a newspaper reporter), on June 7, 1928. In addition to her career as a reporter, playwright and author she was a member of the Dramatists' Guild and had three sons. She died of a heart attack, October 20, 1981, in Denver, Colorado.http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/findaid/ark:/80444/xv53706

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below is a list of Mary Chase's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Bernardine         Cocktails With Mimi         Dog Sitters, The         Harvey         Lolita         Me Third         Mickey         Midgie Purvis         Mrs Mcthing         Next Half Hour, The         Now You've Done It         Prize Play, The         Slip Of A Girl         Sorority House         Terrible Tattoo Parlor, The

Bernardine

Synopsis:
the main people (according to Chapman) "are seven or eight youths who might be called nice Dead end kids. these lads love practical jokes, hang out in a beer parlor in a Western town, and talk endlessly about females and their conquests over same. But they are sham hoodlums; they are good kids from good families trying to grow up. their leader is a fascinating young man nicknamed Beau, who has a crazy twinkle in his eye and a supple imagination. When things grow dull with his companions, he cheers them up with tales of the ideal town, where the boys stay downstairs and send their parents up to bed. In his [ideal] town, Sneaky Falls, Idaho. . .it is the mothers who enlist in the Navy and their sons run around like crazy mailing them packages of cookies. This chap Beau. . .has invented for the gang the ideal female. She is slinky, sexy and willing, being from Sneaky Falls, where only one word is spoken. the word is 'Yes.' the girl's name is Bernardine. . .the only really unhappy member of the crowd is a character named Wor

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Playhouse Theatre, New York    16 Oct 1952

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

Music:
-

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Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  13            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Cocktails With Mimi

Synopsis:
Mimi Ralston, a wealthy and much-married divorcee, is giving a party in honor of the reputedly formidable parents of her daughter's fiance. Typically she engages a stunt "waiter" to insult her guests and, specifically, to spill soup on the stuffed-shirt Calthorpes. But her daughter, edie, fearing that her mother would never be able to stomach her future in-laws, has hired two actors to impersonate them-which works fine until the real Calthorpes arrive on the scene with their son. thereafter the mistaken identities (and the fun) proliferate, until all is in a state of hilarious confusion. Fortunately things are eventually set straight, as is edie-who learns some lessons in love and life which spare her from what could have been a most unhappy fate.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Barter Theatre    1973

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1974   -

Music:
-

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:  6            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dog Sitters, The

Synopsis:
To Mademoiselle Barbizon (formerly Barschberger), people run a poor second to poodles and in her manor-like Versailles Kennels she has spared no expense in seeing to it that her prize charges are given the best of everything. they are also watched over by their zealous guardian even after being sold to those chosen few who qualify as poodle owners and, as the play begins, Miss Barbizon is icily rejecting the demands of an irate customer whose poodle has been summarily repossessed. as the rebuffed owner storms off to obtain a search warrant, Mademoiselle prepares for the arrival of the prize-winning Linville, whose owner, allegra de Graffe, wishes to board him for two weeks while she goes off yachting with her rich suitor. But Linville, when he arrives, is not happy about staying and Mademoiselle, after reading his "vibrations" (she can talk to poodles), announces that he wants to go on the cruise too. the crisis is resolved by the appearance of Christine and Beverly, (two youngsters selling Girl Scout cookies

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    1963

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  5            Other:  2 boys, 2 girls, 3 poodles

Further Reference:
-

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Harvey

Harvey
When Elwood P. Dowd starts to introduce his imaginary friend, Harvey, a six-and-a-half-foot rabbit, to guests at a society party, his sister, Veta, has seen as much of his eccentric behavior as she can tolerate. She decides to have him committed to a sanitarium to spare her daughter, Myrtle Mae, and their family from future embarrassment. Problems arise, however, when Veta herself is mistakenly assumed to be on the verge of lunacy when she explains to doctors that years of living with Elwood's hallucination have caused her to see Harvey also! the doctors commit Veta instead of elwood, but when the truth comes out, the search is on for Elwood and his invisible companion. When he shows up at the sanitarium looking for his lost friend Harvey, it seems that the mild-mannered elwood's delusion has had a strange influence on more than one of the doctors. Only at the end does Veta realize that maybe Harvey isn't so bad after all.

Notes:
received Pulitzer Prize

1st Produced:
48th Street Theatre, NY    01 Nov 1944

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Warner Chappell Plays, London, 1990   978-0856761379

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Lolita

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Barter Theatre, Abingdon, Virginia    1954

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Me Third

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
aka Now You've Done It

1st Produced:
Fedral Theatre Project, Denver, Colorado    1936

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Mickey

Synopsis:
as outlined in the Rocky Mountain Journal: "at five, Mickey, a vain and homely girlchild, being taken to visit a farm couple, Mr. and Mrs. Potts, had refused to return to her mother's house and had been left to continue her life with the Potts. the real reason for wanting to stay had been her stumbling on a fairy castle embedded in the hill behind the farm. It is occupied by a Duchess, a General, and an english nobleman, all with beautiful manners. these little folk are puppets; they seem true fairies in their elaborate castle. Mickey has become their pet; they have tremendous love for children-more possessive than parents' love, actually, and they are stricken when, at twelve years of age, Mickey is to be taken away by her mother, her younger brother Colin and sister Nancy. the Potts have sold the farm; Mickey must go home. . .the Duchess, the General and Sir Edward, however, plan to retrieve Mickey. they dig a tunnel all the way into Mickey's closet in town and lure her, her brother and sister back to them. But

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    1969

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy/Fantasy Comedy

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  1 boy, 2 girls, plus 8-10 puppet characters

Further Reference:
-

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Midgie Purvis

Synopsis:
Mrs. edwin Gilroy (Midgie) Purvis is a rich, fashionable and middle-aged member of society. She is also given to cutting unexpected, and sometimes eyebrow-raising capers. Her rather stuffy son, Canfield (who is about to be married), has tried to reason with her but the thing that really makes Midgie sit up is overhearing Canfield's future mother-in-law drop a hint of what people really think of her. Midgie is distressed but, more importantly, she is struck by the realization that she has become something of a "character"-whom no one, not even her son, needs any more. But it also happens that when Midgie receives this revelation she is dressed in her cleaning woman's shabby clothes and, to avoid embarrassment of exposure, she is obliged to scurry out of the house-and into her wildest escapades yet. For having usurped her cleaning woman's clothing, she now assumes her identity as well and, with wig and false wrinkles, becomes the aged sitter for three bright but bumptious young children. at first it is only a t

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    1961

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1963   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy/Fantasy Comedy

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  6            Other:  3 boys, 2 girls

Further Reference:
-

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Mrs Mcthing

Synopsis:
as told by Kerr, "all happens very logically. a little girl has slipped past the gatekeeper and over the garden wall to play with a lonely and put-upon lad. She is quickly shooed out by his mother as 'trash.' It just so happens that the little girl's mother is a witch, and an experienced one. She takes her revenge by supplying Mrs. Howard V. Larue III with the very little paragon she has always longed for, meanwhile spiriting the real and unruly boy off to a life of crime in the Shantyland Pool Hall Lunchroom. Mother is at first delighted with the impostor's perfection, then suspicious, then dismayed. When she learns the truth and sets out to reclaim her own nine-year-old mobster, she unwittingly and very foolishly crosses the same little girl, who promptly puts the finger on her and assigns her the role of washing dishes for the gang. . .by the time mama has been knocked about a bit and come to appreciate the sterling qualities of an ordinary roughneck, she is happy enough to take the boy back on his own terms,

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
48th Street Theatre, New York    19044

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy/Fantasy Comedy

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  9            Other:  1 boy, 1 girl

Further Reference:
-

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Next Half Hour, The

Synopsis:
A mother who has second sight is convinced that her son will die if he has an affair with a married woman

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Empire Theatre, New York    29 Oct 1945

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Now You've Done It

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Written using the name: "Mary Coyle Chase"

1st Produced:
Henry Miller's Theatre, New York    1937

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Prize Play, The

Synopsis:
the play begins with the master of ceremonies in a music hall announcing the performance of some exciting flamenco dancers, only to lose control of the stage to a little girl who has written the "prize play" in her sixth grade class and, egged on by her folks from the back of the hall, proceeds to put it on then and there. the curtain rises and the adult actors begin what turns out to be a hilarious version of the adult sophisticated mystery play as seen through the mind of the child, complete with "rich hero," slinky femme fatale, her gangster boyfriend, and numerous robbers all disguised as "private eyes." the play ends in a wild and woolly Keystone rescue scene guaranteed to leave the audience rolling in the aisles.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    1961

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Skit One act

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  3            Other:  1g

Further Reference:
-

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Slip Of A Girl

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    1941

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Sorority House

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Terrible Tattoo Parlor, The

Synopsis:
Linda and Julie, two twelve year olds, delight in calling strangers on the phone and then terrifying them by breathing heavily and chewing ice cubes in their ears. One of their victims is Vivian Lucas, a very nice lady who quickly catches on to what they are up to and, having done the same sort of thing when she was a girl, invites Linda to lunch at the Clermont Hotel. But then they call the La Strange Tattoo Parlor, where the reaction is quite different. Madam La Strange is furious and, abetted by her ugly son Heinrich, vows to catch Linda and tattoo her forehead. Discovering Linda's plan to meet Mrs. Lucas for lunch, Madam and Heinrich arrive at the hotel first and explain to Linda that Mrs. Lucas has asked them to drive her to the Lucas home-whereupon they all repair to the tattoo parlor. Luckily Linda's friends, having uncovered the plot, make their own crank call to Madam La Strange, Linda slips away in the confusion, and all agree, with a pronounced sigh of relief, that the "fun" phone calls are over fo

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
comedy One act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  4            Other:  3 boys, 2 girls

Further Reference:
-

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