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Sam Holcroft

SAM HOLCROFT  

 Nationality:    British
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    Casarotto Ramsay and Associates Ltd  


Playwright Sam Holcroft was educated in Edinburgh and was part of the Traverse Theatre's Young Writers Group. Her credits includeCockroach (commissioned and co-produced by the National Theatre of Scotland and Traverse theatre and nominated for Best New Play in the 2009 Critics' awards for Theatre in Scotland), Ned and Sharon (High Tide Festival), and Vogue (Royal Court and Latitude). She has recently been awarded the prestigious Tom Erhardt award for up and coming writers.

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

 Cockroach         Dancing Bears         Edgar & Annabel         London Street Sauna         Ned &Amp; Sharon         Old O'malley         Pink         Vanya         Vogue         While You Lie

Cockroach

Sam Holcroft
a seemingly normal detention in a seemingly normal modern day comprehensive. The valiant teacher battles on with biology revision. She believes only education will set her pupils free. For outside the world is in the middle of a long and bloody war. Despite all her best efforts, all too soon the tide of conflict is lapping at the school gates and one by one pupils and teacher are pulled under, as their hopes and dreams float away from them. But as she has taught them in her biology lesson, like the cockroach, the fittest will survive. She is no longer sure however if tenderness and humanity stand a chance?

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Company:
Traverse Theatre Company / National Theatre Of Scotland

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:  2            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dancing Bears

Sam Holcroft
the violence and twisted loyalty of teenage gangs is laid bare

Notes:
Part of Charged. The heartbreaking truth About the lives of women in the criminal justice system is exposed in these six plays by some of the most exciting And distinctive female voices in British theatre. Commissioned And premiered by Clean Break, A theatre And education company working with women whose lives have been Affected by the criminal justice system. The collection includes: Fatal Light by Chloe Moss; Taken by Winsome Pinnock; Dream Pill by Rebecca Prichard; Doris Day by E V Crowe; Dancing Bears by Sam Holcroft; That Almost Unnameable Lust by Rebecca Lenkiewicz

1st Produced:

Company:
Clean Break

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:
short play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  4            Other:  3 of the 4 actors will play male and female

Further Reference:
Theatre Record Volume XXXI (2011) Issue 06 Page 303

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Edgar & Annabel

Sam Holcroft
a young married couple prepare dinner in a smartly furnished kitchen. annabel is composed, intelligent, in love. Edgar is professional, successful, assured. She's chopping vegetables, he's brought the wine. But something isn't right. In a city not so different from our own capital, a group of freedom fighters attempt to stand up to an Orwellian establishment in increasingly perilous circumstances. Sam Holcroft's ingenious new play paints a picture of a police state in crisis. The story that unfolds brings into question relationships, identities and the very nature of reality itself. . .

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Company:
-

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:
one act

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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London Street Sauna

Synopsis:
Saul and Gemma are doing just fine living on their own. With no parents on the scene Saul's big sister looks after her teenage brother ok. But when Hailey comes into their lives she stirs up their emotions to test the nature of all our true loves.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Company:
-

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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Ned &Amp; Sharon

Synopsis:
a story of love and tenderness about a troubled teenager in a care home.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Halesworth, Suffolk    2007

Company:
HighTide Festival

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:
half hour play One act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Old O'malley

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Part of Miniaturists 4 - Bringing you more of the best short plays by some of the most exciting playwrights in the UK today

1st Produced:

Company:
-

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:
short play

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Pink

Sam Holcroft
Two careers hang in the balance. Self-made millionaire Kim Keen is one of the most successful businesswomen in the country. as she prepares to launch her latest range on national television an unexpected visitor arrives in her dressing room with a different set of priorities to promote.

Notes:
part of Women, Power & Politics: Now

1st Produced:

Company:
-

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:
Short play

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Vanya

Synopsis:
Writer Sam Holcroft has condensed the plotting, reducing the dramatis personae to four and concentrating on Chekhov's sexual conveyor belt as the main linking thread.

Notes:
inspired by Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya

1st Produced:

Company:
-

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:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Vogue

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Company:
Latitude Festival

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:
short play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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While You Lie

Sam Holcroft
Small lies, little lies, tender lies, well-intentioned untruths. ana calls Edward's bluff on their disintegrating relationship and enters a deadly truthful world where honesty is celebrated in all of its dangerous glory. They don't make women like Helen anymore: loving mother, home-maker, wife. But beneath the civilised veneer of her life, a dark truth threatens to surface. Two couples explore the threat of honesty and our perverse need for it in this blistering play from one of UK theatre's most exciting new voices.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Company:
Traverse Theatre Company

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:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Apart from very popular and world touring productions, many performing arts events are largely forgotten about in a matter of months. Traces may remain in various collections, but few collecting agencies, such as libraries, catalogue each flyer or program individually. Hence, unless one knows that an event took place at a certain time in a certain place, tracking down such an event as part of a research project is often a matter of chance. Where research needs to be carried out on high profile and well-documented productions only, this is not a problem. However, both the historian and the analyst will attest that the cultural, political, or sociological context in which a performing arts event takes place is also of major importance, as are the other events that took place in close proximity, either in place or time. A good overview of such productions provides us with a 'social document' that can greatly enhance cultural studies in ways that extend far beyond the narrow confines of theatre history. For instance, data such as this can be used to monitor the health of communities, particularly when used in association with data obtained from other social science disciplines. When one researches a particular playwright one might want to know about all the productions of plays by that author; if one wants to investigate what choices a particular audience had over a period of history and compare this to, say, an ethnic breakdown of the population, one would need to know broadly all the events that took place during that time. If one wanted to do a statistical analysis on the shift in popularity of a genre over one or more generations, it is important to have knowledge of most of the relevant major and minor performance events that took place. In this context, issues of aesthetic quality and the professionalism of a production - which will of course have an impact on such studies - are not the determining factors when deciding to include or exclude events, since all events are the raw material for such research.