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Sam Holcroft

SAM HOLCROFT

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

Literary Agent:    Casarotto Ramsay and Associates Ltd  

Sam Holcroft is currently Writer-In-Residence at the National Theatre Studio. In 2009-10 she was the Pearson Playwright in Residence at the Traverse Theatre and in 2009 won the Tom Erhardt Award for up-and-coming writers. Theatre plays include Edgar & Annabel, part of Double Feature 1 for the National Theatre; Dancing Bears, part of the Charged season for Clean Break at Soho Theatre and Latitude Festival; While You Lie at the Traverse Theatre; Pink, part of the Women, Power and Politics season at the Tricycle Theatre; Vanya, adapted from Chekhov, at The Gate; Cockroach, co-produced by the National Theatre of Scotland and the Traverse Theatre (nominated for Best New Play 2008 by the Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland and shortlisted for the 2009 John Whiting Award). In 2013 Sam Holcroft wrote the libretto for Vasco Mendonça's opera The House Taken Over for the Festival International d'Art Lyric d'Aix en Provence. he is currently under commission from the National Theatre, the National Theatre of Scotland, the Traverse Theatre and Paines Plough.

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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 & Sharon         Old O'Malley         Pink         Rules For Living         Vanya         Vogue         Wardrobe, The         While You Lie

Cockroach

Cockroach
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:

Organisations:
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

Dancing Bears
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:

Organisations:
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:

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Edgar & Annabel

Edgar & Annabel
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:
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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:
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:
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1st Produced:

Organisations:
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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 & Sharon

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

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Halesworth, Suffolk    2007

Organisations:
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:

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:
short play

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Pink

Pink
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:

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:
Short play

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Rules For Living

Rules For Living
Everyone creates their own coping strategies or rules for living. But what happens when an extended family gathers in the kitchen for a traditional Christmas and they each follow those rules, rigidly? With all due respect, that sounds like the biggest load of pseudo-psychological nonsense I've ever heard in my life. In Sam Holcroft's theatrically playful, dark comedy the family does just that. And when the instructions are there for all to see, audience included, there's really no place to hide. As long-held mechanisms for survival are laid bare, even Mum, who's been preparing this lunch since last January, becomes embroiled.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Nick Hern Books (13 Mar. 2015)   978-1848424692

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:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Vanya

Synopsis:
Two men love the same woman. Two women love the same man. Vanya is a study of the febrile and passionate inner lives of the four main protagonists in Chekhov's tragicomedy. Sam Holcroft's new play explores an inner world of high emotion, memory and missed opportunity which goes beyond despair and longing to reveal two obsessive love affairs that lead nowhere.

Notes:
inspired by Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Vogue

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
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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Wardrobe, The

Wardrobe, The
A gripping journey through British history that shows how our country was shaped and how connected we are with our past. Across five centuries of British history, small groups of children seek sanctuary in the same solid, old wardrobe. It's the safest place they know  but is it safe enough?

Notes:
Each year the National Theatre invites ten writers to create new plays for young people to perform. This spring 230 youth theatre companies will present the premieres of these plays in venues from Scotland to Cornwall and Northern Ireland to Norfolk. Each company will also perform at one of 26 Connections festivals in professional theatres across the country, and ten companies will go on to perform at the National Theatre. Connections celebrates great new writing for the stage  and the energy, commitment and talent of young theatre-makers.

1st Produced:

Organisations:
NT Connections

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:
TYA

Parts:
Male:  13            Female:  9            Other:  6

Further Reference:
-

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While You Lie

While You Lie
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:

Organisations:
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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