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Nottingham Playhouse >>>

1996

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American Theatre Magazine, NY - July

1994

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Six 1 Act Comedies

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Notes: Sure Thing; Words, Words, Words; The Universal Language; Philip Glass Buys A Loaf of Bread; The Philidelphia; Variations on the Death of Trotsky.

Synopsis: Sure Thing: Two people meet in a cafe and find their way through a conversational minefield as an off-stage bell interrupts their false starts, gaffes, and faux-pas on the way to falling in love. Words, Words, Words recalls the philosophical adage that three monkeys typing into infinity will sooner or later produce Hamlet and asks: what would monkeys talk about at their typewriters? The Universal Language brings together Dawn, a young woman with a stutter, and Don, the creator and teacher of Unamunda, a wild comic language. Their lesson send them off into a dazzling display of hysterical verbal pyrotechnics-and, of course, true love. Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread is a parodic musical vignette in trademark Glassian style, with the celebrated composer having a moment of existential crisis in a bakery. The Philadelphia presents a young man in a restaurant who has fallen into "a Philadelphia," a Twilight-Zone-like state in which he cannot get anything he asks for. His only way out of the dilemma? To ask for the opposite of what he wants. Variations on the Death of Trotsky shows us the Russian revolutionary on the day of his demise, desperately trying to cope with the mountain-climber's axe he's discovered in his head.

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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Comedy

1

1

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Notes: -

Synopsis: Ruth and Jack, both in their mid-thirties, believe themselves perfectly suited to each other. But when Ruth suddenly mentions marriage, a subtle but ominous change is felt in their relationship. As it happens, Ruth is Jewish, Jack is a lapsed Catholic who scorns religion; she is career oriented and bent on success; he is a poorly paid teacher who is happy to settle for what he has; she fears her stern parents would never accept her marrying a non-Jewish man; he has already been through one failed marriage and is wary of repeating his mistake. And while the mood at first is light-hearted and filled with brightly humorous lines, it is also punctuated by the random ringing of an unseen phone-at which times the protagonists quickly vary the mood and express their secret feelings and recriminations in brief, often caustic, monologues. Later, no holds are barred, and the irreconcilable differences that were largely sublimated in the beginning now burst forth in full fury, leading to a monumental explosion and, appa

Actors Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival, KY, USA >>>

1999-00

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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comedy

Ten Min

2

2

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Notes: -

Synopsis: Utterly normal Norman walks into utterly ordinary Flora's shop looking for a souvenir of his travels and together they find whirlwind romance, spurred on by a wacky translator.

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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Comedy

One Act

3

2

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Notes: -

Synopsis: Two blue-collar Mesopotamian construction workers are handed a provocative task: Build the Tower of Babel-or else. How many stones does it take to get to heaven, anyway?

American Airways Theatre, New York

2006

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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One act

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Notes: Performed as part of 24 Hour Plays

Synopsis: -

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Comedy

One Act

2

2

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Notes: -

Synopsis: A cautionary fable tells how Rob and Laura face a menace in their living room: a television that talks back to them and threatens to swallow them whole.

Gene Frankel Theatre, NY, USA >>>

2006

EMEE Theater Group

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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Notes: by David Ives, Jacquelyn Reingold, Richard Lauchman, Antony Sportiello

Synopsis: -

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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One Act

3

3

flexible

Notes: -

Synopsis: A man wakes up one morning and decides to be the French artist Degas. The best place to do that is in New York City where he encounters all that makes great art

Shetler Theater 54, NY

2005

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

1997

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Comedy

5

3

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Notes: -

Synopsis: Don Juan is a handsome, rich, sexually naïve nobleman in sixteenth-century Spain. His servant, Leporello, urges him to find a girlfriend and lead a normal life, but the Don is more interested in finding the meaning of life through books and alchemy. Afraid he won't have time to find it, Don Juan calls up the Devil and cuts a deal that grants him (and Leporello) immortality-as long as Don Juan seduces a different woman every day. Unfortunately, the first woman he seduces is Dona Elvira, his true love. Infuriated by the Don's abandonment, Elvira cuts her own deal with the Devil: She won't die until she sleeps with Don Juan a second time. Four hundred years later, exhausted by endless sex and still pursued by Elvira, Don Juan and Leporello grapple with the sexual mores of contemporary urban America as embodied by Sandy, a woman of wide and wild sexual experience. Don also meets the young and innocent Zoey-who happens to be his daughter by Sandy. With never any time to pursue the meaning of life, Don Juan swears

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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One Act

1

1

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Notes: -

Synopsis: Vaudeville reigns as an American tourist in pain seeks medical help from a wacky souvenir seller named Maria who channels an even wackier German surgeon named Dr. Ringsvwandl. The comedy steps up when the doctor recommends an operation

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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One Act

2

1

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Synopsis: A young man and woman meet at a party, and their immediate romantic attraction is translated into comically unromantic grammar lessons as they struggle to free themselves from the banal constrictions of party talk.

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Comedy

One Act

3

2

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Notes: -

Synopsis: Zany hijinks as a pair of lookalikes named Bebe W.W. Doppel-gängler solve an identity crisis with the help of Dr. William W. Williams and his nurse Fifi, who may or may not be Aphrodite the Goddess of Love. Or is she a male gym-teacher in a dress?

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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2007

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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farce

Adaptation

9

5

doubling

Notes: Original Playwright - Georges Feydeau. Winner of a 2006 Jefferson Award for best adaptation.

Synopsis: A FLEA IN HER EAR is the greatest of French farces, perhaps the greatest farce ever written. Raymonde Chandebise suspects that her husband, Victor, a placid and successful insurance executive, is secretly having an affair. To find out, she and her friend Lucienne write him an anonymous love letter suggesting a rendezvous at theshady Frisky Puss Hotel. Thinking the letter was intended for his coworker, the gigoloTournel, Victor sends Tournel off to make the rendezvous in his place. Luciennesjealous Spanish husband, meanwhile, finds the letter, recognizes his wifes handwritingand takes his pistols to the Frisky Puss, hoping to catch her in the act. Meanwhile,Victors nephew Camille tries to warn everyone about the mix-up, but his ridiculousspeech impediment prevents anyone from understanding him. In Act Two, all decampto the Frisky Puss where, it turns out, the drunken bellboy Poche is the exact double ofthe proper Victor Chandebise. Meeting Poche and thinking shes been caught by herhusband, Raymonde keeps trying to escape from the hotel with Tournel, but arevolving bed keeps flinging them from room to room, as more and more of theinvolved parties pile into the hotel in a climax culminating in the entrance of thejealous Spaniard and his pistols. In Act Three the vortex spins even faster as all theparties return to the Chandebise home utterly confused about what actually happenedand who was who at the Frisky Puss. The drunken bellboy arrives, is mistaken onceagain for Victor, and all the threads of the multiple mix-ups are sorted out as Victorand Raymonde recognize their mutual confusions and are reunited.

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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One Act

3

3

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Synopsis: Chuck, a young man with a Don Juan reputation, brings his date to play a round of miniature golf and to seduce her. He philosophizes and jokes, slipping in as much sexual innuendo as he can. When they move to the second hole, a slightly older Chuck II appears with another date. His technique more slick, but his date is suspicious of him. Both couples continue their conversations and games, the dialogue comically interwoven. Finally a third Chuck, now in his late thirties, arrives with a young date. He is somewhat rumpled, tired and things are not going well for him. His latest date doesn't get his jokes and, worse, she is beating him at golf.

Lyceum Theatre, NY

2007

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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Play/Drama

7

4

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Synopsis: This is a "new" comedy by Mark Twain. Written in 1898, Is He Dead? remained unpublished until it was rediscovered in 2002 by noted Twain scholar Shelley Fisher Fishkin. It has now been adapted by David Ives and makes its Broadway bow. This description is from the press materials: "The original master of American humor dishes out a sly critique of the art world with acerbic wit and social commentary well ahead of his time. Is He Dead? is a fast-paced play about a struggling artist who stages his own death to drive up the price of his paintings. As the riotous scheme unfolds, Twain poses daring questions about fame, greed, and the value of art, and pokes his signature mischievous fun at everyone involved."

ArcLight Theatre, NY

2006

The Bang Theatre Collective

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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Synopsis: -

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Comedy Drama

Comedy

2

4

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Synopsis: three poignant scenes depict a small family birthday party in a Midwestern yard on a summer day. Each scene presents a different angle on the group, what they say and who they may be. Is this the ideal American family, exactly the opposite, or something in-between?

Philadelphia Theatre Company, Philadelphia, PA

1999

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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comedy

One Act

3

2

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Synopsis: A tender and gently comic meditation. Two women preparing a funeral breakfast in a church basement muse on life, death, and the meaning of Polish jokesand along the way achieve a kind of sanctity.

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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One Act

2

2

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Synopsis: a domestic drama of a troubled young wife who finds herself crossing through time-and identities-on a fateful winter evening in an empty apartment

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

1998

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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One Act

3

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Synopsis: eavesdrops on a lunch hour on a girder 50 stories over the street, as three construction workers share increasingly amazing secrets of their past

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in "Talk to Me: Monologue Plays" Edited by Eric Lane and Nina Shengold

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Monologue

Play/Drama

1

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Notes: I think it was originally written for Public Radio International for a program entitled Studio 360

Synopsis: a stoned-out surfer of seventeen proves to his teacher that he has in fact read "Moby-Dick" over the summer by summarizing the book in under two minutes. It is only a short piece, but it is very funny.

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Comedy

One Act

3

2

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Synopsis: A body on the carpet, three ridiculous Masterpiece Theatre-style suspects and a bumbling Scotland Yard detective solve philosophical quandaries as they investigate: Who killed Jeremy Thumpington-Fffienes?

Classic Stage Company, NY, USA >>>

2007

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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Play/Drama

5

2

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Synopsis: Focusing on the 1656 interrogation of the noted philosopher Baruch De Spinoza by the Jewish community of Amsterdam for his controversial ideas, New Jerusalem examines the clash between religion and modernity that Jews, Christians and Muslims are still, some 350 years later, struggling to reconcile.
- press release

Ensemble Studio Theatre, NY

2006

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Play

One Act

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Notes: Ensemble Studio Theatre's 28th annual presentation of the Marathon, featuring one-act plays

Synopsis: -

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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One Act

2

1

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Notes: Part of All In The Timing

Synopsis: presents a young man in a restaurant who has fallen into "a Philadelphia," a Twilight-Zone-like state in which he cannot get anything he asks for. His only way out of the dilemma? To ask for the opposite of what he wants

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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One Act

2

2

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Notes: Part of All In The Timing

Synopsis: a quick-witted spoof of contemporary opera with Philip Glass, the guru of minimalist music, at its center. In the course of buying a loaf of bread, Glass, his ex-lover, her friend and a baker join in a spoken quartet about lost time and lost chances of love

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Comedy

3

2

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Synopsis: A comedy about ethnic identity and the eternal American search for "roots." Jasiu (thirtyish) is a Polish-American who has been taught not to value his own roots, so he decides to make his own roots, reinventing himself first as a sort of non-ethnic everyman, then as an "Irishman." Jasiu's adventures-alternately zany and heartbreaking-take him through a job interview with an Ur-Wasp; to an attempt to become a Catholic priest; to a flower shop where he can't get service because he is weirdly invisible; to a doomed love affair with a Jewish woman; to a wacky Irish travel agency where he has to prove that he is Irish before he can buy a ticket; and to a doctor more interested in ethnic pain than in healing. Jasiu is also bedeviled by a reappearing Polish relative and has to face off with the ghost of a dead Polish patriot. In the end, by trying to get away from his ethnic background, Jasiu finds out who he is and what it means to be "a Pole."

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

1998

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Play/Drama

4

2

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Notes: -

Synopsis: In a radical departure from his comedies, David Ives writes a searing, disturbing drama about a middle-American businessman whose company and whose very life and sanity stand under attack. E. G. Triplett leads an outwardly respectable, all-American-male existence until a mysterious business rival, Driver, comes to town and threatens not only to take over E.G.'s business, but to reveal his sexual secret: that in the privacy of his own home, with the aid of his loving wife, Lady, E.G. dresses in women's clothing. When Lady is brutally murdered, E. G.'s world collapses and he makes a desperate attempt to hold himself together - losing his own life in the process. In the end, only E.G.'s friend, Dick, is left to piece together the meaning of what had happened, and to try to make sense of the baffling man he had known as E.G. Triplett.

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Playscripts, Inc.

2005

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Comedy

1

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1 male, 1 either; Running time: 10-15 mins

Notes: -

Synopsis: Robin, a shy teenager, comes for a first piano lesson to Dr. Felix Goldenbaum, an effusive and eccentric teacher. Robin is amazed to find that he must "play" for Dr. Goldenbaum even though there is no piano -- at least, no visible piano. In the end, in spite of the lack of a piano, Robin makes wonderful music with the help of the mad Doctor. So does the Doctor.

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies