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B Walker Sampson

B WALKER SAMPSON

  (1976 - )
Nationality:    USA
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    n/a

B. Walker Sampson's plays include: Silent Steps: A Play with MacGuffins (Outsider's Inn Collective); Puppet Kafka (Drama of Works, with assistance from the Henson Foundation and the 2007 Chashama/NEA Performance Development Award); Absence of a House (Double Take Theatre); What Do You Think of the Moon? (Audacity Theatre Lab's "Eye in the Sky" radio Theatre project); and Roosevelt Island (BRIC Studio; HERE Art Center's American Living Room Festival). His play Alceste was part of Soho Rep's 2004/05 Writer/Director Lab reading series, and additionally his plays have been read at the Playwrights' Center, Theatre of NOTE, Manhattan Theatre Source, and the Flea Theater. His plays, poetry, and articles have been published in Midway Journal, the Saint Ann's Review, the Brooklyn Review, Stirring, and American Theatre.

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below is a list of B Walker Sampson's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Absence of a House         Alceste         Assistance         Clear Across         Feel Your Breath         Full View         Hold Music         One Arm and a Leg         Open Grave         Puppet Kafka         Roosevelt Island         Silent Steps: A Play with MacGuffins         Slouch         SoundProof         that time, and the time before that, and         there are shapes on the ceiling that look like bats         they all look like bats in the dark         What Do You Think of the Moon?         Youre your Breath

Absence of a House

Synopsis:
In Absence of a House, Henry and Hayley are in a country house suspended in a void. Everything looks like life, yet the young couple find themselves removed from any sense of smell, taste, touch-and numb to each other. But there's no escape from this house when there's ground at all to step on beyond their front doorstep-which does make it more mysterious when a stranger arrives to peek his head in through their window.

Notes:
Workshop: Powerhouse theatre, New Canaan, CT, May 2003. Reading: Manhattan theatre Source, NYC, Jan 2004.

1st Produced:
American Theatre of Actors, 314 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019    2004

Organisations:
Double Take Theatre

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/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Alceste

Synopsis:
A free adaptation from Euripides, Alceste pits together gods, ghosts, and superheroes with ordinary so-and-sos who make extraordinary sacrifices to try to tell the Future to consider itself. Objects are too brightly colored to see without squinting, while others remind us of people we're trying to forget. Boats and bathtubs roll in to where they have no business, and there's a terrible hissing that sounds like the end of things.

Notes:
Developed in Soho Rep's 2004-05 Writer/Director Lab. Readings: Soho Rep, NYC, Apr 2005; theatre of NOTE, Los Angeles, Feb 2009.

1st Produced:
Theatre of NOTE    -

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:  4            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Assistance

Synopsis:
Assistance takes place on the 76th story of an office building in either New York or on an island north of Siberia-nobody in the office is really all that sure. It is after the close of the working day, and the assistants who could hardly think of someplace else to be are finding their way through the wee hours of the morning, while the head of the company-a figure of absolute mythic proportions-makes him or herself know to them for the very first time.

Notes:
Semi-Finalist for PlayLabs Festival, Playwrights' Center, 2008. Semi-Finalist for PlayPenn Conference, 2008. thesis project for Brooklyn College Playwriting MFA Program, 2004. Readings: Playwrights' Center, Minneapolis, Jan 2007; theatre of NOTE, Los Angeles, Mar 2008.

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:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Clear Across

Synopsis:
An encounter on a cross-country train between a man and a girl, each trying to escape from opposite sides of domestic abuse.

Notes:
Harold And Marilyn Cohen Prize for Playwriting, 1998.

1st Produced:
Harold Clurman theatre    1999

Organisations:
Off-Off Broadway Play Festival, NYC

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:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Feel Your Breath

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
part of the 2011 Source Festival of new plays

1st Produced:
Source, 1835 14th Street NW, Washington, DC    19 Jun 2011

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Feel Your Breath is the story of two nameless lovers who communicate largely through electronic means. X (Sarah Strasser) and Y (Edward Daniels) are busy texting and updating their statuses, but gradually realize their longing for a more human connection.
- Steven McKnight, dctheatrescene.com   -

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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Full View

Synopsis:
A broken play, fragments of sight and reconciliation, after a dark gray cloud passes too close to the ground.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Jean Cocteau Rep, NYC    2001

Organisations:
Aftershocks evening of short plays, Brooklyn College

1st Published:
Brooklyn Review (2002)   -

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:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Hold Music

Synopsis:
A symphonic story about the way people listen to each other and to the world around them, Hold Music takes us on a journey into the musical world of speech and memory, language and thought. Drawing upon live music, video, movement, and text to tell intertwined and parallel stories, the performance begins with the question: Why and how does music make us feel? How do things get stuck in our head?
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
writen by Calla Videt And B. Walker Sampson

1st Produced:
the Living theatre
21 Clinton Street, New York, NY 10002    12 Mar 2011

Organisations:
Pegleg Productions

1st Published:
http://www.indietheaternow.com/Plays   -

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:
80 min symphonic story

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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One Arm and a Leg

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
writen by Calla Videt And B. Walker Sampson

1st Produced:
Theatre for the New City    -

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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Open Grave

Synopsis:
Open Grave concerns three possibly recognizable Shakespearean kings-played by three actors, male or female, in long shaggy old man beards-around the spare setting of an open grave.

Notes:
Reading: theatre of NOTE, Los Angeles, Mar 2008.

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:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Puppet Kafka

Synopsis:
Puppet Kafka delves into the work, life, and peculiar perspective of Franz Kafka as imagined for performance by traditional Czech marionette, found object, and shadow puppets along with an ensemble of actors. Within Gregor Samsa's tiny bedroom, three versions of Kafka are manipulated by forces from the outside. One is Gregor-Bug, a transforming creature who is losing sense of the human being he once was as he learns to use his many new legs. A second version is Franz Kafka himself, a sickly man and the cynical, suspicious center of his own works. And finally, the small letter 'k', a permanently young and reticent character haunted by an authoritarian Father figure. Using the the Metamorphosis as the main framework along with references to the Trial, numerous Kafka short stories, his letters and diaries, Puppet Kafka examines the many parallels between life and art

Notes:
Developed for Drama of Works. Chashama/NEA Performance Development Award, 2007. Henson Foundation Seed Grant, 2007. Excerpts performed 2007-2008 in NYC At: Chashama, Collective Unconscious, Henry Street Settlement, Dixon Place, And Galapagos Art Space.

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Drama of Works

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:
Puppet theater

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Roosevelt Island

Synopsis:
In Roosevelt Island, Franklin put something he shouldn't of in the food processor. Eleanor puts her umbrElla down on the floor, but means to pick it back up. the couple tries to hold on before the song ends, but outside the jello air is so thick one of them could walk away on it.

Notes:
Workshop: BRIC Studio, NYC, Mar 2003.

1st Produced:

Organisations:
HERE Arts Center's American Living Room Festival

1st Published:
Midway Journal (2009)   -

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:
experimental One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Silent Steps: A Play with MacGuffins

Synopsis:
Silent Steps depicts a modern paranoid romance between a lonely taxidermist and a mysterious female spy as they struggle to develop their relationship in a Hitchcockian world populated by MacGuffins keen on thwarting any upstart romance with misplaced nostalgia, deception and doubt. Intimate conversations revolve around secrets and clandestine meetings arranged through creatively coded messages on cooked eggs; while relationship anxiety dreams feature repeated encounters with a dead body and an impatient British railway conductor.

Notes:
Semi-Finalist for PlayLabs Festival, Playwrights' Center, 2006. Readings: HERE Arts Center, NYC, July 2002; theatre of NOTE, Los Angeles, July 2007. Excerpt performed in Drama of Works' Carnival of Samhain, Nov 2004, At HERE Arts Center.

1st Produced:
Stone Soup Downstage, Seattle, WA    2008

Organisations:
Outsider's Inn Collective

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:  9+            Female:  9+            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Slouch

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Gorilla Tango Theatre    -

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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SoundProof

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
writen by Calla Videt And B. Walker Sampson

1st Produced:
Figment NYC    -

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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that time, and the time before that, and

Synopsis:
Things do not 'just happen.' Time does not just pass. that time, and the time before that, and intertwines independent stories of time travelers who eventually meet one another at the end of time. Someone wants to remember. Someone wants to forget. A series of relativistic twists and turns and a couple of time machines later, they find themselves in a new landscape of time. the project explores the beautiful paradoxes of memory, identity, regret and time travel through puppetry, dance, text, and image.
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
Author: B. Walker Sampson, James Morris, And Calla Videt

1st Produced:
Dixon Place
161 Chrystie Street, New York, NY 10002    30 Sep 2011

Organisations:
SIGHTLINE creates

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:
60 min piece

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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there are shapes on the ceiling that look like bats

Synopsis:
Girl meets boy - and his unUSAl companion.

Notes:
part of the Source festival

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:
Ten Min

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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they all look like bats in the dark

Synopsis:
Boy and girl break up, and have strange visions on lonely nights.

Notes:
Finalist for Heidemann Award, Actors theatre of Louisville, 2005.

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:  1            Other:  1

Further Reference:
-

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What Do You Think of the Moon?

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Audacity Theatre Lab's Eye in the Sky radio theatre project    -

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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Youre your Breath

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Source theatre    -

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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