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GENE FRANKLIN SMITH (1956 - ) |
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Nationality: USA Email: Click here to contact Website: n/a |
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Literary Agent: n/a |
Gene apprenticed playwriting with F.D. Reeve and Tony Connor at Wesleyan University, where his first play, an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night, was produced. He graduated with honors in English Literature and Theater and moved to New York City, where several of his plays received full productions and staged readings, including Life Beneath The Roses, Adults In Love and Created Equal. Life Beneath The Roses has also been produced at the Cincinnati Playhouse (FutureFest Finalist), University of Nebraska-Kearney (Grand Platte River Playwrights Festival), Theatre Americana (Winner, David James Ellis Memorial Award for Best Play 1992-93) and the Bitter Truth Theatre in North Hollywood. In 1997, Gene's play Rubicon had its world premiere at the Coast Playhouse in Los Angeles and was again produced in 1999 by the Wings Theatre in New York. Gene founded the Write Act Repertory Company in Hollywood in 1998 and served as Artistic Director for 5 years. During his tenure, three of his plays were produced: Devil's Consort, Transports of the Heart and in 2000, his critically acclaimed adaptation Charles Dickens' Bleak House. In 2003, Gene incorporated the Troubled Souls Collective in Toronto, Ontario, which produced his popular site-specific adaptations of Victorian and Edwardian ghost stories, Haunted Masters (2004) and More Haunted Masters (2005) at the historic Victorian mansion, Spadina Museum. Most recently, the premiere of Gene's play Boise, USA was produced by the Salem K Theatre Company at the Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles.
Plays by Gene Franklin Smith
Boise, USA | ||
| 1st Produced: | Matrix Theatre, West Hollywood, CA | 2008 | ||||
Company: | Salem K Theatre Company | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #98618 | |||
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: | Drama/Gay | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 8 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | The 2008 production was featured on a special report on NPR's "All Things Considered" (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91975533). The playwright can provide all background materials for the production, including the projections of the actual newspaper headlines and stories used in the play. | |||||
Synopsis: | Based on actual events, the play opens Halloween, 1955, in quiet, respectable Boise, Idaho, when the arrests of three men for "lewd and lascivious behavior" with three teenaged boys launches a notorious "witch hunt", during which anyone suspected of being a homosexual is purged from the city. Family loyalties are divided, pitting brother against brother, father against son. What happened in Boise then could happen again, anywhere, any time, even now. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Charles Dickens' Bleak House | ||
| 1st Produced: | Write Act Theatre, Hollywood, CA | 2002 | ||||
Company: | Write Act Repertory Company | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #98619 | |||
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: | Drama/Adaptation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 6 | Female | 6 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | The play has 30 roles, but, except for the lead role of "Esther Summerson," all actors are double/triple-cast. | |||||
Synopsis: | One of Charles Dickens' most ambitious novels, the play follows the adventures of Esther Summerson, an orphan, whose mysterious benefactor provides for her at Bleak House, where she serves as companion to Richard and Ada, two wards of the corrupt and impenetrable Chancery Court. Esther learns the true identity of her parentage, is brought down by and recovers from smallpox and manages to find true love (after several false suitors) with a handsome country doctor. Meanwhile, Richard and Ada struggle through poverty to gain their rightful inheritance. The play is rich with an array of Dickens's richly drawn characters and one of his most infamous storylines involving "spontaneous combustion". | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Devil's Consort, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | The Theater At St Stephens Church, Hollywood | 2000 | ||||
Company: | Write Act Repertory Company | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #102932 | |||
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: | Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Young composer Philip has yet to achieve any success. He starts an affair with Caroline who in return for the sexual favours introduces him to the widow of a recently deceased famous composer. He goes to work for her as a gardener and hopes that he will find the composer's last symphony which he hide before his death. Philip seduces Juliana, the widow and then her son Daniel. When Philip is murdered Caroline, Juliana and Daniel all confess | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Haunted Masters | ||
| 1st Produced: | Spadina House, Toronto, Ontario | 2004 | ||||
Company: | Troubled Souls Collective | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #98620 | |||
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: | Horror | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | The play was originally performed in the historic Victorian mansion, Spadina House, as site-specific theatre, during which the audience was moved from room-to-room for each of the one-act plays. | |||||
Synopsis: | Haunted Masters is a collection of four one-act plays adapted from Victorian ghost stories: "The Friend of the Friends" by Henry James; "Borderline" by D.H. Lawrence; "Il Canile" by Edith Wharton; "The Bride's Chamber" by Charles Dickens. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Life Beneath The Roses | ||
| 1st Produced: | TOMI, New York, NY | 1983 | ||||
Company: | Theatre Opera and Music Institute | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #98622 | |||
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: | Horror | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | 2 boys (1 non-speaking) | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Peter and Catherine have recently moved in an historic house (built 1750's) on Cape Cod. When the town archeologist unearths a child's skeleton, the tormented spirit of a woman begins to appear to Peter and Catherine's 10-year-old son, Josh. Although Peter is deeply skeptical about this ghost's reality, Catherine comes to believe that the skeleton is the murdered child of the haunting spirit, who intends now to do harm to Josh. Peter's alcoholic brother, Nick, and his wife, Jennie (Catherine's best friend), drop in unexpectedly. Long-simmering tensions arise between Peter and Nick, while their wives try to keep the peace between them. That night, the ghost appears to Jennie, who welcomes her inside. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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More Haunted Masters | ||
| 1st Produced: | Spadina House, Toronto, Ontario | 2005 | ||||
Company: | Troubled Souls Collective | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #98621 | |||
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: | Horror | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | The play was originally performed in the historic Victorian mansion, Spadina House, as site-specific theatre, during which the audience was moved from room-to-room for each of the one-act plays. | |||||
Synopsis: | More Haunted Masters is a collection of five one-act plays adapted from Victorian and Edwardian ghost stories: "Playing With Fire" by Arthur Conan Doyle; "Apprentice Ghost" by H.G. Wells; "The Romance of Certain Old Clothes" by Henry James; "The Moonlit Road" by Ambrose Bierce; "Carmilla" by J. Sheridan LeFanu. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Rubicon | ||
| 1st Produced: | The Coast Playhouse, Los Angeles, CA | 1997 | ||||
Company: | Beltway LA | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #47343 | |||
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: | Drama/Gay | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 6 | Female | 4 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Ethan Whitman is a closeted gay U.S. Vice President whose life -- and devoted wife Denyse's -- is changed overnight when the conservative President in office dies suddenly. Ethan elevates former first lady Gillian as his Vice President, and together they struggle to keep an ambitious conservative Senator (and his equally ambitious wife) from passing a controversial -- and popular -- bill through Congress. But Ethan is unprepared for just how far Gillian will go to push her own agenda. When the lives of his loved ones are threatened, Ethan "crosses the Rubicon" by taking a dramatic stand. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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