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Garson Kanin

GARSON KANIN  (1912 - 1999)

 Nationality:    USA
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    n/a

Born in Rochester, NY on November 24, 1912. Graduated from American academy of Dramatic Arts, 1933. acted for and was assistant to George abbott 1935-37; was under contract to Samuel Goldwyn 1937 and RKO 1938-40. Served in U.S. army e.T.O. 1941-45 attaining rank of Captain. Married actress Ruth Gordon, 1942, with whom he has co-authored many notable films. author of many short stories, books of fic-tion and non-fiction, articles and screenplays. Has also written, produced, directed and acted for the stage. Member: Writers Guild; authors Guild; authors League; Directors Guild; Dramatists Guild; SDG; DGa; aSCaP; aFTRa; SSD&C; aMPaS; actors Fund; the Players; the Friars; the Lambs, the Coffee House; New York athletic Club. Recipient: For the True Glory, academy award; Citation, N.Y. Film Critics' Circle & Best Film of the Year from the National Board of Review; Sidney Howard Memorial award for Born Yesterday; Donaldson awards (1946); aaDa alumni award of achievement (1958).
address (in 1981) : 200 West 57th St., Suite 1203, New York, NY 10019 (212) 586-7850 or (212) 586-7851
agent (in 1981) : Nat Lefkowitz, c/o Wm. Morris agency, 1350 ave. of the Americas, New York, NY 10019 (212) 586-5100

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

         Born Yesterday         Come On Strong         Do Re Mi         Dreyfus In Rehearsal         Fledermas         Gift Of Time, A         Good Soup, The         Happy Ending         Live Wire, The         Peccadillo         Rat Race, The         Remembering Mr Maugham         Smile Of the World, The

Born Yesterday

Synopsis:
the vulgar, egotistic junkman Harry Brock has come to a swanky hotel in Washington to make crooked deals with government big-wigs. He has brought with him the charming but dumb ex-chorus girl Billie, whose lack of social graces embarrasses even Harry. Billie must be taught some of the amenities, and a few basic bits of information. the young, idealistic magazine reporter Paul Verrall, who has been investigating political skullduggery and is interested in Brock's activities, agrees for a salary, to educate Billie. He finds Billie has a natural honesty and a frank streak in her, and she begins to learn about history, politics, and what Harry really is and what he wants. at a Dramatic moment she rebels against being merely a tool in Harry's crooked schemes and refuses to sign the documents which she has come to learn are part of an ambitious effort to defraud the public. This precipitates a crisis, as Billie readies to leave Harry for a new life of her own. Harry's reaction takes the only form he knows: physical violence. Billie now knows that she can no longer have anything to do with Brock, and realizes she and Paul have fallen genuinely in love. Just before she leaves Harry, she helps Paul get hold of incriminating documents of Harry's which will result in scandal and disaster. at the end, Paul and his promising pupil turn their backs on the anti-social and anti-democratic Brock and strike out on their own.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
the Cleveland Play House    1946

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

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

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Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  12            Female:  4            Other:  some of the male roles are bit parts

Further Reference:
-

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Come On Strong

Synopsis:
Virginia Karger and Herbert Lundquist, two young acting hopefuls, share a flat on New York's West Side and a common ambition to get ahead in the theatre. She is also interested in matrimony. But as Herb is unwilling to change their present casual arrangement for something more binding, Ginny accepts the proposal of an older admirer and departs for what proves to be a tragically abortive honeymoon in Atlantic City. Her husband dies of a heart attack and Ginny, numbed with shock, returns briefly to Herb before setting off for Hollywood with the burning determination to rebuild her life. When the two meet again several years later Herb has turned to capitalizing on his talent as a photographer while Ginny, her name changed to Vanessa Carr, is now a worldly and desperately expedient starlet willing to make any concession to further her career. Herb's success as a producer of documentary films has brought him to Hollywood, but he is unable to accept the shallow pretense of the movie center or the realization of what Ginny has become. This time he is the one who leaves, and when the two next encounter one another several more years have passed. again the setting is New York, but in a sumptuous suite of the Plaza Hotel. Ginny, now Ginia Karr, a reigning movie queen, is to be photographed by Herb, the ace photographer for a leading news magazine. at first their meeting is marked by distrust and cutting repartee, but at last, in a fast-moving scene filled with both Drama and comedy, the former lovers finally break through the wall of resentment and misunderstanding which had grown up between them and, coming to terms with themselves, acknowledge their love and the need for marriage to make it meaningful and lasting.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Morosco Theatre, NYC    1962

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1964   -

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:  20            Female:  10            Other:  doubling possible

Further Reference:
-

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Do Re Mi

Do Re Mi
Hubie's wife urges him to get a proper job - but he prefers scheming and dealing. He comes up with an idea to get juke boxes in to various venues

Notes:
Book by Garson Kanin; Music by Jule Styne; Lyrics by Betty Comden And Adolph Green

1st Produced:
St James Theater, New York    1960

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
Original cast recoding: RCa 61994) 1960

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:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  large cast

Further Reference:
-

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Dreyfus In Rehearsal

Synopsis:
the play is set in a Jewish ghetto in Vilna, Poland, in 1931. a group of amateur actors are rehearsing a new play, written by their ambitious young director, about alfred Dreyfus, the French-Jewish military officer whose persecution was opposed by the eloquent emile Zola. the performers in this play-within-a-play are all good, kindly people, but they have difficulty in accepting the relevance of the "Dreyfus affair" to their own situation and, furthermore, are preoccupied with the concerns of their personal lives-which leads to a series of very funny and often ironic exchanges with their high-strung director. However their placid conviction that anti-Semitism could not exist in the Poland of their time is abruptly shattered when drunken hoodlums break into their rehearsal and attack them-after which the project is abandoned and the shaken cast members flee, one to the Soviet Union, others to england and Germany, but all now deeply disturbed and apprehensive-and nervously facing a future clouded by the menacing spectre of Nazi Germany.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Jean-Claude Grumberg

1st Produced:
ethel Barrymore Theatre, NYC    1974

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1983   -

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 adaptation

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Fledermas

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
with Howard Dietz

1st Produced:
Metropolitan Opera, 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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Gift Of Time, A

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Based on the book "Death of A Man" by Lael Tucker Wertenbaker

1st Produced:
ethel Barrymore Theatre, NYC    1962

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Random House, New York, 1962   -

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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Good Soup, The

Synopsis:
the ageing Marie-Paule tells her life story to a bored croupier. From prostitution to kept woman

Notes:
Original Playwright - Felicien Marceau. Based on the original Paris production by Andre Barsacq

1st Produced:
Plymouth Theatre, NYC    1960

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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  18 actors

Further Reference:
-

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Happy Ending

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Bristol, Pennsylvania    1989

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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Live Wire, The

Synopsis:
a group of young actors have pooled their resources and hopes and live together in a Quonset hut near the Broadway theater district. they manage to exist by a system of mutual interdependence until a heartless four-flusher joins them and nearly puts their experiment out of business. there is, however, enough inherent strength in the group members to enable them to recover their cohesion. the "Live Wire," who has done his best to disrupt them, now leaves on what seems to be the promise a brilliant future, but it is clear that he will ultimately be tossed aside. His former companions are at least left with the feeling that their life together, because it is shared, is worth holding on to.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
the Playhouse, NYC    1950

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

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:  13            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Peccadillo

Synopsis:
an egomaniacal conductor is having trouble fulfilling his contract to write his autobiography compounded by his wife's efforts to write her story "Mrs Maestro"

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
St Petersburg, Florida    1985

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French, London, 1990   -

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:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Rat Race, The

Synopsis:
This "amiable. . .rooming-house idyll" is characterized by atkinson (Times) as a "charming. . .free-hand sketch of a girl who has abandoned hope in New York and of a boy who is on tip-toe with hope and enthusiasm. Nothing is more actable than the principal characters and the neighborhood rag-tag and bobtail who move in and out of the performance. For the 'rat race,' substitute the squalid life of penniless people drifting around the lower depths of the city. the girl thinks she is through. She is bitter, disillusioned and broken. the boy has just come to New York from the Middle West to make his mark as a saxophone player."

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
ethel Barrymore Theatre, NYC    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

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:  11            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Remembering Mr Maugham

Remembering Mr Maugham
Remember Mr. Maugham by Garson Kanin is a stage adaptation of his own memoir of the same name. This graceful memoir by Garson Kanin is a treasure trove of private conversations, amusing anecdotes, and candid recollections of his beloved friend and confidant W. Somerset Maugham. Through decades of personal notes and journal entries, Kanin and Maugham poignantly reminisce about life, art and the unconquerable human spirit.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
theresa Kaufman Concert Hall, NYC    1966

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:
Biographical

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Smile Of the World, The

Synopsis:
a serious and deeply felt Drama which is a moving love story and likewise a commentary on human relations

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Lyceum Theatre, NYC    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

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:  5            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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