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Robert Anderson

ROBERT ANDERSON  (1917 - 2009)

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

Literary Agent:    ICM Partners  


Born in New York City, 28 april 1917, Died 9th Feb 2009. Educated at Phillips Exeter academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, 1931-35; Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1935-42, a.B. (magna cum laude) 1939, M.a. 1940. Served in the U.S. Naval Reserve, 1942-46: lieutenant; Bronze Star. Married 1) Phyllis Stohl in 1940 (died 1956); 2) the actress Teresa Wright in 1959 (divorced 1978). actor, South Shore Players, Cohasset, Massachusetts, summers 1937 and 1938. assistant in English, Harvard University, 1939-42; teacher, Erskine School, Boston, 1941; teacher of playwriting, American Theatre Wing, New York, 1946-51, and actors Studio, New York, 1955-56; member of the faculty, Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, 1968; writer-in-residence, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1969, and University of Iowa Writers Workshop, Iowa City, 1976, Member of the Playwrights Producing Company, 1953-60; president, New Dramatists Committee, 1955-56, and Dramatists Guild, 1971-73; member of the Board of Governors, American Playwrights Theatre, 1963-79. Since 1965 member of the Council, and since 1980 vice-president, authors League of America. Recipient: National Theatre Conference prize, 1945; Rockefeller fellowship, 1946; Writers Guild of America award, for screenplay, 1970; aCE award, for television, 1991. Member, Theater Hall of Fame, 1980. Robert anderson, who has died aged 91, had a sign over his desk in his Manhattan apartment which read "nobody asked you to be a playwright", to remind him that it was pointless to complain about the problems many have in getting their plays performed. anderson once said: "You can make a killing in the theatre, but not a living." He certainly made a killing with his first mature play, Tea and Sympathy (1953), which became a worldwide hit, but found it a difficult act to follow.

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

 All Summer Long         Come Marching Home         Dance Me A Song         Days Between, The         Double Solitaire         Eden Rose, The         Footsteps Of Doves, The         Free And Clear         Hour Town         I Never Sang For My Father         I'll Be Home For Christmas         I'm Herbert         Last Act Is A Solo, The         Love Revisited         Shock Of Recognition, The         Silent Night, Lonely Night         Solitaire         Tea And Sympathy         You Know I Can't Hear You When The Water's Running

All Summer Long

Synopsis:
Two sons try to save their home as the river keeps eroding the land it is on. They are hampered by their stern father who would rather the State took care of keeping the river at bay

Notes:
from novel Wreath And A Curse by Donald Wetzel

1st Produced:
arena Stage, Washington, D.C.    1952

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French, NY, 1955   -

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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Come Marching Home

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Iowa City    1945

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dance Me A Song

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York    1950

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

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Genre:
Sketches in Sketch

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Days Between, The

Synopsis:
Wife's entertainment of successful writer causes problems for writing lecturer who cannot write.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Theatre Center, Dallas, TX    1965

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Random House, New York, 1965   -

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Double Solitaire

Synopsis:
set in the present, concerns an older couple about to celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary and their son and daughter-in-law, whose marriage is pulling apart. The action is a series of sharp, short confrontations, which lay bare the lives of all concerned-their failures, their loneliness, and their quiet and desperate search for something to bring them alive again. Subtle and compassionate, yet unfailingly honest, the play shows its people both as they are and as they want to be, and illuminates the interior truths in which must lie the deeper meaning of human existence.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New Haven, Connecticut    1971

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Random House, New York, 1972   -

Music:
-

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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:
Short Play One act

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Eden Rose, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Ridgefield Community Theatre, Connecticut    1949

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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Footsteps Of Doves, The

Synopsis:
Balsam and Eileen Heckart, who have been wed 25 years, come to a store to pick out a new bed or beds. Should they buy twin beds or a double? They don't get much sales effort from the salesman, Grizzard, for the salesman is a pansy. Into the discussion, uninvited, comes a blonde young thing, Miss Dillon, who wants a big bed because she is all alone

Notes:
One of the four plays comprising You Know I Can't Hear you When The Water Is Running, one of the most successful comedies in Broadway history. You Know I Can't Hear you When The Water Is Running is A warm-hearted quartet of hilarious short plays which sta

1st Produced:
New York    1967

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water Is Running", Random House, New York, 1967   -

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 One act. - - Gay, theme/character, one act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Free And Clear

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New Haven, Connecticut    1983

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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Hour Town

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
book, music And lyrics by Anderson

1st Produced:
Cambridge, Massachusetts    1938

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:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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I Never Sang For My Father

Robert Anderson
This is the story of Gene, a widower, with an elderly mother whom he loves and an eighty-year-old father, whom he has never loved, hard as he tried. The father has been mayor of a small town in Westchester County, self-made and highly respected. Beneath these trappings, however, he is a mean, unloving and ungenerous man, who has driven his daughter away because of her marriage to a Jew and has alienated his son through his possessiveness, his selfishness and his endless reminiscences. Suddenly the mother dies, and Gene is faced with the responsibility of having the father on his hands just at a time when he wants to remarry and move to California. There are a series of dramatic confrontations when alice, the sister, who has defied her father, pleads with Gene not to take on the burden of the old man and ruin his life; when the penurious father and son have to pick out a coffin for the mother; and the final episode in which Gene tries once again to rouse in himself affection for his father and succeeds, but on

Notes:
Screenplay published New American Library, New York, 1970

1st Produced:
Philadelphia    1967

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Random House, New York, 1968   978-0994406084

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:  7            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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I'll Be Home For Christmas

Synopsis:
is light and humorous, but at base it is serious and touching as it shows Miss Heckart and Balsam discussing sex education of their almost-adult children, a girl and boy. Balsam is quite moving when he learns in a letter that his son is cutting adrift from the parental harbor.

Notes:
One of the four plays comprising You Know I Can't Hear you When The Water Is Running, one of the most successful comedies in Broadway history. You Know I Can't Hear you When The Water Is Running is A warm-hearted quartet of hilarious short plays which sta

1st Produced:
New York    1967

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water Is Running", Random House, New York, 1967   -

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 One act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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I'm Herbert

Synopsis:
- . . .off-off-Broadway is most renowned as the arena of the new playwright. Learn about [Mary Humphrey Baldridge's] skills with dialogue and plot. . .in GENESIS. . .mounted with style and skill at the famed Neighborhood Playhouse. . . Theater Week, Peter Filichia

Notes:
One of the four plays comprising You Know I Can't Hear you When The Water Is Running, one of the most successful comedies in Broadway history. You Know I Can't Hear you When The Water Is Running is A warm-hearted quartet of hilarious short plays which sta

1st Produced:
New York    1967

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water Is Running", Random House, New York, 1967   -

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 One act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Last Act Is A Solo, The

Synopsis:
Laura Cunningham is an ageing and increasingly frail actress. Because of her frailty she has not performed for some time and lives surrounded by costumes and props from her great successes. Her nephew wants to move her into a care home - but she has other ideas.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Televised    1991

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French Inc, New York, 1991   -

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:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Love Revisited

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
County Playhouse, Westport, Connecticut    1951

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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Shock Of Recognition, The

Synopsis:
breaks in on a difference of opinion between George Grizzard, an earnest young dramatist, and Joe Silver, his matter-of-fact producer. Silver doesn't like the opening moment of Grizzard's play. a wife is having breakfast in bed and she says something to her husband, who is in the bathroom. So he comes out, jaybird naked, and yells to her. 'You know I can't hear you when the water's running.' Producer Silver doesn't think this confrontation is quite nice or necessary. author Grizzard insists that the scene is quite important-and, after all, it lasts only an instant. So a quarrel over taste develops, and a job-hunting actor, Martin Balsam, becomes involved. He eagerly begins to strip, demonstrating how he would handle the role. also involved is Melinda Dillon, the producer's secretary, who is described as 'a Bennington girl' and acts it. This is fine, light comedy.

Notes:
One of the four plays comprising You Know I Can't Hear you When The Water Is Running, one of the most successful comedies in Broadway history. You Know I Can't Hear you When The Water Is Running is A warm-hearted quartet of hilarious short plays which sta

1st Produced:
New York    1967

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water Is Running", Random House, New York, 1967   -

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 One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Silent Night, Lonely Night

Synopsis:
Christmas Eve in a New England Hotel and a chance meeting between two lonely people

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New Haven, Connecticut    1959

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Random House, New York, 1960   -

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:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Solitaire

Synopsis:
set in a chilling, computerized future, where marriage has been abolished, life is lived in mechanized motel rooms, and voluntary self-destruction is a citizen's ultimate service to the state. Yearning for the simple, forgotten warmth of family life, Sam Bradley seeks out an illicit, underground operation which provides for a surrogate domesticity-wife, children, dinner on the table. For a precious moment he is transported back into a way of life now lost but fondly remembered. But then his time is up and he must return to his electronic cell, to breathe the last of his allotted air and to cherish what memories remain before oblivion consumes him.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New Haven, Connecticut    1971

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Random House, New York, 1972   -

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 One act

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Tea And Sympathy

Synopsis:
Everyone but Tom thinks he is gay

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New Haven, Connecticut    1953

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Random House, New York, 1953   -

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. - - Gay, theme/character, full length

Parts:
Male:  9            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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You Know I Can't Hear You When The Water's Running

Synopsis:
This was one of the most successful comedies in Broadway history. The topic is sex, in all its mysterious and fascinating manifestations, and the treatment of this is so skillful, tasteful and explosively funny that the plays are not only captivating and touching but universal in appeal

Notes:
as the New York Daily News briefly outlines: THE SHOCK OF RECOGNITION breaks in on A difference of opinion between. . .an earnest young dramatist And. . .his matter-of-fact producer who doesn't like the opening moment of the play. A wife is having breakfast in be

1st Produced:
Broadway, New York    1967

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Random House, New York, 1967   -

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:
Four 1 act Comedies One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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