The Playwrights Database
F ANDREW LESLIE
Nationality: USA
email: n/a Website: n/a
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F Andrew Leslie's plays including biography, theatres, agent, synopses, cast sizes, production and published dates
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below is a list of F Andrew Leslie's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Bachelor And the Bobby-Soxer, The Boy With Green Hair, The Farmer's Daughter, The Haunting Of Hill House, The Hound Of the Baskervilles, The Lilies Of the Field, The Mr Hobbs' Vacation People Next Door, The Pigman, The Spiral Staircase, The Splendor In the Grass Stephen Vincent Benet's Stories Of America Wheeler Dealers, TheBachelor And the Bobby-Soxer, The
Synopsis:
Margaret Turner is a happy and successful woman, with few regrets that she has chosen a legal career in place of marriage and a family. She occupies a respected judgeship; provides a good home for her teenaged sister, Susan; and enjoys the fawning admiration of Tommy Chamberlain, the love-struck assistant District attorney. She also has a problem, albeit a rather engaging one, in the form of Richard Nugent-artist, playboy and incipient menace to the well-ordered world which Margaret has constructed for herself. Things really get tense, however, when Susan, whose romantic imagination is boundless, conceives a crush on Dick which ranks with the more monumental in the annals of puppy-love. She makes a surreptitious, and uninvited, call at Dick's apartment, the result being a trip to the jailhouse for Mr. Nugent and a widening split between irate older sister and crushed younger one. the therapy, which forms the very funny heart of the play, is provided by Matthew Beemish, uncle of Margaret and Susan, and a rather bemused psychiatrist. Uncle Matt's idea: Make Dick be Susan's beau, until she realizes that her infatuation is ridiculous and he, at the same time, begins to appreciate the need for following at least a few of the hallowed conventions. Margaret offers Dick his choice-jail or Susan. He accepts the latter, with reluctance, and off we go on a round of adventures as hilarious as any ever invented.
Notes:
from the screenplay by Sidney Sheldon
1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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Genre:
Comedy
Parts:
Male: 16 Female: 9 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageBoy With Green Hair, The
Synopsis:
Peter, 12, is an orphan - although he clings to the hope that someday his mother and Father will come back from the War and find him. Peter has been shunted from foster home to foster home, and now lives with Gramp, not his real grandfather, but a kindly old ex-vaudevillian. Gramp and Peter hit it off well, and Peter begins to enjoy a normal happy life. But when the children at school find out Peter won't believe that his parents are not be coming back, they taunt him. Peter is filled with rage, but Gramp makes Peter realise that there is always hope for the future. Life should be like a green plant, holding its own and putting out new shoots despite all odds. It is the sense of green - the colour of life - which overwhelms Peter's consciousness . . . and then turns his hair green. What this does to the town is a lesson in human relations. the green hair must go and with it goes Peter's revived belief in people's goodness. Things are ultimately set right again with scenes of fantasy and warmth which make the pl
Notes:
based on the motion picture, which was drawn from An original story by Betsy Beaton
1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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Genre:
Comic Fantasy Comedy
Parts:
Male: 9 Female: 1 Other: 7b 3g
Further Reference:
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Top of PageFarmer's Daughter, The
Synopsis:
Katrin Holstrom, in the big city to study nursing, is obliged for financial reasons to take a temporary position as maid in the home of the wealthy and politically powerful Morleys. Mrs. Morley and her son Glenn being political leaders, their home is a gathering place for newspaper people, candidates and party regulars and Katrin, with her encyclopedic knowledge of rural politics, is fascinated by the "inside" goings-on. While serving coffee, however, she also expresses her opinions on people and policies, and soon it is clear that her ideas of how to run a political organization are somewhat at variance with those of her employers. the upshot, after a perfectly logical if uproarious course of events, is that Katrin becomes the candidate of the opposition party-and the battle lines are drawn. But politics can be dirty as well as exhilarating and the introduction of a trumped-up scandal involving Katrin forces her to give up her campaign for the good of the party. It also brings Glenn to her defense, and in the fast-moving climax of the play he proves the falsity of the charges; exposes the other candidate for the bigot he is; and persuades Katrin that if she can't go to Washington one way she should go another-as his wife.
Notes:
from the screenplay by Allen Rivkin And Laura Kerr
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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Genre:
Comedy
Parts:
Male: 11 Female: 3 Other: many bit parts
Further Reference:
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Top of PageHaunting Of Hill House, The
Synopsis:
Cut off from the outside world by its remote location and shunned by all who know its forbidding and sinister reputation, Hill House has remained empty and silent except for the daily visits of its grumbling caretaker, Mrs. Dudley. Its isolation is broken by the arrival of Dr. Montague, an investigator of supernatural phenomena who has been granted a short lease by the present owner. His mission is to delve into the morbid history of the house and to come to grips with the occult forces that have made it uninhabitable for many years. He is joined by three others, all unacquainted, but all having their particular reasons for accepting Dr. Montague's invitation to share his Hill House sojourn. their visit begins with jovial informality, but their sensibilities are soon jolted by strange and eerie occurrences. as they struggle to disguise their mounting fears they are joined by Dr. Montague's wife and a friend, who have come to Hill House for purposes of their own. they too are absorbed by the supernatural, but their approach is via direct communication with the departed spirits-a type of psychic research which is regarded fearfully by Dr. Montague and which, as subsequent events bear out, brings on a crisis in which the evil forces of Hill House are goaded to a new and, for one of those present, fatal fury.
Notes:
From the novel by Shirley Jackson.
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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Genre:
Suspense Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageHound Of the Baskervilles, The
Synopsis:
Perhaps the most famous and popular of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, this gripping tale deals with the curse of the Baskerville family-and the fiendish killer-hound which stalks its members. as the action begins Sir Charles Baskerville has died under mysterious circumstances, and his nephew and heir, the young Sir Henry, has been threatened even before his arrival at Baskerville Hall. enlisting the aid of Sherlock Holmes he sets out for his ancestral home on the Devon moor in the company of Dr. Watson, Holmes' trusted colleague, a journey which brings him to danger, mystery and a series of events which build steadily in menace and suspense. Hard pressed to protect his charge, and to fathom the strange mishaps which beset him, Dr. Watson is much relieved when Holmes himself appears-to trap the diabolical killer who stalks Sir Henry and to unravel the fascinating mystery which accounts for his evil actions.
Notes:
from the novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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Genre:
Mystery Drama Mystery
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageLilies Of the Field, The
Synopsis:
Having decided to travel about the country after his discharge from the army, Homer Smith has fixed up a bed in the back of his station wagon and headed west, his plan being to stop for a day's work here and there as the spirit moves him. Rolling through a parched valley in the remote Southwest he encounters a group of nuns working in the dusty fields, and his offer to help them for hire is quickly accepted. His job is to fix a leaky roof, but when the time comes to discuss payment the rather imperious Mother Superior seems to understand even less english than usual. although he has every intention of insisting on his pay and moving on, Homer stays for supper, and then another day, and another. almost without realizing it he is drawn into the life of the nuns-giving them english lessons, buying food for their table, driving them to Mass, singing to them in the evenings and, most important, coming to share the dream of building the chapel which is Mother Maria Marthe's fondest hope. But the project proves to b
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageMr Hobbs' Vacation
Synopsis:
From the moment their vacation plans are first discussed Mr. Hobbs evinces misgivings about trekking off to an unfamiliar island on the New england coast, but the combined enthusiasm of wife Peggy and daughter Kate soon overwhelm his feeble opposition. away they go to Rock Harbor, but they have no sooner reached their destination, crumpled and road-weary, than Mr. Hobbs' direct predictions begin to come true. their house is an uncomfortable horror and its plumbing, as Mr. Hobbs quickly finds out, is a nightmare. the hope of having a good rest is further annihilated when daughter Jane and son-in-law Byron appear on the scene. Byron, an intellectual college professor, has precious little in common with his businessman father-in-law, but the arguments which ensue are insignificant in comparison to the annoyances which crop up when the Turners, the Hobbs' not-so-old friends of last year's vacation, come over for the weekend. Mr. Hobbs is forced to cope with an exploding hot water tank, dragged off on bird-spotting expeditions, shanghaied, into sailing a "spatterbox," turned into cook, bartender, dish washer and general provisioner and, as he teeters on the edge of exhaustion, obliged to join in the wee hours carousing of an irrepressible group of fog-bound sailing friends. Needless to say then, before long they are all ready and willing to head for home-if only to rest up from their "vacation."
Notes:
from the novel by edward Streeter
1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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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: 8 Female: 7 Other: 4 of the male roles can be doubled
Further Reference:
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Top of PagePeople Next Door, The
Synopsis:
as the New York Times comments: "Mr. Miller's Drama involves two middle-class families that outwardly symbolize the tranquillity of stable suburbia. But behind the green shutters and the contentment of sustained affluence lies the latent turmoil all too frequently documented in police records, the tragedy of households divided against themselves with children and parents going separate routes to common disaster. In one of Mr. Miller's families-the Masons-a sixteen-year-old girl takes LSD and worse. In the second family-the Hoffmans-the son turns out to be the wise-guy pusher coining a fortune in debasing his peers. the girl's destruction is remorselessly unfolded-the wild fantasies of trips on drugs, the filth and sordidness of an east Village pad, the unsuccessful attempts at group therapy, the pure horror of the understaffed ward for the disturbed and finally the distinct possibility that the child may face a controlled environment for the rest of her life." In a final scene of explosive fury her Father lashes out against the forces that have destroyed his daughter, but it is too late-and his own share of the guilt too great. there is only the hope that others will understand-and learn from-his agony.
Notes:
J.P. Miller, stage Adaptation by F. Andrew Leslie
1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 3 Other: plus several bits
Further Reference:
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Top of PagePigman, The
Synopsis:
Bored with school, Lorraine and John search for other activities to fill the time. One of these (random phone calls) leads to a meeting with a retired widower, Mr. Pignati, whose hobby happens to be collecting china, glass and marble pigs. although their contact with Mr. Pignati is instigated by the selfish intention of collecting money for a bogus "charity," Lorraine and John soon find themselves drawn into the older man's life. Counterpointed by scenes with their parents, their relationship with "the Pigman" moves steadily and surely from casual visits to deeper involvement to, inexorably, tragedy. But, throughout the fast-moving action, a seed of understanding is nurtured-leading on to a growing sense of compassion and "coming of age," that is strengthened and enhanced in the final, poignant moments of the play.
Notes:
from the novel by Paul Zindel
1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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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: 6 Female: 3 Other: boys and girls (2 of the male roles are bit parts)
Further Reference:
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Top of PageSpiral Staircase, The
Synopsis:
as thunder and rain echo offstage the town Constable arrives at the isolated Warren household to report another in the series of apparently unprovoked murders that have shocked and terrified the village. Without exception the victims have been young girls-and all with a noticeable defect or imperfection of some kind. Because of this there is fear for the safety of Helen, companion of the bedridden Mrs. Warren, who has been unable to speak since undergoing the shock of witnessing her parents' horrible death some years before. the telephone wires have been downed by the storm; the Constable has stopped by in person to check on Helen's whereabouts-but neither Mrs. Oates, the housekeeper, nor Professor Warren, scholarly stepson of Mrs. Warren, has seen or heard from her since she went into the village earlier in the day. their fears are allayed, however, when Helen, in the company of young Dr. Parry, is brought safely home. But the threat of danger still exists, for the murderer remains at large and his cleverness has denied the police any solid clues as to his identity. Warning everyone to stay behind locked doors, the Constable goes back into the storm leaving Helen to the care of the others. One by one, however, her protectors leave-or seem to-and as Helen's isolation grows, so does the threat of the killer's visit-leading to a denouement of chilling intensity. To say more would blunt the excitement of this thrilling climax where everyone, and most of all Helen, remains in doubt-filled suspense until the final, shocking moments of the play. PLeaSe NOTe: the Play Service only handles the United States licensing rights for this play.
Notes:
Based on David O. Selznick's famous motion picture, written by Mel Dinelli
1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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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:
Mystery/Drama Mystery
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageSplendor In the Grass
Synopsis:
Good looking, a star athlete, and son of the richest man in town, Bud Stamper is the prize catch in his high school class, and Deanie Loomis is the girl lucky enough to get him. But both Bud and Deanie are disturbed by the powerful feelings that have grown between them, and which are turned into torture by the restraints of proper conduct. Mindful of the bad example of his own debauched sister, Bud wants to marry Deanie immediately and go to agricultural school-a hope that is destroyed by his father's ambitions to put Bud through Yale and into the family oil business. Bud and Deanie promise to wait, and Bud decides that it is better for them to see less of each other in the meantime, a turn of events that plunges the unstable Deanie into an emotional crack-up and then commitment to an institution. By the time she is released their world has turned over. the stock market crash has destroyed the Stamper empire and led to suicide for Bud's father; Bud has left Yale and married a young waitress from New Haven; and Deanie has become engaged to a young man she met in the hospital. the time has come for both to start life anew, but to do this means to come to terms with the past, and this Bud and Deanie do in a final, touching scene where old ties are gently broken and each gains the sureness and strength to move on from disturbing memories to better hopes for what lies ahead.
Notes:
adapted from the screenplay by William Inge
1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 10 Female: 9 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageStephen Vincent Benet's Stories Of America
Synopsis:
Drawing on the lively and fanciful American tales of Stephen Vincent Benet, the substance of the program ranges from the Colonial years and the Revolutionary War to the opening of the West and the burgeoning of the American heartland. Using creative theatre concepts to bring the stories alive on stage, with short poems and simple musical interpolations to enhance and heighten the flow of action, it not only captures the vitality and humor of Benet's imaginative creations, but also makes the lesson of their wit and wisdom powerfully relevant to our own troubled times.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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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:
Narrative theatre
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 3 Other: flexible casting, minimum of 3 men
Further Reference:
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Top of PageWheeler Dealers, The
Synopsis:
From the top of his Stetson to the tip of his fancy cowboy boots, Henry Tyroon, independent oil wildcatter, is pure wheeler dealer-a larger-than-life-sized combination of supersalesmanship, big ideas, and an unerring instinct for a quick profit. From his natural habitat of Texas, Henry comes to New York in search of "mullets" (which is Texas-talk for well-heeled potential investors) but his attention is diverted when he meets the attractive Molly Thatcher, a struggling young Wall Street securities analyst. Molly's interest in Henry derives from the fact that she hopes to sell him shares in Universal Widget, a mysterious little company which has been turned over to Molly as her last chance to make good and hold her job. Henry's interest in Molly is of a more romantic sort, but he is delighted to chat about widgets (for openers), after which it's on to a series of wild escapades-ending up first in the clutches of the Justice Department (they are innocent, as it turns out) and then in each other's arms.
Notes:
from the novel by George Goodman
1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Comedy
Parts:
Male: 9 Female: 4 Other: 9-16 men and 4-7 women, with doubling
Further Reference:
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