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Freyda Thomas

FREYDA THOMAS

  
Nationality:    USA
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Literary Agent:    Harden-Curtis Associates  

Freyda Thomas's plays including theatres, agent, synopses, cast sizes, production and published dates

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

         Creature Concert, The         Gamester, The         Learned Ladies, The         Miser, The         Mistress of the Inn, The         School for Trophy Wives         Splitting Heirs         Tartuffe Born Again

Creature Concert, The

Synopsis:
Animals facing extinction

Notes:
Music by Gary Anderson; Freya Thomas; lyrics by Freya Thomas; book by Patrice Braun, Freya Thomas

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:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Gamester, The

Synopsis:
It's Paris in the eighteenth century. Valere loves Angelique, but she won't marry him until he gives up his other mistress: the Gambling Hall. Valere is broke, creditors are in pursuit; his Father Thomas is about to disown him; and his loyal servant, Hector, despairs of his reformation, though he will stay with him to the bitter end. Angelique's companion, Madame Preferee, arrives to inform Hector that the marriage between her charge and his master is off, thanks to his wicked ways. the sensible woman wants Angelique to marry Dorante, the old, fat and bald uncle of her lover, but she vows to remain her lover's fiancee if he swears to give up the game. As a pledge, she gives him her portrait in a jewel-encrusted frame. But Valere needs money; how many times can he bed the lusty, wealthy and ever-generous Madame Securite, who keeps coming back for more indoor sports? And there's Angelique's older sister, Mme. Argante, another wealthy widow ready to settle her whole estate on the handsome young Valere, a fate that would break the heart of the foppish, stuttering Marquis de Fauxpas, madly in love with her. Add to this a sweet young servant to the shrewish Mme. Argante and a Croupier who starts off the play with a resounding thump on his foot, and you have the makings of a world-class French comedy, albeit with darker undertones reminiscent of . . . Vegas and American society at the millennium? Well, the turn of any century is always marked by optimism, and what happens to the dice-crossed lovers, the portrait, the lusty widow, the old man and the stuttering fop is to be discovered within the finely woven text, written in crisp, accessible verse, with disguises, tricks and romance adding to the high comedy of this delightful new classic work.

Notes:
inspired by Le Joueur by Jean-Francois Regnard

1st Produced:
American Conservatory Theater    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists' Play Service, NY, 2006   -

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:  6            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Learned Ladies, The

Learned Ladies, The
Ms. Thomas previous and similar rollicking version of Moliere's Les Femmes Savantes delighted audiences off-Broadway in 1991, in a production starring Jean Stapleton as Philamente, a blossoming literary lady on the verge of coming into her own. It was re-imagined in 1993 at ACT in San Francisco, with many productions throughout the country since then. During the Salon movement of the 17th century, women, thirsty for knowledge and freedom, began to read, discuss and absorb all the learning they could now get their hands on. Frequently, into that mix came sycophants and opportunists, to take advantage of the budding but not fully formed intelligence of the Women's Movement. Enter Trissotin, a mediocre poet with a lot of sex appeal and little literary talent, who all but seduces Philamente, determined to be at the forefront of the movement. Equally determined to marry him off to her younger daughter (who just wants to marry her sweetheart Lycandre and raise children), she bullies her meek husband into tacitly agreeing, and the machinations that follow between family members, visiting poets and maids who refuse to learn proper French are predictably and delightfully Molière. This version strays from a strictly literal translation of the play, often employing anachronisms in the rhymed couplets that may appall purists, but have delighted audiences since its original inception. In this new version, there are 6 women and 4 men, and the familiar "Voice of Reason", present in almost every Moliere play and always a male, is now, for the first time, FEMALE! If you want your audiences to roll with laughter as they recognize their hilarious selves in the midst of a Feminist culture, this version is for you.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Moliere

1st Produced:
Classic Stage Company Theatre in New York City     26 Feb 1991

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:  4            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Miser, The

Miser, The
the Miser is a new adaptation of Molieres most famous prose play by celebrated Moliere adaptor Freyda Thomas (the Learned Ladies, Tartuffe: Born Again). This side-splitting, comedic classic has all the hilarious elements of the original and is set in a pre-20th Century period, where marriages could be forced upon ones children. In the Miser, the elderly Harpagon obsesses over the feeling that he never has enough money, and unfortunately his obsession wreaks havoc on all around him. This includes his two children, Elise and Cleante, who are passionately in love with a valet and the girl next door, respectively. While Harpagons arranged them to be married to absurdly mismatched types, the two smart children plot against their frugal Father until all erupts in a climatic dinner, and truths are revealed.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Moliere. Translated And Adapted by Freyda Thomas from L'Avare

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
Round House 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, Adaptation

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Mistress of the Inn, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Carlo Goldoni

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:
Adaptation

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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School for Trophy Wives

School for Trophy Wives
School for Trophy Wives is loosely based on Moliere's L'Ecole des Femmes. It is set in present day Hollywood, with all the accompanying glitz, glamour, and garishness we have come to know and spoof in Tinseltown. In this version, Arnolphe is Arnie, a Hollywood producer who has finally made it big after years of clawing his way to the top. He now wants to settle down with a wife and kids. He is MUCH older than his protegee Agnes, whom he found on a farm when she was 4, adopted as his ward, and raised, until he realizes, at her graduation, that she would be a perfect wife for him. Having made fun of his colleagues and all their trophy wives over the years, he must take special care that no whiff of scandal will ever hit him from the cover of People Magazine or the Hollywood Reporter, and that his wife will never adhere to the trophy standards his friends have had to deal with. This is where Moliere comes in, but with some 21st century flair.

Notes:
-

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:
Full Length Play, Comedy

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Splitting Heirs

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Jean-Francois Regnard

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:
Adaptation

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  doubling

Further Reference:
-

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Tartuffe Born Again

Synopsis:
takes place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in the 1980's, the private rogue affects every pious excellence in public - until exposed

Notes:
Original Playwright - Moliere

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French, London, 1997   -

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:  6            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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