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Mrs. Sedgewick's Head

Mrs. Sedgewick's Head
Your Price: $18.95 CDN
Last copy!
Author: Tom Griffin
Publisher: Dramatists Play Service (cover may change)
Format: Softcover
# of Pages: 67
Pub. Date: 1998
Edition: Acting
ISBN-10: 082221542X
ISBN-13: 9780822215424
Cast Size: 2 female, 8 male

About the Play:

Mrs. Sedgewick's Head is a full-length comedic drama by Tom Griffin. Johnny Simmons, an ex-con with a best-selling novel, is pursued by a Hollywood producer who wants to turn his latest novel into a film. But Johnny is playing hard to get as to whether he'll write the screenplay. Funny, moving, and evocative, Mrs. Sedgewig's Head is part mystery, part classic Hollywood comedy, and part send-up of the movie-making machine.

Mrs. Sedgewick's Head is about family loyalty, betrayal, and the Hollywood movie business. Johnny Simmons, a successful screenwriter, is sent to prison for the "mercy killing" of his brother. During his incarceration he writes a novel – in his mind – totally memorizes it, and upon his release writes it down verbatim and has it published under a pseudonym. It is a huge success and Hollywood comes calling. The novel is purchased by an independent producer who hooks up with a studio. Although the novel is published under a pseudonym, the studio insists Johnny write the screenplay. Secrets can't be kept. The studio sends a young female exec and the indie producer to Johnny's upstate New York home, a rural village populated by a highly original cast of characters. The producers try to convince him that he's the only one for the job, but soon find themselves in a battle between money and morality. What at first seems like a screamingly funny and scathing Hollywood comedy soon turns into a rather dark and brooding look at selfishness and self loathing. The ruthless Hollywood moguls and the seemingly innocent locals ultimately clash, showing both sides in a harsh light, proving that if one is not capable of a mercenary lifestyle, one is nothing but a victim. Mrs. Sedgewick's Head also deals with the memories of the events that led to Johnny's imprisonment.

Mrs. Sedgewick's Head premiered in 1993 at Trinity Repertory in Providence, Rhode Island.

Cast: 2 female, 8 male

What people say:

"Tom Griffin has written at least two plays in Mrs. Sedgewick's Head that collide on stage in a cascade of shooting stars .... [It] is a thrilling evening of theater .... While there's an air of mysticism over the entire proceedings, Griffin, the author of the earlier hit, The Boys Next Door, has given these characters dialogue of such wit the play is filled with laughs, but is distinctly not a comedy."The Boston Herald

"Mrs. Sedgewick's Head ... has all the earmarks of Griffin's previous comedies: a warm-hearted funniness, the interplay of zinger and non-sequitur, some off-the-wall characters. But there is a mythic, Cain-and-Abel element that sneaks into the play, as if the sharks next door this being Hollywood had left the patio door open .... There is, however, more to Mrs. Sedgewick's Head than its clever game of sharks and bumpkins. For one thing, there is some great writing...." — The Providence Phoenix

"It's hard not to resort to some of the 'Hollywood Hype' the play takes on, to note its impact, but [the play] indeed is: Riveting! Startling! and Not to be Missed." — East Providence Post

About the Playwright:

Tom Griffin (1946-2018) was an American playwright and screenwriter, known for the critically acclaimed play The Boys Next Door. His plays were produced on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, in London's West End, and regional theatres in the United States and in Canada, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Over his career, he wrote 14 screenplays, for Warner Brothers, Paramount, MGM, ABC, and others.

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