A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

Trying

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  1w, 1m

Joanna McClelland Glass

Trying is a two-character play based on the author’s experience
during 1967-1968 when she worked for aging former Attorney General Francis Biddle at his home in
Washington, D.C.

Trying

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    1w, 1m
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Period

Details

Summary
Trying is a two-character play based on the author’s experience during 1967-1968 when she worked for Francis Biddle at his home in Washington, D.C. Judge Biddle had been Attorney General of the United States under Franklin Roosevelt. After the war, President Truman named him Chief Judge of the American Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. The play is about a young Canadian girl and an old Philadelphia aristocrat “trying” to understand each other in what Biddle knows is the final year of his life.
History
Trying premiered at Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago, Illinois in March 2004 under the direction of Sandy Shinner.
Keywords
Performing Groups
JUDGE BIDDLE – An eighty-one-year-old, once brilliant man who was Attorney General of the United States under Franklin Roosevelt. After a long and illustrious career he now functions, as he says, “somewhere between lucidity and senility.” He is the aristocratic scion of an old Main Line Philadelphia family.
SARAH SCHORR – A twenty-five-year-old girl who has been hired by Mrs. Biddle to be the judge’s secretary. She is a direct, plain-spoken, pleasant girl, originally from the prairie province of Saskatchewan.
  • Time Period 1960s
  • Setting Georgetown, Washington, D.C. November, 1967.
  • Features Period Costumes
  • Cautions
    • No Special Cautions

Media

“Exquisitely literate, moving and compelling.” – Variety

“Comic and touching.” –The New York Times

“Trying is a portrait of generational reconciliation. It is enormously bracing theatre.” –New York Daily News

“Trying is a beautifully written, delicate and engaging two-hander.” –Toronto Globe and Mail


Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $110 per performance

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Author

Joanna McClelland Glass

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