A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

Father's Prize Poland China

Full-Length Play, Dark Comedy  /  3w

Shirley Sergent

Winner! American College Theatre Festival

Once upon a time there lived in the heartland of America a farmer who had a successive string of prize Poland China hogs and two daughters, one plain and home grown, the other pretty and home flown. A gigolo enters their lives in a most upsetting man…

Father's Prize Poland China

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    3w
  • Duration
    Duration
    105 Minutes
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Farce
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult
Accolades
Accolades
  • Winner! American College Theatre Festival

Details

Summary
Father's Prize Poland China exposes the madness of addicitons, jealousies, and strange bonds between rivaling sisters.  The psycho-farce takes place in the rural Southern kitchen of the Pulaski farmhouse and centers around the two Pulaski sisters: Pat, a wildly repressed fundamentalist; and Judy, a hard-drinking go-go dancer.  The two sisters play cat and mouse as they entangle each other in the murder of the local Don Juan,  a waitress named Flo who looks a lot like their dead mother, their father's disappearance, and the slaying of his prized hog.
History

Father's Prize Poland China was first presented atThe John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' American College Theater Festival in Washington, DC, on April 17, 1995. 

Cast Attributes
Keywords
Performing Groups

PAT PULASKI - 30.Sees only black and white, either or, with no vision for anything resembling the middle. It's either yes or no, do or don't.  Her black and white kitchen gives a visual image of her mind. The older sister, Pat is a repressed fundamentalist who sees herself as pure and good.
JUDY PULASKI -  25. While drunk most of her life, sees that reality as painfully real.  She is ultra-sensitive and a voice for the well-being of hogs. The younger sister, Judy is a hard-drinking sensitive and caring go-go dancer
FLO POTTER (alias STELLA) - Comes back as a waitress who wants to marry Dick Pulaski and get possession of the farm. Appears 40 but is in truth 50.

Characters that never appear on stage: Dick Pulaski (father to Pat and Judy), Jim Sweeney (#1 hog trader and heart-throbbing gigolo), The "Pig" Announcer (Roy Clemmons), The "Preacher" Announcer (The Preacher).

  • Time Period Contemporary
  • Setting Rural Arkansas and/or Mid-West American. A hog farm with a farmhouse.
  • Features Contemporary Costumes / Street Clothes
  • Additional Features Animal spot
  • Duration 105 Minutes
  • Cautions
    • No Special Cautions

Media

"A comedy about crimes of the swine...Sergent writes with a dark whimsy that suggests one of Beth Henley's eccentric families gone haywire." - Richard Dodds, Theatre critic of Lagniapppe

Music

  • Musical Style N/A (Not a musical)
  • Vocal DemandsN/A (Not a musical)
  • Chorus Size No Chorus

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $110 per performance

Scripts

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Authors

Shirley Sergent

Shirley Sergent

Shirley Sergent started writing plays in the second half of her adult life, the same time she was ready to put to sleep her years of general accounting.  Her first play, The Bet, was conceived while looking at Central Park from a twelfth  floor west side apartment window; how ...

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