Milwaukee, WI – July 30, 2024 – Award-winningWisconsin playwright Marie Kohler is pleased to announce that her play BOSWELL has just been published by Dramatic Publishing and is now available to individuals and theaters everywhere to produce. What began in an earlier iteration as BOSWELL DREAMS and produced by Milwaukee’s Renaissance Theaterworks, was later reworked into BOSWELL. The updated play went on to have a successful, critically acclaimed three-week run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019. It was at the Fringe that the play was scouted by Off-Broadway’s 59E59 Theaters, a company that specializes in premiering select Off-Broadway theatrical productions. Subsequently, in late-2022 BOSWELL was produced at 59E59Theaters and enjoyed a sold-out run. Now the journey of BOSWELL continues with its recent publication by Dramatic Publishing.
The play is available to theaters, bookstores and individuals to purchase directly through Dramatic Publishing. The cost is $10.95 per digital script. To purchase the script and for additional details on cast size, streaming rights, the target audience and approximate running time, please visit the designated BOSWELL page on the Dramatic Publishing site.
BOSWELL is told through the eyes of a young female academic from the University of Chicago, who, in an unwelcoming era, struggles for her place in the driven, male, academic world. At her professor’s direction, she travels to Scotland for conventional literary research and ends up discovering long-hidden journals . . . and ultimately and unexpectedly, Joan responds to Boswell’s authentic voice. She makes a choice. . . . She also makes a friend.
Undergirding the play’s double stories is the idea of true friendship. There are two pairs of friends in the play: two men in the 1760s (James Boswell and literary giant, Samuel Johnson); and two women in the 1950s (Joan and The Lady Fiona, in whose Scottish attic Joan researches).
Play description: In this heartwarming story, American graduate student Joan journeys to a Scottish noblewoman’s estate in the 1950s to research writings of Samuel Johnson. Instead, she discovers the often-bawdy 1760s journals of James Boswell, long-hidden in the attic of his embarrassed family. Coaxed by her new friend, Joan pours over Boswell’s wild adventures in the Scottish Hebrides with his friend Samuel Johnson and moves towards a life of greater authenticity. Heart and mind spar wittily in this two-period dramedy about friendship, travel and the written word.
To learn more, please visit: mariekohler.com/boswell
In addition to the publication of BOSWELL, Kohler’s play MIDNIGHT AND MOLL FLANDERS is also scheduled to be published by Dramatic Publishing and will be available for purchase in mid-August 2024. For updates on that, as well as current updates on Kohler’s work, please visit: mariekohler.com or dramaticpublishing.com.
Kohler will join other noted Wisconsin playwrights whose work is also published through Dramatic Publishing: Alice Austen (GIRLS IN THE BOAT); James DeVita (THE AMAZING LEMONADE GIRL/AATE Distinguished Play Award) and UWM Professor Alvaro Saar Rios (LUCHADORA!). Please visit dramaticpublishing.com to learn more about their work as well as other playwrights published through Dramatic Publishing.
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Additional Marie Kohler updates include . . .
In March of this year, the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters announced that Marie Kohler was awarded a prestigious 2024 Fellows Award. Kohler is one of 16 extraordinary Wisconsinites in their fields who have demonstrated a lifelong commitment to intellectual discourse and public service. For over 150 years, the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters has amplified and celebrated excellence, building on extraordinary achievement to connect people and improve life in Wisconsin. Through exploration of the sciences, arts, and letters, the Wisconsin Academy cultivates civil discourse, creates common ground, and increases our understanding of one another and the world we share. The Academy Fellows represent the highest level of accomplishment and reflect incredible contributions to Wisconsin, providing their unique insight, inspiration and hope.
Additionally, Marie Kohler will be directing THE CHILDREN at Next Act Theatre during their 2024/25 season. The production is by Lucy Kirkwood and runs February 12 – March 9, 2025. In the play, two married nuclear scientists reside, retired, in an isolated cottage by the sea as the world around them crumbles. Together they are going to live forever on yogurt and yoga, until an old friend arrives with a frightening request. Lucy Kirkwood’s hit play is a beautifully written puzzle about personal responsibility, guilt and what we leave our young. Generously sponsored by Bob Balderson, John and Jean DiMotto and Marianne and Sheldon Lubar. For more information or to buy tickets, please visit: nextact.org.
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About Marie Kohler
Marie Kohler is an American playwright, director, writer and producer. Her plays have earned nominations for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (twice), the American Theatre Critics Association’s “Best New Regional Play,” the Playwrights’ Center Lab (Finalist), Abingdon Award, Wisconsin Wrights (twice), Todd McNerney Playwriting Award, Charlotte Repertory Theater Award and Playwrights’ First Award (semi-finalist).
Her play BOSWELL captured four-star reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and went on to a sold-out Off-Broadway run at 59E59 Theaters (2022). MIDNIGHT AND MOLL FLANDERS, among her other plays, earned multiple “Best of the Year” reviews and will soon be published by Dramatic Publishing. Her published plays include A GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST (YouthPLAYS) and BOSWELL (Dramatic Publishing).
Kohler co-founded Milwaukee’s women-run Renaissance Theaterworks and served as Co-Artistic Director and Resident Playwright for 20 years. Milwaukee Arts Board has named her “Artist of the Year” and “Friend of the Arts.” In 2024, Kohler was elected a Fellow by the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters.
She received her BA at Harvard University (Magna Cum Laude) and her MA at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Kohler has served on the Wisconsin Humanities Board and currently serves on University of Wisconsin-Parkside Arts Board. She is also deeply committed to environmental conservation. Marie and her actor husband Brian Mani live in Spring Green and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and share three daughters and eight grandchildren. mariekohler.com
About Dramatic Publishing
Publishing plays since 1885, Dramatic Publishing is committed to developing and serving the authors, artists and educators who comprise the world of theatre. Dramatic Publishing offers musicals, full lengths and one acts that include classic and contemporary titles of all genres for every cast size, skill level and audience. For inquiries or to request professional and amateur rights for any of Dramatic Publishing’s plays and musicals, call (800) 448-7469, email customerservice@dpcplays.com or visit dramaticpublishing.com.
