TCG Books Releases Samuel D. Hunter's THE WHALE/A BRIGHT NEW BOISE

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is pleased to announce the publication of Samuel D. Hunter's The Whale/A Bright New Boise. This is the first book by Hunter from TCG. Winner of Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel awards, The Whale has had several notable productions, including its world premiere at the Denver Theatre Company in January 2012 and an off-Broadway run at Playwrights Horizons in October 2012 in New York, NY. The Obie Award-winning A Bright New Boise was first produced by Partial Comfort Productions in New York in September 2010, and enjoyed a subsequent production at Woolly Mammoth Theater Company in Washington, DC. The award-winning plays will be available in paperback and as an eBook.

Acclaimed for his gentle, complex characterizations, Samuel D. Hunter's big-hearted and fiercely funny plays explore the quiet desperation running through many American lives. The Whale tells the story of a six hundred-pound shut-in's last chance at redemption and of discovering beauty in the most unexpected places when he reaches out to his long-estranged--and severely unhappy--daughter.

Hunter's second piece, the Obie Award-winning A Bright New Boise, is a philosophical investigation of faith and search for meaning in rural Idaho where a disgraced evangelical is forced to take a minimum-wage job at the local Hobby Lobby craft store in an effort to reunite with his estranged son.

Samuel D. Hunter's other plays include A Permanent Image, Jack's Precious Moment, Five Genocides, The Few, Rest, A Great Wilderness, Pocatello, and Norway. He has active playwriting commissions from Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center, Seattle Rep, South Coast Rep (California), and Playwrights Horizons (New York). He was also the 2013 resident playwright at Arena Stage in Washington, DC, and is a core member of the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

For over 50 years, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, has existed to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional not-for-profit American theatre. TCG's constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to nearly 700 member theatres and affiliate organizations and more than 12,000 individuals nationwide. TCG offers its members networking and knowledge-building opportunities through conferences, events, research and communications; awards grants, approximately $2 million per year, to theatre companies and individual artists; advocates on the federal level; and serves as the U.S. Center of the International Theatre Institute, connecting its constituents to the global theatre community. TCG is North America's largest independent trade publisher of dramatic literature, with 12 Pulitzer Prizes for Best Play on the TCG booklist. It also publishes the award-winning AMERICAN THEATRE magazine and ARTSEARCH, the essential source for a career in the arts. In all of its endeavors, TCG seeks to increase the organizational efficiency of its member theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field and promote a larger public understanding of, and appreciation for, the theatre. www.tcg.org.

The Whale/A Bright New Boise

By Samuel D. Hunter

Paperback 200 pages

$15.95 9781559364607

eBook 9781559367769

September 2014

A first-time TCG title from this author!

TCG books are exclusively distributed to the book trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution. Orders: 800-283-3572. SAN number: 63170X. Individuals may call 212-609-5900 or visit our online bookstore at www.tcg.org. For postage and handling, please add $6.50 for the first book and $1.00 for each additional copy.