"Frederick Bailey [is] one of America's most theatrical playwrights." —Beth Henley
TWO OUTLAWS TWO KISSES are two comedies by Anton Chekhov, written at the height of his dramatic career, presented in hilarious new adaptations by playwright/screenwriter Frederick Bailey. A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL is based on Chekhov's The Marriage Proposal, and THE BIG OAF is taken from Chekhov's The Bear, sometimes translated as The Boor or The Brute. Both plays in these adaptations are now set in the American west in 1904 (the year Chekhov died at the age of 44), and both are riotous perspectives on romantic love and human misunderstanding. Chekhov was a practicing physician who worked with Stanislavsky and the prestigious Moscow Art Theatre at the end of the 19th century, producing such classic plays as The Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya, The Seagull, and Three Sisters. Adaptor Bailey was co-winner of first prize in the first annual New Play Festival at the renowned Actors Theatre of Louisville. His plays have been done off-off Broadway in New York and in various repertory, university and waiver theatres from Los Angeles to Boston and London. The two plays in this volume have casts of three, two men and one woman in each, and the same three actors could appear in both plays.
"Bailey's writing is brilliantly comic...not only refreshing, but badly needed." —Dallas Jazz News
"A gifted and visionary writer...Bailey has one of the clearest original voices writing for the theatre in Los Angeles." —L.A. Daily News
"There's no doubt that Frederick Bailey is a talented writer. He creates interesting, full-bodied characters and he develops a plot carefully and with a fine sense of unravelling mystery." —Hollywood Reporter
Capitol Radio in London said his sci-fi comedy GRINGO PLANET boasts "Wonderful surprises...I thought it was great!" while London's Alternative Magazine said it was "Frightening, horrific, hard and hilarious...really a good little atmospheric piece and very entertaining."
The Los Angeles Times has called Bailey's work "an interesting mix of the Marx Brothers, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and The Thing...entertaining..."
Writing under the moniker J.F. Bailey II, he also has five novellas and two short story collections on Amazon.
