SAM I AM                 by Joshua H. Cohen              directed by Sarah Shahinian

What does it take to step into somebody else’s life? Sam Kenner, a young woman adrift, wins her dream job, taking over Sam Krantz’s electrical supply company. The catch is, she also has to take over his entire life – husband to his wife, father to his teenage kids – so he can run off on his new Harley.  Just as Sam starts to think she’s making headway integrating into the family, she is foiled by a sequence of events involving a dead dog, a missing child, a revealed family secret, and an electrical fire.  She finally realizes that if she wants a real, solid life, she will have to reject the settled life that is not her own, in favor of an uncertainty which is at least hers.

Joshua H. Cohen's honors include an American Theatre Wing Jonathan Larson Grant, a MAC Award nomination, and the Anna Zornio Children’s Theatre Playwriting Award for KEEP ON WALKIN’ (lyrics), which will be produced in New York by Amas Music Theatre in January 2014, under a grant from the NEA. His play THE THIRTEENTH COMMANDMENT, following past readings at Judson Church and Jewish Ensemble Theatre, had its world premiere in New York with Libra Theater Company in spring 2013.  His musical TAMAR OF THE RIVER (lyricist and co-bookwriter) had a workshop at Signature Theatre in July 2010, was presented in an oratorio version by Choral Chameleon and New York Theatre Barn in March, and will have its world premiere with Prospect Theatre Company this fall.