Soldier's Wife at the Mint Theater

Mint Theater Company presents Soldier's Wife, by Rose Franken, opening at the Mint Theatre on the 23 Feb 2006, following previews from the 7 Feb and running through to the 2 Apr 2006.

Soldier's Wife is a romantic comedy set against the backdrop of World War II. John Rogers is the soldier; after 18 months in the South Pacific he has been invalided home and is greeted there by a baby boy who he is meeting for the first time and Kate, his wife who has learned self-sufficiency in his absence. Adjusting to the challenges of a new domestic equation is further complicated by the sudden and unexpected fame that is thrust upon Kate when letters she has written to John are published to great acclaim in a book entitled: Soldier�s Wife.

Soldier's Wife will be performed by the Mint Theatre Company ensemble, directed by Eleanor Reissa.

Rose Franken was a professional writer for over forty years beginning with her novel Patterns in 1925, published by Max Perkins at Scribners, and concluding with her humorous book You�re Well Out of the Hospital in 1966 when she was seventy-one. Franken was a Broadway playwright and director, as well as Hollywood screenwriter and novelist. She achieved fame and fortune as the author of the phenomenally successful �Claudia� stories, serialized in Redbook and Good Housekeeping and published in eight books between 1939 and 1957. In 1941 she dramatized the first book of the series into the play Claudia starring Dorothy Maguire, which ran on Broadway for 722 performances. In addition to the hit play, Franken wrote two movies, a radio and a television series about the life and love of Claudia and David Naughton and their family. Franken�s other plays on Broadway included Another Language and Outrageous Fortune, which along with Claudia and Soldier�s Wife were selected by Burns Mantle for his prestigious Best Plays annuals. Today none of her plays or books are still in print.