Play In A Day - One Act Plays

Play In A Day - One Act Plays
Author: Darren Brealey
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 122
Release: 2014-05-17
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 129183253X

No matter what you call it, the entire artistic process from concept to curtain up happens in a 24-hour period in front of a paying audience; the scripts have yet to be written. The concepts have yet to be conceived. 30 Actors, 6 Writers and 6 Directors meet for the first time thriving on nervous excitement. The proceedings take place in the foyer of the theatre, where, in 24 hours, these gathered artisans will perform their hearts out, on stage. To keep this event true to its name, minimal information is disseminated to the gathering. The Actors need to bring with them; 1 piece of costume and 1 prop; no rules or instruction of what to bring, keeping it random. The Writers bring their laptops and for good measure, a dictionary. The Directors are armed with their true grit and open mind. On the stroke of nineteen-hundred hours, 42 artisans are hushed in front of the Producers. The rules are simple; write a script, approximately 10-minutes in length and give each Actor equal stage weighting.

The One-Act Play Companion

The One-Act Play Companion
Author: Colin Dolley
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2015-01-30
Genre: Study Aids
ISBN: 1408103168

The one-act play stands apart as a distinct art form with some well known writers providing specialist material, among them Bernard Shaw, Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill. Alan Ayckbourn, Edward Albee and Tennesee Williams. There are also lesser-known writers with plenty of material to offer, yet sourcing one-act plays to perform is notoriously hard. This companion is the first book to survey the work of over 250 playwrights in an illuminating A-Z guide. Multiple styles, nationalities and periods are covered, offering a treasure trove of compelling moments of theatre waiting to be discovered. Guidance on performing and staging one-act plays is also covered as well as essential contact information and where to apply for performance rights. A chapter introducing the history of the one-act play rounds off the title as a definitive guide.

The Best Short Plays, 1988-1989

The Best Short Plays, 1988-1989
Author: Ramon Delgado
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
Total Pages: 560
Release: 2000-05
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9781557831873

(Applause Books). Lose yourself in a universe of forces familiar and frightening in the 21 plays presented in this exclusive volume. The playwrights included here succeed in pushing back the boundaries of conventional dramatic expression. Among them, Lanford Wilson dissects a survivor's anguish after his lover's death in A Poster of the Cosmos and Deborah Pryor spins an eerie tale of spellbinding romance in The Love Talker . Richard Greenberg plots a battle of wills between a young writer and his elusive muse, while Sheila Walsh examines the exchange of a woman's soul for her husband's fame in Molly and James . From the starkly realistic to the fantastic, these plays challenge their audiences to confront the universal from a new perspective.

Six One-Act Plays

Six One-Act Plays
Author: Richard Harsham
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2009
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 1441593233

"Published here for the first time, Six One-Act Plays follows the 2008 collection of Richard Harsham's Twelve Plays in Search of Their Characters that comprised longer works for the stage. Influenced by the dramatic rigors of Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter--Harsham subscribes to the mea culpa Pinter offered at the time of his Nobel Prize acceptance speech: "I've often been asked how my plays come about. I cannot say. Nor can I ever sum up my plays, except to say: that this is what happened; that is what they said; that is what they did." These one-act plays explore the human condition in cosmopolitan settings, revealing characters who work without benefit of a metaphysical safety-net and who inflict their needy sensibilities upon one another in a fragmentary world of scarce consolations and furtive urges. The sustaining illusion of permanence is subverted by the cosmic reality: human existence, in the grand scheme, proves as fleeting as the crystalline snowflake that, after making its "mark" lodged on winter's window pane, melts away, furry-white sparkle gone into velvety-black void....Harsham catches the irony of the unsolvable human mystery--that, as individuals, we are our own "disappearing acts." Like snowflakes, no two ever alike, ever again.

The Best American Short Plays 2001-2002

The Best American Short Plays 2001-2002
Author: Glenn Young
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2007
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9781557837059

A collection of one-act plays from American playwrights, which cover such themes as love, fantasy, politics, grief, marriage, crime, and deceit.

Steven Berkoff: One Act Plays

Steven Berkoff: One Act Plays
Author: Steven Berkoff
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2013-12-02
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 1408182491

Steven Berkoff has been variously described as controversial, thrilling, electric and dynamic. A Renaissance man of the theatre, he is known equally for his writing, directing and acting. Collecting together nineteen one-act plays, this volume presents never-before-published material. Abusive, shocking and endlessly surprising, these sharply written pieces showcase Berkoff's trademark controversy, black humour and dramatic dialectics. Themes that haunt much of his work are present: his luxurious verbosity; his counterpoint of crude street-patter and elegiac proclamation; sex wars; class wars; dislocation and abandonment of love in a thankless and unyielding world. The selection of plays allows the performer and reader to experience Berkoff's fluid anarchic poetry at its most profane within the complete and pithy structure of the one-act play. Established plays such as The Biblical Tales (which enjoyed success in their 2010 run at the New End Theatre, Hampstead) stand alongside previously unpublished material, giving the range of Berkoff's work full expression, from his established thematic concerns to his new and unseen work. Perfect for student and amateur performances, this volume contains a full introduction by Geoffrey Colman, Head of Acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

How to Rehearse a Play

How to Rehearse a Play
Author: Damon Kiely
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 151
Release: 2020-06-07
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1351053752

Based on interviews with over forty award-winning artists, How to Rehearse a Play offers multiple solutions to the challenges that directors face from first rehearsal to opening night. The book provides a wealth of information on how to run a rehearsal room, suggesting different paths and encouraging directors to shape their own process. It is divided into four sections: lessons from the past: a brief survey of influential directors, including Stanislavski’s acting methods and Anne Bogart’s theories on movement; a survey of current practices: practical advice on launching a process, analyzing scripts, crafting staging, detailing scene work, collaborating in technical rehearsals and previews, and opening the play to the public; rehearsing without a script: suggestions, advice, and exercises for devising plays through collaborative company creation; rehearsal workbook: prompts and exercises to help directors discover their own process. How to Rehearse a Play is the perfect guide for any artist leading their first rehearsal, heading to graduate school for intense study, or just looking for ways to refresh and reinvigorate their artistry.