The Best American Short Plays
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Author | : John Patrick Bray |
Publisher | : Rowman & Littlefield |
Total Pages | : 400 |
Release | : 2021-06-01 |
Genre | : Drama |
ISBN | : 1493055933 |
Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Paula Vogel once said that theater helps us learn how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable with each other. Revolving around the theme of "this is who we are," the one-act plays in this latest edition of the Best American Short Plays series (now in its ninth decade) explore the thoughtful ways in which playwrights are wrestling to make sense of our world today. The selected plays reflect how we perform our identities (private and public) and how we negotiate who we are with others who often have different perspectives, perspectives that make us uncomfortable. The theme of this collection is topical and apt—as our country continues to shore up its borders along party lines, from pride parades to strict abortion laws, from inclusivity in education curricula to children in detention centers at the US–Mexico border. Each of the plays presents a clear reflection of who we are (and who we aspire to be) as individuals and as a nation. The styles of the plays also reflect different approaches to storytelling: two characters, four characters, a single setting, multiple settings, or a utopian "nowhere." The rich and compelling characters try to work out their differences and overcome obstacles using humor and a sense of magic that comes with simple moments of human connection. This is who we are: people who are grappling with the desire to be understood, the hope to be loved and accepted, and to allow that hope to shape a larger sense of who we could be if we continue to work and listen.
Author | : Howard Stein |
Publisher | : Hal Leonard Corporation |
Total Pages | : 214 |
Release | : 2000-02-01 |
Genre | : Drama |
ISBN | : 9781557830845 |
A collection of one-act plays from American playwrights, which cover such themes as love, fantasy, politics, grief, marriage, crime, and deceit.
Author | : David Adjmi |
Publisher | : Bloomsbury Publishing |
Total Pages | : 526 |
Release | : 2013-03-28 |
Genre | : Drama |
ISBN | : 1472503430 |
The Methuen Drama Book of New American Plays is an anthology of six outstanding plays from some of the most exciting playwrights currently receiving critical acclaim in the States. It showcases work produced at a number of the leading theatres during the last decade and charts something of the extraordinary range of current playwriting in America. It will be invaluable not only to readers and theatergoers in the U.S., but to those around the world seeking out new American plays and an insight into how U.S. playwrights are engaging with their current social and political environment. There is a rich collection of distinctive, diverse voices at work in the contemporary American theatre and this brings together six of the best, with work by David Adjmi, Marcus Gardley, Young Jean Lee, Katori Hall, Christopher Shinn and Dan LeFranc. The featured plays range from the intimate to the epic, the personal to the national and taken together explore a variety of cultural perspectives on life in America. The first play, David Adjmi's Stunning, is an excavation of ruptured identity set in modern day Midwood, Brooklyn, in the heart of the insular Syrian-Jewish community; Marcus Gardley's lyrical epic The Road Weeps, The Well Runs Dry deals with the migration of Black Seminoles, is set in mid-1800s Oklahoma and speaks directly to modern spirituality, relocation and cultural history; Young Jean Lee's Pullman, WA deals with self-hatred and the self-help culture in her formally inventive three-character play; Katori Hall's Hurt Village uses the real housing project of "Hurt Village" as a potent allegory for urban neglect set against the backdrop of the Iraq war; Christopher Shinn's Dying City melds the personal and political in a theatrical crucible that cracks open our response to 9/11 and Abu Graib, and finally Dan LeFranc's The Big Meal, an inter-generational play spanning eighty years, is set in the mid-west in a generic restaurant and considers family legacy and how some of the smallest events in life turn out to be the most significant.
Author | : Craig Pospisil |
Publisher | : Dramatists Play Service, Inc. |
Total Pages | : 122 |
Release | : 2015-01-01 |
Genre | : Drama |
ISBN | : 0822231492 |
THE STORIES: CAMBERWELL HOUSE by Amelia Roper. Elderly neighbors Annie and Olive have been friends since they were children. At twenty, they agreed to "knock each other off" if they were still alive at seventy-five. Now they are seventy-five and one of them has changed her mind. A tale of old age, murder, and ginger nut biscuits. (1 woman.) THE CLOSET by Aoise Stratford. Kevin's dad has thrown his favorite toy, Bart Sponge, into the back of a closet. There, Bart meets a toy dinosaur and another toy he can't even begin to identify. Does a supposedly gay toy have a chance of making it out of the closet? (2 men, 1 woman or man.) CLOSING COSTS by Arlene Hutton. After viewing four hundred apartments, has Harris finally found the right co-op, or simply the right real estate agent—Alice? Harris must decide if it's time to trade in his artificial fish—and finally grow up. (1 man, 1 woman.) FREEFALLING by Aurin Squire. Two passengers and a stewardess on a falling plane give their moment-by-moment account of what happens when tomorrow is no longer certain. (2 men, 1 woman.) POISON by John Patrick Shanley. Kenny has seen the depths of Kelly's self-hatred, and he'll never date her again—unless he drinks a fortune-teller's mysterious potion, which will kill his soul as dead as Kelly's. Can Kelly convince him to drink the potion? Can she convince herself? (1 man, 2 women.) SELF-TORTURE AND STRENUOUS EXERCISE by Harry Kondoleon. Carl tells Alvin that he's in love with another woman. "Good for you," says Alvin, who refuses to accept that Carl's, Adel, wife only attempted suicide—she's still alive. The woman Carl loves is Alvin's wife, Beth. But right now, Beth is so drunk she can't get up off the floor, much less run off with Carl, and Adel comes in with bandaged wrists saying Carl has been trying to kill her. These four have some issues to work out. (2 men, 2 women.) A SINGULAR KINDA GUY by David Ives. Mitch is a young guy talking to a girl in a bar. She's nice, but he's got this sort of confession, see. There's something she ought to know—on the inside, he isn't really a guy at all. He's an Olivetti electric self-correcting typewriter. (1 man.) SOMETHING FROM NOTHING by David Riedy. A stranger's intimate gesture on a New York subway causes a couple to reexamine their relationship, and it causes one person to get punched in the face. Told from all three characters' wildly different perspectives. (2 men, 1 woman.) THERE'S NO HERE HERE by Craig Pospisil. Lance moves to Paris to follow his dream of becoming a writer, but his work goes badly. As does his relationship with Juliette, a beautiful Parisian. But a strangely familiar woman at their local bistro forces Lance to dig deeper into himself. (2 men, 2 women.) YOU HAVE ARRIVED by Rob Ackerman. Dan and Kristin are navigating their first date, and fortunately, the other woman with them knows the way through the confusion into Brooklyn. That would be Cyndi, the GPS system in Dan's car. (1 man, 2 women.)
Author | : Glenn Young |
Publisher | : Hal Leonard Corporation |
Total Pages | : 216 |
Release | : 2001 |
Genre | : Drama |
ISBN | : 9781557834522 |
A collection of one-act plays from American playwrights, which cover such themes as love, fantasy, politics, grief, marriage, crime, and deceit.
Author | : Eric Lane |
Publisher | : Vintage |
Total Pages | : 528 |
Release | : 2008-12-10 |
Genre | : Drama |
ISBN | : 0307487326 |
This one-of-a-kind anthology features thirty-six hilarious short plays by major American playwrights and emerging new voices, all guaranteed to send readers and audiences into peals of laughter. From the surrealistic wit of Steve Martin's "The Zig-Zag Woman" to the biting political satire of Steven Dietz's "The Spot," from Christopher Durang's wonderfully loopy "Wanda's Visit" to Shel Silverstein's supremely twisted "The Best Daddy," there's something in here to make everyone laugh. There are plays for casts of all sizes, from monologues to large ensembles, with diverse and challenging roles for actors of every age and type. Even the titles are funny: Mark O'Donnell's "There Shall Be No Bottom (a bad play for worse actors)," Elaine May's "The Way of All Fish," and Alan Ball's "Your Mother's Butt." A bonanza for theatergoers, performers, and comedy fans, Laugh Lines will bring down the house. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Author | : Glenn Young |
Publisher | : Hal Leonard Corporation |
Total Pages | : 276 |
Release | : 2000-02 |
Genre | : Drama |
ISBN | : 9781557833174 |
A collection of one-act plays from American playwrights, which cover such themes as love, fantasy, politics, grief, marriage, crime, and deceit.
Author | : Barbara Parisi |
Publisher | : Rowman & Littlefield |
Total Pages | : 384 |
Release | : 2011-07-01 |
Genre | : Performing Arts |
ISBN | : 1557839433 |
Theater / Contemporary Plays
Author | : Glenn Young |
Publisher | : Hal Leonard Corporation |
Total Pages | : 244 |
Release | : 2000 |
Genre | : Drama |
ISBN | : 9781557834263 |
A collection of one-act plays from American playwrights, which cover such themes as love, fantasy, politics, grief, marriage, crime, and deceit.
Author | : Glenn Young |
Publisher | : Hal Leonard Corporation |
Total Pages | : 228 |
Release | : 2007 |
Genre | : Performing Arts |
ISBN | : 9781557837042 |
A collection of one-act plays from American playwrights, which cover such themes as love, fantasy, politics, grief, marriage, crime, and deceit.