Laugh Lines by
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.
Plays for Two by
Plays for Two is a unique anthology of twenty-eight terrific plays for two actors, by a mix of celebrated playwrights and cutting-edge new voices. It takes two to tango--or to perform a duet, fight a duel, or play ping-pong. The two-character play is dramatic confrontation stripped to its essence. These four full-length and twenty-four short plays feature pairs of every sort--strangers, rivals, parents and children, siblings, co-workers, friends, and lovers--swooning or sparring, meeting cute or parting ways. In a dizzying range of moods and styles, these two-handers offer the kind of meaty, challenging roles actors love, while providing readers and audiences with the pleasures of watching the complex give-and-take dynamics of two keenly matched characters. Plays by: Billy Aronson, David Auburn, Pete Barry, Naveen Bahar Choudhury, Anthony Clarvoe, Steven Dietz, Halley Feiffer, Simon Fill, Frank Higgins, David Ives, Jacob Juntunen, Ean Miles Kessler, Neil LaBute, Eric Lane, Kitt Lavoie, Jacqueline E. Lawton, Mark Harvey Levine, Elizabeth Meriwether, Michael Mitnick, Daria Polatin, Marco Ramirez, Kelly Rhodes, Jose Rivera, Paul Rudnick, Edwin Sanchez, Nina Shengold, Cori Thomas, Doug Wright
The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2013 by
In this volume you'll find fifty terrific new 10-minute plays Plays for Two Actors: Absent Grace (Claudia Barnett) Animal/Animal (Libby Emmons) Anniversary Season (Jenny Lyn Bader) Aposiopesis (John McEneny) Black Coffee (Deanna Alisa Ableser) Customer Service (Philip Hall) Draw a Lion (Dan O'Neill) Fair Shake (Jeffrey Gold) Give and Take (Bara Swain) Green Sound (John Patrick Bray) In Memory of Calvinball (Erin Moughon) Intentional Deception (Greg Freier) Lack of Moisture (Debbie Lamedman) Magic 8 Ball (Kimberly Pau) The Memory Box (Chris Shaw Swanson) Minutiae (Barry Eitel) Missed Connections (Marj O'Neill Butler) The Ninth Circus of Hell (C.J. Ehrlich) Numbers (Gregg Kreutz) Perspective (James McLindon) Reinventing the Wheel (Megan Lohne) She's Bound to Know (Michael Weems) This Flight Tonight (Wendy MacLeod) Unintelligent Life (John McKinney) Your Kiss is on My List (Christopher Lockheardt Plays for Three or More Actors: All My Problems (Laurie Graff) Battle Tactics (Andy Haynes) Black and White (Donna Hoke) The Date (Scene) (Mike Salomon) Captain Rockets Versus the Intergalactic Brain-Eaters (Don Nigro) The Corporate Ladder (Lisa Soland) Erosion (Scott McCrea) He's Really a Good Guy (Rory Leahy) Hurt (Saviana Stanescu) Mendacity of The Hear of Elephants in the Room (Carlos Murillo) Museum Place @2 (William Fowkes) Organic Seed (Patrick Gabridge) Pass Go: A Monopoly Play (Brian James Polak) Pocket Universe (Duncan Pflaster) The Promise (Jeffrey Strausser) Rat-Tat-Tat (David Guaspari) The Slasher's Lament (Michael Puzzo) A Small Fishing Nation Wedged Between Estonia and Latvia (Andrew Black) Standing Room Only (Aren Haun) Switzerland (Mayank Keshaviah) True Enough (Sonya Sobieski) Twenty-Three Hundred (Mark Rigney) What are You Going to Be? (Steven Korbar) Where were You When I Was Coming? (C.S. Hanson) Zombie Love (Earl T. Roske)
Best Monologues from Best American Short Plays by
(Best American Short Plays). Best Monologues from Best American Short Plays, Volume One is a must for actors of all ages beginners as well as seasoned veterans and belongs in the libraries of all theater teachers looking for new and exciting material for their students. The monologues in this volume are excerpted from the outstanding series Best American Short Plays, an archive of works from many of the best playwrights active today, presenting taut, engaging single-character pieces that range from zany comedy to poignant tales of love and loss. Each monologue includes a short introduction and a reference identifying where to locate the entire play, should anyone choose to pursue production beyond the monologue. Long or short, serious or not, this collection is must-have material for anyone interested in acting. The monologues also succeed as excellent companions for the casual reader. Included in this volume are monologues by Liliana Almendarez, James Armstrong, Billy Aronson, Clay McLeod Chapman, Migdalla Cruz, Laura Shaine Cunningham, Eileen Fischer, Jill Elaine Hughes, Julia Jarcho, Zilvinas Jonusas, Adam Kraar, David Kranes, Neil LaBute, Daniel Frederick Levin, Bruce Levy, Carey Lovelace, Carol K. Mack, Dano Madden, Peter Maloney, Joe Maruzzo, Mark Medoff, Susan Miller, Julie Rae (Pratt) Mollenkamp, Rick Pulos, Ronald Ribman, Murray Schisgal, Pamela Sneed, and co-writers Polly Frost and Ray Sawhill.
Where Do We Live and Other Plays by
This anthology marks the emergence of one of the finest and most innovative new artists writing for the theater today. "The secret of Shinn's success is in the way he exploits the dramatic gap between what is said and that which is left unsaid . . . writing like this is rare," said the London Independent. Where Do We Live, the title play, was written shortly after 9/11 and though never referenced, it still haunts this chronicle of the struggles of several aspiring and gifted young New Yorkers on the Lower East Side. Like all his work, it is a deeply affecting story of how we define our lives and our place in the world. The Coming World "Shinn certainly looks like a shining prospect for the future."--Daily Telegraph Four "Nothing is simple emotionally. The play keeps delivering small shocks and aches that end in a standoff, or maybe in that pause between despair, resignation and a twinge of hope. Haunting."--Margo Jefferson, The New York Times Other People "Shinn writes with graceful compassion about people trapped inside their own skins unable to make sense of their lives."--The Guardian What Didn't Happen ". . . is about the distance between people, and the ways in which even friends, spouses and lovers are ultimately unknowable to one another . . . a playwright to cherish."--The New York Times Christopher Shinn's plays have been produced at Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, the Vineyard Theatre in New York and often at London's Royal Court Theatre. Where Do We Live received a 2003 Olivier Award nomination for most promising playwright. His next play, On the Mountain, premieres in New York City early in 2005.
American Political Plays After 9/11 by
American Political Plays after 9/11 is a diverse collection of bold, urgent, and provocative plays that respond to the highly charged, post 9/11 political landscape. Sparked by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and subsequently fueled by a series of controversial events--the Iraq war, the passing and enforcement of the U.S.A. Patriot Act, and the revelation of torture and other scandals at the Abu Ghraib prison--American political theater is currently experiencing a surge in activity. The plays in this collection include The Guys by Anne Nelson, At the Vanishing Point by Naomi Iizuka, The Venus de Milo Is Armed by Kia Corthron, Back of the Throat by Yusseff El Guindi, Three Nights in Prague by Allan Havis, and Question 27, Question 28 by Chay Yew. The characters range from a New York City fire captain trying to respectfully memorialize eight of his lost comrades, to the citizens of a hog-killing Louisville neighborhood who poignantly exemplify the underside of the economic crisis, to an Arab American citizen being harshly (and possibly unfairly) interrogated by two officers as a "person of interest." Though not all of the plays deal explicitly with the Al Qaeda attacks, they collectively reveal themes of sorrow and anxiety, moral indignation, alarmist self-preservation, and economic and social insecurity stemming from the United States' fairly sudden shift from cold war superpower to vulnerable target. The lively introduction by Allan Havis includes a brief history of political theater in the United States, an extensive discussion about how theater communities responded to 9/11, and an informative analysis of the six plays in the book. A collection of dramatic material framed by this significant historical event, AmericanPolitical Plays after 9/11 will be indispensable for theater and cultural studies scholars and students.
Trends in Twenty-First Century African Theatre and Performance by
Trends in Twenty-First Century African Theatre and Performance is a collection of regionally focused articles on African theatre and performance. The volume provides a broad exploration of the current state of African theatre and performance and considers the directions they are taking in the 21st Century. It contains sections on current trends in theatre and performance studies, on applied/community theatre and on playwrights. The chapters have evolved out of a working group process, in which papers were submitted to peer-group scrutiny over a period of four years, at four international conferences. The book will be particularly useful as a key text for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in non-western theatre and performance (where this includes African theatre and performance), and would be a very useful resource for theatre scholars and anyone interested in African performance forms and cultures.