The Best American Short Plays 1995-1996 - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1557832552 ISBN 13: 9781557832559

Publisher: Applause, 2000

Synopsis

A collection of twelve short plays from 1995-1996. Includes: “Fitting Rooms” – Susan Cinoman; “Scribe's Paradox, or The Mechanical Rabbit” – Michael Feingold; “Home Section” – Janusz Glowacki; “Degas, C'est Moi” – David Ives; “The St. Valentine's Day Massacre” – Allan Knee; “Old Blues” – Jonathan Levy; “Dearborn Heights” – Cassandra Medley; “American Dreamers” – Lavonne Mueller; “When it Comes Early” – John Ford Noonan; “The Original Last Wish Baby” – William Seebring; “The Mystery School” – Paul Selig; “The Sandalwood Box” – Mac Wellman.

About this title

Review:

Stein and Young have gathered a sharp, savagely funny, occasionally surreal collection of one-act plays that read like short stories. In David Ives's Degas, C'est Moi, a man escapes from his humdrum life by assuming the persona of the French painter for a day--only to be brought back to earth by the sight of a real-life nude. Marilyn Monroe has a rendezvous with Carl Sandburg in a Washington hotel suite in Lavonne Mueller's American Dreamers. A couple's once-a-year meeting takes on its annual bizarre twist in Allan Knee's St. Valentine's Day Massacre. And, in possibly the only epic one-act ever written, William Seebring unleashes the mother of all tabloid manias when a child is born without a heart--and lives--in his 40-character The Original Last Wish Baby.You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll finish each one in fewer than 15 minutes--but don't be surprised if some of them linger longer.

From Booklist:

The latest edition of this useful series offers 12 one-acts reflecting the wide range of contemporary American theater. For those who prefer their theater comic, there is David Ives' humorous meditation on identity, Degas, C'est Moi, and Susan Cinoman's slice-of-life look at shopping rituals, Fitting Rooms. Those who think drama should be made of sterner stuff should sample Cassandra Medley's moving Dearborn Heights, about discrimination in the North, and Jonathan Levy's Old Blues, a touching portrait of a barber-shop quartet suddenly facing aging and mortality. Not every play here will be to everyone's taste. Yet those who find Mac Wellman's surrealistic Sandalwood Box just too weird can skip to Janusz Glowacki's more gently absurdist Home Section, and vice versa. American theater is obviously large and vital enough to contain many voices. It speaks volumes about editors Stein and Young's selective acumen that the collection so well reflects this diversity. Jack Helbig

About this edition

• Publisher: Applause
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1557832552
• ISBN 13: 9781557832559
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 260