The Best American Short Plays 2012-2013

The Best American Short Plays 2012-2013 PDF Author: William W. Demastes
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 1480397210
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
(Applause Books). For over 70 years, The Best American Short Plays has been the standard of excellence for one-act plays in America. From its inception, it has identified cutting-edge playwrights who have gone on to establish award-winning careers, including Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, and more. In this volume, the plays capture the struggle between "hot tempers and cold decrees." Humans love to think of themselves as rational beings well in control of their lives and surroundings from sunup to sundown, sundown to sunrise. We learn to follow rules of proper behavior and more than happily issue out advice to our friends who just can't get a handle on themselves. Restraint and order, after all, are the cornerstones of human society and civilization. The problem is that human nature bucks and bridles at every attempt to socialize and civilize. Shakespeare got it right when he penned the observation, "The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree." In those few words he has managed to capture precisely why it is so difficult to be human; if it were okay simply to let our hot tempers prevail, life would be so much easier. But cold decrees are what prevent us from self-destruction, and so we endure the struggle.

The Best American Short Plays 2012-2013

The Best American Short Plays 2012-2013 PDF Author: William W. Demastes
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 1480397210
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 303

Get Book Here

Book Description
(Applause Books). For over 70 years, The Best American Short Plays has been the standard of excellence for one-act plays in America. From its inception, it has identified cutting-edge playwrights who have gone on to establish award-winning careers, including Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, and more. In this volume, the plays capture the struggle between "hot tempers and cold decrees." Humans love to think of themselves as rational beings well in control of their lives and surroundings from sunup to sundown, sundown to sunrise. We learn to follow rules of proper behavior and more than happily issue out advice to our friends who just can't get a handle on themselves. Restraint and order, after all, are the cornerstones of human society and civilization. The problem is that human nature bucks and bridles at every attempt to socialize and civilize. Shakespeare got it right when he penned the observation, "The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree." In those few words he has managed to capture precisely why it is so difficult to be human; if it were okay simply to let our hot tempers prevail, life would be so much easier. But cold decrees are what prevent us from self-destruction, and so we endure the struggle.

Best Monologues from The Best American Short Plays, Volume Three

Best Monologues from The Best American Short Plays, Volume Three PDF Author: William W. Demastes
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 1495028887
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
(Best American Short Plays). "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Really? Words can break spirits, destroy confidence. They can also build hope and incite great acts of heroism. Playwrights know this, and so do theater audiences. Otherwise, why go? Words matter and carry clout every bit as dangerous as a hammer or crowbar. This, too, playwrights know. The monologues in this volume are full of such blows, striking at our imaginations and our memories, generating responses such as joyful laughter or chilling surprise. Others squeeze us into worlds we've never experienced, or perhaps experienced at the furthest edges of memory and recollection. Still others may help us alter the way we see certain things, people, or beliefs. Best Monologues from The Best American Short Plays, Volume Three is a collection of monologues drawn from the popular Best American Short Plays series, an archive of works from many of the best playwrights active today. Long or short, serious or not, excerpts or entireties, this collection abounds in speech acts that may trigger physical reactions and almost certainly will transform an attitude or two, drawing out lost memories, creating new ones, and definitely entertaining, engaging, amusing us all along the way.

The Best American Short Plays 2013-2014

The Best American Short Plays 2013-2014 PDF Author: William W. Demastes
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1495035425
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
For more than 70 years, The Best American Short Plays has been the standard of excellence for one-act plays in America. From its inception, it has identified cutting-edge playwrights – Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, and others – who have gone on to establish award-winning careers. The Best American Short Plays 2013-2014 takes a look at our changing times. “Uncertain” seems to be the watchword of today's world, full of surprises, shocks, and even a few delights. Uncertainty brings with it fear and insecurity, as well as nostalgic longing for the good old days, but for some, uncertainty means opportunity and along with it the prospect of change for the better. This volume explores various experiences of uncertainty and includes a series of nine plays gathered by Daniel Gallant, entitled Nine Signs of the Times, as well as short plays by Neil LaBute, John Guare, Laura Shaine Cunningham, Daniel F. Levin, Quincy Long, Halley Feiffer, Caridad Svich, and Clay McLeod Chapman. This collection will be complemented by a range of plays from around the country by playwrights likewise observing and digesting the signs of the times. Together the plays of this volume work as a time capsule, capturing the fears and longings of a world on the verge and in the midst of big changes, hopefully for the better – but quite possibly for the worse.

The Best American Short Plays 2018–2019

The Best American Short Plays 2018–2019 PDF Author: John Patrick Bray
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493055933
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
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.

The Oxford Book of American Short Stories

The Oxford Book of American Short Stories PDF Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195092622
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 788

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Book Description
This volume offers a survey of American short fiction in 59 tales that combine classic works with 'different, unexpected gems', which invite readers to explore a wealth of important pieces by women and minority writers. Authors include: Amy Tan, Alice Adams, David Leavitt and Tim O'Brien.

The Best American Short Plays 2011-2012

The Best American Short Plays 2011-2012 PDF Author: William W. Demastes
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 148035502X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
(Applause Books). Applause is proud to continue the series that for over 70 years has been the standard of excellence for one-act plays in America. From its inception, The Best American Short Plays has identified new, cutting-edge playwrights who have gone on to establish award-winning careers, including Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Wendy Wasserstein, David Mamet, and Horton Foote. William W. Demastes made his debut as series editor with the well-received 2010-2011 volume, a diverse collection revolving around the multidimensional theme of love. Blogcritics said of the anthology: "This collection is a bountiful of pleasing oddities. Each work offers something worthwhile.... The collection runs the gamut of the most serious drama to the most irreverent topical mental trinkets...." Demastes returns and once again draws from works produced by some of America's finest theater companies in an effort to capture the wide range of styles, topics, and regional tastes that typifies American theater. The compilation includes works by John Guare, Neil LaBute, and A. R. Gurney, as well as contributions from a plethora of gifted, emerging playwrights.

The Best American Short Stories of the Century

The Best American Short Stories of the Century PDF Author: John Updike
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 810

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Book Description
The incomparable John Updike selects the 55 finest short stories from America's bestselling anthology, published since 1915.

The Best American Short Stories 2021

The Best American Short Stories 2021 PDF Author: Jesmyn Ward
Publisher: Mariner Books
ISBN: 1328485390
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
A collection of the year's best stories selected by celebrated two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward In her introduction to The Best American Short Stories 2021, guest editor JesmynWard says that the best fiction offers the reader a "sense of repair."The stories in this year's collection accomplish just that, immersing the reader in powerfully imagined worlds and allowing them to bring some of that power into their own lives. From a stirring portrait of Rodney King's final days to a surreal video game set in the Middle East, with real consequences, to an indigenous boy's gripping escape from his captors, this collection renders profoundly empathetic depictions of the variety of human experience. These stories are poignant reminders of the possibilities of fiction: as you sink into world after world, become character after character, as Ward writes, you"forget yourself, and then, upon surfacing, know yourself and others anew. The Best American Short Stories 2021 includes GABRIEL BUMP - BRANDON HOBSON - DAVID MEANS- JANE PEK - TRACEY ROSE PEYTON - GEORGE SAUNDERS - BRYAN WASHINGTON - KEVIN WILSON - C PAM ZHANG and others

The Director as Collaborator

The Director as Collaborator PDF Author: Robert Knopf
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317326563
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
The Director as Collaborator teaches essential directing skills while emphasizing how directors and theater productions benefit from collaboration. Good collaboration occurs when the director shares responsibility for the artistic creation with the entire production team, including actors, designers, stage managers, and technical staff. Leadership does not preclude collaboration; in theater, these concepts can and should be complementary. Students will develop their abilities by directing short scenes and plays and by participating in group exercises. New to the second edition: updated interviews, exercises, forms, and appendices new chapter on technology including digital research, previsualization and drafting programs, and web-sharing sites new chapter on devised and ensemble-based works new chapter on immersive theater, including material and exercises on environmental staging and audience–performer interaction

New Voices Playwrights Annual Anthology of Short Plays 2017

New Voices Playwrights Annual Anthology of Short Plays 2017 PDF Author: John Bolen
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1387207180
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 173

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Book Description
The fourth annual anthology of short plays from the New Voices Playwrights Theatre and Workshop.