Download or read book The Best American Short Plays 2013 2014 written by William W. Demastes and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2015-06-01 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Best American Short Plays). 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.

Download or read book The Best American Short Plays 2012 2013 written by William W. Demastes and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2014-06-01 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (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.

Download or read book The Director as Collaborator written by Robert Knopf and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-04-07 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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

Download or read book Action written by Robert Benedetti and published by Waveland Press. This book was released on 2022-11-14 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Multiple award-winning producer and leading teacher of acting Robert Benedetti offers a no-nonsense, detailed, and clearly structured approach to the fundamentals of acting for the camera. Benedetti uses the same approach he has employed in writing and teaching for over fifty years — defining underlying principles, presenting them in a logically sequential program of development, and providing experiential exercises to help future, as well as experienced, actors shine in film and television.

Download or read book New Voices Anthology of Short Plays 2018 written by John Bolen and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2018-07-10 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New Voices Playwrights Theatre annual anthology of short plays, 2018.

Download or read book Best Monologues from The Best American Short Plays Volume Three written by William W. Demastes and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2015-04-01 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (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.

Download or read book New Voices Playwrights Annual Anthology of Short Plays 2017 written by John Bolen and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2017-09-03 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fourth annual anthology of short plays from the New Voices Playwrights Theatre and Workshop.

Download or read book New Voices Playwrights Theatre Annual Anthology of Short Plays 2016 written by John Bolen and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2016-08-11 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Third annual anthology of short plays from the playwrights of New Voices Playwrights Theatre. Includes plays by Austin Peay, John Franceschini, John Lane, Michael Buss, John Bolen, Anne V. Grob, Linda Whitmore, David Rusiecki, Mark Bowen, Pattric Walker and Lynne Bolen.

Download or read book New Voices Playwrights Theatre Annual Anthology of Short Plays 2015 written by John Bolen and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2015-08-28 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Annual anthology of short plays by members of the New Voices Playwrights for the year 2015. Includes plays by John Bolen, Lynne Bolen, Mark Bowen, Michael C. Buss, Frank Farmer, John Franceschini, Anne V. Grob, John Lane, Austin Peay, David Rusiecki, Pattric Walker, and Linda Whitmore.

Download or read book Understanding John Guare written by William Demastes and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2017-02-28 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive study of an award-winning playwright known for unconventional blending of genres John Guare, one of the most innovative and influential contemporary American playwrights of the last sixty years, is best known for such works as House of Blue Leaves, winner of an Obie Award, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play, and four Tony Awards, and Six Degrees of Separation, recipient of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play and the Olivier Best Play Award and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. In Understanding John Guare, William W. Demastes provides a concise biography and analyzes the playwright's career from his earliest works produced off-off Broadway in the 1960s to his most recent Broadway play, A Free Man of Color, a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Often compared to his contemporaries Sam Shepard and David Mamet, who have distinctive voices tied to their mastery of realistic, idiomatic American English, Guare has a style that is perhaps more varied, Demastes speculates, the result of his formal training in theater. After earning a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University, Guare earned an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama. He then polished his theater craft in New York City during the exciting and turbulent 1960s, breaking from realist conventions and creating an unlikely blend of comedy, burlesque, stand-up comedy, and absurdly incongruous plotlines. The result has been a theater of surprise that is rich in stage action and experimentally invigorating. Demastes examines Guare's tools and techniques such as mixing serious with comic, creating characters who break into song and dance, inserting stand-up comedy routines, and drawing from the most absurd incongruities of everyday life. In doing so, Guare has created plays about the best and worst of humanity, about lost souls, and about delusional ideals.

Download or read book New Voices Playwrights Theatre Holiday Plays 2017 written by John Bolen and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2017-11-06 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first New Voices Playwrights Theatre anthology of holiday themed plays.

Download or read book New Voices Holiday Plays 2018 written by John Bolen and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2018-10-11 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2018 anthology of holiday plays from the New Voices Playwrights Theatre.

Download or read book Geometry of Grief written by Michael Frame and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2023-05-06 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This engaging short book is both a mathematician's reflections on grief and a mathematically-informed theory of grieving. Michael Frame retired in 2016 as a professor of mathematics at Yale University, where students fought for a place in his course on fractal geometry. Students appreciated his use of accessible examples- decalcomania paintings and illustrations of cats to explain mathematical concepts-and stories of his work and friendship with the founder of fractal geometry, Benoit Mandelbrot. In this book, he continues his work to make mathematics accessible, using his experiences with grief to give uninitiated readers insights into advanced topics in geometry. The inability to repeat an "aha moment", when you first learn something, is one type of grief that Frame examines. He connects this irreversible loss of perspective to more consequential grief-loss of a career or of a loved one-and explains ways he has thought mathematically about grieving and coping with grief. Frame is an authentic and sympathetic voice. He retired after discovering that he had an inoperable brain tumor and feeling the effects of his cancer on his teaching career. His connections and insights make this a timely and moving book in our time of personal and collective grief"--

Download or read book Best Monologues from Best American Short Plays written by William W. Demastes and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2013-12-01 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Contemporary Monologues for Twentysomethings written by Jessica Bashline and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-11-22 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The theater of the 21st century, in many ways, is expanding to require new muscles of its actors, and so should their monologue choices. Contemporary Monologues for Twentysomethings is a compilation of monologues for actors ages 15 to 30, incorporating characters from a variety of backgrounds with different stories to tell, giving you the chance to explore those who are close to you and those who may come from someplace else. These monologues are compiled in order of length, with the shortest coming in a little under a minute and the longer pieces running closer to four minutes. All from plays written between 2000 and 2016, the monologues in this book are useful both for exploration in a classroom setting as well as for auditions. Jessica Bashline, adjunct professor of acting at New York University, has assembled a comprehensive collection, featuring work written by Neil LaBute, Sarah Ruhl, Zach Braff, Naomi Iizuka, and many more. Every playwright in this book is currently writing. Some of these plays have been produced on Broadway and some in tiny theaters in New York, Minneapolis, San Diego, or other cities around the country. This book offers a chance for emerging actors to explore work by playwrights, both emerging and established, that is truly contemporary.

Download or read book The Oxford Book of American Short Stories written by Joyce Carol Oates and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1992 with total page 788 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The Theatre of David Henry Hwang written by Esther Kim Lee and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-12-17 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the premiere of his play FOB in 1979, the Chinese American playwright David Henry Hwang has made a significant impact in the U. S. and beyond. The Theatre of David Henry Hwang provides an in-depth study of his plays and other works in theatre. Beginning with his "Trilogy of Chinese America", Esther Kim Lee traces all major phases of his playwriting career. Utilizing historical and dramaturgical analysis, she argues that Hwang has developed a unique style of meta-theatricality and irony in writing plays that are both politically charged and commercially viable. The book also features three essays written by scholars of Asian American theatre and a comprehensive list of primary and secondary sources on his oeuvre. This comprehensive study of Hwang's work follows his career both chronologically and thematically. The first chapter analyzes Hwang's early plays, "Trilogy of Chinese America," in which he explores issues of identity and cultural assimilation particular to Chinese Americans. Chapter two looks at four plays characterised as "Beyond Chinese America," which examines Hwang's less known plays. Chapter three focuses on M. Butterfly, which received the Tony Award for Best Play in 1988. In chapter four, Lee explores Hwang's development as a playwright during the decade of the 1990s with a focus on identity politics and multiculturalism. Chapter five examines Hwang's playwriting style in depth with a discussion of Hwang's more recent plays such as Yellow Face and Chinglish. The sixth chapter features three essays written by leading scholars in Asian American theatre: Josephine Lee on Flower Drum Song, Dan Bacalzo on Golden Child, and Daphne Lei on Chinglish. The final section provides a comprehensive compilation of sources: a chronology, a bibliography of Hwang's works, reviews and critical sources.