Take Ten: New 10-Minute Plays

by Lane, Eric; Shengold, Nina

• ISBN13: 9780679772828
• ISBN10: 0679772820
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-03-25
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

A ten-minute play is a streak of theatrical lightning. It doesn't last long, but its power can stand your hair on end. This splendid anthology contains enough wattage to light up a small city. For in its pages, thirty-two of our finest playwrights hone their skills on a form that has been called the haiku of the American stage. The plays that Nina Shengold and Eric Lane have collected in this volume range from monologues to an eight-character farce. Eminently producible, ideally suited for the classroom and audition,Take Tenis a marvelous resource for teachers and students of drama, as well as a stimulating read for lovers of the theatre. Contributors include: John Augustine, Cathy Celesia, Laura Cunningham, Joe Pintauro, Mary Sue Price, Megan Terry, Jose Rivera, Romulus Linney, David Mamet, Jane Martin, David Ives, and many others.

Author Biography

Eric Lane and Nina Shengold have been editing contemporary theater anthologies for more than twenty years. Eric Lane's award-winning plays have been published and performed in the United States, Canada, Europe, and China. Plays include Ride, Times of War, Heart of the City, Dancing on Checkers' Grave, and Filming O'Keeffe. Floating, a PlayPenn finalist, was workshopped at Raven Theatre. Eric's short plays are published in Best American Short Plays, Poems and Plays, and the Foreign Language Press (Beijing). He wrote and produced the short films First Breath and Cater-Waiter, which he also directed; both films screened in more than forty cities worldwide. For TV's Ryan's Hope he received a Writers Guild Award. Honors include the Berrilla Kerr Playwriting Award, the La MaMa Playwright Award, and fellowships at Yaddo, VCCA, and St. James Cavalier in Malta. Eric is an honors graduate of Brown University, and artistic director of Orange Thoughts, a not-for-profit theater and film company in New York City.

Nina Shengold's plays include Finger Foods, War at Home, Homesteaders, and Romeo/Juliet, and have been produced around the world. Her one-act No Shoulder was filmed by director Suzi Yoonessi, with Melissa Leo and Samantha Sloyan. Nina won a Writers Guild Award for her teleplay Labor of Love, starring Marcia Gay Harden; other teleplays include Blind Spot, with Joanne Woodward and Laura Linney, and Unwed Father. Her books include the novel Clearcut; River of Words: Portraits of Hudson Valley Writers (with photographer Jennifer May), and a growing posse of pseudonymous books for young readers. A graduate of Wesleyan, she is currently teaching creative writing at Manhattanville College. Nina lives in New York's Hudson Valley, where she has been books editor of Chronogram magazine since 2004.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Siobhan	p. 3
Anything for You	p. 11
Flop Cop	p. 21
Mrs. Sorken	p. 31
Brother	p. 39
New York Actor	p. 51
The Philadelphia	p. 65
The Man Who Couldn't Dance	p. 79
Hold for Three	p. 93
Reverse Transcription	p. 101
A Bowl of Soup	p. 117
Railing It Uptown	p. 125
Stars	p. 139
A Sermon	p. 147
Shasta Rue	p. 153
Ferris Wheel	p. 161
Yesterday's Window	p. 179
Two Eclairs	p. 191
That Midnight Rodeo	p. 201
The Spirit Is Willing	p. 211
The Battle of Bull Run Always Makes Me Cry	p. 221
Gas	p. 235
Duet for Bear and Dog	p. 243
Phone Sex and a Dumb Show	p. 253
Welcome to the Moon	p. 261
Brights	p. 277
R.A.W. ('Cause I'm a Woman)	p. 289
Judgment Call	p. 301
Love Poem #98	p. 315
Breakfast Serial	p. 323
The Janitor	p. 335
Helen at Risk	p. 339
Acknowledgments	p. 348
Contributors	p. 349
Editors	p. 355
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.