Search results for ""author william w. demastes""

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.ÞThe 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.ÞÊBest Monologues from The Best American Short Plays Volume ThreeÊ 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.

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This second volume of the best monologues from the Best American Short Plays series features a diverse selection drawn from the outstanding works from many of today's best American playwrights. In these monologues the playwrights capture much of the flavors feelings and thoughts of American culture over the past several decades. The result is a collection of taught engaging monologues offering fascinating perspectives. They are written with an eye toward the stage that makes them excellent source material for actors young and old alike. And they offer a freshness and directness that make them excellent companions for readers attracted to good often quirky and always engaging contemporary literature.ÞIncluded in this volume are monologues by Billy Aronson Bruce Bonafede Victor Bumbalo Clay McLeod Chapman Yussef El Guindi Steve Feffer Catherine Filloux Daniel Gallant Madeleine George Willy Holtzman Paul Kuritz Neil LaBute Dano Madden Theodore Mann Donald Margulies Susan Miller Lavonne Mueller Joyce Carol Oates Carey Pepper Joe Pintauro Michael Roderick Murray Schisgal Paul Selig and Nicky Silver.

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For more than 70 years ÊThe Best American Short PlaysÊ 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.ÞÊThe Best American Short Plays 2014-2015Ê is the next installment from series editor William W. Demastes. This volume takes a look at the trinity Shakespeare coined as the lunatic the lover and the poet. The works in this volume explore whimsical imaginative humorous and romantic themes.ÞIn the introduction Demastes writes What really hits home in Shakespeare's plays is how he uses his own seething brain to put things onstage that cool reason will never be able to comprehend. He shows us that the world is more than facts and figures that humans are connected by more than a balance sheet and that life is more than biology. The wonderful short plays in this collection delve into the spectrum of emotions that bubble beneath cool reason and remind us about the some of the aspects that make life worth living for better or worse ä the insanity the beauty the unbridled joy and the mystery.

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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 ä Tennessee Williams Edward Albee and others ä who have gone on to establish award-winning careers.ÞÊThe Best American Short Plays 2013-2014Ê 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 ÊNine Signs of the TimesÊ 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 ä but quite possibly for the worse.

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ÊBest Monologues from Best American Short Plays Volume OneÊ is a must for actors of all ages ä beginners as well as seasoned veterans ä 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.ÞIncluded 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.

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Now in its seventh decade the annals of The Best American Short Plays series now boasts hundreds of groundbreaking one-acts and an alumni list the likes of which other anthologies can only dream. From luminaries like Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee to the brightest stars of today such as Murray Schisgal James Armstrong Billy Aronson Jules Tasca Neil LaBute and Daniel Gallant TBASP established itself as the standard bearer for its genre by presenting materials that offer a forthright annual reading of our nation's pulse. If ÊThe Best American Short Plays 2015-2016Ê co-edited by William Demastes and John Patrick Bray proves as portentous as its forebears suffice it to say that our hearts are pounding.ÞIn this volume DeMastes and Bray have assembled a collection of plays centered on the notion of Starting Over. Following the 2016 election cycle which turned centuries-old political mores and traditions on their heads many Americans ä especially those in the theatre community äÿfeel as though the incoming presidential administration and congress will require our nation to start anew. The feeling that we are beginning again (for better or for worse) has crept into the consciousness of this year's crop of writers. These playwrights individually and collectively demonstrate the vitality and necessity of the theatre as a space where we can ask questions about character and identity on both personal and national scales. Although answers aren't easily forthcoming the ensuing silences provides a vacuum of sorts ä an ideal but ephemeral space where any citizen regardless of persuasion or belief can stop sit and think.

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