Plays in One Act

Rating:
Summary: Over 40 One-Acts
Review: Includes: Edward Albee, Finding the Sun; Christopher Durang, Naomi in the Living Room; John Guare, Four Baboons Adoring the Sun; David Hare, The Bay at Nice; Beth Henley, Am I Blue; David Mamet, A Life With No Joy In It; Arthur Miller, The Last Yankee; Tennessee Williams, The Chalky White Substance... and many more!

Rating:
Summary: Intermittently Useful
Review: This book is handy if you're a playwright looking for good names to imitate. It's handy if you're examining styles popular in short plays (many of them ten minutes or less). It's a neato-jet piece of gear if you're learning the language and jargon of the playwrighting scene.

This book is useless if you're a director looking to stage a one-act. The plays are too irregular, and many are too short unless you're running an evening of ten-minute plays. Some are radio plays, which are useless on stage. Some are cuttings or extended monologues. There is no unifying theme through the book, so it's hit-or-miss if what you find will even match any theme you may be looking for.

If you know this going in, the book can be useful to you. Many people like it. I found it a drag.

Rating:
Summary: Deep & Wide
Review: This really is, as the copy on the back claims, a "stunning and diverse" collection of one-act plays. To get familiar with authors and angles that you may not have encountered elsewhere, you can't beat these short sweet pieces. A lot of the usual suspects, big names snowing off the skills that have made them beloved of theatre-junkies across the nation, and selections by names you've never heard of before (and, for one or two of these, my bet is you will never hear of again). Really a must have collection that will give you plenty of enjoyment & ideas for your upcoming season or that as-yet-unwritten one act of your own. Why only four stars from me? I'm super stingy with the fifth...