The Best American Short Plays 2009-2010 Released 8/23

Size matters, but that doesn't mean that longer plays are better plays. In the abbreviated form, playwrights are free to explore through character, genre, dialogue, and structure in ways that are frowned upon in longer works from a commercial standpoint. Short plays are playgrounds for the mind of the writer. It's a great place for playwrights to begin, but some stay there, not to practice, but because they like the neighborhood. Those playwrights have perfected the form into what we see in this series. Here, we get the best short plays of the year, which unlocks not just this world but a vast multitude of worlds-as far and as wide as your imagination will take you.

Praise for Volume 2008-2009
"There are enough gems here to make one wonder why so few theaters...are willing to take a chance on producing short works." -Frank Scheck (Scheck on Culture)

"At their best [one-act plays], like most of those in this anthology, they are gems as finely wrought as a Keats Ode or a Hemingway short story; at their worst...well, readers of this volume won't really have to worry about that." -Blog Critics

Red Light Winter by Adam Rapp: Matt and Davis, two college grads, take off to the Netherlands and find themselves in a bizarre love triangle with a young prostitute named Christina. But the romance they find in Europe is overshadowed by the truth they discover at home.

Ella by Dano Madden: A sculptor who can no longer sculpt is on the run after a life-changing tragedy. A 19-year-old gator-hunting farm boy named Cutter is the last person she needs to help her, or so she thinks.

Pair and a Spare by Avi Glickstein: A play about daily anonymous connections with the people we ride with on the train and see in the coffee shop begins with one man innocently mistaking another for someone he knows. The man leaves and the matter seems settled, but the men will soon play out this scenario over and over until one of them reaches a breaking point.

This volume also includes plays by Charlene A. Donaghy, Jill Elaine Hughes, Samuel Brett Williams, Joan Lipkin, and Joe Tracz. The final play, Seven Card Draw by Daniel Gallant features writing from Clay McLeod Chapman, John Guare, Neil LaBute, Daniel Frederick Levin, Quincy Long, and Laura Shaine.

About the Editor
Barbara Parisi is Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at Long Island University's Brooklyn campus. She founded and is the executive director of the non-profit Ryan Repertory Company at the Harry Warren Theatre in Brooklyn, New York.

Hardcover $32.99 9781557837639 384 pages 5½" x 8½"
Softcover $18.99 9781557837622 384 pages 5½" x 8½"
Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, an imprint of Hal Leonard
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