This year's collection of Best Short Plays supports editor Delgado's belief that 'some of the most imaginative, humorous, touching and powerful characters, situations, and ideas are skillfully compacted into today's one-act plays.' Murray Schisgal's delightful character comedy, A NEED FOR BRUSSELS SPROUTS, opened on Broadway in the 1982-83 season, starring Anne Jackson as the tough lady cop and Eli Wallach (her offstage husband) as the lonely down-at-the-heels actor cited for disturbing the peace. The highly acclaimed Irish novelist Jennifer Johnston returns to this series with the disturbing play ANDANTE UN POCO MOSSO which shatters the tranquility of a chamber music rehearsal with the turbulence of Belfast. Martin Jones' OLD SOLDIERS - a tragicomedy focusing on the illusions of a World War I veteran - has won a number of awards in regional and national competitions. Tom Huey makes his publishing debut here with IT AIN'T THE HEAT, IT'S THE HUMILITY. A native of Alabama, Mr. Huey has a keen ear for individual and social differences in Southern speech patterns. These nuances are powerfully evident in the play through the characters - a retired Southern judge and his Black gardener. CONFLUENCE by John Bishop was first produced in 1982. The three characters - a former Pittsburgh Steeler, his actress girlfriend, and a Hall-of-Fame 3rd baseman now confined to a wheelchair - develop an understanding that makes their present limitations and future expectations more bearable. AM I BLUE is a tender and riotous tale of a naive college freshman expected to prove his manhood at a New Orleans bordello. Instead, a far more engaging evening unfolds with a daffy Southern belle. Time magazine reviewer Richard Corliss describes playwright Beth Henley's characters as 'the most engaging bunch of eccentrics since the days of the young William Saroyan.' Prolific writer and award-winner Norman Holland is back in his 45th year of play publication with MORE LIVES THAN ONE - a clever, witty recounting of Oscar Wilde's last days in prison. Saul Zachary's award-winning play THE COLOR OF HEAT depicts a middle-aged husband and his wife attempting to revive their forgotten romance with a titillating voyeuristic report on the activities of a younger couple. IN LOSS OF MEMORY, playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and director Arthur Laurents offers a bittersweet portrait of a lonely American in a chance encounter with an Israeli officer. In his fanciful tragicomedy of a woebegone vaudevillian and his trained chicken, CHARLIE THE CHICKEN, playwright Jonathan Levy provides a meaningful glimpse into the master-slave relationship. Versatile actor, director, and playwright Ken Jenkins demonstrates his mastery of the monologue form in RUPERT'S BIRTHDAY. The play is a vivid miniature of an eccentric farm woman whose teenage experience of assisting in the delivery of a calf provided her with a transcendental revelation.

The Best Short Plays, 1983 (Best American Short Plays)

Literature & Fiction

Ramon L. Delgado

Dramas & Plays

Players Press

Editor Ramon Delgado dedicates this year's collection of Best Short Plays to the Actors Theatre of Louisville, which has contributed significantly to the popularity of the one-act play through its annual SHORTS festival. Four plays in this volume made their debuts at 'Shorts' festivals. Lee Blessing's NICE PEOPLE DANCING TO GOOD COUNTRY MUSIC is a character comedy about a young novice who has left her religious order to start a new life with her liberated aunt, owner of a rowdy bar in Texas. This play premiered at the 'Shorts' festival. THE OTHER WOMAN by Casey Kelly is a moving story about the transformation of a young girl from a child to a woman and the reaction of her parents to the changes taking place in their only daughter. David Higgins' PARTNERS was a hit at the 'Shorts' festival and won praise from Newsweek theatre critic Jack Knoll, who called it 'an explosive vignette about three young dope-dealing friends who've become murderous enemies through the vicissitudes of the underworld.' PRESENT TENSE was written by John McNamara when he was only eighteen years old. The play, which was described by Robert Massa of the Village Voice as 'a monologue with fantasy vignettes in the James Thurber-Woody Allen vein,' was selected for production by the Dramatists Guild in its annual festival of works by young playwrights. Romulus Linney's F.M., a story of the discovery of a Faulknerian talent in a college creative writing course, opened to a standing ovation at the Philadelphia Festival Theatre. Critic Nels Nelson of the Philadelphia Daily News hailed Linney as 'a luminous creative spirit touched by so superior a gift that we would cheerfully knight him on the spot.' Jerome McDonough's JUVIE, a powerful play about the devastating effects of juvenile delinquency, uses ensemble and multiple role-playing techniques to achieve its impact. This style has proved popular with high school and college performers. BARTOK AS DOG by Patrick Tovatt won critical acclaim at the 'Shorts' festival and was repeated in the Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival of New American Plays. Louisville Times critic Dudley Saunders described the play as 'an amusing tale about a young man who just wants a non-demanding meal ticket job so he can dabble in his hobby. But the world is outraged by and suspicious of such lack of ambition.' IN PLACE, by Obie award-winner Corinne Jacker, is the story of a former literature professor, a soon-to-be-divorced woman, and a pragmatic boardinghouse proprietress all trying to survive in Las Vegas. IN PLACE is Miss Jacker's third work in the Best Short Plays series. Harry Kondoleon's SELF TORTURE AND STRENUOUS EXERCISE is a ludicrous, original comedy about two couples who batter each other's egos with the vigor of primal therapy. Said New York Daily News critic Don Nelson: 'The effect is a style that might have emerged had Noel Coward written for the Theatre of the Absurd.' Ken Jenkins' monologue CHUG was performed by the author in the 'Shorts festival. Jay Carr of The Detroit News called it '...a shaggy frog story in the Mark Twain tradition.' Jenkins is a Rockefeller Playwright-in-Residence at the Actors Theatre of Louisville.

The Best Short Plays, 1984 (Best American Short Plays)

Although he succeeded to the throne in January, 1901, Edward VII was not crowned until June the following year. Why the delay? The Crown Jewels had been stolen from the Tower of London! Naturally, Scotland Yard consulted Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson on this matter and the trail led them from the streets of London's East End through a Sussex Village fair and the jewel shops of Hatton Garden to the stage of the Lyceum Theatre, The Strand, where the American actor, William Gillette, was performing as Sherlock Holmes. The Holmes techniques are applied to Inspector Lestrade's Skye terrier, to Watson's aunt in Hereford and to the jewel robbery itself, while Watson tries his hand at solving a series of petty crimes alone.

Sherlock Holmes and the Eminent Thespian

Val Andrews

This novel is an exciting fusion of a Sherlock Holmes mystery with the Ruritanian world of intrigue and skulduggery of Anthony Hope's novel The Prisoner of Zenda. Colonel Sapt of the Ruritanian Court journeys to England on a secret mission to save the country from anarchy. His mission is to engage the services of Rudolf Rassendyll once more to impersonate the King while the monarch recovers from a serious illness. But Rassendyll has mysteriously disappeared. In desperation, Sapt consults Sherlock Holmes who, with his faithful companion Watson, travels to the Kingdom of Ruritania in an effort to thwart the plans of the scheming Rupert of Hentzau in his bid for the throne. Sherlock Holmes and the Hentzau Affair is a wonderful blend of detective story and rousing adventure yarn.

Sherlock Holmes and the Hentzau Affair

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

David Stuart Davies

Mystery

Frustrated by their not being accepted to participate in the European conflict, two aging gentlemen sit in Baker Street hoping that a new challenge will enter their lives. Sure enough, a young lady journeys from Essex to tell Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson of the disappearance of her uncle and of the local legends of the hell birds. Holmes is about to investigate this minor problem when he is summoned to the Tower of London, whence a dangerous German spy has escaped. The trail of the spy leads the detective to Dover, across the Channel to Paris, and then to the trenches of December, 1914. Holmes and Watson cross No Man s Land into German-occupied France, where they meet the Kaiser, the flying ace von Richtofen, and an English spy. The duo steal a German secret weapon and escape back to England, where a New Year's Eve concert at the Albert Hall provides a climax to their Continental adventure and also to the Hell Birds of Heaven's Portal.

Sherlock Holmes and the Hellbirds

Austin Mitchelson

Nicholas Utechin

Based on the story, The Problem of Thor Bridge (the Strand, 1922), by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A woman stands wrongly accused of murder, but there is no possible other suspect! Not all a rich man's gold can buy her innocence, but can the brilliance of Sherlock Holmes and the loyalty of Dr. Watson serve where money will not?

The Problem of Thor Bridge: A Television Play Adapted from the Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

Humor & Entertainment

Jeremy Paul

Television

Throughout this century there has been a curious gap in Shakespearian scholarship, and yet the scholars and actors and directors have not seemed to give it particular notice. There was Abbott's "A Shakespearean Grammar" of 1869-70, and at the turn of the century there were still some scholars who felt its treatment of the rhythm of the Bard's poetry was acceptable, but the number of such scholars has dwindled to very near zero. There were some relevant works in German, and one large prosodic work with a good chapter on Shakespeare was translated to English early in this century. What has been needed is a reasonably brief, comprehensive treatment easily accessible to the actor and to the reading public. Here, finally, is a work which is complete in its analysis together with the supporting rationale and criticism of opposing theories. For the first time, for instance, one can find an examination of the short line and its conventions. Along with the study of the rhythm is discussion of the language and the texts in their historical perspectives, making the book a thorough introduction to Shakespeare for the student and actor.

Shakespeare Sounded Soundly

Delbert Spain

History & Criticism

Illustrated guide to all aspects of constructing a stage set: the four primary stage configurations - proscenium, thrust, arena and environmental; flying scenery and moving floors; organizing the scene shop; shop tools and safety; scaled drawings, models and other communications tools used to translate the designers vision into a set; materials used in building scenery; construction techniques for flats, platforms and other standard scenic units; installing and rigging scenery; maintaining an inventory of stock scenery.

The Stagecraft Handbook

Daniel A. Ionazzi

Reference

During the early 18th century America's east coast was a prosperous piratehunting ground. One such place for the pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was the island of Ocracoke. It is there on the outer banks of North Carolina that our play takes place. The time is the present.

Blackbeard's Lost Treasure

William Hezlep

Murder at Midnight

William Earl Hezlep

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