Plays from the Contemporary American Theater

by Brooks McNamara

Book Overview

Includes eight full-length, award-winning plays: Streamers by David Rabe Marco Polo Sings a Solo by John Guare Wings by Arthur Kopit Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You by Christopher Durang Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley The Dining Room by A.R. Gurney Painting Churches by Tina Howe Ma Rainey's Black Bottom by August Wilson

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451528379
• ISBN13: 9780451528377
• Release Date: May 2002
• Publisher: Signet Book
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 4.1" x 6.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Great Find!

I purchased this book for my son who is a Musical Theatre student. He needed a large collection of contemporary plays to read for his classes. He said that it was exactly what he was looking for as it contained many of the plays that were on his required reading list. Good to find so many all in one place, this book will remain a part of his theatre library.

Little League

This is a wonderful anthology. For its price, it is probably the best single volume anthology on the market for American theater of the last thirty-some years. These playwrights have dominated the New York Off-Broadway scene for as long as most of us can remember. If you came to New York in 1975 you would have heard the very same names. If you search the theater directory this season you will find their names, not with new works but with revivals of plays written two decades ago. This might be good for the playwrights, but is it good for the theater? Durang and Co. were first produced in edgy little theaters that were at the cutting edge of the theater. Since then these theaters have become institutions with new buildings, long lists of donors, gala openings, and corporate sponsors. Isn't it ironic that instead of producing new work, they do revivals of old-standards by Beth Henley? It is the equivalent of little theaters in the boonies doing revivals of Kauffman and Hart, Noel Coward, and Behrman. And the New York audiences are just like the little theater audiences in towns like Oklahoma city, Bakersfield and Memphis. They're all over 60, drive Cadillacs, and need hearing aids. People attending the revival of Tina Howe's play remember having seen the original production. They go, hoping to see the original cast, who are now all retired. How could this be and why? Virtually every play here anthologized has as its theme, primary or secondary, some form corruption or hypocrisy, yet none in the theater community seems to make the connection between the mega-buck donations they seek and their inability to find and produce new works as exciting as these.

Excellent Service

The package got here in time, i didn't really have a bad experience with its shipment date and it is in excellent shape.