The one-act play stands apart as a distinct art form with some well known writers providing specialist material, among them Bernard Shaw, Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill. Alan Ayckbourn, Edward Albee and Tennesee Williams. There are also lesser-known writers with plenty of material to offer, yet sourcing one-act plays to perform is notoriously hard. This companion is the first book to survey the work of over 250 playwrights in an illuminating A-Z guide. Multiple styles, nationalities and periods are covered, offering a treasure trove of compelling moments of theatre waiting to be discovered. Guidance on performing and staging one-act plays is also covered as well as essential contact information and where to apply for performance rights. A chapter introducing the history of the one-act play rounds off the title as a definitive guide.

An overview of the 2009-2010 theatre season includes photos, a complete cast listing, producers, directors, authors, composers, opening and closing dates, song titles and plot synopses for more than 1,000 Broadway, off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway and regional shows, as well as the past year's obituaries, a listing of all award nominees and winners and an index.

These 15 interviews illustrate the diversity of modern American theater and examine what makes it a unique art form. Savran (English, Brown U.) discusses the work, artistic influences, and the state of contemporary American theater and its meaning and purpose with artists including Tony Kushner, Jose Rivera, Ntozake Shange, and Anna Deveare Smith. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Over four decades, Stephen Poliakoff has proved himself to be a distinctive dramatist in the mediums of theatre, film and television. Moving from playwright to television and film director, he has been hailed as 'TV's foremost writer' (Independent) and as 'one of our most poetic and best TV dramatists' (Daily Telegraph). In the USA, his TV 'films' have received industry acclaim, The Lost Prince winning three Emmy Awards and Gideon's Daughter two Golden Globes. This book is the first to offer a comprehensive overview of Poliakoff's work for stage and screen and a framework for its critical evaluation. It will prove invaluable to students of theatre, film, and television studies. Robin Nelson locates Poliakoff's distinctive vision and fierce independence as a writer and director in both personal and public histories and against industry contexts. He charts Poliakoff's 'meteoric rise' as a playwright, and his 'second starburst' in television drama since Shooting the Past (1999) which re-affirmed his reputation as a dramatist of distinction. While the chronology of Poliakoff's impressive output is clearly laid out, works are discussed in thematic clusters ranging across mediums to afford a fresh perspective. The book covers 'issue dramas', 'quirky strong women' and 'histories/memories' as well as Poliakoff's early developing dramaturgy, and it examines in detail the later feature films and television dramas which have secured his reputation as our most distinctive television dramatist.

The week after Thanksgiving. A bed and breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A cheerful innkeeper. A young couple struggling to stay together. Thousands of inanimate objects, watching. John, an uncanny play by Annie Baker, was first seen Off-Broadway in 2015. The play had its UK premiere at the National Theatre, London, in 2018, in a production directed by James Macdonald. Annie Baker's other plays include Pulitzer Prize-winning The Flick, The Antipodes, Circle Mirror Transformation, The Aliens, and an adaptation of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. She has won many other awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Grant.

To an unusual degree among writers, playwrights’ creations are not simply words on a page. Instead, a well-wrought play is an intricate machine that will be used by directors, actors, designers, and other creators to bring a fully staged, real-time performance into the world. The construction and maintenance of that machine is the playwright’s job, and it requires an array of complex, interconnected skills and techniques. Enter Justin Maxwell and The Playwright’s Toolbox, a stimulating and wide-ranging resource for both beginning and experienced dramatists. It brings together invigorating, provocative, and irreverent exercises contributed by nearly 60 leading English-language playwrights, covering all stages of the writing process. It offers an accessible roadmap for those who have never written a play before, while providing new angles and solutions for seasoned writers struggling with a particular challenge. Covered here is everything fromgenerating ideas and world-building, through dialogue and plotting, to revision and the last steps before releasing a play into the world, making this an endlessly useful guide to building better plays.