The Best American Short Plays 2012-2013

by William W. Demastes (Editor)

Overview

For over 70 years, The Best American Short Plays has been the standard of excellence for one-act plays in America. From its inception, it has identified cutting-edge playwrights who have gone on to establish award-winning careers, including Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, and more. In this volume, the plays capture the struggle between “hot tempers and cold decrees.” Humans love to think of themselves as rational beings well in control of their lives and surroundings from sunup to sundown, sundown to sunrise. We learn to follow rules of proper behavior and more than happily issue out advice to our friends who just can't get a handle on themselves. Restraint and order, after all, are the cornerstones of human society and civilization. The problem is that human nature bucks and bridles at every attempt to socialize and civilize. Shakespeare got it right when he penned the observation, “The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree.” In those few words he has managed to capture precisely why it is so difficult to be human; if it were okay simply to let our hot tempers prevail, life would be so much easier. But cold decrees are what prevent us from self-destruction, and so we endure the struggle.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781480397224
Publisher:	Applause
Publication date:	01/01/2000
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	933,134
File size:	872 KB

About the Author

William W. Demastes (Baton Rouge, LA) is alumni professor of English at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. He has published widely on modern theater and drama, including Comedy Matters, Spalding Gray's America, Staging Consciousness, and Theatre of Chaos.

Table of Contents

Introduction: "Hot Tempers and Cold Decrees" William W. Demastes viii

The True Death of Soctates Frank Higgins 1

Existence Murray Schisgal 13

The Origins of the Drink They Named After Me Steve Feffer 37

Rise Crystal Skillman 49

Spatial Disorientation Lisa Soland 61

Between the Lines Amber Leanne Marcoon 87

The Rainbow James Armstrong 99

Subtraction Kevin McFillen 111

Flare Edith Freni 135

Blue, Blue Moon John Patrick Bray 149

Kid Gloves David Rusiecki 161

The Grim Raper Daniel Guyton 179

Hurt Saviana Stanescu 193

Cell Cassandra Medley 205

Abandoned in Queens Laura Maria Censabella 229

Free Will Billy Aronson 227

Dark King Kills Unicorn Reina Hardy 313

Deer Haunting: A Far Side Cartoon Andrea J. Onstad 329

2nd Anniversarty Near Taurus Major Gene Kato 349

The New Models Rory Leahy 363

Acknowledgements 377