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Laugh Lines: Short Comic Plays [Paperback]

Eric Lane , Nina Shengold
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

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Book Description

April 10, 2007
This one-of-a-kind anthology features thirty-six hilarious short plays by major American playwrights and emerging new voices, all guaranteed to send readers and audiences into peals of laughter.

From the surrealistic wit of Steve Martin's "The Zig-Zag Woman" to the biting political satire of Steven Dietz's "The Spot," from Christopher Durang's wonderfully loopy "Wanda's Visit" to Shel Silverstein's supremely twisted "The Best Daddy," there's something in here to make everyone laugh. There are plays for casts of all sizes, from monologues to large ensembles, with diverse and challenging roles for actors of every age and type. Even the titles are funny: Mark O'Donnell's "There Shall Be No Bottom (a bad play for worse actors)," Elaine May's "The Way of All Fish," and Alan Ball's "Your Mother's Butt." A bonanza for theatergoers, performers, and comedy fans, Laugh Lines will bring down the house.

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Laugh Lines: Short Comic Plays + Take Ten: New 10-Minute Plays + Take Ten II: More Ten-Minute Plays
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This set of 34 comic dramas, many of which would run 15 minutes at most in performance, by contemporary or nearly contemporary Americans, some famous, many not, ranges from the sublime to the tedious. The best pieces in the collection, such as Christopher Durang's divinely insane Wanda's Visit, are comic gems in miniature. Others, such as Pulitzer Prize winner David Auburn's comedy-sketch-sized Miss You, show the antic side of writers known mostly for more serious work. Other well-known names to be found in the wide-ranging anthology include Alan Ball, David Cale, David Lindsay-Abaire, Steve Martin, and Elaine May, all represented by rarely collected one acts. Still, the real strength of the book arises from editors Lane and Shengold's spirit of inclusiveness, which allows obscure but hilarious writers to appear cheek by jowl with_better-known funny women and men. Jack Helbig
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Eric Lane and Nina Shengold are editors of twelve contemporary play collections. Their other titles for Vintage Books include Plays for Actresses, Leading Women: Plays for Actresses II, Take Ten: New Ten-Minute Plays, Take Ten II: More Ten-Minute Plays, Under Thirty: Plays for a New Generation, and Talk to Me: Monologue Plays. For Viking Penguin, they edited The Actor’s Book of Contemporary Stage Monologues, The Actor’s Book of Scenes from New Plays, Moving Parts: Monologues from Contemporary Plays, The Actor’s Book of Gay and Lesbian Plays (Lambda Literary Award nominee), and Telling Tales: New One-Act Plays.

Nina Shengold received the ABC Playwright Award and the L.A. Weekly Award for Homesteaders, published by Samuel French. Her Romeo/Juliet, a five-actor adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, is published by Broadway Play Publishing. Her ten-minute plays have been performed at the Actors Theatre of Louisville and dozens of other theaters. Ms. Shengold won the Writers Guild Award and a GLAAD Award nomination for her teleplay Labor of Love, starring Marcia Gay Harden; other screenplays include Blind Spot, with Joanne Woodward and Laura Linney, Unwed Father, Double Platinum, and a flm adaptation of Jane Smiley’s Good Will. She is artistic director of the upstate New York theater company Actor’s & Writers. Her first novel, Clearcut, was published by Anchor Books.

Eric Lane is an award-winning playwright and filmmaker. Plays include Heart of the City, Times of War, Shellac, Cater-Waiter, and Dancing on Checkers’ Grave, which starred Jennifer Aniston. Mr. Lane has written and produced two short filims: First Breath and Cater-Waiter. For his work on TV’s Ryan’s Hope, he received a Writers Guild Award. Honors include the Berrilla Kerr Playwrighting Award, La Mama Playwright Development Award, numerous Yaddo fellowships, and a St. James Cavalier Centre for Creativity fellowship in Malta. Mr. Lane is an honors graduate of Brown University, and is artistic director of Orange Thoughts Productions, a not-for-profit theater and film company in New York City.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 528 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage (April 10, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0307277135
  • ISBN-13: 978-0307277138
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.9 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #37,958 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
(9)
4.2 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Well, *I* think they're very funny... July 25, 2007
Format:Paperback
... and so do a number of my students, to whom I've recommended this book as they look for material. Sure, I have my favorites among them -- and they don't ALL work for me -- but I think Shengold and Lane have done a real service by collecting off-beat and very hip material. I look at scene anthologies all the time, and this one is among the freshest and sharpest I know. If you're an actor looking for comic material, I recommend it highly!
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars great for audition pieces August 1, 2007
Format:Paperback
I got this book for my son, who is an acting student in a conservatory program. His summer assignment was to find a comic and dramatic monologue and this book has been invaluable. He has recommended it to several of his classmates, because the quality of the pieces is so strong. Shengold and Lane did an amazing job finding comic works. Bravo!
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars love it July 25, 2007
Format:Paperback
From the surreal to the silly, this collection is sublime. Shengold and Lane have delivered yet another delightful anthology. Highly recommended!
S. Harden
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