Customer Reviews

Plays and Playwrights 2008

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

plays and playwrights 2008 is martin denton's ninth anthology of the year's best offerings of new york indie theatre (what used to be called "off-off broadway"). as in the previous volumes, this year¡¦s plays are rich, bold, funny, scary, profane, profound. interestingly, many are about ghosts, which says something very intriguing indeed about the zeitgeist.

to highlight a few of the 10 plays in this year¡¦s anthology:

Þ the moving and powerful fall forward (daniel reitz), which was originally staged at the john street methodist church, just across the street from the site of the world trade center. this short, sad, simple, and resonant play is about the choices we make -- and why we must make them.
Þ the very funny and very odd ...and we all wore leather pants (robert attenweiler), which features this telling observation: ¡§I am recently turned a serious religious man. Not in the way where I¡¦m good to people or nothin¡¦...¡¨ ¡V it¡¦s a mad wild ride, told in a distinct voice unlike any i¡¦ve ever read.
Þ the sober and honest in our name (elena hartwell), which puts the lie once and for all to those who imply that we do not support the troops when we wish them home. three monologues by three very different women from three very different perspectives on the common theme of war.
Þ the chilling the telling trilogy (crystal skillman), which sends delicious shivers up the spine as the mournful dead call across the great divide.
Þ two very different takes on growing up, antarctica (carolyn raship) ¡V where high schoolers magda and winnie leave the confines of mrs. margolis¡¦s trigonometry 2 for the south pole, meeting penguins, cupid, and adulthood on the way there and back; and linnea (john regis) ¡V where a dreamy writer emerges from a feverish dostoyevsky vision sadder but infinitely wiser.

there¡¦s also the sad and surprising marvelous shrine (leslie bramm), another riff on war and youth; cleansed (thomas bradshaw), a shocking tale of a biracial girl who joins a white supremacists¡¦ group; universal robots (mac rogers), a breathtaking reworking of karel capek¡¦s RUR; and the spare, taut what happened when (daniel talbott), featuring a most poetic presentation of a terrifying story.

and to top it all off, there is an appendix that lists every new american play that was produced in new york in the 2006/07 season; this not only includes title, author, and production information but also a brief description -- quite a wonderful reference tool.

martin denton's books give new and extended life to otherwise all too easily lost treasures. they are a must for anyone who loves theatre.