Take Ten II: More Ten-Minute Plays [Paperback]

Eric Lane (Author), Nina Shengold (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 11, 2003

A ten-minute play is a blaze of theatrical energy. In this follow-up to their groundbreaking collection Take Ten, editors Eric Lane and Nina Shengold have put together a veritable bonfire of talent. Take Ten II: More 10-Minute Plays provides a fast-track tour of the current theatrical landscape, from the slapstick ingenuity of David Ives’ Arabian Nights to the searing tension of Diana Son’s 9/11 drama The Moon, Please, to Susan Miller’s luminous fable The Grand Design. This remarkably diverse anthology includes thirty-five short plays by such major American playwrights as Christopher Durang, Warren Leight, Romulus Linney and Donald Margulies, alongside a host of exciting new voices.

Actors, directors, producers and teachers will find Take Ten II an invaluable source of meaty roles for people of every age, ethnicity and gender; lovers of theatre will find it a richly satisfying read. These deceptively short plays throb with life in all its variety: harrowing, hilarious, and breathtakingly vital.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

A ten-minute play is a blaze of theatrical energy. In this follow-up to their groundbreaking collection Take Ten, editors Eric Lane and Nina Shengold have put together a veritable bonfire of talent. Take Ten II: More 10-Minute Plays provides a fast-track tour of the current theatrical landscape, from the slapstick ingenuity of David Ives? Arabian Nights to the searing tension of Diana Son?s 9/11 drama The Moon, Please, to Susan Miller?s luminous fable The Grand Design. This remarkably diverse anthology includes thirty-five short plays by such major American playwrights as Christopher Durang, Warren Leight, Romulus Linney and Donald Margulies, alongside a host of exciting new voices.

Actors, directors, producers and teachers will find Take Ten II an invaluable source of meaty roles for people of every age, ethnicity and gender; lovers of theatre will find it a richly satisfying read. These deceptively short plays throb with life in all its variety: harrowing, hilarious, and breathtakingly vital.

About the Author

Nina Shengold won the ABC Playwright Award and the LA Weekly Award for her play "Homesteaders." Her one-acts have been performed all over the country, and her TV scripts include Hallmark Hall of Fame's "Blind Spot," starring Joanne Woodward, and "Silent Night." A founding member of the theater company Actors & Writers, she lives in upstate New York.

Eric Lane is an award-winning playwright, filmmaker and book editor. Plays include: Times of War, Cater-Waiter and Dancing on Checkers’ Grave, which starred Jennifer Aniston. His new play Heart of the City has been optioned for off-Broadway. Eric has written and produced two short films: First Breath and Cater-Waiter, which he also directed. Honors include a Writer’s Guild Award, La MaMa Playwright Award, Berrilla Kerr Award and two-time O’Neill Center finalist. He has won fellowships at Yaddo and St. James Cavalier in Malta. Eric is Artistic Director of Orange Thoughts Productions, a not-for-profit theater & film company in New York City.

Shengold and Lane are the editors of Plays for Actresses and Take Ten: New Ten-Minute Plays, both in Vintage. For Penguin they edited Moving Parts: Monologues from Contemporary Plays, The Actor's Book of Scenes from New Plays, and The Actor's Book of Gay & Lesbian Plays, which was nominated for the Lambda Literary Award.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; First Edition edition (November 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400032172
• ISBN-13: 978-1400032174
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,343 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb gathering of "miniature worlds", November 22, 2005

By 

Michael J. Mazza - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Take Ten II: More Ten-Minute Plays (Paperback)

"Take Ten II: More Ten-Minute Plays," edited by Eric Lane and Nina Shengold, is a follow-up to the co-editors' earlier anthology of very short plays. In addition to the thirty-five plays, the book contains an introduction by the co-editors, some biographical notes on the contributing playwrights, and an index breaking the included plays down into six categories, from one-character play to six or more characters. Interestingly, the most represented category in the book is the two-character play, with fifteen selections.

Lane and Shengold have not just assembled an anthology; they are on a mission to champion the ten-minute play as a distinctive and vital genre with its own rich history. In their introduction, they note that it's been "just over twenty-five years since the Actors Theatre of Louisville announced its first Ten-Minute Play Contest," and in their acknowledgements section they note further, "The number of theatres around the country producing annual ten-minute play festivals continues to grow." A simple Internet search revealed to me how accurate the co-editors are in their assessment of the strength of this genre.

Lane and Shengold promise "a crash course in the depth and diversity of the American theatre" in this anthology, and they more than fulfill this bold claim. Some of the most striking selections are as follows: "Antigone's Red," by Chiori Miyagawa, looks at the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. "Classyass," by Caleen Sinnette Jennings, is a comedy set at a college radio station. "The Cure," by Romulus Linney, is a one-character monologue told by a mountain midwife.

Also worthy of note: "Daniel on a Thursday," by Garth Wingfield, is a two-character encounter set in a gay bar. I really enjoyed Nina Shengold's "Emotional Baggage," a clever comedy in which actors play pieces of unclaimed baggage at an airport. "It's Not You," by Craig Pospisil," is an unsettling satire about friendship and choices set in a New York City subway car. Dael Orlandersmith's "My Red Hand, My Black Hand" is an exploration of biracial Black/American Indian identity that has dialogue written as poetry. Rich Orloff's "Playwriting 101: The Rooftop Lesson" is a deliciously absurdist piece about the art of writing a play. "The Sniper," by Anthony David and Elaine Romero, is a gripping drama about the relationship between an Israeli military sniper and a Moroccan journalist.

I found this superb anthology hard to put down. Lane and Shengold note that the best examples of the ten-minute play genre function as "miniature worlds." In this collection they have assembled a truly diverse and rewarding group of these little worlds. This book is a perfect companion for the original "Take Ten"; I recommend both anthologies enthusiastically.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect, January 23, 2010

By 

D. W. Robinson "davibey" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Take Ten II: More Ten-Minute Plays (Paperback)

I've bought everyone of Lane and Shengold's play collections. I'm a 35 year old acting student and these selections are perfect - unusual and original but also from known playwrights. The selections are rich with charaters so there is plenty to dig into when preparing these for class.

3 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars disappointed, March 12, 2007

By 

Lucille Beatty "lucibee" (Rural Northern California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Take Ten II: More Ten-Minute Plays (Paperback)

Unfortunately, I ordered both of the "Ten-Minute Plays" within days. Should have waited to read one first. These plays are not appropriate for all age groups and situations. I was especially interested in finding a few plays for very Senior Citizens in rest homes. Sorry, not one of the plays in either book were appropriate for that audience. Not the books fault just wish better information was available before purchasing. Plays are good for modern audience and younger actors (in my opinion 16+).