Take Ten: New 10-Minute Plays [Paperback]

Eric Lane (Editor), Nina Shengold (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 25, 1997

A ten-minute play is a streak of theatrical lightning. It doesn't last long, but its power can stand your hair on end. This splendid anthology contains enough wattage to light up a small city. For in its pages, thirty-two of our finest playwrights hone their skills on a form that has been called the haiku of the American stage. The plays that Nina Shengold and Eric Lane have collected in this volume range from monologues to an eight-character farce. Eminently producible, ideally suited for the classroom and audition, Take Ten is a marvelous resource for teachers and students of drama, as well as a stimulating read for lovers of the theatre. Contributors include: John Augustine, Cathy Celesia, Laura Cunningham, Joe Pintauro, Mary Sue Price, Megan Terry, Jose Rivera, Romulus Linney, David Mamet, Jane Martin, David Ives, and many others.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

A ten-minute play is a streak of theatrical lightning. It doesn't last long, but its power can stand your hair on end. This splendid anthology contains enough wattage to light up a small city. For in its pages, thirty-two of our finest playwrights hone their skills on a form that has been called the haiku of the American stage. The plays that Nina Shengold and Eric Lane have collected in this volume range from monologues to an eight-character farce. Eminently producible, ideally suited for the classroom and audition, Take Ten is a marvelous resource for teachers and students of drama, as well as a stimulating read for lovers of the theatre. Contributors include: John Augustine, Cathy Celesia, Laura Cunningham, Joe Pintauro, Mary Sue Price, Megan Terry, Jose Rivera, Romulus Linney, David Mamet, Jane Martin, David Ives, and many others.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; 1 edition (March 25, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679772820
• ISBN-13: 978-0679772828
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #87,260 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #28 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Drama > Anthologies

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a good source, March 6, 2000

By 

Matsubara Shigeru (Kansai, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Take Ten: New 10-Minute Plays (Paperback)

I am part of a group who puts on shows every four months. This book has been a constant source of succesful shows.There is a good selection of plays - all of which offer good roles for the actors as well as good entertainment for the audience. I've also used it with University level drama students, assigning them to adapt the plays to their own particular environment and found great success. The plays are good.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb anthology of a fascinating genre, September 24, 2001

By 

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

This review is from: Take Ten: New 10-Minute Plays (Paperback)

"Take Ten: New 10-Minute Plays," edited by Eric Lane and Nina Shengold, is an excellent collection of theater pieces. The editors celebrate the 10-minute play as a unique and powerful sub-genre of drama; in their introduction, they note that the 10-minute play made its "official debut" as a genre at the Actors Theatre of Louisville's 1977 Humana Festival of New American Plays.

This anthology contains 32 plays by a diverse group of authors. Included are some of the most important names in the American theater: Tony Kushner, Christopher Durang, David Mamet, August Wilson, etc. There are also many names that are new to me. The plays cover many different themes: love and heartbreak (both of the gay and straight varieties), violence, crime, sports, phone sex, death, racial politics, etc. There are many different tones and stylistic approaches: tragic, whimsical, surreal, raunchy, etc. The plays include one-character monologues, 2-character pieces, and multi-character pieces.

There are many highlights to this excellent collection. My favorite pieces included the following: David Ives' "The Philadelphia," a witty Twilight Zone-ish comedy; Mary Miller's charming "Ferris Wheel"; Jose Rivera's "Gas," which takes place on the U.S. homefront during the Persian Gulf War; Frederick Stroppel's "Judgment Call," an ironic look into the world of baseball umpires; and Diana Son's "R.A.W. ('Cause I'm a Woman)," a sort of Asian counterpart to Ntozake Shange's "For colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf." These are just a few of the many fine pieces in this collection.

I highly recommend "Take Ten" to those with an interest in playwriting, in multicultural studies, or in provocative and experimental literature in general.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For Actors and Competitors, May 16, 2001

By 

Dallas Alice (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Take Ten: New 10-Minute Plays (Paperback)

This is by far the best scene book I own. All the pieces are unusual and interesting, powerful and captivating. Popular playwrights such as David Ives and Christopher Durang are included and many of the scenes are appropraite for various age groups. My speech team recently won with two of the pieces, Anything for You and The Man Who Couldn't Dance. Both excellent pieces. My only complaint was that the scenes are often longer than 10 minutes, despite the title of the book.