Customer Reviews

Take Ten: New 10-Minute Plays

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

"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.

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.

I absolutely LOVED this delightful collection of plays. I think they would be funny to watch, and wonderful to act out. It was quite a collection, varying from plain silly to deep and touching. It would also be very good for student productions, as a night of ten minute theater. All in all, it is a hilarious, deeply entertaining read, recommended for anyone with interest in the theater.

TAKE TEN is a wonderful source book for any theater. It highlights not only work by well-known authors but new ones as well. "Ferris Wheel" by Mary Miller is one of the best. This short play has proven to be a crowd pleaser not only in the United States but around the world. Its genuinely funny love story relates to audiences of all ages.

Take Ten:New 10-Minute Plays is a wonderfull book. A great collection of for the most part easily staged plays that were all neither too long or too short. The large assortment makes for a tough descision on a favorite, and several stick out in my mind. I highly recomend this book, it is thouroghly enjoyable.

If you are only going to own one collection of 10-minute plays, this is the one to own. The choices are well written, show variety, and are infinitely produceable in small spaces.

I bought this book becuase I am a forensics coach. This book has several wonderful plays that can be used in the forensics competition. There are several possible duets in this piece. I have taken some of them out on the circuit and they have done very well. The plays in this book play to a variety of themes and audiences.
Some have language or character problems that are too mature for high school, but would be good for community theater.

This collection is a great resource for students who need to direct or just want to do a different 10-minute play. This is really one of the better collections out there. It is also a very diverse collection providing plays and scenes that work well in most situations. Nina Shengold's collections are always high quality and this one does not disappoint. If you are a student or faculty member add this book to your collection, you will be glad you did.

From a playwright perspective, while this is an interesting collection of work, it isn't the type of book that you'd want to come back to over and over again. Many of the plays seem dated and they are certainly a reflection of the editors prejudices, for good or bad. Lots of NY-centric stuff along with a swath of the Louisville Festival-type play. As a snapshot of the ten-minute play, this is a valuable collection to read through and learn from. However, many of the plays aren't interesting enough, or innovative enough, to really take up space on your own bookshelf. Borrow this from the library, read it over and take away what you can.