30 Ten-Minute Plays for 4, 5, and 6 Actors from Actors Theatre of Louisville's National Ten-Minute Play Contest (Contemporary Playwrights Series) [Paperback]

Michael Bigelow Dixon (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1575252791 | ISBN-13: 978-1575252797 | Publication Date: August 1, 2001 | Edition: 1

This volume features 30 outstanding ten-minute plays written for actors in their teens, twenties, and thirties. These plays have been culled from thousands submitted to Actors Theatre of Louisville's National Ten-Minute Play Contest. This collection illustrates the dramatic power of the ten-minute play format. It provides to teachers, directors, and actors a cornucopia of characters, themes and styles organized by gender and cast-size.

Three volumes in series; 30 Ten minute Plays for Two Actors, 30 Ten-Minute Plays for 3 Actors and 30 Ten-Minute Plays for 4, 5 and 6 Actors.

MICHAEL BIGELOW DIXON has served as literary manager at Actors Theatre of Louisville throughout the second decade of the Humana Festival of New American Plays. He's also held positions as literary manager at the Alley Theatre and literary associate at South Coast Repertory. He has been a Theatre Management Fellow at the National Endowment for the Arts, and has taught at North Carolina Central University, UC-Riverside, Rice University, and Action Theatre in Singapore. He has co-edited ten volumes of plays and criticism, and co-written more then twenty plays, fifteen of which are published. He is now the associate artistic director at the Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Product Details

• Paperback: 291 pages
• Publisher: Smith & Kraus; 1 edition (August 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575252791
• ISBN-13: 978-1575252797
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #86,510 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #37 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Drama > Anthologies

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A diverse and thought-provoking collection, September 13, 2002

By 

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

This review is from: 30 Ten-Minute Plays for 4, 5, and 6 Actors from Actors Theatre of Louisville's National Ten-Minute Play Contest (Contemporary Playwrights Series) (Paperback)

"30 Ten-Minute Plays for 4, 5, and 6 Actors from Actors Theatre of Louisville's National Ten-Minute Play Contest," edited by Michael Bigelow Dixon, Tanya Palmer, and Brendan Healy, is a solid anthology that is focused on a specific type of play. The book is part of a set of three volumes; the other 2 contain plays for 2 actors and 3 actors. The introduction to this book briefly discusses the 10-minute play as a distinct theatrical form.

This collection of plays shows diversity in both tone and subject matter. Some plays are funny, some are creepy; topics covered include romance, marriage, violence, the impact of popular culture, war, communication, betrayal, revenge, and broken dreams.

This book is full of great pieces, but I'd like to mention a few that stood out for me. Richard Dresser's "The Road to Ruin": a Twilight Zone-ish tale about a couple whose car breaks down; Stephen Gregg's "A Private Moment," a touching depiction of an episode in the lives of Chang and Eng, the original "Siamese Twins"; Kim Levin's "Just One Night," which explores the issue of date rape; John Pielmeier's "Pillow Talk," an outrageous, violent satiric comedy that takes place in a marriage counseling office; "The Processional," by Robert D. Kemnitz and Jennifer McMaster, which depicts a very bizarre wedding rehearsal; Jane Martin's "Tattoo," a funny and unsettling story of justice; and Sheri Wilner's "Labor Day," which is dominated by a word game played by the characters.

The only disappointing thing about this anthology was the lack of any information about the authors of each play. But that complaint aside, this is an excellent anthology which I would recommend both for literature courses or just for some entertaining independent reading.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wide range of plays, November 6, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 30 Ten-Minute Plays for 4, 5, and 6 Actors from Actors Theatre of Louisville's National Ten-Minute Play Contest (Contemporary Playwrights Series) (Paperback)

Three fine books in the Smith & Kraus '30 10-Minutes Plays' series by Michael Dixon, et.al. present winners from the Actors Theatre of Louisville's national 'ten-minute play' contest, provide aspiring students and dramatists with a wide range of plays. These three volumes are divided into plays for 3 Actors (1-57525-278-3), 2 Actors (277-5) and 4, 5 & 6 Actors (279-1). Characters, settings, and details on obtaining performance rights accompany each sketch.

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice Selection of Plays, January 27, 2012

By 

N. Usher "Author of "Do Cows Cry"" (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 30 Ten-Minute Plays for 4, 5, and 6 Actors from Actors Theatre of Louisville's National Ten-Minute Play Contest (Contemporary Playwrights Series) (Paperback)

I bought this book as an add-on for a playwright workshop I was taking. The selection of plays in the book were quite nice and gave me some insight into how ten-minute plays should be set up for performance.