Twenty One-Act Plays from Twenty Years of the Humana Festival: 1975-1995 (Contemporary Playwrights Series) [Paperback]

Michele Volansky (Author), Michael Bigelow Dixon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1995 | ISBN-10: 1880399989 | ISBN-13: 978-1880399989 | Edition: 1st

20 One-Act Plays chosen from 20 years of the Humana Festival. This collection includes work by : Jane Anderson, Lanford Wilson, Neal Bell, Kevin Kling, Marion McClinton and Jeffrey Sweet.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The continuing success of the one-act play in American theaters is evidenced by these two books, which include a startling array of styles?examples of realism, fantasy, farce, tragedy, and even symposium plays are presented. Fourteen eclectic pieces, half of which are by major playwrights, comprise the latest volume in Applause's long-running annual celebration of the form. The most unusual work is a recently rediscovered text by Thornton Wilder, The Wreck of the 5:25, anthologized here for the first time. This play alone casts into clear relief the adventurous nature of contemporary playwrights (though the sparsity of major women playwrights here is notable). The Humana Festival, held at the Actors' Theatre in Louisville, has long been a venue for new plays. This fat collection contains the cream of two decades' worth of work. As fewer major playwrights are represented, these plays are more risky, more adventurous, and much more political. By and large, they test the limits of the form more rigorously than those found in the Applause collection. Both texts provide a wealth of source material for theaters, actors, and academic training programs. Both are recommended for academic and larger public libraries.?Thomas E. Luddy, Salem State Coll., Mass.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Revivals and British imports dominate Broadway; indeed, both on and off that street, opportunities for new American playwrights are at a 200-year low, leaving the annual Humana Festival of New American Playwrights in Louisville as one of the few places where new work is performed. Many important playwrights of the current generation had their big breaks at Humana, and the authors of these 20 one-acts, collected to commemorate Humana's twentieth anniversary, constitute a roster of the most prominent names from the American theater's last two decades. Better, there are so many fine one-acts here--such as Jane Anderson's hilarious, pointed satire of phobic yuppies, Tough Choices for the New Century; Howard Korder's dark comedy about aimless adolescents, Fun; and Donald Margulies' moving portrait of a day in the life of a beleaguered female doctor, July 7, 1994that you hardly notice the absence of the very biggest names of festivals past: Beth Henley, Marsha Norman, Jane Martin, Tony Kushner. Jack Helbig

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Product Details

• Paperback: 374 pages
• Publisher: Smith & Kraus Pub Inc; 1st edition (December 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1880399989
• ISBN-13: 978-1880399989
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #265,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good variety of one-acts, April 22, 2000

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This review is from: Twenty One-Act Plays from Twenty Years of the Humana Festival: 1975-1995 (Contemporary Playwrights Series) (Paperback)

This has a good cross-section of plays. Many of which I liked, many of which I didn't, but that's the way theatre is. One I liked so much, in fact, that I'm basing my entire senior thesis project around it: "What She Found There". Highlyu recomended for produceable one-acts.