Best Monologues from The Best American Short Plays

by William W. Demastes (Editor)

Overview

(Best American Short Plays). "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Really? Words can break spirits, destroy confidence. They can also build hope and incite great acts of heroism. Playwrights know this, and so do theater audiences. Otherwise, why go? Words matter and carry clout every bit as dangerous as a hammer or crowbar. This, too, playwrights know. The monologues in this volume are full of such blows, striking at our imaginations and our memories, generating responses such as joyful laughter or chilling surprise. Others squeeze us into worlds we've never experienced, or perhaps experienced at the furthest edges of memory and recollection. Still others may help us alter the way we see certain things, people, or beliefs. Best Monologues from The Best American Short Plays, Volume Three is a collection of monologues drawn from the popular Best American Short Plays series, an archive of works from many of the best playwrights active today. Long or short, serious or not, excerpts or entireties, this collection abounds in speech acts that may trigger physical reactions and almost certainly will transform an attitude or two, drawing out lost memories, creating new ones, and definitely entertaining, engaging, amusing us all along the way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781480397408
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/01/2015
Series:	Best American Short Plays , #3
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

William W. Demastes (Baton Rouge, LA) is Alumni Professor of English at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. He has published widely on modern theater and drama, including Comedy Matters, Spalding Gray's America, Staging Consciousness, Theatre of Chaos, and The Cambridge Introduction to Tom Stoppard.