The Actor's Book of Contemporary Stage Monologues: More Than 150 Monologues from More Than 70 Playwrights

by Nina Shengold (Editor)

Overview

This unique anthology provides a wealth of material for actors and acting students, and a wonderful overview of the best recent plays for anyone interested in theatre. The more than 150 monologues cover a diverse range of subjects, and offer a variety of dramatic styles and moods. Each monologue is introduced with a short description of the plot, setting, and character type by the leading plauwrights of our time.

Featured dramatists include:

Christopher Durang, Wendy Wasserstein, Lanford Wilson, Wallace Shawn, Tina Howe, Caryl Churchill, Athol Fugard, Beth Henley, Sam Shepard, David Henry Hwang, Harry Kondoleon, John Patrick Shanley, Larry Shue, Michael Weller, David Rabe, Marsha Norman, August Wilson, Albert Innaurato, Jules Feiffer, Harold Pinter, David Hare, Jose Rivera, Tom Stoppard, John Guare, David Mamet, Charles Fuller, William Matrosimone, Robert Patrick, Miguel Pinero

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140096491
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/01/1987
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.12(w) x 7.75(h) x 0.84(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Nina Shengold's plays include Finger Foods, War at Home, Homesteaders, and Romeo/Juliet, and have been produced around the world. Her one-act No Shoulder was filmed by director Suzi Yoonessi, with Melissa Leo and Samantha Sloyan. Nina won a Writers Guild Award for her teleplay Labor of Love, starring Marcia Gay Harden; other teleplays include Blind Spot, with Joanne Woodward and Laura Linney, and Unwed Father. Her books include the novels Clearcut, River of Words: Portraits of Hudson Valley Writers (with photographer Jennifer May), and a growing posse of pseudonymous books for young readers. A graduate of Wesleyan, she is currently teaching creative writing at Manhattanville College. Nina lives in New York's Hudson Valley, where she has been books editor of Chronogram magazine since 2004.

Editorial Reviews

YA A lifesaving resource for theater teachers and acting students, this book provides a refreshing supply of contemporary monologues for men and women from well-known and more obscure scripts. Readers will find comic, serious, and seriocomic monlogues. An index lists them by the age group of the characters. As a book for leisure, readers will find that the wide assortment of characters demonstrates a full range from the delightful to the dramatic. Informative conversations with a few playwrights, including Christopher Durang, provide greater insight into contemporary drama. High-school drama classes will appreciate this fresh material and its authoritative presentation. Joseph Harper, Episcopal High School, Bellaire

School Library Journal