This collection of 10-minute plays will delight readers and audiences alike. From the social drama of Jeanette D. Farr's "Gray Matter" to the Pinteresque tension of Walter Wykes' "The Salmon Tribunal" to the zany swashbuckling fun of Jeff Goode's "Jolly Jack Junior," each of these short plays expresses the unique vision of an emerging contemporary dramatist. Together, they make an exciting and diverse evening of theatre.

Leonid Andreyev was once considered one of Russia's greatest dramatists, but his opposition to the Bolshevik Revolution and the Communist government's unilateral support of naturalism on the stage conspired to undermine his career. He was imprisoned, died in poverty, and has become increasingly obscure. Andreyev is symbolic and romantic. Fate and Chance are the two dark, unknown, at times brutal forces which dwell ever before his mind's eye. He sees human beings in the form of ghosts and ghosts in the form of human beings. Andreyev's best-known play, "He Who Gets Slapped" tells the story of a...

In his final play, Henrik Ibsen tells the story of Rubek, an aging sculptor who has lost all interest in the world around him. In spite of his wealth, his fame, and the attentions of his beautiful, young wife, he can find no joy in his existence. He is stagnating, trapped in a spiritual vacuum, when suddenly he is jolted out of his stupor by an unexpected reunion with Irene, a model who once posed for him and whom he idolized. She is now half-mad and literally believes herself to be a walking corpse, a dead woman who roams the earth. In spite of her delusions, however, and in spite of his...

This collection of 10-minute plays will delight readers and audiences alike. From the dark humor of Nick Zagone's "Sixty Years, to Life" to the zany absurdism of Walter Wykes' "Family 2.0" to the disturbing imagery of Laura Elizabeth Miller's "Fugue," each of these short plays expresses the unique vision of an emerging contemporary dramatist. Together, they make an exciting and diverse evening of theatre. Other plays in this anthology include "While the Auto Waits" by O. Henry, "Lures" by Jeanette D. Farr, "The Next Mrs. Jacob Anderson" by Ann Wuehler, "The Chocolate Affair" by Stephanie...

The intellectual offspring of Ionesco, Beckett, and Pinter, Walter Wykes is proof that the Theatre of the Absurd lives on. In his plays, he creates a series of modern myths, tapping into something in the strata of the subconscious, through ritualism and rich, poetic language. The worlds he creates are brand new, and hilarious, yet each contains an ancient horror we all know and cannot escape and have never been able to hang one definitive word on. "The Worker" explores the life of a young woman who fashions a fake child to help her cope with the loneliness she endures each day while her...

The intellectual offspring of Ionesco, Beckett, and Pinter, Walter Wykes is known for his intense roles and dark subject matter. In this play, he takes us on a deliciously depraved tour de force as Murray, a celebrity author in the middle of a very public (and messy) divorce, finds himself unable to write. He has nothing more to say-that is, until he meets Emma, the wife of an obsessed fan. In Emma, Murray recognizes the possibility of a new muse, someone to inspire him, to get the words flowing again. In a dark, half-lit bar, he attempts to seduce her, to draw her, like a fly, into his web,...

This collection of 10-minute plays will delight readers and audiences alike. From the futuristic musings of Michael Rudd's "Clothes For Their Souls" to the poetic mysticism of Nick Zagone's "Portland Blood Slam" to the film noirish farce of Jeff Goode's "Murder by Midnight," each of these short plays expresses the unique vision of a contemporary dramatist. Together, they make an exciting and diverse evening of theatre. Other plays in this anthology include "The Unwanted" by Walter Wykes, "The Goon" by Pete Malicki, "Watch Your Head" by Lynda Rodriguez, "Dog Park or Sexual Perversity in...

Written while Machiavelli was in exile for allegedly plotting against the Medici clan, "The Mandrake" or "Mandragola" details the corruption of Italian society in a series of increasingly comical scenes that culminate in the cuckolding of a powerful Florentine aristocrat. The author depicts human nature just as he has come to know it, and the sinister fruits of his studies have delighted audiences to this day, for we recognize our own failures in Machiavelli's creations--characters too quick to compromise personal ethics in order to accommodate a corrupt and demeaning world, too easily...