Contemporary One-Act Plays

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• Publisher: Perlego
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9700000037970
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

This work provides a wealth of information on obscure and overlooked American playwrights as well as some famous ones; it will be a welcome addition for collections specializing in the theater arts. Reference Books Bulletin

This directory and index, the first such volume devoted exclusively to contemporary black American dramatists, will have an important place in theatre collections. It captures and preserves an elusive part of artistic endeavor, giving access to literally thousands of dramatic works that would otherwise be lost to scholars and the public. Organized as an encyclopedia, it provides information on more than 600 noteworthy Black American playwrights whose plays have been written, produced, or published between 1950 and the present. The volume begins with an introductory essay surveying the history of contemporary black American drama. Playwrights, screenwriters, radio and television scriptwriters, and musical theatre collaborators are treated in individual entries that comprise the bulk of the book. The volume also supplies a bibliography of anthologies, books, and periodicals cited; mailing addresses for more than 200 of the playwrights; and title and subject indexes.

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CONTEMPORARY ONE-ACT PLAYS

CONTEMPORARY
ONE-ACT PLAYS

WITH OUTLINE STUDY OF THE
ONE-ACT PLAY AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES

BY
B. ROLAND LEWIS
Professor and Head of the Department of English in the University of Utah;
Author of "The Technique of the One-Act Play"






CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
NEW YORK CHICAGO BOSTON

COPYRIGHT, 1922, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
———
Printed in the United States of America
———

The plays in this book are fully protected by copyright and the professional and amateur stage rights are reserved by the authors. Applications for their use should be made to the respective authors or publishers, as designated

TO
THE MEN AND WOMEN
WHO SO KINDLY HAVE PERMITTED ME TO
REPRINT THESE ONE-ACT PLAYS

PREFACE

This collection of one-act plays appears because of an increasingly large demand for such a volume. The plays have been selected and the Introduction prepared to meet the need of the student or teacher who desires to acquaint himself with the one-act play as a specific dramatic form.

The plays included have been selected with this need in mind. Accordingly, emphasis has been placed upon the wholesome and uplifting rather than upon the sordid and the ultra-realistic. The unduly sentimental, the strikingly melodramatic, and the play of questionable moral problems, has been consciously avoided. Comedies, tragedies, farces, and melodramas have been included; but the chief concern has been that each play should be good, dramatic art.

The Dramatic Analysis and Construction of the One-Act Play, which appears in the Introduction, also has been prepared for the student or teacher. This outline-analysis and the plays in this volume are sufficient material, if carefully studied, for an understanding and appreciation of the one-act play.

B. ROLAND LEWIS.

CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction		3
LIST OF PLAYS
The Twelve-Pound Look	Sir James M. Barrie	17
Tradition	George Middleton	43
The Exchange	Althea Thurston	61
Sam Average	Percy Mackaye	85
Hyacinth Halvey	Lady Augusta Gregory	103
The Gazing Globe	Eugene Pillot	139
The Boor	Anton Tchekov	155
The Last Straw	Bosworth Crocker	175
Manikin and Minikin	Alfred Kreymborg	197
White Dresses	Paul Greene	215
Moonshine	Arthur Hopkins	239
Modesty	Paul Hervieu	255
The Deacon's Hat	Jeannette Marks	273
Where but in America	Oscar M. Wolff	301
A Dollar	David Pinski	321
The Diabolical Circle	Beulah Bornstead	343
The Far-Away Princess	Hermann Sudermann	365
The Stronger	August Strindberg	393

BIBLIOGRAPHIES
PAGE
Collections of One-Act Plays	405
Lists of One-Act Plays	406
Bibliography of Reference on the One-Act Play	408
Bibliography on How to Produce Plays	409

CONTEMPORARY ONE-ACT PLAYS

INTRODUCTION

THE ONE-ACT PLAY AS A SPECIFIC DRAMATIC TYPE

The one-act play is with us and is asking for consideration. It is challenging our attention whether we will or no. In both Europe and America it is one of the conspicuous factors in present-day dramatic activity. Theatre managers, stage designers, actors, playwrights, and professors in universities recognize its presence as a vital force. Professional theatre folk and amateurs especially are devoting zestful energy both to the writing and to the producing of this shorter form of drama.

The one-act play is claiming recognition as a specific dramatic type. It may be said that, as an art form, it has achieved that distinction. The short story, as every one knows, was once an embryo and an experiment; but few nowadays would care to hold that it has not developed into a specific and worthy literary form. This shorter form of prose fiction was once apologetic, and that not so many years ago; but it has come into its own and now is recognized as a distinct type of prose narrative. The one-act play, like the short story, also has come into its own. No longer is it wholly an experiment. Indeed, it is succeeding in high places. The one-act play is taking its place among the significant types of dramatic and literary expression.

Artistically and technically considered, the one-act play is quite as much a distinctive dramatic problem as the longer play. In writing either, the playwright aims so to handle his material that he will get his central intent to his audience and will provoke their interest and emotional response thereto. Both aim at a singleness of impression an...