About
the Book:
Editor
Craig Pospisil compiled this collection Outstanding Short
Plays: Vol. 2. Inside these pages you will find authors from
widely varied backgrounds, some well known, others less so, but all
immensely talented. This collection of one-act plays represents some
of the best writing in the American theatre today.
The
collection Outstanding Short Plays: Vol. 2 includes
the following plays:
Camberwell
House by Amelia Roper. Elderly neighbours Annie and Olive
have been friends since they were children. At twenty, they agreed to
"knock each other off" if they were still alive at
seventy-five. Now they are seventy-five and one of them has changed
her mind. A tale of old age, murder, and ginger nut biscuits. (Cast:
1 woman)
The
Closet by Aoise Stratford. Kevin's dad has thrown his
favourite toy, Bart Sponge, into the back of a closet. There, Bart
meets a toy dinosaur and another toy he can't even begin to identify.
Does a supposedly gay toy have a chance of making it out of the
closet? (Cast: 1 woman or man, 2 men)
Closing
Costs by Arlene Hutton. After viewing four hundred
apartments, has Harris finally found the right co-op, or simply the
right real estate agent – Alice? Harris must decide if it's time to
trade in his artificial fish – and finally grow up. (Cast: 1 woman,
1 man)
Freefalling
by Aurin Squire. Two passengers and a stewardess on a falling
plane give their moment-by-moment account of what happens when
tomorrow is no longer certain. (Cast: 1 woman, 2 men)
Poison
by John Patrick Shanley. Kenny has seen the depths of Kelly's
self-hatred, and he'll never date her again – unless he drinks a
fortune-teller's mysterious potion, which will kill his soul as dead
as Kelly's. Can Kelly convince him to drink the potion? Can she
convince herself? (Cast: 2 women, 1 man)
Self-Torture
And Strenuous Exercise by Harry Kondoleon. Carl tells
Alvin that he's in love with another woman. "Good for you,"
says Alvin, who refuses to accept that Carl's, Adel, wife only
attempted suicide – she's still alive. The woman Carl loves is
Alvin's wife, Beth. But right now, Beth is so drunk she can't get up
off the floor, much less run off with Carl, and Adel comes in with
bandaged wrists saying Carl has been trying to kill her. These four
have some issues to work out. (Cast: 2 women, 2 men)
A
Singular Kinda Guy by David Ives. Mitch is a young guy
talking to a girl in a bar. She's nice, but he's got this sort of
confession, see. There's something she ought to know – on the
inside, he isn't really a guy at all. He's an Olivetti electric
self-correcting typewriter. (Cast: 1 man.)
Something
From Nothing by David Riedy. A stranger's intimate gesture
on a New York subway causes a couple to reexamine their relationship,
and it causes one person to get punched in the face. Told from all
three characters' wildly different perspectives. (Cast: 1 woman, 2
men)
There's
No Here Here by Craig Pospisil. Lance moves to Paris to
follow his dream of becoming a writer, but his work goes badly. As
does his relationship with Juliette, a beautiful Parisian. But a
strangely familiar woman at their local bistro forces Lance to dig
deeper into himself. (Cast: 2 women, 2 men)
You
Have Arrived by Rob Ackerman. Dan and Kristin are
navigating their first date, and fortunately, the other woman with
them knows the way through the confusion into Brooklyn. That would be
Cyndi, the GPS system in Dan's car. (Cast: 2 women, 1 man)
About
the Editor:
Craig
Pospisil is an American playwright, and musical bookwriter. He is
multiple award-winning author, six time Heideman Award finalist, and
received the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival's award
for Excellence in Playwriting.