About the Book:

HARD TO FIND BOOK, only a very limited number of copies are still available.

The anthology Plays From The New York Shakespeare Festival contains six plays from one of America's most prominent and important non-profit theatres. Three of them, represent milestones in American Drama with their confrontation of powerful issues: the violence and racism of the American prison system, the plight of the African American woman as a third class citizen in American society, and War's Effect on Its Fighters.

Short Eyes by Miguel Pinero: The inmates of a prison band together sexually, personally and in their shared hatred of an incarcerated child molester. Miguel Pinero wrote the play while he was in jail serving time for armed robbery. Short Eyes, which is a slang term that prisoners use for a pedophile, follows the lives of a racially mixed group of inmates at a New York prison, where they are joined by a white middle-class man accused of raping a young girl. (Premiered in 1974 and won the New York Critics Circle Award and an OBIE Award for the "best play of the year"; Cast: 10 male)

for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange: Filled with passion, humor, and raw honesty, this groundbreaking work in modern American theatre tells the stories of seven women of colour using poetry, song, and movement. With unflinching honesty and emotion, each woman voices her survival story of having to exist in a world shaped by sexism and racism. (Premiered in 1976 and won the 1977 Obie for Distinguished Production. The play transferred to Broadway later that year, where it was nominated for a Tony for Best Play; Cast: 7 female)

Streamers by David Rabe: From the author of HurlyBurly and In the Boom Boom Room, four young recruits and two veterans in an army barracks struggle to cope with their racial, homophobic and other personal torments and insensitivities as they wonder if they will ever see combat in Vietnam. (Premiered in 1977 and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play; Cast: 11 male)

In addition to these three classics of contemporary drama, this collection includes three additional plays that were produced by the New York Shakespeare Festival. These plays are fascinating works by playwrights who are major talents.

The Leaf People by Dennis J. Reardon: A singer looking for a missionary who has gone missing in the Amazon rainforest discovers a new breed of intelligent species. (Premiered in 1975, with a cast that included Tom Aldredge whose Broadway stage career spanned five decades, including five Tony Award nominations; Cast: 30 flexible)

Time Trial by Jack Gilhooley: Set in rural America, seven longtime friends gather to welcome home a local car-racing hero in a story about the limitations of longtime friendships and the ties that bind us to home. (Premiered in 1975, with a now-famous name: Tommy Lee Jones; Cast: 3 female, 4 male)

Necessary Ends by Marvin Cohen: Involves two couples who tangle in a philosophical farce about love, language, sex, time, and death. (Premiered in 1982; Cast: 2 female, 2 male)

As Joseph Papp says in his introduction to Plays From The New York Shakespeare Festival:

"The ultimate test of a script, for me, is the singular vision of the writer and my own instinct as a producer and theater goer. Without exception, all six of these plays were produced by the New York Shakespeare Festival because the writing was exemplary; that is to say, playwrights shot straight from the hip. And I felt if they could touch a nerve in me then I should take them on and allow their voice to reach the ears of the public...." — Joseph Papp

"Each of these writers has a very special place in my memory. There will always be writers with incredible philosophies or writers whose styles and expressions reinterpret the world anew. It is rare, however, when these two qualities reside in the same person. Please enjoy, as I have, these remarkable plays with the knowledge that in each play, these two qualities remain and thrive side by side." — Joseph Papp

About the Playwright:

Joseph Papp (1921-1991) was an American theatrical producer and director, founder of the New York Shakespeare Festival and the Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in lower Manhattan. There, he created a year-round producing home that was the birthplace of two landmark American musicals, Hair and A Chorus Line, the longest-running show in Broadway history. One of the most influential producers in the history of the American theatre, he also presented free Shakespeare in Central Park for more than three decades.