About the Play:

Extremities has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female/Male Scenes.

Shivaree has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues, Female/Male Scenes, and Male/Male Scenes.

The Woolgatherer has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues, Male Monologues, and Female/Male Scenes.

This collection of full-length plays by William Mastrosimone includes:
• A Stone Carver (formerly, The Understanding) is a full-length drama that tells the story of an elderly seventh-generation stone carver who refuses to leave the home he built with his own hands to make space for a highway. His rising politician son tries to save his father from jail. A battle of wills ensues, putting their already-rocky relationship to the test. Can the only son convince his father to move – and move on – before it's too late? (Cast: 1 female, 2 male)
• The Woolgatherer: Set in a small apartment in South Philadelphia in 1979, the full-length drama follows the unlikely romance of Rose, a nervous and flighty woman who works the candy counter at the local five-and-dime, and Cliff, a foul-mouthed truck driver looking for a one night stand while his broken rig is being repaired. Rose and Cliff find much more than expected when they begin to open up and share fears that have left them both unable to find the human connection they so desperately seek.(Cast: 1 female, 1 male)
• Extremities: A disturbing and provocative full-length drama about one woman's revenge on the man who would rape her in her own home. In an unrelentingly violent reversal, the victim becomes the attacker, the predator becomes the prey in this psychological thriller that reaches a climax of fever pitch suspense. (Cast: 3 female, 1 male)
• Nanawatai is full-length drama about the struggles of a Soviet tank crew during the 1980s, long before the country dominated American headlines. The play follows the tank crew and their tyrannical commanding officer during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The crew becomes separated separated from its unit and is pursued through the mountains by a band of Afghan guerrilla fighters. The title borrows the Pashtun word for "sanctuary". (Cast: 1 female, 10 male)
• Shivaree is a full-length dramatic comedy of love and hope. Nineteen-year-old Chandler, a hemophiliac kept sheltered by his domineering mother, yearns for life in the outside world. In walks Shivaree, a Southern belly dancer with the spark of life. (Cast: 3 female, 2 male)
• Tamer Of Horses is a heart-stirring full-length drama about a man and a boy in need of a second chance. The play follows a runaway boy named Hector as he stumbles upon a former Classics teacher and his wife who shelter him after running into trouble. (Cast: 1 female, 2 male)
• Sunshine is full-length drama. Sunshine is a small-time stripper at Club Paradise, where women sit in isolated Plexiglas booths and talk dirty to their customers. She's the star of the place with her name up in lights. An unexpected encounter between Sunshine and disillusioned paramedic Nelson offers two lost souls opportunities for love and acceptance. (Cast: 1 female, 1 male)

What people say:

"William Mastrosimone's plays are audacious. This is not all they are of course, but they challenge us, sometimes to make us recoil in shock or at least become unsettled. Who else dares to give the rapist the funny lines as Mastrosimone does in Extremities. Nor is this audacity limited to social or political issues. Who else confronts the driver-owner of a transcontinental semi with a reclusive dime store clerk, as in The Woolgatherer, or a belly dancer who has the soul of Isis with a shut-in hemophiliac as in Shivaree. In these plays Mastrosimone has found vastly dissimilar characters who are drawn to each other, and he probes until he enables us to see past our stereotypical expectations. Fresh insights enrich us and we are reminded of that endless human diversity – indeed human potential – that we so often never recognize on our own." — from the Introduction by M.E. Comtois, Founding head of the Playwriting Program at Rutgers University

"Finally, six well-chosen examples of Mastrosimone's exciting work are available in a single source. While he's no sweaty armpit realist, Mastrosimone nonetheless draws the reader (or viewer) into the maelstrom of his realistic characters' complex and sometimes shocking lives. These examples read well, and that they play well is amply documented by Mastrosimone's numerous stage successes and well-deserved film and theater awards. Because Mastrosimone doesn't pull any linguistic punches, many of the plays are best produced by university theaters catering to broad-minded audiences. However, this collection belongs in every drama collection that supports academic or community theater. Highly recommended." — Library Journal

"This is the deeply felt work the American theatre needs to survive." — Jon Jory, Producing Director, Actors Theatre of Louisville

About the Playwright:

William Mastrosimone is an American playwright and screenwriter who has worked in Hollywood feature films, network and cable television, and theatre, since 1980. He received a graduate degree in playwriting from Mason Gross School of the Arts, a part of Rutgers University. His screenwriting credits include the adaptation of his best known play Extremities and the TV miniseries Into the West, which was nominated for and won a number of Emmy Awards.