The Actor's Book of Scenes from New Plays: 70 Scenes for Two Actors, from Today's Hottest Playwrights

Today's most exciting work for the stage is emerging far from Broadway's "mainstream," at Off and Off-off Broadway theaters, at regional companies around the country, and from abroad.  Here is an up-to-the-minute collection of scenes—ideally suited for both classroom and audition use—from the best dramatists now being produced.

Table of Contents:
Scenes From New PlaysIntroduction Scenes For One Man And One Woman Am I Blue—Beth Henley The Art of Dining—Tina Howe Asian Shade—Larry Ketron Betrayal—Harold Pinter Beyond Therapy—Christopher Durang Danny and the Deep Blue Sea—John Patrick Shanley A Different Moon—Ara Watson Domino Courts—William Hauptman the dreamer examines his pillow—John Patrick Shanley Edmond—David Mamet Entertaining Mr. Sloane—Joe Orton FOB—David Henry Hwang Getting Out—Marsha Norman Hello and Goodbye—Athol Fugard Huryburly—David Rabe Joe Turner's Come and Gone—August Wilson A Kind of Alaska—Harold Pinter Landscape of the Body—John Guare Life and the Limb—Keith Reddin Mojo—Alice Childress Open Admissions—Shirley Lauro Out of Gas on Lovers Leap—Mark St. Germain Progress—Doug Lucie Quartermaine's Terms—Simon Gray Reckless—Craig Lucas The Red Coat—John Patrick Shanley Stops Along the Way—Jeffrey Sweet Strange Snow—Steve Metcalfe A Taste of Honey—Shelagh Delaney Vanishing Act—Richard Greenberg A Weekend Near Madison—Kathleen Tolan What the Butler Saw—Joe Orton The Wrong Man—Laura Harrington Scenes For Two Women Between Daylight and Boonville—Matt Williams Blue Christmas—Eric Lane Elm Circle—Mick Casale Final Placement—Ara Watson Footfalls—Samuel Beckett Graceland—Ellen Byron Homesteaders—Nina Shengold Hothouse—Megan Terry In the Boom Boom Room—David Rabe Laundry and Bourbon—James McLure Lydie Breeze—John Guare The Mound Builders—Landford Wilson Sarita—Marie Irene Fornes Savage in Limbo—John Patrick Shanley A Taste of Honey—Shelagh Delaney Top Girls—Caryl Churchill Waiting for the Parade—John Murrell Scenes For Two Men The Blood Knot—Athol Fugard The Colored Museum—George C. Wolfe The Dance and the Railroad—David Henry Hwang Father Dreams—Mary Gallagher Fences—August Wilson Highest Standard of Living—Keith Reddin The House of Ramon Iglesia—Jose Rivera How I Got That Story—Amlin Gray A Lie of the Mind—Sam Shepard The Mound Builders—Lanford Wilson The Nerd—Larry Shue The Normal Heart—Larry Kramer Not About Heroes—Stephen MacDonald A Prayer for My Daughter—Thomas Babe Principia Scriptoriae—Richard Nelson Ties—Jeffrey Sweet Victoria Station—Harold Pinter Vivien—Percy Granger What's Wrong with This Picture?—Donald Margulies

About the Author :
Eric Lane has edited 12 contemporary play anthologies for Viking Penguin and Vintage Books with his longtime collaborator, Nina Shengold, earning them a Lambda Literary Award nomination. Eric's plays have been performed in the United States, Canada, Europe, Israel, and China, and include Ride, Floating, Heart of the City, Times of War, and Dancing on Checkers' Grave. Eric wrote and produced the short films First Breath and Cater-Waiter, which he also directed. For TV's Ryan's Hope, he received a Writers Guild Award. His honors include the La MaMa Playwright Award, the Berilla Kerr Award, plus fellowships at Yaddo and St. James Cavalier in Malta. Eric is an honors graduate of Brown University, and is the artistic director of Orange Thoughts Productions, a not-for-profit theater and film company in New York City. Nina Shengold's plays include Finger Foods, War at Home, Homesteaders, and Romeo/Juliet, and have been produced around the world. Her one-act No Shoulder was filmed by director Suzi Yoonessi, with Melissa Leo and Samantha Sloyan. Nina won a Writers Guild Award for her teleplay Labor of Love, starring Marcia Gay Harden; other teleplays include Blind Spot, with Joanne Woodward and Laura Linney, and Unwed Father. Her books include the novels Clearcut, River of Words: Portraits of Hudson Valley Writers (with photographer Jennifer May), and a growing posse of pseudonymous books for young readers. A graduate of Wesleyan, she is currently teaching creative writing at Manhattanville College. Nina lives in New York's Hudson Valley, where she has been books editor of Chronogram magazine since 2004.