Take Ten II: More Ten-Minute Plays

I've bought everyone of Lane and Shengold's play collections. I'm a 35 year old acting student and these selections are perfect - unusual and original but also from known playwrights. The selections are rich with charaters so there is plenty to dig into when preparing these for class.

"Take Ten II: More Ten-Minute Plays," edited by Eric Lane and Nina Shengold, is a follow-up to the co-editors' earlier anthology of very short plays. In addition to the thirty-five plays, the book contains an introduction by the co-editors, some biographical notes on the contributing playwrights, and an index breaking the included plays down into six categories, from one-character play to six or more characters. Interestingly, the most represented category in the book is the two-character play, with fifteen selections. Lane and Shengold have not just assembled an anthology; they are on a mission to champion the ten-minute play as a distinctive and vital genre with its own rich history. In their introduction, they note that it's been "just over twenty-five years since the Actors Theatre of Louisville announced its first Ten-Minute Play Contest," and in their acknowledgements section they note further, "The number of theatres around the country producing annual ten-minute play festivals continues to grow." A simple Internet search revealed to me how accurate the co-editors are in their assessment of the strength of this genre. Lane and Shengold promise "a crash course in the depth and diversity of the American theatre" in this anthology, and they more than fulfill this bold claim. Some of the most striking selections are as follows: "Antigone's Red," by Chiori Miyagawa, looks at the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. "Classyass," by Caleen Sinnette Jennings, is a comedy set at a college radio station. "The Cure," by Romulus Linney, is a one-character monologue told by a mountain midwife. Also worthy of note: "Daniel on a Thursday," by Garth Wingfield, is a two-character encounter set in a gay bar. I really enjoyed Nina Shengold's "Emotional Baggage," a clever comedy in which actors play pieces of unclaimed baggage at an airport. "It's Not You," by Craig Pospisil," is an unsettling satire about friendship and choices set in a New York City subway car. Dael Orlandersmith's "My Red Hand, My Black Hand" is an exploration of biracial Black/American Indian identity that has dialogue written as poetry. Rich Orloff's "Playwriting 101: The Rooftop Lesson" is a deliciously absurdist piece about the art of writing a play. "The Sniper," by Anthony David and Elaine Romero, is a gripping drama about the relationship between an Israeli military sniper and a Moroccan journalist. I found this superb anthology hard to put down. Lane and Shengold note that the best examples of the ten-minute play genre function as "miniature worlds." In this collection they have assembled a truly diverse and rewarding group of these little worlds. This book is a perfect companion for the original "Take Ten"; I recommend both anthologies enthusiastically.