"What is involved here is a prying open of the portals, long barred shut, to the innermost secret place... the place of all possible notations." - Mac Wellman, from the Introduction
Featuring previously unpublished work by Sheila Callaghan, Robert Quillen Camp, Erik Ehn, Thalia Field, David Greenspan, W. David Hancock, Ruth Margraff, K. Silem Mohammad, Sawako Nakayasu, Sarah Ruhl, Crystal Skillman, Sonya Sobieski, Caridad Svich, Mark Tardi, and others.
Play: A Journal Of Plays is devoted to reinventing the life of plays on the page. Play: A Journal Of Plays publish open texts, instruction manuals, scenarios, song cycles, choreographic notations, and other evidence that the inside of the playwright's brain seldom resembles standard formatting.
Really hit or miss collection, but there are a few stand-outs that make it worth the read. The final play, The Convention of Cartography by W David Hancock, was touchingly brilliant.
These plays made me think about dramatic literature and notation in ways I never had before. An extraordinary collection, both in quality and creativity. Jordan and Sylvan have a fantastic eye for the new and noteworthy, and Play is a constant source of inspiration and encouragement.
Highlights: Icing: A Hockey Wedding Event, Turn Four, All Those Who Enter It, The Booth Variations, The Convention of Cartography