Telling Tales: New One-Act Plays

by Eric Lane (Editor)

An exciting and varied collection of contemporary one-act plays from some of today's best playwrights.

Genres: Plays

432 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1993

Reviews

[John Molina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book for my playwrighting class and for the most part the plays are pretty enjoyable. The format of a play isn't really my thing-- I prefer novels and short stories-- but I did find some aspects of the way is formed interesting. The plays in this book for instance, rely heavily on symbolism and motifs to get their ideas across, this reliance on symbolism doesn't differ radically from the way they are used in prose, but the overall feeling is not the same. When one sees symbolism in stories, that symbol is usually built up and by the end of the story (ideally), one should come away with a very clear idea of what message or idea the writer was trying to get across. Not so in playwrighting, in playwrighting, the symbols are very ambiguous and hard to interpret. This can be very frustrating at times, especially when there is not really much going on in a play other than two characters having a conversation while eating dinner. I suppose some people might like the sparseness of the plays and how they can be "open" to various interpretations, but they just didn't affect me in any strong way emotionally. I don't dislike playwright's, but most of these in this collection didn't strike a chord.

[Robert Paul Olsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part I enjoyed these tales, a very diverse field covering comedy, tragedy, so many minority issues, with all male, all female casts, one on one, some to be powerful, some joyous, just a real mixed bag, if I could give you one tip, it would be that if it's not grabbing you after a page or two, bail out and move on to the next one, for the most part their good.

[John Vanderslice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a valuable collection for any lover of short plays. It features an intriguing, and I'm sure intentional, mix of long-established playwrights (Harold Pinter, Arthur Miller, Terrence McNally) with many up-and-coming types. Perhaps not too surprisingly, the most memorable plays, in my opinion, are from the up-and-comers. Several of these are so striking they will ring in my head for years. That said, it has to be noted that this book was published in the early 1990s. So the "new" plays the book heralds all date from the late 1970s to about 1990. Some of them feel rather dated at this point. That's not a real knock against the plays, because everything has a period in which it is composed and published. And even so, as I indicated, several plays in the book are masterful. It's certainly a volume worth owning. But it does make me wish for an updated "New One-Act Plays" collection with work strictly written and produced in the 2000s. Let's hope that's coming from somewhere. Maybe it's already here.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are clearly the B- works of some otherwise good playwrights. There are many other collections of One Act plays that are worth the time and money.

[behsforensics]

Cutting is for Finger Food
By Nina Shengold

Another cutting is for Story in Harlem Slang from Spunk
By Zora Neale Hurston

[Claire Felong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uneven but interesting group of plays from the late 1970s to early 1990s that reflect the period. Several have AIDs/gay-coming-to-consciousness themes reflecting the period. Subjects vary from fun (Finger Food) to mental illness (I'm not Stupid) to death (Feeding the Moonfish). Most authors are unknown but Harold Pinter, Athol Fugard and Arthur Miller are among the better known playwrights. I appreciated reading them because I could read each in a short sitting in between other books and didn't have to worry about losing the train of thought.

[April Helms · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of modern, one-act plays from such playwrights as Arthur Miller, Christopher Durang and Zora Neale Hurston. There's a great cross-section of plays here, from silly and sweet (The Actor's Nightmare and Finger Food) to more dark (The Coal Diamond and Statements After an Arrest...) I especially liked Vito on the Beach and Story in Harlem Slang.

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides]

I didn't read the whole thing — I just wanted to refresh my memory about David Ives's "Sure Thing." At one point this was very popular at high school drama festivals. I saw an amusing production where they didn't have a bell, the actors just said or yelled or shrieked "Ding." Which is probably more effective most of the time, really.

[Nick Pappas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another collection of short plays. This one is better. Mid size plays=more things to grasp on to. A great collection with some stinkers.