Scenes and Monologues from Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award Finalists, 2008-2012

Book excerpt: (Applause Acting Series). Culled from the finalists for the prestigious Steinberg/American Theatre Critics New American Play Award from the years 2008-2012, Scenes and Monologues from Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award Finalists, 2008-2012 presents some of the finest, sharpest, and most immediate scenes and monologues from contemporary American drama. The book is divided into male-female, male-male, female-female scenes as well as male and female monologues and multiple character scenes. Actors, teachers, students of drama, as well as theater lovers will be thrilled by entries from such recent hits as Time Stands Still , Superior Donuts , Detroit , Water by the Spoonful , and Dead Man's Cell Phone , as well as material from such lesser known-but soon to be widely celebrated plays as 9 Circles , Becky's New Car , Perfect Mendacity , Splinters , and On the Spectrum . All are superbly constructed dramas told with ferocity, passion, wit, and supreme insight. Collectively, these scripts by our most promising and creative playwrights including Sarah Ruhl, Tracy Letts, Lee Blessing, Rebecca Gilman, Donald Margulies, Naomi Iizuka, Bill Cain, Rinne Groff, Quaira Alegria Hudes, and Yussef El Guindi reflect a collective vision of today's America that is startling in its ability to reveal the pressing circumstances and realities, the diverse characters and conflicts, and the "forms and pressures" of our emerging millennial era.