2004 The Best Ten-Minute Plays 3 or More Actors
Michael Bigelow Dixon and Liz Engelman
Smith and Kraus, 2004
3 ACTORS
1M, 2F page 3, 5 pages long: Aimee
Department of Heartland Security agents invade woman’s apartment and accuse
her of love. Surprise ending is that agents fall in love themselves. Short,
compact, cute.
3M page 11, 7 pages long: The Road That Leads
Nowhere
3
brothers make annual visit to father (off stage) and share what they have
collected over the year. They have no job or marriage and devote their time to
gathering sense impressions. Father blows their cars up at the end. Okay,
compact.
2M, 1F page 22, 4 pages long: Three Dimensions
Woman
sleeps (on sofa, hidden from view) while 2 men who love her observe her;
actress in another chair voices woman’s thoughts at the end. I didn’t like it.
3F page 28, 5 pages long: Favorite Lady
3 art
students, one steals a Gauguin to free the naked woman in the painting from
lascivious stares. Pretty good, worthy.
3F page 36, 6 pages long: The Office
2 bored
clerks, 1 silent watcher. A riff on boredom. All 3 put their bras on outside
their clothes at the end. Different, funny.
3M, 1F page 43, 6 pages long: Swan Lake Calhoun
2 men
ice fish; one falls in; 2nd exits for help; swan/goose/Hungarian
woman comes to the rescue but then drowns in the ice hole; 2nd man
returns. Okay; good role for Hungarian accent woman.
2M, 1F page 51, 6 pages long: Classyass
Black
college DJ is confronted by Black F he assumes is homeless. She is revealed to
be daughter of college president. Okay.
1M, 2F page 59, 5 pages long: Airborne
Airline
employee is fired for changing passengers’ tickets to send them to vacation
places when she thinks they need a lift. Okay.
2M, 1F page 67, 6 pages long: The Some of All
Parts
Man has
a twin who is his libido. Woman can’t accept the two of them. Weird.
2M, 1F page 75, 7 pages long: The Right to
Remain
Son and mother confront cheating father. Good suspense; fair division of
characters’ roles.
1M, 2F page 85, 5 pages long: Triangle
Lovers are in triangle with the goddess Aphrodite. Good language, good
characters, funny, good movement.
2M, 1F page 91, 3+ pages long: 178 Head
Farmer
and his wife are visited by a kind of quarantine officer. It’s not clear what
the plague is. Not too appealing.
1M, 1F, 1 Pillsbury Doughboy page 97, 8 pages
long: Bake Off
Good
M-F fight at the bakeoff. Good drama, fighting; funny. Doughboy costume and
suggesting food mess could be problems.
4 ACTORS
1M, 3F page 109, 6 pages long: The Human Voice
Man and
woman in affair break up at wife’s insistence. 2 scenes (his and hers) plus
phone voice. Talky; not very appealing; serious; some sex talk.
2M, 2F page 117, 6 pages long: Hurry!
Speed
dating. Math guy and dude guy with girl and the dating game leader. Good;
fast; funny; varied.
1M, 3F page 125, 6+ pages long: Now
We’re Really Getting Somewhere
2 female
support staff and 1 female supervisor meet with salesman staff dislike. Good
drama, tension; strong characterizations.
1M, 3F page 135, 8 pages long: Fit for Feet
Fiancé
thinks he’s Diaghilev. Bride’s mother is no help. Funny; vital; good
characters: bitchy mother, frustrated bride, dancing fiancé. Tech problems:
wedding dress; slides of Diaghilev; levitating fiancé.
2M, 2F page 145, 4 pages long: Always
1
couples, same people, one at beginning of relationship and other at end of
same relationship. Clever, good.
3M, 1F page 151, 7 pages long: No More Static
1 M
African-American, M and F Irish American. Friends engineer reunion of Irish
brother and sister who stole from him. F appears only at the end, has no
lines. Good dialogue; serious
5 ACTORS
5F, page 163, 7 pages long: The Second Beam
4
actors at an audition; 1 has only brief appearance. Good interplay of
characters; calls for spotlights that we would probably not be able to use but
could do without.
2M, 3F page 171, 7 pages long: The Glory of God
Lesbian
scholar is helped by male techie to retrieve her research on medieval monk.
Monk is seduced by a girl. Lesbian’s girlfriend is also the nymph Daphne. Love
is asserted as the “glory of God” the monk sought. Interesting interplay of
scenes: scholar with techie; monk with girl; scholar with human Daphne; Daphne
as nymph in tree.
1M, 1F, 3 any page 181, 6 pages long: The Grand
Design
Mother,
walking across the U.S., and son, devising a message to be sent to other
creatures in space, talk about life. Other 3 actors don’t speak. Okay;
meditative; good roles only for the 2 principals.
4M, 1F page 189, 6 pages long: The Joy of
Having a Body
Angel
trains 4 M angels to please earth women who have given up on finding a good
mate/lover. Good; dynamic. Problems may be big angel wings angel dons at end
and males having to take off pants.
2M, 3F page 197, 5 pages long: The New New
2F
clerks discuss ex-con one of them has been befriending, may date; 2M in
marketing department discuss the ex-con’s memoir they are vetting for
publication. Ex-con’s murder victim’s sister tries to tell the victim’s side.
Good! 2 scenes on stage simultaneously; all 5 good characters.
6 OR MORE ACTORS
3M, 3F page 205, 4+ pages long: The Thief of Man
A
knight, a Viking, a nun, an innkeeper and daughter, Viking’s servant are
visited by Death. Peculiar but interesting; stilted language suggesting older
form of English; lots of historical references to Crusades era.
1M, 1F, other roles voiced over or on stage may be
played by 1 or more actors page 214, 7 pages long: Pleasure Cruise
M and F
on a cruise; disembodied voices and characters answer their questions and
bring them what they want. M goes overboard at end and F has to pay the bill.
Suggests a voyage of life; different; could be fun.