The Best Ten-Minute Plays 3 or More Actors 2005
D.L. Lepidus, ed.
Smith and Kraus, 2007
3 ACTORS
3F page 3, 6 pages long: Shot Americans
3 girls
in band (2 of them sisters) react to bad review and discuss their father and
their art; drink a lot; some coarse language. Short, compact; pretty even
distribution of lines; relatively serious; downer for an ending.
1M 2F page 11, 7 pages long: Larry Gets the
Call
God
(preferably played by a disabled woman), God’s assistant, and Larry. God gives
Larry message to disseminate that and God and humans are beautiful just the
way they are (tolerance). Funny, interesting; pretty even distribution of
roles. A bit of profanity; a comic physical gesture with breasts.
2M 1F page 10, 7 pages long: Shades
Couple
are visited by her former lover, an artist. Polite conversation is done in 5
redactions, exploring what people really mean by what they say. Good,
interesting, novel concept; looks like fun to act.
1M 2F page 27, 7 pages long: Every Man
Mother,
daughter (both have no life); man comes, represents both the mother’s young
love and daughter’s desired love. Daughter talks to stars, mother tells
departing man to say hello to stars for her: “You’re all we ever talk about.”
About love and longing and heartbreak and regret. Whimsical; not bad.
1M 2F page 35, 5 pages long: Molly Whuppie
Blind
man, his daughter, an orphan he cares for. Man strangles daughter when he
intends to strangle orphan. Spooky, insidious, good.
3F page 41, 4 pages long: It’s Called
Development
Ms.
Teufel (devil) tempts debutante fundraiser to sell her soul and succeeds. A
little obvious, preachy; characters could be fun to play.
1M
1F 1 either, page 47, 11 pages long: An Examination of the True Meaning
of Life
Playwright tries to control his 2 characters; they rebel and eventually win.
Farcical, funny, good variety of pace.
1M 2F, page 59, 5 pages long: Pistachio Stories
Mystery
package of red pistachios from Syria, feared to be a signal from terrorists.
Man and woman watch Al-jazeera and he is followed by a red van (FBI?).
Anti-Bush play. Good intensity. 2 evenly divided roles + 1 supporting female
role.
2M 1F, page 65, 9 pages long: The Searcher
Son,
given up for adoption as a baby, finds birth mother only to discover she is
now a male and married to a female. Good characters, funny; some language and
actions that may be objectionable (drop pants to show birthmark, penis joke).
2M 1F, page 75, 6 pages long: More
Man and
woman have bartender watch video of them having sex to critique them. Not
suitable for our class.
2M 1F, page 83, 9 pages long: Weird Water
Father
heartbroken over his son’s death in war (probably Iraq). Anti-Bush. Touching
situation and play; very serious.
1M 2F, page 93, 10 pages long: Dead Boy
3
teenagers use Ouija board and think they are inhabited by a dead boy. Pretty
interesting; evenly divided lines; good ghost story.
4 ACTORS
4M, page 107, 6 pages long: Vinnie’s
Vision
3
friends try to help a buddy overcome his grief, pretend they have received a
message from his dead wife. Good characters; lines pretty evenly distributed;
nice little surprise line at the end.
2M 1F 1 either, page 115, 6 pages long: Betting
the Karmic House
Husband and wife in heaven (Astral Las Vegas) risk their next-life karma;
wife reconsiders spending another life with husband. Fantasy; funny; explores
man/woman/life values.
1M 3F, page 123, 6 pages long: Infant Morality
Couple
want to return baby to the hospital (cried, defecates); administrator resists
but then takes baby to give to parents whose baby died in botched childbirth
to avoid lawsuit for doc and hospital; nurse who wanted to make ethical
choices in the situation absconds with the baby. Funny; out there.
4M, page 131, 10 pages long: How to Speak Man
One guy
starts using adjectives, woman words; the rest literally beat some sense into
him. Hilarious satire of guy talk.
1M 3F page 143, 6 pages long: Remind Me Again
Male role
is one moment, no lines. 3 women talk about enjoying and fearing looks and
actions of men. Mostly comic but deals with real female fears and issues.
1 M 3 F, page 151, 6 pages: Hell Hath Three
Furies
Set in
Hell. Man and 3 Furies: wife, mistress, shrink. Farcical. We think the male is
going to do the killing of the 3 women, but they sequentially off each other.
Satiric of Sartre’s No Exit, at least in setting. Very odd; pretty
good.
1M 3F, page 159, 4 pages long: A Moment of Your
Undivided Attention
Ex-wife and companion join ex-husband and his new wife at a party.
Cross-conversations with ex-wife warning new wife of man’s proclivity to
wife-beat, companion trying to get ex-husband to join a business deal.
Peculiar; a little interesting; dark.
5 ACTORS
3M 2F + intercom voice, page 167, 4 pages long:
Tina at the Times or Below the Fold
Fast-paced, satiric of new reporting, lots of topical references and NYTimes
references.
6 OR MORE ACTORS
8M 1F, page 175, 4 pages: Toys in Babeland
Toys
played by actors are in bedroom while Alejandro is in bed with a new woman.
Only he toys speak. Requires costumes (Spiderman, dinosaur, purple panda,
clown, etc. and is almost exclusively sex talk.
3M 5W, page 181, 6 pages: at the time
Students in a classroom; each engages in acting out thoughts, fantasies;
intercom announcement has removed teachers from their classroom—to get the
news about 9/11, we later learn. Implication: evaluation of what we do now in
view of the fact we could die at any moment. Different; pretty good.
3M 3F, page 189, 8 pages: Small World
3
couples on benches. Difficult to do but could be interesting: the lines of the
3 couples are interspersed. Eventually we find that some of them have
known/dated others previous to their current pairing.