Bob Shuman – författare

Kids of today face a different world – and a different set of challenges – then did the children of even 15 years ago. Playing with a Purpose features a collection of monologues that reflects these new attitudes and circumstances. Highly diversified in its view of the family and the child''s place in the world, the monologues have been chosen from several sources: from contemporary playwrights and screenwriters; from YouthPlays, a new company that specializes in publishing cutting-edge plays for the youth market; and from such conservatories for young actors as The Playground, the Los Angeles-based training center run by Gary Spatz, the leading acting coach for performers ages 6 to 16. “Playing with a purpose” is an idea that arose from Fife''s work with young actors over the course of several decades.

Three editors, each associated with theatre, collaborated on this book of monologues for actresses. What they discovered, besides bravura pieces for auditions, acting classes, and study, was the pulse of the millennial theatrical scene. A follow-up to the popular previous edition from the 1990s, One on One: The Best Women's Monologues for the 21st Century includes the work of over 70 playwrights, spotlighting the best of Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional, and experimental writings since 2000. A special introduction also explains how to choose, practice, and perform a speech for auditions. Comic or serious – or both – the monologues are written for young, old, and multicultural players by famous names and up-and-coming talent.Anna Deavere Smith records abuse in “real” relationships (House Arrest); August Wilson relates trials of those who survived coming to America – and those who did not (Gem of the Ocean); and William Gibson recreates the dark, fledgling days of Israel (Golda's Balcony). Additional works include Are You Ready? by David Auburn, Bad Dates by Theresa Rebeck, The Committee by Brian Dykstra, and many others.

original paperback

Spotlighting the best of Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional, and experimental writings since 2000, Duo!: The Best Scenes for Two for the 21st Century offers bravura pieces for performance, acting class, and study. Culled from the work of over 100 playwrights – veterans as well as up-and-coming talents – and encompassing the seminal issues of our time – from race to gender, class to politics – this follow-up compendium to the popular edition of the 1990s is by turns comic or, serious – and sometimes both – but always intensely human. Duo!'s satisfyingly complex characters are the obscure or famous, young, middle-aged, and older.Tracy Letts confronts the aftermath of betrayal on a night too hot for sleep in August: Osage County; Karen Finley exposes sexual politics outside the Oval Office in George & Martha; Tom Stoppard investigates the difficulties of understanding Greek as well as the younger generation in Rock 'n' Roll; Lynn Nottage delineates gentility, the fear of being alone, and the passage of time in Intimate Apparel; Richard Greenberg weighs the costs of being godly or becoming merely human in the baseball-themed Take Me Out; and Tina Howe bends time, showing the universal power of dramatic recognition across the ages, in Water Music.