Contemporary Scenes for Student Actors

Description

This collection of contemporary scenes provides the student actor, as well as professional and untrained performers, with material from some of the best plays ever written. Each selection contains critical information on characters, setting, and background to give a clear sense of what the play is about. Contemporary Scenes for Student Actors accommodates a wide variety of acting styles, from naturalistic to poetic to highly stylized, spanning a range of ages and a variety of locales, and incorporating excerpts of various lengths.
 
Includes scenes from plays by
· Woody Allen
· Maxwell Anderson
· Jean Anouilh
· Simon Gray
· John Guare
· Lillian Hellman
· Albert Innaurato
· David Mamet
· Mark Medoff
· Arthur Miller
· Miguel Pinero
· David Rabe
· Sam Shepard
· Tennessee Williams
· And many more!Acknowledgments
Preface
How to Approach a Scene
Part I: Scenes for One Man and One Woman
Lovers and Other Strangers by Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
Two for the Seesaw by William Gibson
Gemini by Albert Innaurato
I Never Sang for My Father by Robert Anderson
Sexual Perversity in Chicago by David Mamet
The Lion in Winter by James Goldman
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
The Owl and the Pussycat by Bill Manhoff
Same Time, Next Year by Bernard Slade
Kingdom of Earth by Tennessee Williams
Thieves by Herb Gardner
Otherwise Engaged by Simon Gray
Golden Boy by Clifford Odets
The Great White Hope by Howard Sackler
A Cry of Players by William Gibson
Butterflies Are Free by Leonard Gershe
The Dark at the Top of the Stairs by William Inge
The Tenth Man by Paddy Chayefsky
When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder? by Mark Medoff
27 Wagons Full of Cotton by Tennessee Williams
Hello Out There by William Saroyan
The House of Blue Leaves by John Guare
The Sea Horse by Edward J. Moore
Serenading Louie by Lanford Wilson
The Trip Back Down by John Bishop
Moony’s Kid Don’t Cry by Tennessee Williams
6 RMS RIV VU by Bob Randall
Dirty Hands by Jean-Paul Sartre, translated by Lionel Abel
The Goodbye People by Herb Gardner
You Know I Can’t Hear You When the Water’s Running by Robert Anderson
Days of Wine and Roses by J. P. Miller
Did You Ever Go to P.S. 43? by Michael Schulman
The Only Game in Town by Frank D. Gilroy
The Subject Was Roses by Frank D. Gilroy
At Home by Conrad Bromberg
The Tiger by Murray Schisgal
Lou Gehrig Did Not Die of Cancer by Jason Miller
Part Two: Scenes for Two Women
In the Boom Boom Room by David Rabe
Hello from Bertha by Tennessee Williams
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
The Killing of Sister George by Frank Marcus
Antigone by Jean Anouilh, adapted by Lewis Galantiere
The Children’s Hour by Lilian Hellman
Curse of the Starving Class by Sam Shepard
Moonchildren by Michael Weller
Father’s Day by Oliver Hailey
The Days and Nights of Beebee Fenstermaker by William Snyder
The Bad Seed by Maxwell Anderson
No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre, translated by Stuart Gilbert
Ladies at the Alamo by Paul Zindel
The Girl on the Via Flaminia by Alfred Hayes
The Gingham Dog by Lanford Wilson
Patio/Porch by Jack Heifner
And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little by Paul Zindel
Part Three: Scenes for Two Men
American Buffalo by David Mamet
A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller
Equus by Peter Shaffer
The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel by David Rabe
Play It Again, Sam by Woody Allen
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams
Butley by Simon Gray
A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Dale Wasserman
Short Eyes by Miguel Piñero
Luv by Murray Schisgal
A Thousand Clowns by Herb Gardner
Becket (or The Honour of God) by Jean Anouilh, translated by Lucienne Hill
Streamers by David Rabe
Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? by Don Petersen
A Hatful of Rain by Michael V. Gazzo
The Boys in the Band by Mart Crowley
The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window by Lorraine Hansberry
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
The Wager by Mark Medoff
Hogan’s Goat by William Alfred
Knock Knock by Jules Feiffer
Count Dracula by Ted Tiller
The Creation of the World and Other Business by Arthur Miller
Family Business by Dick Goldberg
The Private Ear by Peter Shaffer
Deathtrap by Ira Levin
IndexHaving taught acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and at The Actors Studio, Michael Schulman now teaches at his own workshop in New York City. He has also written and directed a number of plays for Off and Off-Off Broadway theatre. He is director of The British-American Acting Academy, a school with braches in New York and London, dedicated to the synthesis of the best of British and American acting techniques. He is also chairman of the theatre department of The Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts. In addition to his theatrical career, he is a clinical and research psychologist who has held assistant professorship at Fordham and Rutgers universities. His PhD is from the City University of New York.

Eva Mekler is both a playwright and a former actress who has performed on and off Broadway. Trained in psychology, with a master’s degree from New York University, she divides her time between her work as a clinician and writing. She is also the editor of The New Generation of Acting Teachers.US

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