Take Ten II

A ten-minute play is a blaze of theatrical energy. In this follow-up to their groundbreaking collectionTake Ten, editors Eric Lane and Nina Shengold have put together a veritable bonfire of talent.Take Ten II: More 10-Minute Playsprovides a fast-track tour of the current theatrical landscape, from the slapstick ingenuity of David Ives'Arabian Nightsto the searing tension of Diana Son's 9/11 dramaThe Moon, Please, to Susan Miller's luminous fableThe Grand Design. This remarkably diverse anthology includes thirty-five short plays by such major American playwrights as Christopher Durang, Warren Leight, Romulus Linney and Donald Margulies, alongside a host of exciting new voices. Actors, directors, producers and teachers will findTake Ten IIan invaluable source of meaty roles for people of every age, ethnicity and gender; lovers of theatre will find it a richly satisfying read. These deceptively short plays throb with life in all its variety: harrowing, hilarious, and breathtakingly vital.

Nina Shengold won the ABC Playwright Award and the LA Weekly Award for her play "Homesteaders." Her one-acts have been performed all over the country, and her TV scripts include Hallmark Hall of Fame's "Blind Spot," starring Joanne Woodward, and "Silent Night." A founding member of the theater company Actors & Writers, she lives in upstate New York.<br><br>Eric Lane's plays have been performed at theaters in New York and around the country. Works include "The Gary & Rob Show," "The Heart of a Child," and "Dancing on Checkers' Grave." He is artistic director of Orange Thoughts, a not-for-profit theater and film company in New York City.<br><br>Shengold and Lane are the editors of <b>Plays for Actresses</b> and <b>Take Ten: New Ten-Minute Plays</b>, both in Vintage. For Penguin they edited <b>Moving Parts: Monologues from Contemporary Plays</b>, <b>The Actor's Book of Scenes from New Plays</b>, and <b>The Actor's Book of Gay & Lesbian Plays</b>, which was nominated for the Lambda Literary Award.