ONE ON ONE:
THE BEST MEN’S MONOLOGUES FOR THE 21st CENTURY
Edited by:
Joyce E. Henry, Rebecca Dunn Jaroff, and Bob Shuman
THE APPLAUSE ACTING SERIES
A follow-up to the popular edition from the 1990s, One on One: The Best Men’s Monologues for the 21st Century includes the work of over 80 playwrights, spotlighting the best of Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional, and experimental writings since 2000. The book is edited by three theatre experts who have carefully selected the strongest pieces for auditions, acting classes, and study, in the process revealing the pulse of the millennial theatrical scene. A special foreword by Broadway casting director Barry Moss is included.
Tackling issues of race, class, and gender; reactions to 9/11 and the Iraq war, this new compendium–by turns comic and serious, and sometimes both–depicts young, middle-aged, and older characters caught in the truths of our time. John Patrick Shanley portrays the rituals of boys becoming men on the basketball court (Doubt ); A. R. Gurney shows the unconscious at work in a polite game of tennis (Big Bill); Heather McDonald decodes how parents inflict pain on the children they are trying to protect (An Almost Holy Picture); David Rabe contemplates a larger awareness (The Dog Problem); and Spalding Gray, in one of his last monologues (The Anniversary), confronts the mortality of everyday life and reaches out to those he loves.
Joyce E. Henry, Ph.D., is professor emerita of Theatre and Communication Studies at Ursinus College. She is the editor of The Wisdom of Shakespeare and author of Beat the Bard. She lives in Collegeville, Pennsylvania.
Rebecca Dunn Jaroff, Ph.D., is assistant professor of English at Ursinus College, where she teaches American literature, drama, and journalism. She lives in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.
Bob Shuman, M.F.A., is an editor, playwright, college professor, and co-author of Simply Elegant Flowers with Michael George. A Fellow of the Lark Theatre Company, he received Hunter College’s Zarkower Award for excellence in playwriting. He lives in New York City.
A complete listing of the excerpted plays and playwrights included in this volume follows:
The Adventures of Nervous Boy (A Penny Dreadful) by James Comtois*Aliens, 3 Miles, Turn Left by Stephen A. Schrum*An Almost Holy Picture by Heather McDonald*
At Said by Gary Winter*Auntie Mayhem by David Pumo*The Beginning of August by Tom Donaghy*A Bicycle Country by Nilo Cruz*Big Bill by A. R. Gurney*Big Love by Charles Mee*Bitter Bierce by Mac Wellman*The Black Monk by David Rabe*Black Thang by Ato Essandoh*The Boss’s Daughter by Josh McIlvain*Burning the Old Man by Kelly McAllister*Catch & Release by Staci Swedeen*Chaucer in Rome by John Guare *Clean Alternatives by Brian Dykstra*Communicating through the Sunset by Kerri Kochanski*Corps Values by Brendon Bates*Cost of Living by Brad Schreiber*Cuban Operator, Please by Adrían Rodríguez*Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams by Terrence McNally*The Dog Problem by David Rabe*Doubt by John Patrick Shanley*Dust by Carrie Louise Nutt*End Zone by Bob Shuman*The Exonerated by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen*Expecting Isabel by Lisa Loomer*Fabulation or, The Re-education of Undine by Lynn Nottage*Fat Pig by Neil LaBute*Fear Itself, Secrets of the White House by Jean-Claude van Itallie*Fetes de la Nuit by Charles Mee*Folkdance by Robin Reese*Freedom High by Adam Kraar*Gap by Carol Lashof*Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson*Gone Missing by Steven Cosson and The Civilians*Heirloom by Andy Bragen*Imagine by Rebecca Basham*The Impossibility of Most Things by Albert Innaurato*Jimmy Jim Jim and the M.F.M. by Meron Langsner*Johnny’s Got a Gun by John Fleck*La Tempestad by Larry Loebell*The Language of Kisses by Edmund De Santis*The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman and the members of Tectonic Theater Project*The Last Freak Show by Philip Zwerling*Letters from Cuba by Maria Irene Fornes*Light by Jean-Claude van Itallie*Lost Love by Peter Papadopoulos*The Ludicrous Trial of Mr. P by Susan Yankowitz*Maggie May by Tom O’Brien*The Mean Reds by Mark Scharf*Measure for Pleasure, A Restoration Romp by David Grimm*The Mercy Seat by Neil LaBute*My Chekov Light by Frank Gagliano*‘Nami by Chad Beckim*The Naturalist by Robin Goldfin*New York by David Rimmer*On My Head by Thaddeus Rutkowski*Orson’s Shadow by Austin Pendleton*O. T. Fairclough and Roger Mais by Clifford Mason*The Paris Letter by Jon Robin Baitz*The Pavilion by Craig Wright*A Picasso
by Jeffrey Hatcher*The Pilgrim Papers by Stephen Temperley*The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh *PLATONOV!PLATONOV!PLATONOV! by Michael Kochmer*Prophecy by Karen Malpede*The Proposal by Tim Miller*Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire*The Rebirth by Lisa Soland*Red Roses by Lisa Soland*Shyness is Nice by Marc Spitz*Small Domestic Acts by Joan Lipkin*Some Girl(s) by Neil LaBute*Souvenir by Stephen Temperley*Spin by Randy Wyatt*Storytellers by Thomas McCormack*Tales of an Urban Indian by Darrell Dennis*They’re Just Like Us by Boo Killebrew*Third Person by Peter S. Petralia*This Is How it Goes by Neil LaBute*Three Days of Rain by Richard Greenberg*Unequalibrium by Alexander Lyras and Robert McCaskill*Via Crucis by Albert Innaurato*The Violet Hour by Richard Greenberg*The Voyage of the Carcass by Dan O’Brien*We Had a Very Good Time by David Auburn*WTC View by Brian Sloan*Aunt Pitti-Pat in the Tower by David Simpatico*The Anniversary by Spalding Gray*
Find One on One: The Best Men’s Monologues for the 21st Century wherever fine books are sold.
$14.95 U.S.
THEATRE/MONOLOGUES
ISBN: 978-1-55783-701-1
Visit: www.applausepub.com