Charles Pierce has reached a dead end. He's got a good job and his family loves him, but he wanders through life as if he were barely there. On a business road trip, his car breaks down, stranding him in a small town in rural Virginia. While at first he greets his circumstances with irritation, Charles slowly begins to realize that this accident may be the luckiest thing that ever happened to him. His disappearance may just be his chance at a new life, and the down-to-earth waitress from the local diner might just be his second opportunity for love. That is, if the past doesn't catch up with him first.

A collection of short plays selected by New York theatre critics, professionals, and the editorial staff of Samuel French, Inc. as the most important plays of the Twenty-Fourth Off-Off Broadway Original Short Play Festival sponsored by Love Creek Productions. Flight of Fancy: At the Portland airport bar, an attractive MBA waits for her flight next to a middle aged salesman. She just lost a big account on the first call of her career and dreads flying home a loser. The customer wanted sex and she can still make the sale if she gives in. The salesman isn''t looking forward to another week on the road or to flying back to an unhappy home. They hear a boarding announcement for a tour to Hawaii, Bora Bora, Fiji and Samoa and gaze off dreaming "if only..." The Last Cigarette: In the last smoking bar in Santa Monica a beautiful woman in a green evening dress sits alone, smoking and drinking martinis. She has a past, a secret and no future. Watching her from the bar while he drinks doubles is a man with little to lose who will stop at nothing to win her. Drinks are downed, stories are told, strangers dance and kiss. As they are leaving together, she reveals her secret. This funny, heartbreaking tale is told in the evocative language of film noir. Nothing in the World Like It: Here is a sympathetic look at college students caught in a universal dilemma. Edie, a junior from a broken home, meets Doug in the cafeteria to tell him she is pregnant and wants to get married. A senior intent on graduating, he maintains that they are not ready for marriage and offers to help pay for an abortion. Edie refuses, they argue, Doug walks out, and she contorts in pain. A cafeteria worker attempts to comfort Edie by expounding on the joys of motherhood, but this only confuses the younger woman. Doug returns and the three strike a tableau, each in a solitary world. Ophelia: In this graphic example of the eternal struggle between good and evil, a young girl''s lonely rural existence is interrupted by an exciting stranger on the run. He is compelled to win her confidence; she would gladly trust him if he would accept Jesus. As he attempts to lure her into his truck, she tries to lure him toward heaven. Frustrated, he reveals his intentions, only to be shown the evil within himself. Years later, he remembers her offer of salvation while she survives to sing at his funeral. Pearls: Seven years after her husband''s death, Ruth, now in her sixties, invites her nemesis, the younger other woman, for a visit. A verbal chess match ensues as each tries to claim the deceased man''s love, until they face the truth about their lives, understand their pain and move on. Physical Therapy: Is physical therapy the answer? The term takes on new meaning when Beulah contacts a male escort service and gets more than she bargained for. Over gin, Beulah attempts to persuade a friend facing a medical crisis that physical therapy solves most problems. As the alcohol flows and edges blur, Beulah''s powers of persuasion escalate and the friend''s resolve wavers. The Price You Pay: Two of the wealthy women in this absurdist comedy about those who marry older men find themselves in a power struggle when a stranger enters their odd world. A Significant Betrayal: Hoping to find answers about her life, Dorry slips into the swamp to meet an uncle who was cut off from the family after a mysterious incident before she was born. She delves into his sexual past and her family''s hidden secrets to confront her future and universal questions about the nature of love, forgiveness, betrayal and the assumptions we make about the suffering of others.

"These young women are the prophets of a new millennium."-Rebecca Brown Present Tense is an anthology showcasing the literature of young women. The forty-six contributors (ages 14-33) write, speak, and act their work. Theirs is a literature not merely read or seen, but spoken, shown, performed, sung, and slammed.

It is 1900, and Erich Kunze has been assigned to write a newspaper story about an old man in prison who claims to have traveled through time, guided by angels and helped by the holy sword of the archangel Michael, to forever change his own destiny. Beginning with his birth nearly thirty years in the future, the old man takes Erich through his memories as he reveals how, as a teenager, his life was changed when his older brother returned from World War II and claimed to have seen the Angel of Death on the battlefield. The old man details how he made it his mission to pursue the Angel of Death, ultimately following in his brother's footsteps. When he meets an angel he is granted a chance to change his world-the fate of his family hangs in the balance.