(Applause Books). A collection of eleven short plays from 1989. Includes: "The Author's Voice," "San Antonio Sunset," "There is No John Garfield," "The Mask of Hiroshima," "Penguin Blues," "Haiku," "Chemical Reactions," "Dolores," "April Snow," "Trout" and "A Poster of the Cosmos."

(Applause Books). Lose yourself in a universe of forces familiar and frightening in the 21 plays presented in this exclusive volume. The playwrights included here succeed in pushing back the boundaries of conventional dramatic expression. Among them, Lanford Wilson dissects a survivor's anguish after his lover's death in A Poster of the Cosmos and Deborah Pryor spins an eerie tale of spellbinding romance in The Love Talker . Richard Greenberg plots a battle of wills between a young writer and his elusive muse, while Sheila Walsh examines the exchange of a woman's soul for her husband's fame in Molly and James . From the starkly realistic to the fantastic, these plays challenge their audiences to confront the universal from a new perspective.

(Best American Short Plays). A collection of eleven short plays from 1989. Includes: "The Author's Voice" Richard Greenberg; "San Antonio Sunset" Willy Holtzman; "There Is No John Garfield" Ernest A. Joselovitz; "The Mask of Hiroshima" Ernest Ferlita; "Penguin Blues" Ethan Phillips; "Haiku" Katherine Snodgrass; "Chemical Reactions" Andrew Foster; "Dolores" Edward Allan Baker; "April Snow" Romulus Linney; "Trout" William R. Lewis; "A Poster of the Cosmos" Lanford Wilson.

This 15th anniversary edition demonstrates that the finest contemporary plays often appear in one-act form. This year's collection includes plays by Lanford Wilson, David Edgar, Mary Gallagher, Percy Granger, Samuel Shem and others. Also includes a cumulative index of plays and playwrights appearing in The Best Short Plays, 1968-82.

A collection of one-act plays from American playwrights, which cover such themes as love, fantasy, politics, grief, marriage, crime, and deceit.

(Applause Books). "These are sharp, tightly constructed pieces with small casts, as readable as they are actable just the sort of thing community players and other small ensembles will find practical." Booklist

A collection of one-act plays from American playwrights, which cover such themes as love, fantasy, politics, grief, marriage, crime, and deceit.

Applause is proud to continue the series that for over 70 years has been the standard of excellence for one-act plays in America. From its inception, The Best American Short Plays has identified new, cutting-edge playwrights who have gone on to establish award-winning careers, including Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Wendy Wasserstein, David Mamet, and Horton Foote. William W. Demastes made his debut as series editor with the well-received 2010-2011 volume, a diverse collection revolving around the multidimensional theme of love. Blogcritics said of the anthology: "This collection is a bountiful of pleasing oddities. Each work offers something worthwhile.... The collection runs the gamut of the most serious drama to the most irreverent topical mental trinkets...." Demastes returns and once again draws from works produced by some of America's finest theater companies in an effort to capture the wide range of styles, topics, and regional tastes that typifies American theater. The compilation includes works by John Guare, Neil LaBute, and A. R. Gurney, as well as contributions from a plethora of gifted, emerging playwrights.