William Mastrosimone: Collected Plays, Vol. 1 - Softcover

Mastrosimone, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1880399326 ISBN 13: 9781880399323

Publisher: Smith & Kraus Pub Inc, 1993

Synopsis

William Mastrosimone's plays are audacious. This is not all they are of course, but they challenge us, sometimes to make us recoil in shock or at least become unsettled. Who else dares to give the rapist the funny lines as Mastrosimone does in Extremities. Nor is this audacity limited to social or political issues. Who else confronts the driver-owner of a transcontinental semi with a reclusive dime store clerk, as in The Woolgatherer, or a belly dancer who has the soul of Isis with a shut-in hemophiliac as in Shivaree. In these plays Mastrosimone has found vastly dissimilar characters who are drawn to each other, and he probes until he enables us to see past our stereotypical expectations. Fresh insights enrich us and we are reminded of that endless human diversity--indeed human potential--that we so often never recognize on our own. - from the Introduction by M.E. Comtois, Founding head of the Playwriting Program at Rutgers University

About this title

About the Author

William Mastrosimone made his debut with The Woolgatherer in 1981 which later won the L.A. Drama Critics Award for Best Play of 1982. His plays have received numerous awards, inlcuding a 1992 Golden Globe Award, a New York Outer Critics Circle Award for the play Extremities, and a 1988 Roxanne T. Mueller Award.

From Library Journal

Finally, six well-chosen examples of Mastrosimone's exciting work are available in a single source. While he's no sweaty armpit realist, Mastrosimone nonetheless draws the reader (or viewer) into the maelstrom of his realistic characters' complex and sometimes shocking lives. These examples read well, and that they play well is amply documented by Mastrosimone's numerous stage successes and well-deserved film and theater awards. Because Mastrosimone doesn't pull any linguistic punches, many of the plays are best produced by university theaters catering to broad-minded audiences. However, this collection belongs in every drama collection that supports academic or community theater. Highly recommended.
Jon P. Cobes, Central Wyoming Coll., Riverton
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Smith & Kraus Pub Inc
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 1880399326
• ISBN 13: 9781880399323
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 346