The Actor's Book of Scenes from New Plays: 70 Scenes for Two Actors, from Today's Hottest Playwrights

Today's most exciting work for the stage is emerging far from Broadway's "mainstream," at Off and Off-off Broadway theaters, at regional companies around the country, and from abroad.  Here is an up-to-the-minute collection of scenes—ideally suited for both classroom and audition use—from the best dramatists now being produced.

Eric Lane has edited 12 contemporary play anthologies for Viking Penguin and Vintage Books with his longtime collaborator, Nina Shengold, earning them a Lambda Literary Award nomination. Eric's plays have been performed in the United States, Canada, Europe, Israel, and China, and include Ride, Floating, Heart of the City, Times of War, and Dancing on Checkers' Grave. Eric wrote and produced the short films First Breath and Cater-Waiter, which he also directed. For TV's Ryan's Hope, he received a Writers Guild Award. His honors include the La MaMa Playwright Award, the Berilla Kerr Award, plus fellowships at Yaddo and St. James Cavalier in Malta. Eric is an honors graduate of Brown University, and is the artistic director of Orange Thoughts Productions, a not-for-profit theater and film company in New York City.

Nina Shengold's plays include Finger Foods, War at Home, Homesteaders, and Romeo/Juliet, and have been produced around the world. Her one-act No Shoulder was filmed by director Suzi Yoonessi, with Melissa Leo and Samantha Sloyan. Nina won a Writers Guild Award for her teleplay Labor of Love, starring Marcia Gay Harden; other teleplays include Blind Spot, with Joanne Woodward and Laura Linney, and Unwed Father. Her books include the novels Clearcut, River of Words: Portraits of Hudson Valley Writers (with photographer Jennifer May), and a growing posse of pseudonymous books for young readers. A graduate of Wesleyan, she is currently teaching creative writing at Manhattanville College. Nina lives in New York's Hudson Valley, where she has been books editor of Chronogram magazine since 2004.