One Acts of Note 2008
Edited by James Damone
An Anthology of Notable American Plays
Now Available at Amazon.com

The Limp by John Lane

Mom and Dad Meet in Heaven by John Ireland

Look Up by Sharon Yablon

Georgie Gets A Facelift by Dan Guyton

American Interlude by Scott Brooks

Raft of Medusa-Post Modern by Christine Emmert

She Is And She Isn't by George Freek

Amarillo Rose by David Miguel Estrada

The Homeless Secretary by Gerry Sheridan

Dawnless Days by Olivia Arieti

A Good Kid by Bill Mesce Jr.

Last Dance by Carol Schlanger

The Selling of the Soul by Walter Dalton

Jettison by Brendan Andolsek Bradley

4 Days in Bed by Jonson Kuhn & Ariel Marks


"One Acts of Note" is a compelling anthology of one-act plays that showcases
established and up-and-coming playwrights from the West Coast to the East
Coast, from comedy to drama and everything in between. This collection of
American one-acts embodies the kind of work that took place in a topsy-turvy
year that saw the markets crumble and the unprecedented election of the first
African-American president.

In "The Limp," a window is opened into today's Corporate America when a
worker, afraid of being put on the chopping block is ironically able to keep
his job after his boss learns of his "limp," written by John Lane ("ingenious"
writes Eric Marchese - Backstage West). "The Homeless Secretary," is a
comedy about a woman who is on the brink of penury after accidentally typ-
ing a few too many zeroes shopping online, written by Gerry Sheridan
("Kerry & Angie" - Best Play of 2005 Award by Samuel French Critics Choice).

Sharon Yablon contributes "Look Up," which the L.A. Times called, "line for line,
the best play" out of the recent Padua Players/LaDADspace production, "A
Thousand Words." It tells the story of an LA real estate agent trying to talk a
family into buying an Irvine home in a gated community that is suicide-prone.

The anthology also has its fair share of inspirational pieces that exemplify the
indomitable American spirit. In John Ireland's poignantly personal play "Mom
and Dad Meet in Heaven," Academy Award nominated screen actor, John
Ireland, meets his ex-wife in the after-life. "Last Dance" is a play about a
mother coming to grips with the death of her son in Iraq, written by award-
winning playwright and Obie-nominee Carol Schlanger.

Playwright/actor Walter Dalton (who recently starred opposite Michelle Williams
in "Wendy & Lucy" and whose TV writing credits include "Barney Miller,"
"Laverne & Shirley," and "Donny & Marie"), writes of advertising gone to hell
in "The Selling of the Soul." After breaking up a garden shed, a wife climbs on it,
induced by a vision of The Raft of Medusa for mankind, in Christine Emmert's
"Raft Of Medusa: Post Modern." "Jettison," the story of a fuzzy rabbit standing
between three starving men adrift at sea, is an examination of hunger vs.
humanity written by Brendan Andolsek Bradley. In its review of "Swim Shorts,"
the ten-minute plays that daringly took place on a Manhattan rooftop swimming
pool, NYTheatre.com raves, "...Despite the patently safe confines of the pool,
(Jettison) does a good job of bringing the audience much further out to sea."

Bill Mesce Jr.'s "A Good Kid," (Winner of Best Play/Audience Favorite at the
Turnip Theatre One-Act Festival) is a play about old Italian buddies who meet
at the funeral of neighborhood kid, who happens to have been gay. Scott
Brooks' "American Interlude," (Winner of the 2006 Nantucket One-Act Festival)
is a road-not-taken romance in which two strangers at a bar meet and imagine
an entire life together.

In "Georgie Gets a Facelift," a dark comedy by two-time Kennedy Center Award
Winner Dan Guyton, a young man attempts suicide many times, but an accidental
murder puts things in perspective. George Freek's "She is and She Isn't" is a
comedy about a well-off lawyer who becomes jealous when his wife's former
college flame is invited over to sell him life insurance. In "Amarillo Rose," written
by David Miguel Estrada, whom ShowBusiness Weekly calls "a maverick writer-
actor-director," a young man shows up at his military father's Texas trailer to
present his new fiancee.

Passions flare in the Australian outback when a woman who is unsatisfied with
her foreign boyfriend decides to take a new lover in Olivia Arieti's "Dawnless
Days." "4 Days In Bed" is a personal play about a recovering alcoholic and an
aspiring playwright's budding love, written by Jonson Yuhn and Ariel Marks.