Synopses & Reviews
PREFACE This collection of one-act plays appears because of an in- creasingly large demand for such a volume. The plays have been selected and the Introduction prepared to meet the need of the student or teacher who desires to acquaint himself with the one-act play as a specific dramatic form. The plays included have been selected with this need in mind. Accordingly, emphasis has been placed upon thewholesome and uplifting rather than upon the sordid and the ultra-realistic. The unduly sentimental, the strikingly melodramatic, and the play of questionable moral problems, has been consciously avoided. Comedies, tragedies, farces, and melodramas have been included but the chief concern has been that each play should be good dramatic art. The Dramatic Analysis and Construction of the One-Act Play, which appears in the Introduction, also has been prepared for the student or teacher. This outline-analysis and the plays in this volume are sufficient material, if carefully studied, for an understanding and appreciation of the one-act play. B. ROLAND LEWIS. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 3 THE TWELVE-POUND LOOK . LIST OF PLAYS TRADITION George . . Sir James M. Barrie 17 Middleton . . 43 THE EXCHANGE Althea Thurston . . 61 SAM AVERAGE Percy Mackaye ... 85 HYACINTH HALVEY Lady Augusta Gregory 103 THE GAZING GLOBE Eugene Pittot .... 139 THE BOOR Anton Tchekov ... 155 THE LAST STRAW Bosworth Crocker . . 175 MANIKIN AND MINIKIN Alfred Kreymborg . . 197 AVuiTE DRESSES Paul Greene .... 215 MOONSHINE Arthur Hopkins . . 39 MODESTY Paul llcrmcu .... 255 THE DEACONS HAT Jeannette Marks . . 273 WHERE BUT IN AMERICA .... Oscar M. Wolff . . . 301 A DOLLAR David Pinski .... 321 THE DIABOLICAL CIRCLE .... BeulahBornstead . . 343 THE FAR-AWAY PRINCESS .... Hermann Sudermann 865 Tin STHO.GKJ August Strindbcrg ix. . 393 CONTENTS BIBLIOGRAPHIES PAGE COLLECTIONS OF ONE-ACT PLAYS 405 LISTS OF ONE-ACT PLAYS 400 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF REFERENCE ON THE ONE-ACT PLAY . 408 BIBLIOGRAPHY ON How TO PRODUCE PLAYS . 409 CONTEMPORARY ONE-ACT PLAYS