So far, the best Humana Festival. A must for anyone interested in theatre whether student, teacher, or just playgoer. I highly recommend reading Anton in Show Business and Big Love from it for some really enjoyable reading.

"30 Ten-Minute Plays for 4, 5, and 6 Actors from Actors Theatre of Louisville's National Ten-Minute Play Contest," edited by Michael Bigelow Dixon, Tanya Palmer, and Brendan Healy, is a solid anthology that is focused on a specific type of play. The book is part of a set of three volumes; the other 2 contain plays for 2 actors and 3 actors. The introduction to this book briefly discusses the 10-minute play as a distinct theatrical form.

This collection of plays shows diversity in both tone and subject matter. Some plays are funny, some are creepy; topics covered include romance, marriage, violence, the impact of popular culture, war, communication, betrayal, revenge, and broken dreams.

This book is full of great pieces, but I'd like to mention a few that stood out for me. Richard Dresser's "The Road to Ruin": a Twilight Zone-ish tale about a couple whose car breaks down; Stephen Gregg's "A Private Moment," a touching depiction of an episode in the lives of Chang and Eng, the original "Siamese Twins"; Kim Levin's "Just One Night," which explores the issue of date rape; John Pielmeier's "Pillow Talk," an outrageous, violent satiric comedy that takes place in a marriage counseling office; "The Processional," by Robert D. Kemnitz and Jennifer McMaster, which depicts a very bizarre wedding rehearsal; Jane Martin's "Tattoo," a funny and unsettling story of justice; and Sheri Wilner's "Labor Day," which is dominated by a word game played by the characters.

The only disappointing thing about this anthology was the lack of any information about the authors of each play. But that complaint aside, this is an excellent anthology which I would recommend both for literature courses or just for some entertaining independent reading.

Three fine books in the Smith & Kraus '30 10-Minutes Plays' series by Michael Dixon, et.al. present winners from the Actors Theatre of Louisville's national 'ten-minute play' contest, provide aspiring students and dramatists with a wide range of plays. These three volumes are divided into plays for 3 Actors (1-57525-278-3), 2 Actors (277-5) and 4, 5 & 6 Actors (279-1). Characters, settings, and details on obtaining performance rights accompany each sketch.

This compilation of plays from the Humana Festival of 1998 is fabulous for any aspiring actor or director. It features 9 plays, recently written by new playwrights. Acorn, by David Graziano, is the most impressive, by far. It tells the story of a young man and woman who fall in love because of some acorns. It is cute and touching. A few other impressive plays included in this anthology are "The Trestle At Pope Lick Creek," by Naomi Wallace, "Let the Big Dog Eat," by Elizabeth Wong, and "Meow," by Val Smith. Once again, this book is a wonderful addition to your collection if you are interested in new and interesting, short plays.

These are supposed to be reviews of Viewpoints, the book about Bogart's technique. Some of you are reviewing A Director Prepares (which I recommend more). Don't get mixed up. They're very different texts.

Having been introduced to the concept of "Viewpoints" in a weekend directing workshop, I was eager to read more about it. After reading this book, I know less about "Viewpoints" than before I started. If you're looking for an insight into how Anne Bogart works (and she very well may be very talented - I don't know, as I've never seen one of her productions) you won't find it here. There is much discussion about "the Viewpoints" and referrences to "the Viewpoints" and even definitions of "the Viewpoints", but as far as what Anne Bogart does WITH "the Viewpoints" I have no idea. One reviewer is correct - this book is a love story, written by people who think that Anne Bogart is the Messiah of Modern, er Postmodern Theatre. If you're looking to join in the lovefest, by all means, sign up. If you're looking for insights into how to work "the Viewpoints" into your work...you'll be disappointed.

I hadn't intended to respond, but when I read the review below I felt I must try to explain NY reader's misconception about Anne Bogart and her attitude toward the audience. In the opening essay of this book, Bogart retells one of her first experiences with the theatre: she was fifteen years old, and she attended a production of Macbeth at the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island. She writes that she was confused and disoriented by the language and staging, but that she left the theatre with a realization that she follows to this day: "Never talk down to the audience. It was immediately clear to me that the experience of theatre was not about us understanding the meaning of the play or the significance of the staging." Instead, she was able to experience the play "directly, in a visceral and fantastic manner."

So, yes... Bogart does insinuate that the audience won't understand every play she directs--but she doesn't say this contemptuously. Even now, Bogart admits that she is often confused by productions she sees, and she writes that this feeling of confronting the unexpected and confusing is essential to quality theatre. She acknowledges that not everyone in the audience will understand because not every human can understand everything; indeed, not even one human can understand everything.

The opportunity to reach beyond your boundaries, to traverse places where you aren't entirely comfortable--that is one of the greatest assets of the theatre. And that devotion to the challenge of understanding characterizes every aspect of Anne Bogart's work. Bogart is an intelligent, creative, talented director--and this book is an excellent introduction to her poignant process.

Let me be up front with something: I was forced to read Jane Martin's works as a result of an inane Honors English research project, so don't expect a world-class dramaturg or ace playwright analyzer here. But a review's a review's a review, right?

To start off, I enjoy Jane Martin's works immensely. It wasn't agonizing or boring at all to read them. I read through "Jane Martin: Collected Plays 1980-1995" at breakneck speed and enjoyed almost all the works, especially the monologues. Then I ordered 1996-2001 from ... for completeness before writing my research paper.

I was not pleased. Martin has certainly expanded her horizons with this; she writes much more in-depth plays, longer plays, and fewer monologues (highly unfortunate). The plays are a little more tongue-in-cheek, a little more abstract, and... a little more painful to read through. These more modern Martin plays (ahhh, alliteration) are certainly good works by any standard, but compared to her older works, I am left a little high and dry. For all their newer, shinier wrappings, stages, and concepts, these plays seem to end up focused more on irrelevant satire or hackneyed public education messages than the razor wit and meaningful perplexity of "Vital Signs" or "Talking With..."

Maybe I'm just out of it, but it seems to me like Martin has, with fame and notoriety that means any experiment will be called a success, expanded "her" work into directions that are designed to stimulate the funny bone or the heartstrings a lot more than her original target, the good old brain.

I wrote a very negative review on this book and it never appeared. Why not? It wasn't nasty or profane. It was well written and thoughtful, I just thought the plays were bad. Why didn't you publish that?

This book was a Witty portrail of an older day book. I would recomend this book for school use, for the drama department. This book Received 4 stars from me. It made me laugh to the point of tears. This is a must read for any drama student, or teacher.