Description:
Only a select number of authors have been able to master the art of writing both fiction and drama. As Joyce Carol Oates, one of the major novelists and short story writers of our time, remarks, writing a play is "something else entirely." This superb collection of twelve plays is exciting evidence that Ms. Oates ranks among that select number.
All of the works in this collection are recent, and most have been performed since 1990. "Tone Clusters," with its core of murder and distress, haunting interview-like dialogue, and video imagery, was co-winner of the 1990 Heideman Award for One-Act Plays. "The
Only a select number of authors have been able to master the art of writing both fiction and drama. As Joyce Carol Oates, one of the major novelists and short story writers of our time, remarks, writing a play is "something else entirely." This superb collection of twelve plays is exciting evidence that Ms. Oates ranks among that select number.
All of the works in this collection are recent, and most have been performed since 1990. "Tone Clusters," with its core of murder and distress, haunting interview-like dialogue, and video imagery, was co-winner of the 1990 Heideman Award for One-Act Plays. "The Key," in which dark undercurrents swirl around a vacationing middle-aged man and woman who flirt and sip Voodoo Bombshells, was first performed by L.A. Theatre Works in January 1991.
Some of the plays are highly compressed, while others are more expansive, filling an entire evening; some are traditional in form, and others are boldly experimental, like her daring collage-play, "I Stand Before You Naked." And all twelve plays collected here incorporate specific issues of our time, from AIDS to racism, yet they go beyond current topics to intimately explore universal themes such as aging, death, and hope.
Innovative and intense with emotion, the drama of Joyce Carol Oates is as unique as her unmistakable voice, which can be clearly heard in each work's dialogue, soliloquy, or chorus. These plays, written to be performed, make for exciting, provocative contemporary theater and are a brilliant testament to the genius of this enormously gifted artist.
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Manufacturer: Dutton
Release date: 28 November 1991
ISBN-10 : 0452267013 |
ISBN-13: 9780452267015
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