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Teen Drama, American Drama
New Plays from A.C.T.'s Young Conservatory, Volume II by Craig Slaight β€” book cover

New Plays from A.C.T.'s Young Conservatory, Volume II

by Craig Slaight (Editor), Young Conservatory
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Overview

Eddie Mundo Edmundo by Lynne Alvarez - After the death of his mother, a young Hispanic-American travels to a remote fishing village on the Gulf coast of Mexico to find the essence of his heritage and encounters the conflicts of culture, the roots of his family, the excitement of new love, and a mysterious young fisherman with mutant features.

Class Action by Brad Slaight - A tapestry of high school life, outside the classroom, revealing a powerful picture of youthful truth. Through the weave of scenes and speechees, a humorous and poignant voice emerges, challenging our perspective of the formative encounters at school.

Synopsis

This collection of four plays comes from the Young Conservatory at the American Conservatory Theatre, a professional theatre-training program for young people ages eight to eighteen. This book is a wonderful resource for young actors.

Library Journal

Based in San Francisco, A.C.T.'s Young Conservatory is a professional theater training program for people eight to 18 years old. Editor Slaight, director of the conservatory, has published several volumes of scenes and monologs and began the New Plays program with the goal of developing plays that view the world through the eyes of youth. Playwrights featured here are Paul Zindel, Timothy Mason, Brad Slaight, and Lynn Alvarez. Exemplifying the issues touched by these plays, Paul Zindel's Every 17 Minutes the Crowd Goes Crazy focuses on a family of eight children left on their own by parents who ran away to pursue a life of gambling. Thought-provoking and sometimes chilling, these four plays offer challenging roles for young performers. Recommended for comprehensive drama collections serving the high school and college levels.Howard E. Miller, Alliance Blue Cross & Blue Shield Lib., St. Louis

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Editorials

Library Journal

Based in San Francisco, A.C.T.'s Young Conservatory is a professional theater training program for people eight to 18 years old. Editor Slaight, director of the conservatory, has published several volumes of scenes and monologs and began the New Plays program with the goal of developing plays that view the world through the eyes of youth. Playwrights featured here are Paul Zindel, Timothy Mason, Brad Slaight, and Lynn Alvarez. Exemplifying the issues touched by these plays, Paul Zindel's Every 17 Minutes the Crowd Goes Crazy focuses on a family of eight children left on their own by parents who ran away to pursue a life of gambling. Thought-provoking and sometimes chilling, these four plays offer challenging roles for young performers. Recommended for comprehensive drama collections serving the high school and college levels.Howard E. Miller, Alliance Blue Cross & Blue Shield Lib., St. Louis

School Library Journal

Gr 10 UpOne of the problems with play collections for YAs is that most of them seem to go for universality and longevity and have little relevance to the kids who are asked to perform them. This compilation of four plays contains new works commissioned to reflect a "young point of view." After the first draft, the play is developed in rehearsal and the input of the actors is given serious consideration. The vigor and immediacy of the selections attests to the validity of the method. Mature in subject matter and language, these are not namby-pamby exercises, but thought-provoking material for today's teens. They are of varying quality, but even the weakest dramatically, a series of vignettes about high-school life, contains moments of touching reality. The strongest, a heartbreaker by Paul Zindel in which four materially indulged siblings are abandoned by their parents, has the shortest shelf life. It seethes with brand names, rock stars, tabloid headlines, and other modern-culture references that make it a play for today. The other two refer to the recent past. In one, a young Mexican-American attempts to fit into his mother's Mexican village. The other, strong scenes from American school life in the 60s, evokes emerging social issues without resorting to clich. All will have meaning for today's young actors and avoid the stagnancy of so many play collections now moldering on your shelves.Sally Margolis, formerly at Deerfield Public Library, IL

Book Details

Published
September 1, 1995
Publisher
Smith & Kraus, Inc.
Pages
209
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9781880399736

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