Shinn Plays: 2 - Now Or Later; Four; Picked; On The Mountain

Ten years after the publication of Shinn Plays: One comes this second volume of his plays, bringing together some of the playwright's most acclaimed work to date. The volume includes: Now Or Later (Royal Court, London, 2008) examines religion, freedom of expression and personal responsibility, focused around a US presidential election. Four (Royal Court, London 1998) is set on the 4th July public holiday and is about four isolated young people searching for connection. Picked (Vineyard Theatre, New York, 2011) takes as its centre a young actor who is selected to star in a major movie and the impact this then has on his life and identity. On The Mountain (South Coast Rep, Costa Mesa, 2005) is about a teenager whose mother is starting out on a new relationship, while both are battling with the memories of the past. The anthology also features an introduction by the author.Table of ContentIntroduction Now or Later Four Picked On The MountainReview QuoteNow or Later is as potent as David Mamet’s Oleanna in its exposure of how liberal creeds can – one way or another – be murkily tied in with intoleranceReview QuoteThe play keeps delivering small shocks and aches that end in a standoff, or maybe in that pause between despair, resignation, and a twinge of hope. Haunting.Review QuoteSurprising nuance and sudden surges of emotion. The play offers several outstanding monologues, some tender, some searing, and one unforgettableReview QuoteBetter than any play I’ve seen at finding the natural existential anxiety in the frustration and powerlessness of being a movie actor. Offers ample evidence of this dramatist’s singular gift for presenting human murkiness with precisely shaded clarity. Impeccably observed.Review QuoteShinn opens a window into lives that we rarely see on stageReview QuoteA playwright who writes with unshowy depth and unforced menace on a challenging subjectReview QuoteShinn territory is a land of bruised souls sharing awkward silences, their subtext and inchoate impulses placed carefully between them. A dramatist who writes from an intensely interior zoneBiographical NoteChristopher Shinn is an American playwright from New York. His plays include Now or Later (shortlisted for the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play), Dying City (Pulitzer Prize finalist), Where Do We Live (winner of an Obie in Playwriting), An Opening In Time, Teddy Ferrara, Picked, Four, What Didn't Happen, On the Mountain, Other People, and The Coming World. His adaptation of Hedda Gabler premiered on Broadway (American Airlines Theatre), and he has written short plays for Naked Angels (Democracy Project), the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway, the Bush Theatre (Sixty-Six Books), and Headlong (Decade). His work has been premiered by Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, the Vineyard Theatre, South Coast Rep, the Goodman, the Royal Court, and the Soho Theatre, and later produced around the world. Christopher Shinn’s awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting, a grant from the NEA/TCG Residency Program, an Obie in Playwriting and the Robert Chesley Award. He is Assistant Professor of Playwriting in the School of Drama at The New School, New York.Ten years after the publication of Shinn Plays: 1 comes this second volume of his plays, bringing together some of the playwright's most acclaimed work to date.The Contemporary Dramatists series celebrates the work of individual writers, bringing together into single volumes a number of plays from their oeuvre. Each volume includes a chronology of the writer's work and an introduction to the plays featured. The series is truly international with collections from leading French, German, Italian and American writers, as well as the best of British playwrights. Taken as a whole, it represents an index of great contemporary playwriting.Published to mark 10 years since the release of Shinn Plays: 1Collecting together some major plays by one of America's most cherished and prolific playwrightsIncludes an introduction by the playwright