Synopsis

This year publishers Smith and Kraus have decided to combine their annual best monologues and best scenes anthologies into a single volume

Here you will find a rich and varied selection of monologues and scenes from plays that were produced and/or published in the 2008-2009 theatrical season

The scenes are either for two women or for one man and one woman (the latter are scenes in which the female role is predominant)

Most are for younger performers (teens through thirties), but there are also some excellent pieces for women in their forties and fifties, and even a few for older performers

Some are comic, some are dramatic, some are rather short and some are rather long

But they all represent the best in contemporary playwriting

Several of the monologues are by playwrights whose work will probably be familiar to you, such as Don Nigro, Sam Bobrick, Adam Rapp, Bill Cain, Jose Rivera, Stephen Belber, Keith Reddin, Naomi Iizuka, Michael Weller, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Richard Vetere, and Nicky Silver

Others are by exciting up-and-comers like Steven Leigh Morris, Saviana Stanescu, Liz Flahive, Stephanie Allison Walker, Cheri Magid, Jennifer Maisel, Andrew Grosso, David Caudle, Nina Raine, John Kolvenbach, Sylvia Reed, and Lucy Thurber