Michael Bigelow Dixon

Reviewing anthologies can be tricky - different authors and styles usually means that liking everything in it is almost impossible. This anthology has 26 plays by 26 playwrights - each of them a 10-minutes one and each of them performed somewhere (most of them in 2003 but there is at least one older and one from early 2004). It is a decent anthology - I did not love all of the plays and there were a few that did not work for me but none of them was horrible. And none of them felt like a part of a longer play that was just pulled out - they all felt as complete plays, even the ones I did not like.

The plays (first staging and/or staged reading in brackets after the title and author; no date probably means 2003):

"Aimée" by Erin Blackwell (staged reading Playground's Monday Night Playlab at A Travelling Jewish Theatre, San Francisco, February 2003)
Can love conquer even Heartland Security? In a dystopian USA, the government had taken to protecting everything - including how one loves - French words are not allowed for example. And if you do something you should not, you can expect some visitors from the agency. So can bureaucracy and rules overwhelm love or will love win the encounter?
It is a play on the Homeland Security laws and probably sounded a lot more urgent in 2003 than it does in 2022 (and more probable...) but it still is a nice little play.

"The Roads That Lead Here" by Lee Blessing (Guthrie Theater)
Three brothers had spent the last years crossing the country in all directions and collecting mementos - and then meeting back home to share and see what the rest found of America - the real home country. But does that even make sense if you forget what "home" means? I loved the end of the play - and the fact that it was a character we never see who drove the action at the end makes it even better.

"Three Dimensions" by Jerome Hairston (Guthrie Theater)
Two man who love the same woman watch over her sleep and have an argument about what they should do and who needs to make choices. That play felt too abstract to me - especially the very end when the woman engages with the public and makes them part of the play.

"Favorite Lady" by Leanne Renee Hieber (Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2003)
What would you do if you feel like men disrespect your favorite painting? The story is somewhat absurd but the idea behind it is actually interesting - who does art belong to and why is it considered ok to stare into undressed women on a canvas when the same stare would be scandalizing of the woman was alive? The answer is probably not what the characters in this play end up doing but it is an interesting question to ponder anyway.

"The Office" by Kate Hoffower (Chicago Dramatists Workshop, Chicago, Illinois)
Two nameless customer service representatives are so bored than they contemplate slowly killing a coworker (in a somewhat funny way) while wildly talking about their lives. It may be an exaggeration of the real life of an office drone but... not by much. The only thing I really don't understand is the point of having a third character in the play - she seems to copy or react only (which may be a commentary on the job but... it just did not make any sense).

"Swan Lake Calhoun" by Yehuda Hyman (Beast Festival, Triangle Theatre, New York, NY)
A frozen lake in Minnesota, geese and the importance of reading the small print of your contract. It is an absurdist play (noone will turn a mail-bride from Ukraine into a goose if she does not find a rich husband) but it is quirky and fun (and the fact that we have the character who sees our goose-woman in the brink of death minutes before that may have something to do with the whole story).

"Classyass" by Caleen Sinnette Jennings (Actors Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival of New American Plays, 2002)
Don't judge people by where they call from or what they wear - or you may get really surprised on who they might be. And if you are caught doing it, stop digging yourself even deeper. I did not expect the direction this play went into but I enjoyed it.

"Airborne" by Gib Johnson (City Theatre, 'Summer Shorts' 98', Coral Gables, Florida, June 4, 1998)
What do you do with a gate agent who exceeds her authority? As a passenger, I would have been annoyed if someone did to me what she did to passengers (to put it mildly) and I cannot imagine it working in the post 9/11 world (and I never flew before that so no idea how plausible it was before that). It was an entertaining play though and I liked the way the author build-up to the reveal of what that exceeding entailed.

"The Some of All Parts" by Mrinalini Kamath (Newtown Theatre, Short&Sweet Play Festival, Sydney, Australia)
What if split personalities don't just manifest mentally but physically instead and you can be born with part of your feelings in a separate body (your libido and all your cravings and so on for example)? That would be awkward on dates - as this play shows. It is not a bad play if you can buy the premise. It felt... disturbing to me.

"The Right to Remain" by Melanie Marnich (Mixed Blood Theatre Company, Minneapolis, MN, early 2004)
Did a man cheat or is his wife and their teen-aged son mistaken? A little game of accusations and blackmail during a family evening should solve that problem, right? And the end felt surprising (without being illogical) which is always a nice thing.

"Triangle" by Jane Martin (no data for first staging in the book)
Having your boyfriend fall in love with another woman is bad enough. When that other woman is the goddess Aphrodite, you really have a problem. And when you cannot and would not accept that she is what she is because you are too intelligent and learned and what's not , it makes for a delightful conversation.

"178 Head" by C. Denby Swanson (no data for first staging in the book)
Having to kill all your animals due to a disease is never easy for a farmer. Or a farmer's wife. Or their neighbors. The play was too abrupt and short - it does not feel like part of a bigger one but it feels more like a scene than a play.

"Bake Off" by Sheri Wilner (Actors Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival of New American Plays, 2002)
Do men belong in kitchens and in bake off competitions? One contestant does not think so - and is very vocal in her conviction. The play is funny in some ways and tragic in others - sexism can go both ways after all.

"The Human Voice" by Carlyle Brown (Guthrie Theater)
A man, his lover and a phone while his wife is trying to get him to spend the evening with him. Short, sweet and heartbreaking.

"Hurry!" by Bridget Carpenter (Guthrie Theater)
Can you make a human connection while speed-dating? Maybe - if you meet the right person.

"Now We're Really Getting Somewhere" by Kristina Halvorson (Guthrie Theater)
Sales, Support and Support's management are trying to have a discussion on what everyone is supposed to be doing in order to help the customers in the best way. If you ever worked in either role (or had been involved with their conversations in one way or another), chances are that this will sound very familiar. And if you ever had a manager who did not have your back, you may even recognize them here.

"Fit for Feet" by Jordan Harrison (Actors Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival, 2003)
Just before a man's wedding, he gets a bit crazy and thinks that he is a dancer, a famous Russian one at that. The problem is that he cannot dance - and his fiance and his mother are not giving up on the wedding. Hilarity ensues...

"Always" by Jon Jory (no date for first staging in the book)
That is the one play I wish I could hear/watch and not just read. A man and a woman at the start of their relationship. The same man and the woman at the end of the same relationship. The two pairs have the same conversation, mixed in between the two with some answers being the same, some being the opposite and some being almost impossibly crazy (at the end he still does not know how she likes her pizza for example). Very cleverly done although hard to read on paper - you need to keep track of who talks when and connect the dots in each conversation and in the whole thing as the conversation seems to be eternal.

"No More Static" by Kevin Kell O'Donnell (Guthrie Theater)
What does it take to rebuild a family connection? A few friends and a desire to do so seems to be enough in this small play. It may does not sound as an exciting topic but something in the writing just worked properly.

"The Second Beam" by Joan Ackermann (Guthrie Theater)
Can actresses who fight for the same role be nice and helpful to each other? Depends on who you ask - and who the actress is. A nice play about making human connections where you least expect them to exist.

"The Glory of God" by Carson Kreitzer (Guthrie Theater)
Why did a monk stop writing a manuscript? While a scholar in our days is trying to figure that out, the monk gets a visit he does not expect. History can be... unexpected and no matter what we may deduce from documents and what's not, sometimes we may not find the truth. What was Ovid's Daphne doing in this play as a character is unclear and felt as an attempt to find one more role into it but oh well.

"The Grand Design" by Susan Miller (no data for first staging in the book)
This play is supposed to be for 5 actors but it really has only 2 - the others are there in the way a chorus would be there in a Greek play. And unlike the chorus, I don't think they add anything to the play...
A man got a grant for finding what to send in space as a greeting for any life out there while his mother walks... just walks around the country. A bit of a history of what we already had sent combined with figuring out what is important in life and you have the story here. It is not a bad play but the attempt to add the extra actors felt really overwritten and distracted from what would be a nice mother/son conversation.

"The Joy of Having a Body" by Julie Marie Myatt (Guthrie Theater)
Angels being sent to save love and romance or something like that. I really did not get the point of the play - the idea is not bad but the execution was just bizarre.

"The New New" by Kelly Stuart (Guthrie Theater)
Does the truth matter if you can make money by selling the book of a man who was in prison? In our 2022 world? I suspect that it would. In the this 2003 play? That's complicated. I don't think that this play could have been written these days and we are all the poorer for it - because it is a really good play.

"The Thief of Man" by Kevin Kling (Guthrie Theater)
In 1204 AD, in Constantinople, during the 4th Crusade, Death comes for someone. Except that you have way too many people who believe that it comes for them - a Viking, a Templar, a Greek Orthodox Nun, a Turkish Innkeeper with his daughter. And they all want to talk about death and their God (and what had happened to them) It actually worked better than I would have expected.

"Pleasure Cruise" by Kira Obolensky (Guthrie Theater)
I have no idea what happens in this play. It is way too abstract and weird (and I even read it twice). There is a pleasure boat and a man and a woman and the word pleasure seems to be the key in the whole play and... it just did not work for my in any way or form.… (meer)