The 24 Hour Plays Viral Monologues: New Monologues Created During the Coronavirus Pandemic

(Paperback)

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Description

Since 1995 The 24 Hour Plays have been responding to theatre in the moment. As the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic brought an end to live theatre in the USA and Europe, the company sprang to work to keep the arts alive. Bringing together some of America's most prolific writers for the stage and screen, this unique and contemporary book of monologues collates the responses in dramatic fashion, making for an anthology of work that is timely, moving, irreverent and at its best, transcendent. Featuring original monologues by writers such as David Lindsay-Abaire, Clare Barron, Hansol Jung, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Christoper Oscar Pea, Jesse Eisenberg and Monique Moses this is a rich collection that can be enjoyed by actors, writers and those looking for creative responses to the global COVID-19 crisis. With over 50 monologues from the first three weeks of the project, edited by Howard Sherman, this is an important collection that documents an unprecedented moment in history whilst also offering practical resource for actors and performers.

Reviews

Funny, scary and necessary, this series of taped soliloquies contemplate the way we live now, in isolation ... They have been a consoling reminder of all the rich and varied voices in theater out there, just waiting for the chance to take the stage again. In the meantime, we have this banquet of glimpses into other lives of isolation, to take some of the chill off our own captivity. * Ben Brantley, New York Times *
They are funny and heartbreaking and silly, and the best are transcendent. * Slate *
Its good to see playwrights bringing new characters into the world to respond, in the moment, to the same things that were responding to. Free from motive, free of the harness of plot, they flicker briefly alive to share these strange times with us and then disappear, but not without leaving a mysterious, human trace. * The New Yorker *
Get yourself some art * New York Magazine *
This spontaneous stunt is a great testament to how creativity can thrive in challenging times * Vox *
When theater is put on camera, the cameras eye controls our gaze. As the 24 Hour Plays Viral Monologues have proved, that can work splendidly when the theater is made with the camera in mind. * Laura Collins-Hughes, New York Times *

Author Bio

The 24 Hour Plays: In October 1995, the first production of The 24 Hour Plays took place on Manhattans Lower East Side. Inspired by Scott McClouds 24 hour comics (comic books composed in a single day), founder Tina Fallon saw an opportunity to bring together a community of creative artists in a time-limited experiment. The project was intended as a one-time-only event. Over twenty years and hundreds of plays later, in addition to The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway and The 24 Hour Musicals in New York City, regular events take place in London, Los Angeles, Dublin, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Germany, Athens, Finland, Mexico City, Florence and Denmark. Through collaborations with The Lillys, Dublin Youth Theatre, Urban Arts Partnership, The Old Vic Theatre, Bennington College, Hennepin Theatre Trust, The University of Minnesota-Duluth, Cornerstone Theater Company, PlayGround, Rakastajat-teatteri, The Orchard Project, The Del Sole Foundation and others, The 24 Hour Plays have raised millions of dollars for charities.