PREFACE
Reading edition
This collection of one-act plays appears because of an increasingly large demand for such a volume. The plays have been selected and the Introduction prepared to meet the need of the student or teacher who desires to acquaint himself with the one-act play as a specific dramatic form.
The plays included have been selected with this need in mind. Accordingly, emphasis has been placed upon the wholesome and uplifting rather than upon the sordid and the ultra-realistic. The unduly sentimental, the strikingly melodramatic, and the play of questionable moral problems, has been consciously avoided. Comedies, tragedies, farces, and melodramas have been included; but the chief concern has been that each play should be good, dramatic art.
The Dramatic Analysis and Construction of the One-Act Play, which appears in the Introduction, also has been prepared for the student or teacher. This outline-analysis and the plays in this volume are sufficient material, if carefully studied, for an understanding and appreciation of the one-act play.
B. ROLAND LEWIS.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction 3
LIST OF PLAYS
The Twelve-Pound Look Sir James M. Barrie 17
Tradition George Middleton43
The Exchange Althea Thurston61
Sam Average Percy Mackaye85
Hyacinth Halvey Lady Augusta Gregory103
The Gazing Globe Eugene Pillot139
The Boor Anton Tchekov155
The Last Straw Bosworth Crocker175
Manikin and Minikin Alfred Kreymborg197
White Dresses Paul Greene215
Moonshine Arthur Hopkins239
Modesty Paul Hervieu255
The Deacon's Hat Jeannette Marks273
Where but in America Oscar M. Wolff301
A Dollar David Pinski321
The Diabolical Circle Beulah Bornstead343
The Far-Away Princess Hermann Sudermann365
The Stronger August Strindberg393
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
PAGE
Collections of One-Act Plays405
Lists of One-Act Plays406
Bibliography of Reference on the One-Act Play 408
Bibliography on How to Produce Plays409