CONTEMPORARY ONE-ACT PLAYS

CONTEMPORARY
ONE-ACT PLAYS

WITH OUTLINE STUDY OF THE
ONE-ACT PLAY AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES

BY
B. ROLAND LEWIS
Professor and Head of the Department of English in the University of Utah;
Author of "The Technique of the One-Act Play"
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
NEW YORK CHICAGO BOSTON

COPYRIGHT, 1922, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
———
Printed in the United States of America
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The plays in this book are fully protected by copyright and the professional and amateur stage rights are reserved by the authors. Applications for their use should be made to the respective authors or publishers, as designated

TO
THE MEN AND WOMEN
WHO SO KINDLY HAVE PERMITTED ME TO
REPRINT THESE ONE-ACT PLAYS

PREFACE

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 Middleton[43]
The Exchange Althea Thurston[61]
Sam Average Percy Mackaye[85]
Hyacinth Halvey Lady Augusta Gregory[103]
The Gazing Globe Eugene Pillot[139]
The Boor Anton Tchekov[155]
The Last Straw Bosworth Crocker[175]
Manikin and Minikin Alfred Kreymborg[197]
White Dresses Paul Greene[215]
Moonshine Arthur Hopkins[239]
Modesty Paul Hervieu[255]
The Deacon's Hat Jeannette Marks[273]
Where but in America Oscar M. Wolff[301]
A Dollar David Pinski[321]
The Diabolical Circle Beulah Bornstead[343]
The Far-Away Princess Hermann Sudermann[365]
The Stronger August Strindberg[393]
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
PAGE
Collections of One-Act Plays[405]
Lists of One-Act Plays[406]
Bibliography of Reference on the One-Act Play [408]
Bibliography on How to Produce Plays[409]