(Applause Acting Series). Covering the best of Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional, and experimental theatre since 2000, One on One challenges actors to explore the inner self, develop skill and artistry for auditions, and deliver a knockout onstage performance. These monologues sometimes comic, sometimes serious, and often both tackle issues ranging from race, class, gender, relationships and romance to coming of age, mortality, 9/11, and the Iraq war.

Three editors, each associated with theatre, collaborated on this book of monologues for actresses. What they discovered, besides bravura pieces for auditions, acting classes, and study, was the pulse of the millennial theatrical scene. A follow-up to the popular previous edition from the 1990s, One on One: The Best Women's Monologues for the 21st Century includes the work of over 70 playwrights, spotlighting the best of Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional, and experimental writings since 2000. A special introduction also explains how to choose, practice, and perform a speech for auditions. Comic or serious - or both - the monologues are written for young, old, and multicultural players by famous names and up-and-coming talent. Anna Deavere Smith records abuse in "real" relationships (House Arrest); August Wilson relates trials of those who survived coming to America - and those who did not (Gem of the Ocean); and William Gibson recreates the dark, fledgling days of Israel (Golda's Balcony). Additional works include Are You Ready? by David Auburn, Bad Dates by Theresa Rebeck, The Committee by Brian Dykstra, and many others.

Spotlighting the best of Broadway Off-Broadway regional and experimental writings since 2000 EDuo!: The Best Scenes for Two for the 21st CenturyE offers bravura pieces for performance acting class and study. Culled from the work of over 100 playwrights a veterans as well as up-and-coming talents a and encompassing the seminal issues of our time a from race to gender class to politics a this follow-up compendium to the popular edition of the 1990s is by turns comic or serious a and sometimes both a but always intensely human. EDuo!E's satisfyingly complex characters are the obscure or famous young middle-aged and older.THTracy Letts confronts the aftermath of betrayal on a night too hot for sleep in EAugust: Osage CountyE; Karen Finley exposes sexual politics outside the Oval Office in EGeorge & MarthaE; Tom Stoppard investigates the difficulties of understanding Greek as well as the younger generation in ERock 'n' RollE; Lynn Nottage delineates gentility the fear of being alone and the passage of time in EIntimate ApparelE; Richard Greenberg weighs the costs of being godly or becoming merely human in the baseball-themed ETake Me OutE; and Tina Howe bends time showing the universal power of dramatic recognition across the ages in EWater MusicE.