| Billy Aronson. Billy Aronson's plays have been produced by Playwrights Horizons, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, 1812 Productions, SF Playhouse, Amphibian Productions, City Lights Theater, and Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre; published in five volumes of Best American Short Plays (Applause Books), Best Stage Scenes 2003 (Smith and Kraus), Ten Minute Plays From the Actors Theatre of Louisville (Samuel French), and Plays From the Woolly Mammoth (Broadway Play Publishing); and awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant. His play First Day of School was named Outstanding Original Script 2009 by the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Plays published by Playscripts, Inc. are Light Years, Light Years Part One: Freshman Year, Little Red Riding Hood, and The News. His writing for the musical theater includes the original concept and additional lyrics for the Broadway musical Rent, and the book for the Theatreworks USA musical Click Clack Moo (Lucille Lortel nomination for best musical). His writing for television includes scripts for Beavis & Butt-head (MTV), Courage the Cowardly Dog (Cartoon Network), and Wonder Pets (head writer, Emmy Award). He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Lisa Vogel and their children Jake and Anna. |
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Drama/Comedy
Various durations
Various cast requirements
$9.99 per book
NOTE: This book contains 10 plays. To perform any of the plays, each must be licensed separately.
With a diverse blend of themes, styles, and cast requirements, Great Short Plays: Volume 8 contains ten extraordinary comedies and dramas. From an absurdly poignant moment where a woman breaks bad news to her friends (The News by Billy Aronson), to a whirlwind account of Moliere's life and one of his greatest works (The Imaginary Invalid: A Dramatical Primer by Amanda Petefish-Schrag and Ben Schrag), to an intricate observation of the trickle-down theory of economics (Trickle by Kia Corthron), these collections deliver a little bit of everything in half the time.
To purchase this book of 10 plays, click "Order this play" above. To perform an individual play, click on its title below:
Bedtime by Mary Gallagher
Bliss, or What Happens by Brooke Berman
Cold Reading by Paul Dooley
Dead Boy by Craig Wright
The Imaginary Invalid: A Dramatical Primer by Amanda Petefish-Schrag and Ben Schrag
The News by Billy Aronson
The Pain In The Poetry by Glenn Alterman
Road Rage by Elizabeth Hemmerdinger
A Siberian Romance by Catherine Trieschmann
Trickle by Kia Corthron
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Comedy
Full-length, 75-100 minutes
2 females, 2 males
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
Four college students pair up in every possible combination while trying to figure out who they are, where they're going, and what they're doing on earth. (Act I of this play can be performed independently as Light Years, Part One: Freshman Year.)
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| "Mr. Aronson provides a lightly absurdist view of the college years that is in the end melancholy and hopeful." |
| --The New York Times |
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Comedy
Short, 25-40 minutes
2 females, 2 males
$35.00 per performance; $7.99 per book
Four college students pair up in every possible combination while trying to figure out who they are, where they're going, and what they're doing on earth. (This play can be performed independently, or as Act I of Light Years.)
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| "In this performance of what is to be the first act of a full-length play in progress, it all works perfectly, and the stunning end leaves you wondering what could possibly happen in the rest of the play." |
| --The New York Times |
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Dark comedy
Short, 20-40 minutes
3 females, 2 males (5 actors possible: 0-5 females, 0-5 males)
$35.00 per performance; $7.99 per book
The classic fairytale, thoroughly bastardized.
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Comedy/Drama
Short, 10-20 minutes
2 females, 2 males
$30.00 per performance; $9.99 per book
NOTE: This play is part of an anthology called Great Short Plays: Volume 8.
When Karen gets some upsetting news, she finds herself having to tell her friends and family one by one as they visit her hospital bed. Though the reality of the situation weighs heavily on everyone's mind, Karen and her loved ones cope with humor, swearing, tears, cell phones, and balloons.
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| "Inventive, funny, touching, well-played." |
| --James Hannaham, The Village Voice |
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