Best of 2011 Collection

Today we introduce a new play collection on Indie Theater Now. It’s title tells you all you need to know: it’s called the Best of 2011.

Now I have to admit that we can only make claim to having some of the best. Best is a big word, after all. But with the plays that launch our Best of 2011 play collection, we’re making an excellent start toward providing readers with a look at what was truly excellent on NYC’s indie theater stages this year.

Best of all, we’re able to bring this to you before the year is over. In our old print publishing paradigm (the Plays and Playwrights anthologies, etc.), we had to wait a year or more before we could publish new works. Indie Theater Now’s higher-tech model lets us publish brand new plays just months and sometimes even weeks after they open.

More 2011 scripts will follow, but with this quintet of new works we begin our survey of this year’s highlights. I will introduce them in order of their appearance on stage:

• Green, Chris Harcum’s 21-character 1-man sci-fi thriller, is entertaining and thought-provoking as it follows the adventures of the last human as he is recruited by warring factions in an intergalactic election. Green debuted in January at Metropolitan Playhouse.
• Fabulous Darshan is Bob Stewart’s warm and wise dramatic comedy about the relationship between a middle-aged gay actor and a twentysomething newcomer to NYC’s theater scene. This show is fabulous in every sense of that word. It debuted in June at WorkShop Theatre Company.
• Dia De Los Muertos is a magic realism Western by Anthony P. Pennino, in which a pair of Irish revolutionaries arrive in war-torn Mexico in 1916. This is authentically bilingual, half spoken in English and half in Spanish, reflecting the historical period in which it takes place and the realities of theatregoing in the USA today. It premiered in July at Teatro La Tea.
• Eightythree Down, by J. Stephen Brantley, is a taut, surprising drama about a reclusive young man whose New Year’s Eve plans are thwarted by the unexpected arrival of an old friend and her two dangerous new companions. The original production, directed by Daniel Talbott, premiered at Under St. Marks in September.
• Dream Walker, from the pen of August Schulenburg, tells the story of a young man who discovers suddenly that he has a superpower — the ability to enter others’ dreams…and possibly change their lives as a result. This play is full of humor and heart. It made its debut at the Kraine Theatre in November.

Check out all of the Best of 2011 Play Collection (and check back for new additions this month), for a look at what’s currently on the minds of indie theater’s finest practitioners.

And visit the Fringe 2011 Collection for other brand new works from this past summer.