 JON JORYDISCUSSES THE TEN-MINUTE PLAY |
| JON JORY DISCUSSES THE TEN-MINUTE PLAY |
| The ten-minute play. The reaction used to be "huh?" Now this tiny form has brought the one-act play back to the influence it had in the 20s and 30s. Most major playwrights have written them and many, many theatres and universities perform them. They are the American theatre's haiku. They must, by nature, imply rather than explain. They often depend on metaphor to extend their reach. They stick like glue in the mind because the viewer remembers the whole play. As there is no mechanism for the ten-minute play to become "famous," they aren't subject to the backlash of disappointing the viewer. They, in a sense, escape the cultural trap of "the serious" while being very serious indeed. They have the immense advantage of flying below the level of the cultural radar and retaining the real possibility of surprise. This said, they are (except in the dimension of time) as hard to really do well as any other form or genre because not all minds are reductive and not everyone has a point or can put their finger on a mystery. They do, and they can. Take a look.
Jon Jory |
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FINDING A TEN-MINUTE PLAY
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