Overview

This anthology by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Thornton Wilder is a collection of 22 very short plays, three of which are published here for the very first time. These snapshots of the creative spirit at play explore a variety of complex characters that range from the ordinary to the biblical, the haunted to the mystical. From the tale of a conflicted composer with a strangely familiar tune stuck in his head (The Song of Maria Bentedos) to a pair of newlyweds who find themselves bizarrely affected by the color of their hotel's tea room (Flamingo Red: A Comedy in Danger), all these tales – many told with great wit and humor – ask the thought-provoking questions of mortality, morality and faith that Thornton Wilder is famous for asking.

Most of the plays run about four minutes in length, and can be presented with three actors. The entire collection can be presented with a cast ranging from six to 32 actors.

The collection includes:

1. The Acolyte (1917)
2. And the Sea Shall Give Up Its Dead (1923)
3. The Angel on the Ship (1917)
4. The Angel that Troubled the Waters (1928)
5. Brother Fire (1916)
6. Centaurs (1920)
7. Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came (1919)
8. The Christmas Interludes I (1916)
9. The Christmas Interludes II (1916)
10. Fanny Otcott (1918)
11. Flamingo Red (1916)
12. The Flight into Egypt (1928)
13. Hast Thou Considered My Servant Job? (1928)
14. Leviathan (1919)
15. The Marriage We Deplore (1917)
16. The Message and the Jehanne (1917)
17. Mozart and the Grey Steward (1928)
18. Nascuntur Poetae (1918)
19. Now the Servant’s Name Was Malchus (1928)
20. The Penny that Beauty Spent (1918)
21. Proserpina and the Devil (1916)
22. The Song of Maria Bentedos (1918)