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SHORT FIVE-ACT PLAYS

by Richard Kostelanetz

I.        Drawing.

II.       Painting.

III.      Resting..

IV.      Ladders.

V.       A mural.

 

 

I.        Enters college.

II.       Graduates.

III.      Graduate school.

IV.      Original research.

V.       Teaching unhappily at a junior college.

 

 

I.        On a train.

II.       In a spacious terminal.

III.      Meeting a stranger in a bathroom.

IV.      Making love behind a stall door.

V.       Returning to the street.

 

 

I.       To audience: Scream

II.      Scream louder.

III.     Scream yet louder.

IV.     Scream weaker.

V.      Silence.

 

 

I.       Infallible.

II.      Ingenuity.

III.     Palpable.

IV.     Inspiring.

V.      Ineffable.

 

 

I.       Returning home after years away.

II.      Dinner with one’s immediate family.

III.     Sleeping in one’s childhood bedroom.

IV.  Increasing tensions during breakfast with a family that seems estranged.

V.    Leaving for the airport, perhaps never to return.

I.       Dark.

II.      Light.

III.     Apocalypse.

IV.     Light.

V.      Dark.

I.       Conspiring.

II.      Campaigning.

III.     Electing.

IV.     Governing.

V.      Imprisonment.

 

 

I.       Earth.

II.      Moon.

III.     Mars.

IV.     Pluto.

V.      Gone.

______________________________

Individual entries on Richard Kostelanetz’s work appear in Reader’s Guide to Twentieth-Century Writers, Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature, Contemporary Poets, Contemporary Novelists, Postmodern Fiction, Webster’s Dictionary of American Writers, Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Directory of American Scholars, and other directories.

Image: Leonid Drozner