WOMAN: But aren’t you going to rush up to my room and examine the scene of the crime? PISTON: Now, if you’ll take a seat, I have to make a phone call. PISTON: Coming here in a towel is thanks enough. Piston, I can’t tell you how grateful I am for this. When this goes offNo matter what: Case dismissed. WOMAN: It’s the one where somebody kills someone, right? WOMAN: Yes, it happened just now, up in my hotel room. Piston, please! You can’t just turn your back on me. PISTON: Are you sure? Because I’ve got a blow dryer in the desk. PISTON: Well, unless that crime is unnecessary wetness, there’s really not much I can do, in the time allotted. WOMAN: But you have to help me! I’m the victim of a crime! But there’s not going to be a tenth, so I’m afraid if it’s anything more time-consuming than a stuck pickle jar, I’m going to have to refer you to the day shift. PISTON: I’m afraid I’m not the man you’re looking for. Because when that strikes twelve, my Friday night nightmares become somebody else’s Saturday morning problem. And by anyone, they meant me, Dick Piston, hotel detective.Īnd that’s why, at ten minutes to midnight, I had my proverbial eyes glued to the literal clock. So that’s why they told me anyone who clocked even one minute of unauthorized overtime would be out of a proverbial job. So the management wasn’t entirely happy with my proverbial job performance. In fact, as hotel detective, I had personally investigated six unsolved murders in the last five weeks. The Lakeview Hotel had the highest mortality rate of any luxury accommodations west of Baghdad. And it was likely to continue hemorrhaging proverbial money until it stopped hemorrhaging potential hotel guests. You see, the hotel had been wallowing in red ink for quite some time now. But my employer had made it clear that anyone who did use the overtime would be spending all their time xeroxing resumes at the discount copy shop on the corner. And not that I couldn’t use the overtime. Not that I’m a proverbial stickler for whatever punctual people stickle for. But at ten minutes to midnight, I’m always here in my office, watching the clock. After midnight, you’ll catch me drowning my proverbial sorrows at the five-star dive bar in the lobby of that hotel. And on a Friday night, you’ll find me making my rounds at the Lakeview Hotel: a two-bit armpit on the upside of downtown. We really don’t have time for that.Īnd by we, I mean, me: Dick Piston, hotel detective. I know because it happened to me≻ut enough about me. There are many 10-minute play scripts available online.PISTON: The story I’m gonna tell you, you’re not gonna believe. It doesn't last long, but its power can stand your hair on end.” The natural time constraint imposed by the form has in no way limited the power of the genreon the contrary, it enhances it, forcing playwrights to get the story moving quickly and keep dramatic action tight, encouraging actors to showcase their talents by playing multiple roles, and allowing audiences to enjoy a broad spectrum of theatre in one sittinga theatre buffet, so to speak.Ī popular anthology of 10-minute plays describes the genre this way: “A ten-minute play is a streak of theatrical lightning. Many of the most prominent playwrights of the modern Theatre have tried their hand at the ten-minute play, including David Mamet, Christopher Durang, Craig Lucas, Tony Kushner, David Ives, August Wilson, and many others. They are a legitimate form of theatre that has proven highly popular with audiences around the world. What began there as a quirky exercise in “Polaroid playwriting” has since evolved into nothing short of a theatrical phenomenonan exciting and powerful new format that has altered the theatrical landscape with its possibilities. Although Pierre Loving published a book of "ten minute plays" in 1923 (this anthology included pieces by such notable playwrights as Arthur Schnitzler, Ferenc Molnar and August Strindberg), the “official debut” of the 10-minute play as a genre is usually traced back to the Actors Theatre of Louisville’s 1977 Humana Festival of New American Plays.
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