Short Spells: Scenes and Monologues

Ian C. Nelson is assistant director of libraries at the University of
Saskatchewan, and président de la Troupe du Jour, Regina Summer Stage.

Short Spells consists of monologues and short scenes (ranging in length
from 1 to 20 pages) from 23 plays. Although the selections are
interesting and fairly representative of the work of contemporary
Canadian prairie playwrights, this is clearly an anthology that was
produced on the cheap. There is an index of playwrights and an index of
plays, but the three-page introduction to the book adds little to our
understanding of prairie playwriting, and the thumbnail introductions to
the plays (usually well under 10 lines) give only a sketchy sense of
what each play is about and frequently contain typographical and
grammatical errors. There are no biographies of the authors. The
positive qualities of this anthology are overshadowed by editorial
inattention and laziness.