Stage directions have always had the potential to bring the playwright’s voice to the reader’s ear more intimately than dialogue itself. From Tennessee Williams’ “the bird I hope to catch in the net of this play,” to Kroetz’s dialogue-free Request Concert, playwrights articulate their theater most plainly between the white space and the spoken word. Stage directions become core narrative devices in three recent manuscripts: Molly Rice’s short play Deathbox, Gregory Moss’s punkplay, and The Kindermann Depiction by Steve Moore and Carlos Treviño. For Rice and Moss, stage directions take on a distinct voice and character. In Kindermann, formatted in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, a disturbing micro-universe is choreographed entirely without spoken words. These three plays affirm how many young writers are redefining a convention once meant to be seen and not heard.

The plays (right-click to download):

• Deathbox by Molly Rice
• punkplay by Gregory Moss
• The Kindermann Depiction by Steve Moore and Carlos Treviño

-Sally & Jordan