David Kranes Selected Plays

For most readers, Kranes' reputation as a writer rests primarily on his prose. Among the most recent of his eight published novels are Making The Ghost Dance (2006) and The National Tree (2001), which was adapted as a teleplay and aired last year by the Hallmark Network. His Low Tide in the Desert (1996) received the Western Heritage Society's Wrangler Award for best short story collection, and his eighty-plus short fiction publications include the 1996 Puschart Prize-winning...
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For most readers, Kranes' reputation as a writer rests primarily on his prose. Among the most recent of his eight published novels are Making The Ghost Dance (2006) and The National Tree (2001), which was adapted as a teleplay and aired last year by the Hallmark Network. His Low Tide in the Desert (1996) received the Western Heritage Society's Wrangler Award for best short story collection, and his eighty-plus short fiction publications include the 1996 Puschart Prize-winning "Cordials."In theatre circles, however, Kranes is highly regarded as a dramaturg and artistic director-a title he held for fourteen years at the Sundance Playwrights' Lab-and as one of our best, most prolific playwrights. Almost all of the forty-plus plays he's written since 1964 have had their lightning-in-a-bottle moment on the boards. The five selected for this collection arguably comprise his Greatest Hits, partly because they were produced at major regional or off-Broadway theatres, featured prominent film and television actors, and occurred at different points in his career, from 1977 to 2008.