Plays in Search of an Ending: Provocative and Funny Sociodramas on Contemporary Ethical Dilemmas

Milton Matz

iUniverse, Mar 20, 2009 - Drama - 324 pages

Increase Your Social and Moral Intelligence!
Read a play!

Award-winning playwright and distinguished psychologist, Rabbi Milton Matz, Ph.D., explores a new direction for American theatre in his recently published, Plays in Search of an Ending. His theme is clear: every life is a play, and we all playwrights searching for good endings.

Matz has heard thousands of dilemmas. He explores the most challenging ones by writing eleven fictional plays, three full plays with controversial endings and eight short plays with no endings at all. Each play focuses on a provocative issue.

Reading a play puts us in each characters shoes and enables us to see through their eyes endings we never imagined. If we choose to share our endings with others, our supply of practical solutions to personal dilemmas increase. This process of search for mutually satisfying solutions is the heart of social/moral intelligence. Frequently more important than intellectual intelligence, it enables us to live productive and harmonious lives.

The book includes guidelines for discussion and an easy to follow inventory of communication behaviors for dealing with complex moral dilemmas.

This collection of plays introduces an exciting new dramatic form, designed for living room, classroom, meeting room or Broadway: Plays In Search Theatre.

Contents

• FULLLENGTH PLAYS: 2
• Aff airs Of State: 4
• Breakfast At The Regency: 64
• Spinoza Maria and Excommunication: 126
• SHORT PLAYS THAT NEED ENDINGS: 210
• Dual Relations: 212
• Generals and Rabbis: 220
• I Spoke With God Again: 230
• Seduction: 238
• Unintended Consequences: 248
• Why Knot?: 256
• Freddy: 266
• Doubly Blessed: 274
• APPENDIX: 282
• Sharingdiscussion and performance guidelines: 284
• Negotiation and Communication Skills Bibliography: 286
• Psychodrama and Role Theory Bibliography: 288
• Spinoza Bibliography: 292
• Social and Moral Intelligence SelfAssessment Inventory: 294
• Dedication: 302
• Acknowledgment: 304
• About the Author: 306
• Authors Notes: 308

About the author

Rabbi Milton Matz, Ph.D. Nine Plays in Search of an Ending introduces an important new literary voice. Award-winning playwright Milton Matz, a retired Reform rabbi and clinical psychologist, sees humans through many colored lenses. Unerringly honest and provocative, his characters are engaging, intriguing and often very funny. He is a master of dialogue. Matz is a founder and emeritus director of the Pastoral Psychology Institute of Case School of Medicine. During his tenure, the Institute became the largest and most successful interfaith, clinical continuing education program for clergy in the nation.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Plays in Search of an Ending: Provocative and Funny Sociodramas on Contemporary Ethical Dilemmas
• Author: Milton Matz
• Publisher: iUniverse, 2009
• ISBN: 1440108196, 9781440108198
• Length: 324 pages
• Subjects: Drama / General