Today's most exciting work for the stage is emerging far from Broadway's "mainstream," at Off and Off-off Broadway theaters, at regional companies around the country, and from abroad.  Here is an up-to-the-minute collection of scenes—ideally suited for both classroom and audition use—from the best dramatists now being produced. Eric Lane  has edited 12 contemporary play anthologies for Viking Penguin and Vintage Books with his longtime collaborator, Nina Shengold, earning them a Lambda Literary Award nomination. Eric's plays have been performed in the United States, Canada, Europe, Israel, and China, and include  Ride ,  Floating , Heart of the City ,  Times of War , and  Dancing on Checkers' Grave.  Eric wrote and produced the short films  First Breath  and  Cater-Waiter , which he also directed. For TV's  Ryan's Hope , he received a Writers Guild Award. His honors include the La MaMa Playwright Award, the Berilla Kerr Award, plus fellowships at Yaddo and St. James Cavalier in Malta. Eric is an honors graduate of Brown University, and is the artistic director of Orange Thoughts Productions, a not-for-profit theater and film company in New York City. Nina Shengold 's plays include  Finger Foods, War at Home, Homesteaders , and  Romeo/Juliet , and have been produced around the world. Her one-act  No Shoulder  was filmed by director Suzi Yoonessi, with Melissa Leo and Samantha Sloyan. Nina won a Writers Guild Award for her teleplay  Labor of Love , starring Marcia Gay Harden; other teleplays include  Blind Spot , with Joanne Woodward and Laura Linney, and  Unwed Father . Her books include the novels  Clearcut,   River of Words: Portraits of Hudson Valley Writers  (with photographer Jennifer May), and a growing posse of pseudonymous books for young readers. A graduate of Wesleyan, she is currently teaching creative writing at Manhattanville College. Nina lives in New York's Hudson Valley, where she has been books editor of  Chronogram  magazine since 2004.