The nature of the Old and New West is fully reflected through dialects, beliefs, occupations, and actions in this collection of thirteen plays with complete stage directions. Set in Arizona, Nevada, and Utah from the mid-1800s to the present day and focusing on veterans, children, prostitutes, priests, the newborn, and newly dead, these one-acts written by playwrights who know the region give voice to those who created and continue to recreate the West. This collection of contemporary plays, written out of love and concern for the region, examines as never before the western myths rooted in the national psyche. The characters battle limits, deny fate, and seek new beginnings. The plays examine symptoms, pose questions, and seek answers about the past and present West.

Red Shuttleworth’s Western Settings (2000) was the recipient of the first Spur Award for Western Poetry in 2001 from Western Writers of America. True West magazine, in 2004, named Shuttleworth “Best Living Cowboy Poet.” His poems have been collected in fifteen chapbooks and have appeared in over 200 journals, including Concho River Review, Elysian Fields, Flyway, Interim,Nebraska Review, neon, and Prairie Schooner. Shuttleworth also edited Lucky 13, an anthology of short plays set in Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. More than thirty of Shuttleworth’s plays have been presented by the Tony Award winning Utah Shakespearean Festival, Sundance Institute Playwrights Lab, the Sun Valley Festival of New Western Drama, the Foothill Theatre in California, University of Nebraska-Kearney, State University of New York-Fredonia, and other theatres. He received an Artist Fellowship from the Nevada Arts Council in 1990. Born in San Francisco, Shuttleworth has lived in British Columbia, Texas, Nebraska, Nevada, and Washington. He holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University (where he worked with Kay Boyle and William Dickey) and an M.F.A. in Theatre Arts: Playwriting from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (where he was mentored by Jerry L. Crawford, Julie Jensen, and Davey Marlin-Jones). Red Shuttleworth has had plays produced by numerous theater companies and has presented staged readings at Drake University, Sundance Institute Playwrights Lab, and the Utah Shakespearean Festival. His plays have been published by Neon, Alaska, Quarterly Review, Clockwatch Review, Cornfield Review, and Rain City Review. His poems and short stories have appeared in numerous journals, including Kansas Quarterly, New Mexico Humanities Review, Ontario Review, Prairie Schooner, and West Branch.Red Shuttleworth’s Western Settings (2000) was the recipient of the first Spur Award for Western Poetry in 2001 from Western Writers of America. True West magazine, in 2004, named Shuttleworth “Best Living Cowboy Poet.” His poems have been collected in fifteen chapbooks and have appeared in over 200 journals, including Concho River Review, Elysian Fields, Flyway, Interim, Nebraska Review, neon, and Prairie Schooner. Shuttleworth also edited Lucky 13, an anthology of short plays set in Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. More than thirty of Shuttleworth’s plays have been presented by the Tony Award winning Utah Shakespearean Festival, Sundance Institute Playwrights Lab, the Sun Valley Festival of New Western Drama, the Foothill Theatre in California, University of Nebraska-Kearney, State University of New York-Fredonia, and other theatres. He received an Artist Fellowship from the Nevada Arts Council in 1990. Born in San Francisco, Shuttleworth has lived in British Columbia, Texas, Nebraska, Nevada, and Washington. He holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University (where he worked with Kay Boyle and William Dickey) and an M.F.A. in Theatre Arts: Playwriting from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (where he was mentored by Jerry L. Crawford, Julie Jensen, and Davey Marlin-Jones). He lives near Moses Lake, WA.

— Elizabeth Diamond, Yale Repertory Theatre, Yale School of Drama

— Robert Schenkkan