About the Playwright:
Jean Klein holds an MFA from the University of Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop, as well as an MA in English. Her aware-winning plays have been produced at numerous theaters throughout the country . Her play Anansi won first place in the Virginia Highlands Festival and her Reflections in a Stained Glass Window was among the top plays in the Eugene O’Neill theater competition. In 1976 with Kathleen Lockwood, she co-founded the Tidewater Dramatists Guild, then joined the Playwrights Forum, a cooperative encouraging the development of new plays. Her work includes translations, adaptations and musicals. Over the past 20 years, she has taught playwriting and creative writing at Lindenwood College, Carnegie-Mellon University, Norfolk State University, and Old Dominion University. Currently she teaches playwriting in the Master of Arts in Creative Writing program at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, PA. .
The Best Is Yet To Be
A Family Comedy in One Act
by Jean H. Klein
About the Play:
THE BEST IS YET TO BE is a family comedy. A grandmother comes to live with her son and his children and has to confront their stereotype of her values and life experience. It was originally produced by the Waterloo Community Playhouse in Waterloo, IA.
The Cast List:
Emily Mason: a woman in her mid-sixties.
Frank Mason: her son in his forties.
Anne Mason: Frank's wife.
Nancy Mason: Frank and Anne's daughter in her late teens.
Billy Mason: Frank and Anne’s son a first-year college student.
Joe Nelson: a newspaper reporter in his late fifties.
The Setting: A deck at the back of the MASON household.
Time: The present.
From the Play:
EMILY: Just fine. Billy. How about a game of chess?
BILLY Maybe later. The Steelers are playing the Green Bay Packers. (He stops and turns back to her.) Uh, those are two football teams.
EMILY: I know what they are. I just hope you haven't bet on the Packers.
BILLY: Dad doesn't allow me to bet.
EMILY: That figures. I don’t know where I went wrong with him. Some times you’ve got to take chances. When I was a public health nurse, I had a patient who thought he was some hot shot chess player. Unfortunately for him, he was inclined to make bets with the wrong peoples I clipped him for six thousand dollars.
BILLY: Six thousand dollars! What did you do with all that money?
EMILY Unfortunately for me, I never got a chance to collect. Somebody shot him first.
BILLY Well, I don’t see where that did you much good. I’ll bet you never told Dad about that.
EMILY: I'll bet I didn’t. He never would have approved of it. I guess I just had him at the wrong time. He was too young to become a Beatnik and too old to become a Hippie.
BILLY: (Whispering and looking back over his shoulder for his Dad) Tell you what. Gram. I don’t think you know your football. I’ll put a buck on the Packers.
EMILY (Whispering back.) Make that double or nothing.
BILLY You got a deal. I'll call you in for the end of the game.
