For well over two decades, the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York has nurtured the plays of emerging talents and established authors alike, especially in their annual marathon of short plays, which as noted by TimeOut New York has come to be regarded as "the standard- bearer for new-play showcases", and one of the perennial highlights of the Off-Broadway season. Included in this latest collection of original one-acts from EST are Billy Aronson's Light Years, the first act of a full-length play in progress, which explores with humor and poignancy the search for self -- and sex -- that is the freshman year of college; David Ives's The Lives of the Saints, an uproarious nod to the lost days of the radio play which eavesdrops on two women preparing a funeral breakfast in the basement of a Polish church; and Leslie Caputo's Birthmarks, a skillful examination of cross-generational and cross-cultural conflicts in working-class New York City, wherein a young Irish woman, disowned by her family over her mixed marriage, struggles with the decision to keep her newborn baby when it becomes clear that the father is gone for good.

Taken as a whole, the thirteen plays contained in the Marathon 2000 anthology are an insightful barometer for anyone concerned with the state of theater today and a priceless resource for anyone in search of fresh theater material.