The Decades of Modern American Drama series provides a comprehensive survey and study of the theatre produced in each decade from the 1930s to 2009 in eight volumes. Each volume equips readers with a detailed understanding of the context from which work emerged: an introduction considers life in the decade with a focus on domestic life and conditions, social changes, culture, media, technology, industry and political events; while a chapter on the theatre of the decade offers a wide-ranging and thorough survey of theatres, companies, dramatists, new movements and developments in response to the economic and political conditions of the day. The work of the four most prominent playwrights from the decade receives in-depth analysis and re-evaluation by a team of experts, together with commentary on their subsequent work and legacy. A final section brings together original documents such as interviews with the playwrights and with directors, drafts of play scenes, and other previously unpublished material.
The major playwrights and their works to receive in-depth coverage in this volume include:
- Clifford Odets: Waiting for Lefty (1935), Awake and Sing! (1935) and Golden Boy (1937);
- Lillian Hellman: The Children s Hour (1934), The Little Foxes (1939), and Days to Come (1936);
- Langston Hughes: Mulatto (1935), Mule Bone (1930, with Zora Neale Hurston) and Little Ham (1936);
- Gertrude Stein: Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights (1938), Four Saints in Three Acts (written in 1927, published in 1932) and Listen to Me (1936).
Acknowledgements
Biographical Note and Notes on Contributors
General Preface: Brenda Murphy and Julia Listengarden
1. Introduction to the 1930s by Anne Fletcher, Illinois University Carbondale, USA.
2. American Theatre in the 1930s by Anne Fletcher, Illinois University Carbondale, USA.
3. Gertrude Stein, Four Saints in Three Acts (written in 1927, published in 1932), Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights (1938); Listen to Me (1936) by Laura Luise Schultz, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
4. Langston Hughes, Mulatto (1935), Mule Bone (1930) (with Zora Neale Hurston), Little Ham (1936) by Adrienne Macki, University of Connecticut, USA.
5. Clifford Odets, Waiting for Lefty (1935), Awake and Sing! (1935), Paradise Lost (1935), Golden Boy (1937), Rocket to the Moon (1938), Night Music (1940) by Christopher J. Herr, Missouri State University, USA.
6. Lillian Hellman, The Children s Hour (1934), Days to Come (1936), The Little Foxes (1939) by Anne Fletcher, Illinois University Carbondale, USA.
Afterword
Documents
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Author(s): Anne Fletcher
Series: Decades of Modern American Drama: Playwriting from the 1930s to 2009, 1
Publisher: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama
Year: 2018
Language: English
Pages: 336
City: London
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Half title
Decades of Modern American Drama: Playwriting from the 1930s to 2009
Title
Copyright
Contents
Acknowledgements
Biographical Note and Notes on Contributors
General Preface Julia Listengarten and Brenda Murphy
1 Introduction to the 1930s Anne Fletcher
Life in the 1930s
The Great Depression and the New Deal
Domestic life
Education
Sports and recreation
Science and technology
Labour and the working class
Arts and culture
Literature
Poetry
Painting
Photography
Architecture and design
Music
Dance
Media
Radio
Film
2 American Theatre inthe 1930s Anne Fletcher
Before the Crash
After the economic collapse: The 1930s
Labour(ing) drama: The production companies, the playwrights and the plays
Not a success story for John Howard Lawson
Poetry and politics: Maxwell Anderson
No time for comedy?
Hokum: High and low
The mythic, the surreal and the sublime: William Saroyan’s My Heart’s in the Highlands and The Time
3 Gertrude Stein: Four Saints in Three Acts (written in 1927, published in 1932), Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights (1938), Listen To Me (1936) Laura Schultz
Early life
Early writing
Approaching the play
Conversation pieces and landscape plays
Identity and fame
The war and after the war
How many saints are there in it?: Four Saints in Three Acts
Gertrude Stein and Thornton Wilder
And the dog says thank you: Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights
Important productions of Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights
Nobody has met anyone: Listen To Me
The impact and legacy of Gertrude Stein on theatre and performance
Gertrude Stein onstage
4 Langston Hughes: Mulatto (1935), The Mule Bone (1930) (with Zora Neale Hurston), Little Ham (1936) Adrienne Macki
Mulatto
The Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
Little Ham
Conclusion
5 Clifford Odets: Waiting for Lefty (1935), Awake and Sing! (1935), Paradise Lost (1935), Golden Boy (1937), Rocket to the Moon (1938), Night Music (1940) Christopher J. Herr
Waiting for Lefty
Awake and Sing!
Paradise Lost
Golden Boy
Rocket to the Moon and Night Music
6 Lillian Hellman: The Children’s Hour (1934), Days to Come (1936), The Little Foxes (1939) Anne Fletcher
The Children’s Hour
Maybe too well-made
Days to Come
The Little Foxes
The plays today
Afterword Anne Fletcher
Gertrude Stein – ‘What is the answer?’
Langston Hughes – ‘I, too, am America’
Clifford Odets – ‘The last sixteen wasted years’
Lillian Hellman – ‘No secrets about her feelings’
Documents
Excerpts from the Gertrude Stein Symposium at New York University (2001)
Langston Hughes, ‘The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain’ (1926)
‘Langston Hughes Proposes an Oath to End All Oaths for Americans’ (1951)
Excerpts from Clifford Odets’s HUAC testimony (1952)
Draft of Lillian Hellman’s letter to HUAC, written in the form of a public statement, to be issued in the event Hellman refused to
testify (1952)
Workers’ theatre: Excerpts from Mordecai Gorelik, ‘Theatre is a Weapon’ (1934)
Notes
Bibliography
Index
