Modern American Drama: Playwriting in the 1940s - Voices, Documents, New Interpretations

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documents such as interviews with the playwrights and with directors, drafts of play scenes, and other previously unpublished material.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:
* Eugene O'Neill: The Iceman Cometh (1946), A Moon for the Misbegotten (1947), Long Day's Journey Into Night (written 1941, produced 1956), and A Touch of the Poet (written 1942, produced 1958);
* Tennessee Williams: The Glass Menagerie (1944), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Summer and Smoke (1948);
* Arthur Miller: All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), and The Crucible (1953);
* Thornton Wilder: Our Town (1938), The Skin of Our Teeth (1942), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), and The Alcestiad (written 1940s).

List of contents

Acknowledgements
Biographical Note and Notes on Contributors
General Preface: Brenda Murphy and Julia Listengarten

1. Introduction to the 1940s
2. American Theatre in the 1940s
3. Introducing the Playwrights
4. Eugene O'Neill: Love and Loss of the Soul by Zander Brietzske
5. Thornton Wilder: Seeing Beyond Dark Times by Felicia Hardison Londré, University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA.
6. Tennessee Williams: Experimentation and 'The Great American Play'by Thomas Keith, Pace University, USA.
7. Arthur Miller: The Individual and Social Responsibility by Valleri J.Robinson, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA.

Afterword

Documents
A High-School Perspective on Theatre in 1947 by Ann Crisp,
Collecting O’Neill by Lamar Lentz
Acting in The Skin of Our Teeth with Helen Hayes by Hank Whittemore
Tennessee Williams in Provincetown by David Kaplan
Mapping Arthur Miller’s Brooklyn by Steven Marino
Retrospective by Thomas D. Pawley III

Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the author

Felicia Hardison Londré is Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Theatre at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA. She was elected to The College of Fellows of the American Theatre in 1999 and served a term (2012-14) as Dean. Her fifteen books include the George Freedly Memorial Award-winning The Enchanted Years of the Stage: Kansas City at the Crossroads of American Theatre, 1890-1930; she is the author of Modern American Drama: Playwriting in the 1940s: Voices, Documents, New Interpretations and editor of The Great European Stage Directors Volume 7: Barrault, Mnouchkine, Stein (both Methuen Drama, 2018).Brenda Murphy is Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, where she has taught since 1989, following fourteen years as a faculty member and administrator at St Lawrence University. She is the author of many articles, books, and reviews on drama and American literature.Julia Listengarten is Professor of Theatre at the University of Central Florida, USA. She is an artist scholar and her research interests range from contemporary performance to socially engaged creative practices. Her recent books include Visual and Performing Arts Collaboration: Transdisciplinary Practices (2023, with Keri Watson) and Performing Arousal: Precarious Bodies and Frames of Representation (Methuen Drama, 2022, with Yana Meerzon).

Summary

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:
* Eugene O’Neill: The Iceman Cometh (1946), A Moon for the Misbegotten (1947), Long Day’s Journey Into Night (written 1941, produced 1956), and A Touch of the Poet (written 1942, produced 1958);
* Tennessee Williams: The Glass Menagerie (1944), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Summer and Smoke (1948);
* Arthur Miller: All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), and The Crucible (1953);
* Thornton Wilder: Our Town (1938), The Skin of Our Teeth (1942), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), and The Alcestiad (written 1940s).

Foreword

This volume offers a detailed account of the cultural, social, political and economic context for the theatre produced in 1940s America, and offers an indepth study of the work of four of the decade's major playwrights.

Product details

• Authors: Felicia Hardison Londre, Felicia Hardison (University of Missouri-K Londre, Felicia Hardison (University of Missouri-Kansas City Londre, Felicia Hardison Londré
• Assisted by: Julia Listengarten (Editor), Brenda Murphy (Editor)
• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 22.08.2019
• EAN: 9781472571861
• ISBN: 978-1-4725-7186-1
• No. of pages: 328
• Series: Decades of Modern American Drama: Playwriting from the 1930s to 2009; Decades of Modern American Dra
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet