Modern American Drama: Playwriting in the 1930s - 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documents such as interviews with the playwrights and with directors, drafts of play scenes, and other previously unpublished material.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:
* 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).

List of contents

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

About the author

Anne Fletcher is Professor of Theater at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA. She is the author of Rediscovering Mordecai Gorelik: Scene Design and the American Theatre (2009) and co-author (with Scott R. Irelan and Julie Felise Dubiner) of The Process of Dramatury: A Handbook (2010).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:
* 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).

Foreword

This volume offers a detailed account of the cultural, social, political and economic context for the theatre produced in 1930s America, and offers an indepth study of the work of four of the decade's major playwrights.

Product details

• Authors: Anne Fletcher, Anne (Southern Illinois University Carbo Fletcher, Anne (Southern Illinois University Carbondale Fletcher, Professor Anne (Southern Illinois Univer Fletcher, Professor Anne (Southern Illinois University Carbondale Fletcher
• Assisted by: Julia Listengarten (Editor), Brenda Murphy (Editor)
• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 22.08.2019
• EAN: 9781472571878
• ISBN: 978-1-4725-7187-8
• No. of pages: 336
• Series: Decades of Modern American Drama: Playwriting from the 1930s to 2009; Decades of Modern American Dra
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet