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History of Drama. American Drama. Early American Drama. The American Company, managed by David Douglass , was the first professional company to produce plays in the American colonies . The first production was The Prince of Parthia in 1767 in Philadelphia.
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History of Drama American Drama
Early American Drama • The American Company, managed by David Douglass,was the first professional company to produce plays in the American colonies. • The first production was The Prince of Parthia in 1767 in Philadelphia. • The first actual theatre was built in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1716, but no trace is left of it. • The Contrast by Royall Taylor was the first American comedy to achieve professional success.
Early American Actors • The first actors on American stages were English professional troupes who presented popular London plays. • Ira Aldridge (1804-1867) was the first African American actor to achieveinternational fame. • He travelled overseas to perform in London and Russia, portraying such roles as Shakespeare’s Othello and King Lear.
Early American Actors • Charlotte Cushman (1816-1876) was the first American woman to gain success. • She also travelled abroad and performed in England, popularizing the practice of women playing male roles by portraying characters such as Hamlet and Romeo.
Early American Actors • Edwin Booth (1833-1893) is one of the greatest American romantic actors. • His career came to a halt when his brother, John Wilkes Booth, also a well-known actor, assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. • Edwin retired and never again appeared again in Washington D.C.
American Playwrights • Beginning in the 1920s, American theatre became innovative and experimental. • Plays began exploring and explaining the social problems that have long affected the lives of American citizens. • Topics once too controversial for public discussion could now be safely examined in the anonymity of a darkened theatre
American Playwrights • Leading the way was Eugene O’Neill. • His tragedies deal with issues ranging from interpersonal relationships to faith. • His most famous work is Ah, Wilderness, which deals with a teenager and his coming of age.
American Playwrights • Clifford Odets developed theatre of social protestin the 1930s. • Wrote predominately about the Great Depression, and is most famous for composing Waiting for Lefty.
American Playwrights • Arthur Miller won the Pulitzer Prize and Drama Desk Critics Award. • Became the greatest American writer of social and political tragedy. • Famous for Death of a Salesman and The Crucible.
American Playwrights • Thornton Wilder examines everyday life in a small town in Our Town.
American Playwrights • As the 20th Century progressed, new playwrights wrote about the problems in American society. • James Baldwin influenced the civil rights movement of the 1960s with his plays Blues for Mister Charlie and Amen Corner.
American Playwrights • Lorraine Hansberry wrote about a variety of social issues, including equality for women and family solidarity. • She was the first African American and the youngest person to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award.
American Playwrights • Hansberry is most famous for the award-winning A Raisin in the Sun. • About an African American family struggling with poverty in 20thCentury Chicago. • Has been compared to Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, although this story concludes with a sense of hope.
American Playwrights • Susan Glaspell was known as the playwright of woman’s selfhood. • Influenced the feminist movement in the 20thCentury. • Her most critically acclaimed work is Trifles.
American Playwrights • David Mamet wrote plays dealing with loneliness, gender conflict, and the difference between reality and myth. • Wrote in quick and pointed dialogue. • His works include Glengarry Glen Ross and Oleanna.
American Playwrights • August Wilson’s plays examine African Americans in the 20thCentury. • His goal was to ask questions about society and answer them in his plays. • Famous for writing the Pulitzer Prize winning play, Fences.
American Playwrights • Beth Henley, famous for Crimes of the Heart, examines the emotional struggles of southern women and their families .
American Playwrights • NtozakeShange gained critical acclaim for his play, For Colored Girls who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf. • Deals with the experiences of women who feel isolated from the rest of society. • In 2009 it was brought to the big screen in For Colored Girls starring Janet Jacksonand Whoopi Goldberg.
American Playwrights • Neil Simon was one of the most prolific writers of the 20th Century, producing comedies rather than tragedies or social dramas. • His plays are known for being both universal and personal. • Famous for Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, and Fools.
American Playwrights • The later 20th Century saw plays based on the gay civil rights movement. • Tony Kushner’s world-renowned play Angels in America deals with the AIDs epidemic of the 1980s.
American Playwrights • Angels in America won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as two Tony Awards. • Was later filmed for HBO with a cast headed by Al Pacino and Meryl Streep.
American Playwrights • In 2000, Moises Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theater Project produced a docu-drama called The Laramie Project. • A docu-drama is a play that features dramatized reenactments of historical events.
American Playwrights • The Laramie Projectis about the real-life murder of a Wyoming student who was killed for being gay. • The playwrights conducted hundred of interviews with people from the town of Laramie, Wyoming.
American Playwrights • All of the characters of the play are real people. • Their lines consist of word-for-word documentation from the interviews. • The play was also adapted into a film starring an ensemble cast of over 30 actors, including Christina Ricci, Laura Linney, and Steve Buscemi.
