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 protest in 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 20th Century 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 20th Century.

• 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 20th Century.

• 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

• Ntozake Shange 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 Jackson and 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 Project is 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.