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

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Modern American Drama: Playwriting in the 1940s: Voices, Documents, New Interpretations
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Felicia Hardison Londre
SeriesDecades of Modern American Drama: Playwriting from the 1930s to 2009
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:328
Dimensions(mm): Height 216,Width 138
Category/GenreDrama
Literary studies - plays and playwrights
ISBN/Barcode 9781350215450
ClassificationsDewey:812.5209
Audience
Professional & Vocational

Publishing Details

Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint Methuen Drama
Publication Date 25 February 2021
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

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documents such as interviews with the playwrights and with directors, drafts of play scenes, and other previously unpublished material.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).

Author Biography

Felicia Hardison Londre, Curators' Professor of Theatre at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA, is Dean of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre (2012-2014). Her many books include The Enchanted Years of the Stage: Kansas City at the Crossroads of American Theatre, 1870-1930 (2007), awarded the George Freedley Memorial Award by the Theatre Library Association. For 23 years she was dramaturg for Missouri Repertory Theatre.

Reviews

A pleasure to read throughout. * British Theatre Guide *