global theatre: 1945 to 1990 the drama
TRANSCRIPT
Global Theatre: 1945 to 1990
The Drama
Tennessee Williams Arthur Miller
Tennessee Williams
1911-1983
• The Glass
Menagerie (1945) –
Autobiographical,
first success
• A Streetcar Named
Desire (1947) –
Masterpiece
The Glass Menagerie
A Streetcar Named Desire
Tennessee…
• Won 2 Pulitzer
Prizes for Streetcar
and Cat on a Hot
Tin Roof (1954)
• 25 full length plays,
40 one act plays,
12 movie scripts, 1
opera libretto
Arthur Miller
1915-2005
• All My Sons (1947)
– First major
success
• Death of a
Salesman (1949) –
Masterpiece – Won
Pulitzer Prize
All My Sons
Death of a Salesman
Miller…
• Black listed by
HUAC
• The Crucible (1953)
– Statement
against
McCarthyism
• After the Fall (1964)
-- Autobiographical
The Crucible
The Hollywood 10
(1947)
• One film director
and 9 screen writers
who refused to
"name names"
before HUAC
Red Channels (1951)
• A list of 151 writers,
directors and
performers who had
been members of
"subversive"
organizations before
and during WW II
Joseph McCarthy
(1908-1957)
• Junior Senator from
the state of
Wisconsin
• Senate committee
investigating
communists in
government
• Edward R Murrow:
See it Now
Neil Simon
1927 -
• Beginning was in television
• Come Blow Your Horn (1961) – First success
• 8 of his first 9 plays are set in New York City
Come Blow Your Horn
Simon…
• Probably most often produced work: The Odd Couple (1965)
• Wrote the book for 5 musicals
• Won the Pulitzer Prize for Lost in Yonkers (1991)
The Odd Couple
Lost in Yonkers
Simon’s Autobiographical Plays
1. Come Blow Your
Horn (1961)
2. Chapter Two
(1977)
3. Brighton Beach
Memoirs (1983)
4. Biloxi Blues (1985)
5. Broadway Bound
(1987)
Sam Shepard
(1943- )
• Began in the off-off-
Broadway theatres in
the early 60s
• Buried Child (1979)
won the Pulitzer
• Oscar-nominated
actor
Buried Child
David Mamet
(1947- )
• Born and raised in Chicago, the setting of most of his plays
• First success: Sexual Perversity in Chicago (1974)
• Won Pulitzer for Glengarry Glen Ross (1984)
Glengarry Glen Ross