Plays for Americans


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Famous Americans


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Ben Franklin...Harriet Tubman...Lewis and Clark.... Share their inspiring stories through these fact-based, original plays. Includes background information, discussion questions, extension activities, and literature links. For use with Grades 4-8.




The American Play


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In this brilliant study, Marc Robinson explores more than two hundred years of plays, styles, and stagings of American theater. Mapping the changing cultural landscape from the late eighteenth century to the start of the twenty-first, he explores how theater has--and has not--changed and offers close readings of plays by O'Neill, Stein, Wilder, Miller, and Albee, as well as by important but perhaps lesser known dramatists such as Wallace Stevens, Jean Toomer, Djuna Barnes, and many others. Robinson reads each work in an ambitiously interdisciplinary context, linking advances in theater to developments in American literature, dance, and visual art. The author is particularly attentive to the continuities in American drama, and expertly teases out recurring themes, such as the significance of visuality. He avoids neatly categorizing nineteenth- and twentieth-century plays and depicts a theater more restive and mercurial than has been recognized before. Robinson proves both a fascinating and thought-provoking critic and a spirited guide to the history of American drama.







100 Greatest American Plays


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Theatre in America has had a rich history—from the first performance of the Lewis Hallam Troupe in September 1752 to the lively shows of modern Broadway. Over the past few centuries, significant works by American playwrights have been produced, including Abie’s Irish Rose, Long Day’s Journey into Night, A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, A Raisin in the Sun, Fences, and Angels in America. In 100 Greatest American Plays, Thomas S. Hischak provides an engaging discussion of the best stage productions to come out of the United States. Each play is discussed in the context of its original presentation as well as its legacy. Arranged alphabetically, the entries for these plays include: plot details production history biography of the playwright literary aspects of the drama critical reaction to the play major awards the play’s influence cast lists of notable stage and film versions The plays have been selected not for their popularity but for their importance to American theatre and include works by Edward Albee, Harvey Fierstein, Lorraine Hansberry, Lillian Hellman, Tony Kushner, David Mamet, Arthur Miller, Eugene O’Neill, Sam Shepard, Neil Simon, Gore Vidal, Wendy Wasserstein, Thornton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, and August Wilson. This informative volume also includes complete lists of Pulitzer Prize winners for Drama, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for American Plays, and the Tony Award for Best Play. Providing critical information about the most important works produced since the eighteenth century, 100 Greatest American Plays will appeal to anyone interested in the cultural history of theatre.




Outrageous Fortune


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Famous American Plays of the 1940s


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The 6 plays in this collection include The Skin of Our Teeth, All My Sons, and Member of the Wedding.




Plays in American Periodicals, 1890-1918


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This book examines over 125 American, English, Irish and Anglo-Indian plays by 70 dramatists which were published in 14 American general interest periodicals aimed at the middle-class reader and consumer.




Great Americans of the 20th Century


Book Description

WHAT IT IS: This fun and hilarious musical play helps you teach the standards while bringing your classroom to life! Easy-to-do play comes with script, audio CD, and teacher's guide. NO music or drama experience is required¿you don't have to sing or play a note! Go big and perform on stage, keep it simple with a classroom performance, or simply do reader's theater in class. No fancy sets, costumes, or performance spaces are needed, so it's all up to you! Flexible casting for 8-40 students and permission to edit the script and songs make it easy to tailor the play to the needs of your class and community. Your purchase of one copy per teacher includes permission to photocopy the script for students. /// WHAT IT TEACHES: "Great Americans of the 20th Century" introduces students to many of the major statesmen, artists, athletes, musicians, and scientists in modern American history. 30 minutes; grades 3-8. /// SYNOPSIS: It's the greatest awards show ever seen on TV, for the greatest Americans of the 20th century! In this prime-time presentation (complete with commercials), The Wright Brothers, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., Georgia O'Keefe, Louis Armstrong, and Cesar Chavez all win awards. Backstage interviews take us behind the scenes as Teddy, FDR, and Eleanor duke it out for "favorite Roosevelt," and Babe Didrikson and Babe Ruth compete for Best Athletic Babe. /// WHAT IT DOES: "Great Americans of the 20th Century" is a great complement to your curriculum resources in social studies. And, like all Bad Wolf Press plays, this show can be used to improve reading comprehension, vocabulary, performance and speaking skills, class camaraderie and teamwork, and school engagement and parental involvement¿all while enabling students to be part of a truly fun and creative experience they will never forget!