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