The Routledge Anthology of US Drama: 1898-1949

The first half of the Twentieth Century was a vibrant period for U.S. theatre. As the United Statesemerged as a significant military, economic, political and cultural power, so its theatre began to distinguish itself from the prevailing European model. The plays and dramatic textsinthis anthology demonstrate the vital and volatile relationship between U.S. theatre, its society, and the ways in which that theatre has both supported and challenged prevailing systems of thought and action. This collection is organized aroundkey thematic perspectives from colonialism to psychoanalysis, viewing the artistic output of this era through the socio-political events and controversies that shaped it. Each play is accompanied by a critical commentary from a leading scholar and a set of archive source materials, including playbills, production shots, reviews, essays, poems, newspaper articles and official documents. These supplements bring to life the rich and diverse theatre cultures that operated in the United States during this period andexplore the essential ways that these cultural artifacts engaged with the national debates that surrounded them. The plays themselves both support and challenge the existing canon of U.S. dramatic literature; a selection that speaks not only to aesthetic innovation, but also to the critical moments of political change and national definition that helped to shape the United States. From Miller, Williams and O’Neill to Angelina Grimké, David Belasco and Mae West, this is the ideal collection for any course in U.S. theatre.

Introduction – Joshua Polster Part 1 – Colonialism Colonial and Native Rule in Performance 1. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show 2. Madame Butterfly – David Belasco 3. The Pan-American Exposition 4. The Great Divide – William Vaughan Moody Part 2 – Race and Ethnicity Minstrels and Tom Shows 5. Uncle Tom’s Cabin Anti-Lynching Plays 6. Rachel – Angelina Weld Grimké Immigration and Vaudeville 7. Vaudeville Humour – Ed Lowry 8. I’m Going to Mexico – Netty and Jesus Rodriguez 9. Te Ata Part 3 – Gender and Sexuality Feminism and Feminist Theatre 10. Trifles – Susan Glaspell 11. How Poor Women Prostitute Themselves – Luisa Capetillo The Sexual Revolution and Broadway 12. Sex – Mae West 13. Machinal – Sophie Treadwell Part 4 – Economic Structure The Great Depression and the Workers’ Theatre Movement 14. Scottsboro, Limited – Langston Hughes 15. Waiting for Lefty – Clifford Odets The New Deal and the Federal Theatre Project 16. The Revolt of the Beavers – Oscar Saul and Lou Lantz 17. One Third of a Nation – Arthur Arent Part 5 – Systems of Government The Rise of Fascism, Isolationist and Interventionist Theatre 18. It Can’t Happen Here – Sinclair Lewis and John C. Moffitt 19. The Skin of Our Teeth – Thornton Wilder 20. Watch on the Rhine – Lillian Hellmann Part 6 – Queer and Psychoanalytic Theory Performing the Closet: Coded Gay Dramas 21. Summer and Smoke – Tennessee Williams The Rise of U.S. Psychoanalysis and Freud Onstage 22. The Iceman Cometh – Eugene O’Neill 23. Death of a Salesman – Arthur Miller