The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 20.0123 Thursday, 19 March 2009
[1] From: David Frankel <
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Date: Friday, 13 Mar 2009 14:07:43 -0400
Subj: RE: SHK 20.0116 50 Best American Plays
[2] From: John W Kennedy <
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Date Friday, 13 Mar 2009 14:10:36 -0400
Subj: Re: SHK 20.0116 50 Best American Plays
[3] From: R. A. Cantrell <
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Date Friday, 13 Mar 2009 13:16:37 -0500
Subj: Re: SHK 20.0116 50 Best American Plays
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Frankel <
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Date: Friday, 13 Mar 2009 14:07:43 -0400
Subject: 20.0116 50 Best American Plays
Comment: RE: SHK 20.0116 50 Best American Plays
Bob Grumman comments that too many American plays have an "obsession
with family," and that this "flaw" makes them examples of adolescent
playwriting.
First, I'd point out that _Oedipus_ is a play obsessed with family, as
are a great many plays from the beginning of the drama.
Second, I'd suggest that perhaps Mr. Grumman (and others) thinks of
plays in relationship to novels and poems -- as pieces of written
literature. Although many plays may profitably be studied as literature
(in a more or less traditional way), plays as instances of theatrical
literature do not work in the same way.
Third, I'd point out that in many American plays (_The Glass Menagerie_
among them) family is a stand-in for something larger. The Wingfields
represent both themselves and a large slice of American life during the
end of the depression. As with _Our Town_, however, _The Glass
Menagerie_ has often been diminished as a nostalgic, even sentimental,
gloss on American or family life; if you read the play carefully (and
ask, among other things, why Williams included the "screen device" in
his published versions of the script), you will see it is anything but
sentimental.
I could add a fourth, fifth and sixth, at least, but will let the rest
be silence.
C. David Frankel
Assistant Director of Theatre
School of Theatre and Dance
University of South Florida
[2]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: John W Kennedy <
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Date: Friday, 13 Mar 2009 14:10:36 -0400
Subject: 20.0116 50 Best American Plays
Comment: Re: SHK 20.0116 50 Best American Plays
Scot Zarela <
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>These are my own, I don't claim to know Charles Weinstein's reasons;
>only that, whatever they may be, we come out at the same place.
Not really; your position and Weinstein's can be identified only by a
sort of syntactic pun of the "I only wish I had such eyes.... To be
able to see Nobody!" variety.
[3]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: R. A. Cantrell <
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Date: Friday, 13 Mar 2009 13:16:37 -0500
Subject: 20.0116 50 Best American Plays
Comment: Re: SHK 20.0116 50 Best American Plays
Streetcar, Cat
R.A. Cantrell
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