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BEST AMERICAN PLAYS 6TH SERIES
Features 17 American plays from 1963 to 1967 presented in the New York theatre.
- GenresTheatre
594 pages, Hardcover
First published July 15, 1971
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July 20, 2023
Many years ago, I collected the entire series of Best American Plays. A great series of classic plays from a certain period all in one collected volume.
This compilation begun by the late John Gassner and completed by Clive Barnes covers the best plays produced between 1963 - 1967.
This sixth series reflects the ever-widening changes that the theatre underwent during these years, with the movement toward social relevance and the growth of Off-Broadway's influence and scope.
Clive Barnes in his introduction: "Human existence would be unthinkable without the theatre ... an America without its theatre would be a devitalized America."
Plays included in this volume: the musicals "Fiddler on the Roof" and "The Fantasticks"; the comedies Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple" and Bill Manhoff's "The Owl and the Pussycat."
Dramas are represented by James Goldman's "The Lion in Winter"/ Edward Albee's "Tiny Alice"/ Eugene O'Neill's "Hughie"/Lorraine Hansberry's "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window"/ Martin Duberman's In White America"/ Frank Gilroy's "The Subject Was Roses"/ William Hanley's "Slow Dance on the Killing Ground"/ Saul Bellow's "The Last Analysis"/ Robert Lowell's "Benito Cereno"/
"The Toilet" by Le Roi Jones/ "Hogan's Goat" - William Alfred's verse play/ Robert Anderson's "You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running" and "Blues for Mister Charlie" by James Baldwin.
Many had long runs on Broadway. Some became immortalized as film adaptations. Some have had the misfortune of being forgotten in time. But they are all important works by distinguished playwrights of American theatre.
In rediscovering this volume, I was moved to read that "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window" opened only a few months before Lorraine Hansberry's early death from cancer at age 34. On the day of her death it closed as a sign of respect, and the curtain never went up again. What a tragic loss to the American theatre.
I was amused to read the character descriptions in the short play by Le Roi Jones; himself described by the editors as "black, militant, offers a hope to black audiences and a fierce challenge to white audiences. A massive insult to white sensibility."
Set in a high school boys' toilet with characters described as "short, ugly, crude, loud"/ "tall, thin, should have been sensitive"/ "big, husky, garrulous"/ "quick, rather stupid but interested"/ "very skinny, and not essentially attractive, except when he speaks"/ "short, intelligent, manic; possessor of a threatened empire"/ "large and ridiculous; a grinning ape"/ "tall, thin, crudely elegant; judicious."
And struck by the great James Baldwin who with his play "Blues for Mister Charlie" carries this somber dedication:
"To the memory of MEDGAR EVERS, and his widow and his children, and to the memory of the dead children of Birmingham."
This compilation begun by the late John Gassner and completed by Clive Barnes covers the best plays produced between 1963 - 1967.
This sixth series reflects the ever-widening changes that the theatre underwent during these years, with the movement toward social relevance and the growth of Off-Broadway's influence and scope.
Clive Barnes in his introduction: "Human existence would be unthinkable without the theatre ... an America without its theatre would be a devitalized America."
Plays included in this volume: the musicals "Fiddler on the Roof" and "The Fantasticks"; the comedies Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple" and Bill Manhoff's "The Owl and the Pussycat."
Dramas are represented by James Goldman's "The Lion in Winter"/ Edward Albee's "Tiny Alice"/ Eugene O'Neill's "Hughie"/Lorraine Hansberry's "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window"/ Martin Duberman's In White America"/ Frank Gilroy's "The Subject Was Roses"/ William Hanley's "Slow Dance on the Killing Ground"/ Saul Bellow's "The Last Analysis"/ Robert Lowell's "Benito Cereno"/
"The Toilet" by Le Roi Jones/ "Hogan's Goat" - William Alfred's verse play/ Robert Anderson's "You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running" and "Blues for Mister Charlie" by James Baldwin.
Many had long runs on Broadway. Some became immortalized as film adaptations. Some have had the misfortune of being forgotten in time. But they are all important works by distinguished playwrights of American theatre.
In rediscovering this volume, I was moved to read that "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window" opened only a few months before Lorraine Hansberry's early death from cancer at age 34. On the day of her death it closed as a sign of respect, and the curtain never went up again. What a tragic loss to the American theatre.
I was amused to read the character descriptions in the short play by Le Roi Jones; himself described by the editors as "black, militant, offers a hope to black audiences and a fierce challenge to white audiences. A massive insult to white sensibility."
Set in a high school boys' toilet with characters described as "short, ugly, crude, loud"/ "tall, thin, should have been sensitive"/ "big, husky, garrulous"/ "quick, rather stupid but interested"/ "very skinny, and not essentially attractive, except when he speaks"/ "short, intelligent, manic; possessor of a threatened empire"/ "large and ridiculous; a grinning ape"/ "tall, thin, crudely elegant; judicious."
And struck by the great James Baldwin who with his play "Blues for Mister Charlie" carries this somber dedication:
"To the memory of MEDGAR EVERS, and his widow and his children, and to the memory of the dead children of Birmingham."
Displaying 1 of 1 review