COMPLETE SECONDARY READING LIST FOR AMERICAN THEATRE, 2012

Hold down Ctrl and then click on the hyperlinks below to move to the correct section
of the reading list.
A. General secondary reading
1. General American drama and theatre
2. American culture and history
B. Main texts
Week two: The Emperor Jones and Eugene ONeill
Week three: Our Town and Thornton Wilder
Week four: A Streetcar Named Desire and Tennessee Williams
Week five: Death of a Salesman and Arthur Miller
Week seven: A Raisin in the Sun and Lorraine Hansberry
Week eight: Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Edward Albee
Week nine: American Buffalo and David Mamet
Week ten: Buried Child and Sam Shepard
Week eleven: Angels in America and Tony Kushner
C. Texts for presentations
Week two: Machinal by Sophie Treadwell (1928)
Week three: The Verge by Susan Glaspell (1921)
Week four: The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman (1939)
Week five: Picnic by William Inge (1953)
Week seven: Dutchman by Amiri Baraka (1964)
Week eight: Fefu and Her Friends by Mara Irene Forns (1977)
Week nine: FOB by David Henry Hwang (1979)
Week ten: Tongues by Sam Shepard and Joseph Chaikin (1978)
Week eleven: Joe Turners Come and Gone by August Wilson (1986)
D. Groups and movements
Provincetown Players
The Group Theatre
Federal Theatre Project
Negro Ensemble Company
Black Arts Movement
The Open Theater, the Living Theatre, and related groups of the 1960s-1970s

A. General secondary reading

Consult the module wiki for recommended websites and online articles. Where
available, the Goldsmiths library shelfmark is given in square brackets. Comments
about the texts are in curly brackets. Key texts are in bold.
1. General American drama and theatre
Adler, Thomas P., American Drama, 1940-1960: A Critical History, Twayne's
Critical
History of American Drama Series (Boston: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1994)
Benston, Kimberley W., The Aesthetics of Modern Black Drama: From Mimesis to
Methexis, in The Theatre of Black Americans: A Collection of Critical
Essays, ed. by Errol Hill (New York: Applause Books, 1987), pp.61-78
[792.0973 THE]
Berkowitz, Gerald M., American Drama of the Twentieth Century, Longman
Literature
in English Series (Harlow, Essex: Longman, 1992)
Bigsby, C.W.E., A Critical Introduction to Twentieth-Century American
Drama,
v. 1: 1900-1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982)
[812.509 BIG]
Bigsby, C.W.E., A Critical Introduction to Twentieth-Century American
Drama,
v. 2: Williams, Miller, Albee (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1984) [812.509 BIG]
Bigsby, C.W.E., A Critical Introduction to Twentieth-Century American
Drama,
v.3: Beyond Broadway (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1985) [812.509 BIG]
Bigsby, C.W.E., Confrontation and Commitment: A Study of Contemporary
American
Drama, 1959-66 (London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1967) [812.509 BIG]
Bigsby, C.W.E., Modern American Drama: 1945-1990 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1992) [812.509 BIG] {There is also a later edition (2000)
which covers 1945-2000, but this is not in the Goldsmiths library}
Brown, Janet, Taking Center Stage: Feminism in Contemporary U.S. Drama
(Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1991)
Bryer, Jackson R., ed., The Playwrights Art: Conversations with
Contemporary
American Dramatists (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University
Press, 1995)

Burke, Sally, American Feminist Playwrights: A Critical History, Twayne's

Critical
History of American Drama Series (Boston: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1994)
Chinoy, Helen Krich, and Linda Walsh Jenkins, eds., Women in American Theatre
(New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1987) [792.0973 WOM]
Clurman, Harold, The Fervent Years: the Group Theatre and the Thirties
(New
York: Da Capo Press, 1983) [792.0973 CLU] {There is also
one copy in the reserve stack}
Cohn, Ruby, Dialogue in American Drama (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana
University
Press, 1972) [812.509 COH]
Cohn, Ruby, New American Dramatists: 1960-1980, Modern Dramatists
(London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1982) [812.509 COH] {There is also a
newer edition of this book: New American Dramatists: 1960-1990
(1991) at the same shelfmark}
Cole, Toby, ed., Playwrights on playwriting: The Meaning and Making of
Modern
Drama from Ibsen to Ionesco (New York: Hill and Wang, 1964) [808.2
COL]
Downer, Alan S., American Drama and Its Critics: A Collection of Critical
Essays., (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975) [812.4/5 AME]
Drain, Richard, ed., Twentieth-Century Theatre: A Sourcebook (London:
Routledge,
1995).
Eyre, Richard and Nicholas Wright, Changing Stages: A View of British Theatre
in
the Twentieth Century (London: Bloomsbury, 2000) {Has a useful summary
chapter on American theatre. See also the episode below in video}
Freedman, M., American Drama in Social Context (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern
Illinois University Press, 1971)
Harris, Andrew B., Broadway Theatre (London: Routledge, 1994) [792.097471
HAR]
Huxley, Mike. and Noel Witts, eds., The Twentieth Century Performance
Reader, 2nd
edn. (London: Routledge, 2002)
Innes, Christopher, Avant Garde Theatre, 1892-1992 (London: Routledge,
1993)
[809.2 IN] {See in particular, chapters 4 (Therapy and Subliminal
Theatre about Expressionism), chapter 10 (Anthropology,
Environmental Theatre and Sexual Revolution about Joe Chaikin

and the Living Theatre), and chapter 12 (From the Margins to the
Mainstream about ONeill and Shepard)}
Krasner, David, Modern American Drama, 1945-2000: An Introduction,
Blackwell Introductions to Literature (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2006)
[812.509 KRA]
Krasner, David, ed. A Companion to Twentieth Century American Drama
(Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007) [812.509 COM]
Krasner, David, ed., Theatre in Theory, 1900-2000: An Anthology (Oxford:
Wiley-Blackwell, 2007)
Miller, Jordan Y., with Winifred L. Frazer, eds., American Drama between the
Wars:
A Critical History, Twayne's Critical History of American Drama Series
(Boston: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1997)
Miller, Jordan Y., American Dramatic Literature: Ten Modern Plays in
Historical
Perspective (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961)
Murphy, Brenda, ed., The Cambridge Companion to American Women
Playwrights (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)
[812.509 CAM]
Murphy, Brenda, with Laurie J. C. Cella, Twentieth-Century American
Drama, Critical Concepts in American Literary and Cultural Studies
Series, 4 Volumes, (London: Routledge, Taylor, and Francis, 2006)
{Extensive selection of critical essays on many of the playwrights
on the course a full listing of the contents can be found here:
<http://www.brendamurphy.net/id16.html>}
Parker, Dorothy, Essays on Modern American Drama: Williams, Miller, Albee,
and Shepard (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987)
Plimpton, George, ed., The Paris Review Interviews: Playwrights at Work
(London: The Harvill Press, 2000) {Includes interviews with Wilder,
Hellman, Williams, Miller, Albee, Shepard and Mamet}
Poggi, Jack, Theater in America: The Impact of Economic Forces, 1870-1967
(Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1968)
Robinson, Marc, The American Play: 1787-2000 (New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press, 2009) [812.509 ROB]
Roose-Evans, James, Experimental Theatre: From Stanislavsky to Peter
Brook
(London: Routledge, 1989) [792.0904 ROO]
Roudan, Matthew, American Drama since 1960: A Critical History,
Twayne's
Critical History of American Drama Series (Boston: Twayne
Publishers, Inc., 1994) [812.509 ROU]

Sanders, Leslie Catherine, The Development of Black Theater in America:

From
Shadows to Selves (Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University
Press, 1988) [812.509 SAN]
Savran, David, In Their Own Words: Contemporary American Playwrights
(New
York: Theatre Communications Group, Inc., 1989) [812.509 SAV]
{Interviews with David Mamet, Mara Irene Forns, August Wilson,
David Henry Hwang, and others}
Saddik, Annette J., Contemporary American Drama, Edinburgh Critical Guides to
Literature (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007)
Shank, Theodore, Beyond the Boundaries: American Alternative Theatre,
Theater: Theory/Text/Performance (Ann Arbor, Michigan: The
University of Michigan Press, 2002) [792.0973 SHA]
Smith, S. H., American Drama: The Bastard Art (New York: Cambridge
University
Press, 1997)
Taubman, H., The Making of the American Theatre (London: Putnam Publishing
Group, 1967)
Unwin, Stephen with Carole Woddis, A Pocket Guide to Twentieth Century
Drama
(London: Faber and Faber, 2001)
Weales, Gerald, The Jumping-Off Place: American Drama in the 1960s
(London:
Palgrave Macmillan, 1969)
Wilmeth, Don B. and Christopher Bigsby, The Cambridge History of
American
Theatre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) [792.0973
CAM]
Video
Eyre, Richard, Programme 3: America, in Changing stages, dir. Chris Granlund
(London: BBC, 2000) [11037 Video [2nd Floor]] {Explores the effect of
American theatre on British theatre}
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2. American culture and history
Bigsby, Christopher, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Modern American
Culture,
Cambridge Companions to Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2006)

Booker, M. Keith, The Post-Utopian Imagination: American Culture in the

Long
1950s, Contributions to the Study of American Literature (Santa Barbara,
California: Greenwood Press, 2002)
Bradbury, Malcolm, and Howard Temperley, Introduction to American Studies, 3rd
edn. (Harlow, Essex: Longman, 1998)
Brogan, Hugh, The Penguin History of the United States (London: Penguin,
1986)
[973 BRO] {Excellent reference book}
Currell, Susan. American Culture in the 1920s (Edinburgh: University of
Edinburgh Press, 2009) [306.0973 CUR]
Dickstein, Morris, Dancing in the Dark : A Cultural History of the Great
Depression (New York: W.W. Norton, 2009) [973.916 DIC]
Eldridge, David, American Culture in the 1930s (Edinburgh: University of
Edinburgh Press, 2008) [306.0973 ELD]
Gidley, M., ed., Modern American Culture: An Introduction (Harlow, Essex:
Longman, 1993) [306.0973 MOD]
Gilbert, James Burkhart, et al., The Mythmaking Frame of Mind: Social
Imagination
and American Culture (New York: Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc.,
1993)
Gordon, M. ed., The American Family in Social-historical Perspective, 2nd edn.
(London: St. Martin's Press, 1978)
Jones, Maldwyn A., The Limits of Liberty: American History, 1607-1992, 2nd
edn. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995) [973 JON]
Reynolds, David, America: Empire of Liberty, A New History (London: Penguin,
2010)
Tindall, George Brown and David E. Shi, America: A Narrative History, v.1 & 2,
8th
revd. edn. (London: W.W. Norton & Company Ltd., 2010)
Van Deburg, William L., New Day in Babylon: the Black Power Movement
and
American Culture, 1965-1975 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1992) [305.896073 VAN]
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B. Main texts

Week two: The Emperor Jones and Eugene ONeill

Berlin, Normand, Eugene O'Neill, Modern Dramatists (London: Palgrave
Macmillan, 1982) [812.5 On/BER]
Bigsby, C.W.E., Eugene ONeill, chapter 2 of A Critical Introduction to
Twentieth-Century American Drama, v. 1: 1900-1940 (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1982), pp.36-119 [812.509 BIG]
Black, Stephen A., Eugene O'Neill: Beyond Mourning and Tragedy (New
Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1999) {This is a
psychoanalytic analysis of ONeills life and work}
Black, Stephen A., ed., File on ONeill, Writer-files (London: Methuen, 1993)
[812.5 On/FIL]
Bloom, Harold, ed., Eugene ONeill, Blooms Modern Critical Views (New
York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2007)
Bogard, Travis: Contour in Time: The Plays of Eugene O'Neill (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1972) [812.5 On/BOG]. {Later edition
(1988) at same shelfmark this book can also be found complete
online at: <http://www.eoneill.com/library/contour/contents.htm>}
Bryer, Jackson R., ed., with Ruth M. Alvarez and intro. by Travis Bogard, The
theatre we worked for: the letters of Eugene ONeill to Kenneth
Macgowan, (London: Yale University Press, c.1982) [812.5 On]
Chabrowe, Leonard, Ritual and Pathos : The Theater of ONeill (New York:
Associated University Presses, 1976) [812.5 On/CHA]
Chothia, Jean, Forging a Language : A Study of the Plays of Eugene ONeill
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979) [812.5 On/CHO]
Diggins, John Patrick, Eugene ONeills America: Desire Under Democracy
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007)
Estrin, Mark W., Conversations with Eugene ONeill, Literary
Conversations Series (Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of
Mississippi, 1990)
Gassner, John, ed., Eugene ONeill: A Collection of Critical Essays, 20th
Century Views (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1964) [812.5 On/ONE]
Gelb, Arthur and Barbara, O'Neill (London: Cape, 1962) [812.5 On/GEL]
{The Gelbs are in the process of completely rewriting their
biography, and the first part, ONeill: Life with Monte Cristo (New
York: Applause Books), appeared in 2001}
Hanson, Philip J., The Emperor Jones: Naturalistic Tragedy in
Hemispheric Perspective, in New Readings in American Drama:
Something's Happening Here, ed. by Norma Jenckes (New York:
Peter Lang, 2002)

Krasner, David, Eugene ONeill: American Drama and American

Modernism, chapter 10 of A Companion to Twentieth Century
American Drama (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007), ed. by David
Krasner, pp.142-158 [812.509 COM]
Manheim, Michael, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Eugene ONeill,
Cambridge Companions to Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998) [812.5 On/CAM]
Murphy, Brenda, Glaspell and ONeill, chapter 4 of The Provincetown
Players and the Culture of Modernity (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2005), pp.160-216
Sheaffer, Louis, O'Neill, Son and Playwright (London: Littlehampton Book
Services Ltd., 1969) [812.5 On/SHE]
Sheaffer, Louis, O'Neill, Son and Artist (London: Cooper Square Press, 2002)
{Sheaffers two volume biography of ONeill the first volume runs from
his birth to 1920, the second from 1920 to his death there were new
editions of both volumes published in 2002}
Trnqvist, Egil, Eugene ONeill: A Playwrights Theatre (London: McFarland &
Company, 2004)
Toten Beard, Deanna M., American Experimentalism, American
Expressionism, and Early ONeill, chapter 5 of A Companion to
Twentieth Century American Drama (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing,
2007), ed. by David Krasner, pp.53-68 [812.509 COM]
Walker, Julia A., Expressionism and Modernism in the American Theatre:
Bodies, Voices, Words (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005)
[812.509 WAL]
Wilkins, Frederick C. ed., The Eugene ONeill Review, issues from 19932008 (vols. 17-30) <http://www.eoneill.com/library/review/index.htm>
Audio and Video
A recording of Eugene ONeill reading from Long Days Journey into Night,
together with an excerpt from NPRs All Things Considered, which explores
the origin of the recording <http://www.eoneill.com/artifacts/flash/eo/eo.htm>
The Emperor Jones, dir. Christopher Kondek and Elizabeth LeCompte, from
The Wooster Groups production of the play (New York, c.2000) [16061 Video
[A/V desk]]
The Emperor Jones, a radio production by Bay Area Radio Drama, dir. Jose
Quintero, 1990 <http://www.eoneill.com/artifacts/flash/ejr/ejr.htm>
{There are more audio recordings of this play and other ONeill works
available here: <http://www.eoneill.com/audio.htm>}
The Iceman Cometh, dir. John Frankenheimer (1973) [812.5 On DVD [2nd
Floor]]

The Iceman Cometh, dir. Sidney Lumet (1960) [13066-67 Video [2nd Floor]]
Long Days Journey Into Night, dir. Sidney Lumet (1962) [188 Video [2nd
Floor]]
Mourning Becomes Electra, adapt. and dir. Dudley Nichols (1947) [7949
Video [2nd Floor]]
Anna Christie, dir. Clarence Brown, writ. Frances Marrion (1930) [1891 Video
[2nd Floor]]
American Experience: Eugene ONeill: A Documentary Film, dir. Ric Burns,
2006 {Not actually available in full online, but go here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/oneill/index.html and you can watch actors
talk about ONeills plays and read a transcript of the programme}
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Week three: Our Town and Thornton Wilder
Bigsby, C.W.E., Thornton Wilder, chapter 8 of A Critical Introduction to
Twentieth-Century American Drama, v. 1: 1900-1940 (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1982), pp.256-273 [812.509 BIG]
Burbank, Rex J., Thornton Wilder, Twaynes United States Authors Series
(Boston: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1961)
Cowley, Malcolm, intro., Writers At Work: the Paris Review Interviews (New
York: Viking Press, 1969) [804 WRI]
The interview with Wilder, The Art of Fiction, No.16, can also be found
online: http://www.theparisreview.org/media/4887_WILDER4.pdf
Goldstein, Malcolm, The Art of Thornton Wilder, A Bison Book, No.308
(Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1965)
Goldstone, Richard, Thornton Wilder: An Intimate Portrait (New York:
Saturday Review Press, 1975)
Grebanier, Bernard, Thornton Wilder, Pamphlets on American Writers
(Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota, 1964)
[812.5 Wi/GRE]
Haberman, Donald, Our Town: An American Play, Twaynes
Masterwork Studies, No. 28 (Boston: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1989)
Haberman, Donald C., The Plays of Thornton Wilder: A Critical Study
(Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1967)
Kernan, Alvin B., ed., The Modern American Theater : A Collection of
Critical Essays, 20th Century Views, No.69 (New York: Prentice-Hall,
1967) [812.509 MOD]

Kuner, Mildred Christophe, Thornton Wilder: The Bright and the Dark,
Twentieth-Century American Writers (New York: Crowell, 1972)
Papajewski, Helmut, Thornton Wilder , trans. John Conway.(London:
Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1968) [812.5 Wi/PAP] {This book is in the reserve
stack, so may have to be ordered}
Plimpton, George, ed., The Paris Review Interviews: Playwrights at
Work (London: The Harvill Press, 2000) {Includes interviews with
Wilder, Hellman, Williams, Miller, Albee, Shepard and Mamet}
Simon, Linda, Thornton Wilder: His World (New York: Doubleday, 1979)
Wilder, Thornton, Some Thoughts on Playwriting, in Toby Cole, ed.,
Playwrights on Playwriting: The Meaning and Making of
Modern Drama from Ibsen to Ionesco (New York: Hill and Wang,
1964), pp.106-115 [808.2 COL] {This essay can also be found in The
Context and Craft of Drama: Critical Essays on the Nature of Drama
and Theatre, eds. by Robert W. Corrigan, and James L. Rosenberg
(San Francisco: Chandler Publishing Company, 1964)}
Video
Our Town, dir. James Naughton, Line by Line Productions; PBS/.Westport Country
Playhouse, 2003 [shelfmark TBC DVD [2nd Floor]]
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Week four: A Streetcar Named Desire and Tennessee Williams
Arnott, Catherine M., ed., Tennessee Williams on File, Plays and Playwrights
(London: Methuen Drama, 1985) [812.5 Wi]
Bigsby, C.W.E., Tennessee Williams: the theatricalising self, in Modern
American Drama: 1945-1990 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1992), pp.32-71 [812.509 BIG]
Boxill, Roger, Tennessee Williams, Modern Dramatists (London:
Palgrave Macmillan, 1987) [812.5 Wi/BOX]
Devlin, Albert J., ed., Conversations with Tennessee Williams, 19111983, Literary Conversations Series (Jackson, Mississippi: University
Press of Mississippi, 1986)
Falk, Signi L., Tennessee Williams, Twaynes United States Authors Series
(Boston: Twayne Publishers Inc., 1978) [812.5 Wi/FAL]
Foster, Verena, Desire, Death and Laughter: Tragicomic Dramaturgy in
A Streetcar Named Desire, in New Readings in American Drama:
Something's Happening Here, ed. by Norma Jenckes (New York:
Peter Lang, 2002)
Jackson, Esther, M., The Broken World of Tennessee Williams (Madison,

Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1965) [812.5 Wi/JAC]

Kolin, Philip C., A Streetcar Named Desire, Plays in Production
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)
Kolin, Philip C., ed., Confronting Tennessee Williamss A Streetcar Named
Desire: Essays in Critical Pluralism, Contributions in Drama & Theatre
Studies (Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood Press, 1992)
Leavitt, Richard F., ed., The World of Tennessee Williams (London: Putnam,
1978) [812.5 Wi/WOR]
Londr, Felicia Hardison, Tennessee Williams, World Dramatists (New York:
Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1983) [812.5 Wi/LON]
Murphy, Brenda A., Tennessee Williams, chapter 12 of A Companion to
Twentieth Century American Drama (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing,
2007), ed. by David Krasner, pp.175-191 [812.509 COM]
Nelson, Benjamin, Tennessee Williams: His Life and Work (London: Peter
Owen, 1961)
Plimpton, George, ed., The Paris Review Interviews: Playwrights at
Work (London: The Harvill Press, 2000) {Includes interviews with
Wilder, Hellman, Williams, Miller, Albee, Shepard and Mamet}
Roudan, Matthew C., The Cambridge Companion to Tennessee
Williams (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997) [812.5
Wi/CAM]
Savran, David, Communists, Cowboys, and Queers: The Politics of
Masculinity in the Work of Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams
(Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1992)
Spoto, David, The Kindness of Strangers: the Life of Tennessee Williams
(New York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1985) [812.5 Wi/SPO]
Stanton, Stephen S., ed., Tennessee Williams: A Collection of Critical
Essays, 20th Century Views Series (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1978)
[812.5 Wi/TEN]
Tynan, Kenneth, American Blues: The Plays of Arthur Miller and
Tennessee Williams, in The Modern American Theater : A Collection
of Critical Essays, ed. by Alvin B. Kernan, 20th Century Views, No.69
(New York: Prentice-Hall, 1967) [812.509 MOD]
Video
A Streetcar Named Desire, dir. Elia Kazan; screenplay by Tennessee
Williams, 1951 [523 Video [2nd Floor]]
A Streetcar Named Desire, adapt. by Oscar Saul, dir. John Erman (1984)
[812.5 Wi DVD [2nd Floor]]

The Glass Menagerie, dir. Anthony Harvey (1973) [812.5 Wi DVD [2nd Floor]]
The Glass Menagerie, dir. Paul Newman (1987) [1490 Video [2nd Floor]]
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, dir. Richard Brooks, writ. Richard Brooks and James
Poe (1958) [504 Video [2nd Floor]]
Suddenly Last Summer, writ. Gore Vidal, dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1959)
[1605 Video [2nd Floor]]
Suddenly Last Summer, dir. Richard Eyre (1993) [3924 Video [2nd Floor]]
Back to top of page
Week five: Death of a Salesman and Arthur Miller
Bigsby, Christopher, Arthur Miller (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2008)
Bigsby, Christopher, Arthur Miller: A Critical Study (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2004)
Bigsby, Christopher, ed., Arthur Miller and company : Arthur Miller talks about
his work in the company of actors, designers, directors, reviewers
and writers (London: Methuen, 1990) [812.5 Mi/BIG]
Bigsby, Christopher, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller,
Cambridge Companions to Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1997) [812.5 Mi/CAM]
Bigsby, C.W.E., Arthur Miller: the moral imperative, in Modern
American Drama: 1945-1990 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1992), pp.72-125 [812.509 BIG]
Carson, Neil, Arthur Miller, Modern Dramatists (London: Palgrave Macmillan,
1982)
Cole, Susan Letzler, Arthur Miller in rehearsal, in Playwrights in
Rehearsal: The Seduction of Company (London: Routledge, 2001),
pp.131-163 [792.9 COL]
Corrigan, Robert W., ed., Arthur Miller: A Collection of Critical Essays,
20th Century Views (London: Prentice-Hall, 1969) [812.5 Mi/COR]
Dukore, Bernard F., Death of a Salesman and The Crucible: Text and
Performance (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1989)
Hayman, Ronald, Arthur Miller, Contemporary Playwrights (London:
Heinemann, 1970) [812.5 Mi/HAY]
Huftel, Sheila, Arthur Miller: The Burning Glass (London: W.H. Allen, 1965)
[812.5 Mi/HUF]
Kazin, Alfred, intro., Writers At Work: the Paris Review Interviews, third

series (New York: Secker & Warburg, 1968) [804 WRI]

The interview with Miller, The Art of Theater, No.2, can also be found online:
<http://www.parisreview.com/media/4369_MILLER_A.pdf>
Koon, Helene Wickham, ed., Twentieth Century Interpretations of Death
of A Salesman: A Collection of Critical Essays (London: PrenticeHall, 1983)
Martin, Robert A., ed., Arthur Miller: New Perspectives, A Spectrum Book
(London: Prentice-Hall, 1982) [812.5 Mi/ART]
Miller, Arthur, The Theatre Essays of Arthur Miller, ed. and intro. by
Robert A. Martin (London: Methuen, 1978) [812.5 Mi] A more recent
edition (1994) of this book with a new foreword by Miller is also
available at the same shelfmark.
Miller, Arthur, Timebends: A Life (London: Methuen, 1987) [812.5 Mi]
Moss, Leonard, Arthur Miller, Twaynes United States Authors Series, no.115
(Boston: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1980) [812.5 Mi/MOS]
Murphy, Brenda, Death of a Salesman, Plays in Production (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1995)
Plimpton, George, ed., The Paris Review Interviews: Playwrights at
Work (London: The Harvill Press, 2000) {Includes interviews with
Wilder, Hellman, Williams, Miller, Albee, Shepard and Mamet}
Roudan, Matthew C., ed., Conversations with Arthur Miller, Literary
Conversations Series (Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of
Mississippi, 1987)
Savran, David, Communists, Cowboys, and Queers: The Politics of
Masculinity in the Work of Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams
(Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1992)
Tynan, Kenneth, American Blues: The Plays of Arthur Miller and
Tennessee Williams, in The Modern American Theater : A Collection
of Critical Essays, ed. by Alvin B. Kernan, 20th Century Views, No.69
(New York: Prentice-Hall, 1967) [812.509 MOD]
Welland, Dennis, Miller the playwright, Modern Theatre Profiles (London:
Methuen, 1983) [812.5 Mi/WEL]
Video
Death of a Salesman, dir. Alex Segal, 1966 [13230 Video [2nd Floor]]
Death of a Salesman, dir. Volker Schlondorff, 1985 [1166 Video [2nd Floor]]
All My Sons, dir. Jack OBrian (1986) [1327 Video [2nd Floor]]
Imagine : Arthur Miller - finishing the picture, writ. and pres. Alan Yentob,

dir. Louise Hooper (London: BBC, 2004) [15342 Video [2nd Floor]]
The Crucible, dir. Nicholas Hytner (1996) [8548 Video [2nd Floor]]
Arthur Miller and The Crucible , dir. Andre Molyneux (London: BBC, 1991)
[5892 Video [2nd Floor]] {A documentary that contextualises the play
using excerpts from the text}
Broken Glass, dir. David Thacker (1997) [7235 Video [2nd Floor]]
Back to top of page
Week six is Reading Week
Week seven: A Raisin in the Sun and Lorraine Hansberry
Bigsby, C.W.E., Black theatre, chapter 14 of A Critical Introduction to
Twentieth-Century American Drama, v.3: Beyond Broadway
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 375-415 [812.509 BIG]
Bigsby, C.W.E., Redefining the centre: politics, race, gender, in Modern
American Drama: 1945-1990 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1992), pp.254-341 [812.509 BIG]
Bower, Martha G. 'Color Struck' under the Gaze: Ethnicity and the Pathology
of Being in the Plays of Johnson, Hurston, Childress, Hansberry, and
Kennedy (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003)
Brown-Guillory, Elizabeth, Alice Childress, Lorraine Hansberry, Ntozake
Shange: Carving a Place for Themselves on the American Stage, in
Their Place on the Stage: Black Women Playwrights in America
(Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood Press, 1990), pp. 25-50
Carter, Stephen R., Hansberrys Drama: Commitment Amid Complexity
(Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1991)
Cheney, Anne, Lorraine Hansberry, Twaynes United States Authors
Series, No. 430 (Boston: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1984)
[812.5 Ha/CHE]
Cook, William, Mom, Dad and God: Values in Black Theater, in The Theatre
of Black Americans: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. by Errol Hill
(New York: Applause Books, 2000), pp.168-184 [792.0973 THE]
Gold, Rachelle S., Education Has Spoiled Many a Good Plow Hand:
How Beneatha's Knowledge Functions in A Raisin in the Sun, in
Reading Contemporary African American Drama: Fragments of
History, Fragments of Self, eds. by Trudier Harris and Jennifer Larson
(New York: Peter Lang, 2007)
Hannah, John M., Signifying Raisin: Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun

and Wilson's Fences, in Reading Contemporary African American

Drama: Fragments of History, Fragments of Self, eds. by Trudier
Harris and Jennifer Larson (New York: Peter Lang, 2007)
McKissack, Patricia C., and Fredrick L. McKissack, Young, Black, and
Determined: A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry (New York: Holiday
House Books, 1998)
Nemiroff, Robert, To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in
Her Own Words (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.,
1970)
Scheader, Catherine, Lorraine Hansberry: Playwright and Voice of Justice,
African-American Biographies (New York: Enslow Publishers, 1998)
Wilkerson, Margaret B., From Harlem to Broadway: African American
women playwrights at mid-century, in The Cambridge Companion
to American Women Playwrights, ed. by Brenda Murphy
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp.134-154
[812.509 CAM]
Back to top of page
Week eight: Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Edward Albee
Albee, E., Which Theater is the Absurd One?, in The Modern American
Theater : A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. by Alvin B. Kernan, 20th
Century Views, No.69 (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1967)
[812.509 MOD]
Amacher, Richard E., Edward Albee, Twaynes United States Authors
Series, No.141, revd. edn. (Boston: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1982)
[812.5 Al/AMA]
Bigsby, C.W.E., Albee (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1969)
Bigsby, C.W.E., ed., Edward Albee: A Collection of Critical Essays, 20th
Century Views (London: Prentice-Hall, 1975) [812.5 Al/EDW]
Bigsby, C.W.E., Edward Albee: journey to apocalypse, in Modern
American Drama: 1945-1990 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1992), pp.126-151 [812.509 BIG]
Bottoms, Stephen, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Edward Albee,
Cambridge Companions to Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2005)
Bottoms, Stephen J., Albee: Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Plays in
Production (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)
Cohn, Ruby, Edward Albee, Pamphlets on American Writers (Minneapolis,
Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1969)

Esslin, Martin, The Theatre of the Absurd, Methuen Plays and Playwrights,
new edn. (London: Methuen Drama, 2001) [809.2 ESS]
Gussow, Mel, Edward Albee: A Singular Journey: A Biography (London:
Simon and Schuster, 1999) [812.5 Al/GUS]
Hayman, Ronald, Edward Albee, Contemporary Playwrights (London:
Heinemann, 1971) [812.5 Al/ HAY]
Hirsch, Foster, Whos Afraid of Edward Albee? (Berkeley, California:
Creative Arts Book Co., 1978)
Kazin, Alfred, intro., Writers At Work: the Paris Review Interviews, third
series (New York: Secker & Warburg, 1968) [804 WRI]
The interview with Albee, The Art of Theater, No.4, can also be found online:
<http://www.theparisreview.com/media/4350_ALBEE.pdf>
Kolin, P.C., ed., Conversations with Edward Albee, Literary
Conversations Series (Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of
Mississippi, 1988)
Paolucci, Anne, From Tension to Tonic: The Plays of Albee, Crosscurrents/
Modern Critiques (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University
Press, 1972)
Plimpton, George, ed., The Paris Review Interviews: Playwrights at
Work (London: The Harvill Press, 2000) {Includes interviews with
Wilder, Hellman, Williams, Miller, Albee, Shepard and Mamet}
Price, Steven, Fifteen-Love, Thirty-Love: Edward Albee, chapter 16 of A
Companion to Twentieth Century American Drama (Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing, 2007), ed. by David Krasner, pp.247-262.
[812.509 COM]
Roudan, Matthew, An Interview with Edward Albee, in Southern Humanities
Review, No. 16, 29-44
Rutenberg, M.E., Edward Albee: Playwright in Protest (New York: Drama
Book Specialists, 1969)
Schechner, Richard, Who's Afraid of Edward Albee? in The Tulane Drama
Review, Vol. 7, No. 3 (Spring, 1963), 7-10 {Highly critical of Albees
play}
Wasserman, J.N., Edward Albee: An Interview and Essays (Houston, Texas:
University of St. Thomas Press, 1983)
Video
Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, dir. Mike Nichols, screenplay Ernest Lehman,
1966 [812.5 Al DVD [2nd Floor]]
Back to top of page

Week nine: American Buffalo and David Mamet

Consult JSTOR and other databases for articles on Mamet.
Bigsby, C.W.E., David Mamet, Contemporary Writers series (London:
Law Book Company, 1985) [812.5 Ma/BIG]
Bigsby, C.W.E., David Mamet: all true stories, in Modern American
Drama: 1945-1990 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992),
pp.195-229 [812.509 BIG]
Bigsby, Christopher, ed., The Cambridge Companion to David Mamet
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)
Carroll, Dennis, David Mamet, Modern Dramatists (London: Palgrave
Macmillan, 1987)
Dean, Anne, David Mamet: Language as Dramatic Action (London:
Associated University Presses, c.1990)
Dykes, Steven, and Nesta Jones, eds., File on Mamet, Writer-files
(London: Methuen Drama, 1991)
Haedicke, Janet V., David Mamet: America on the American Stage,
chapter 25 of A Companion to Twentieth Century American Drama
(Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007), ed. by David Krasner, pp.406422. [812.509 COM]
Kane, Leslie, ed., David Mamet: a casebook, Garland Reference Library of
the Humanities (London: Garland Publishing Inc., 1992) [812.5 Ma/DAV]
Mamet, David, A Whores Profession: notes and essays (London: Faber and
Faber, 1994)
Mamet, David, Three Uses of the Knife: On the Nature and Purpose of
Drama (New York: Random House, 2000) [808.2 MAM]
Plimpton, George, ed., The Paris Review Interviews: Playwrights at
Work (London: The Harvill Press, 2000) {Includes interviews with
Wilder, Hellman, Williams, Miller, Albee, Shepard and Mamet}
Savran, David, In Their Own Words: Contemporary American
Playwrights (New York: Theatre Communications Group, Inc., 1989)
[812.509 SAV] {Interviews with David Mamet, Mara Irene Forns,
August Wilson, David Henry Hwang, and others}
Video
American Buffalo, dir. Michael Corrente, screenplay by David Mamet, 1996
[8216 Video [2nd Floor]]
David Mamet: The Playwright As Director, writ. Stephan Chodorov, dir. John

Musilli (Kent, Connecticut: Creative Arts Television,1997) [9570 Video

[A/V desk]]
The South Bank Show: David Mamet, prod. and dir. Nigel Wattis (London:
ITV, 1994) [4759 Video [2nd Floor]]
Back to top of page
Week ten: Buried Child and Sam Shepard
Auerbach, Doris, Sam Shepard, Arthur Kopit, and the Off Broadway
Theater, Twaynes United States Author Series (Boston: Twayne
Publishers, Inc., 1982) [812.509 AUE]
Bigsby, C.W.E., Sam Shepard: imagining America, in Modern American
Drama: 1945-1990 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992),
pp.162-194 [812.509 BIG]
Bottoms, Stephen, J., The Theatre of Sam Shepard: States of Crisis
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998) [812.5 Sh/BOT]
Callens, Johan, ed., Sam Shepard : between the margin and the centre,
special issues of Contemporary Theatre Review: an international
journal, 8:3 and 8:4 (1998), parts 1 and 2 [812.5 Sh/SAM]
Cole, Susan Letzler, Sam Shepard in rehearsal, in Playwrights in
Rehearsal: The Seduction of Company (London: Routledge, 2001), pp.125 [792.9 COL]
King, Kimball, ed., Sam Shepard: a casebook, Garland Reference Library of
the Humanities (New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1989) [812.5 Sh/SAM]
Marranca, Bonnie, Theatrewritings, PAJ Books (New York: PAJ Publications,
1984) [792.04 MAR]
Mottram, Ron, Inner landscapes: The Theater of Sam Shepard, A Literary
Frontiers edition (Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press,
1985) [812.5 Sh/MOT]
Plimpton, George, ed., The Paris Review Interviews: Playwrights at
Work (London: The Harvill Press, 2000) {Includes interviews with
Wilder, Hellman, Williams, Miller, Albee, Shepard and Mamet}
Rosen, Carol, Sam Shepard: A Poetic Rodeo, Palgrave Modern
Dramatists (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)
Roudan, Matthew, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Sam Shepard
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002)
Shepard, Sam, Visualization, Language and the Inner Library, in The
Drama Review: TDR, Vol. 21, No. 4, Playwrights and Playwriting
Issue (Dec., 1977), 49-58

Wade, Leslie A., Sam Shepard and the American Sunset: Enchantment
of the Mythic West, chapter 18 of A Companion to Twentieth
Century American Drama (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007), ed.
by David Krasner, pp.285-300. [812.509 COM]
Video
Bookmark : Sam Shepard stalking himself, Jacoby, Owen, dir., prod. by Sarah
Teale (London: BBC, 1997) [RV 1034 Video [Reserve Stack]]
Back to top of page
Week eleven: Angels in America and Tony Kushner
Bigsby, Christopher, Tony Kushner, in Contemporary American
Playwrights
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp.86-131
[812.509 BIG]
Bloom, Harold, ed., Tony Kushner, Modern Critical Views (Philadelphia:
Chelsea House Publishers, 2005) [812.5 Ku/TON]
Cole, Susan Letzler, Tony Kushner in rehearsal, in Playwrights in
Rehearsal: The Seduction of Company (London: Routledge, 2001),
pp.113-130 [792.9 COL]
Fisher, James, The Theater of Tony Kushner: Living Past Hope (New York:
Routledge, 2001) [812.5 Ku/FIS]
Fisher, James, ed., Tony Kushner: New Essays on the Art and Politics of the
Plays (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 2006) [812.5 Ku/TON]
Geis, Deborah R., and Steven F. Kruger, eds., Approaching the Millennium:
Essays on Angels in America (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan
Press, 1997) [812.5 Ku/APP]
Kushner, Tony, Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and
Happiness:
Essays, A Play, Two Poems and A Prayer (London: Nick Hern Books,
1995) [812.5 Ku]
Nielsen, Ken, Tony Kushner's Angels in America, Modern Theatre Guides
(London: Continuum, 2008) [812.5 Ku/NIE]
Osborn, M. Elizabeth, The Way We Live Now : American Plays & The AIDS
Crisis
(New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1990) [812.508 WAY]
Vorlicky, Robert, ed., Tony Kushner in Conversation (Ann Arbor, MI:
University
of Michigan Press, 1998) [812.5 Ku]
Back to top of page

C. Texts for presentations

Consult the module wiki for websites and online articles. Where available, the
Goldsmiths library shelfmark is given in square brackets. Comments about the texts
are in curly brackets. Since these are texts for student presentation, there will be
fewer secondary references cited here: students are encouraged to do their own
research and go beyond these texts where possible, especially into the realm of
theatre and literature journals.
Week two: Machinal by Sophie Treadwell (1928)
Dickey, Jerry, Sophie Treadwell: A Research and Production
Sourcebook (Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood Press, 1997)
[812.5 Tr/DIC] {Useful help in tracking down more secondary
material about Treadwell}
Dickey, Jerry, The expressionist moment: Sophie Treadwell, in The
Cambridge Companion to American Women Playwrights, ed. by
Brenda Murphy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999),
pp.66-81. [812.509 CAM]
Ellen Gainor, J., and Jerry Dickey, Susan Glaspell and Sophie
Treadwell: Staging Feminism and Modernism, 1915-1941, chapter 4
of A Companion to Twentieth Century American Drama (Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing, 2007), ed. by David Krasner, pp.34-52.
[812.509 COM]
Jerz, Dennis G., Machinal, in Technology in American Drama, 1920-1950
(Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood Press, 2003)
Ozieblo, Barbara and Jerry Dickey, Susan Glaspell and Sophie
Treadwell: American Modernist Women Dramatists, Routledge
Modern and Contemporary Dramatists (London: Routledge, 2008.
[812.509 OZI this book can also be read online. Click on the
following link, then the external link, and enter your Goldsmiths
username and password when prompted:
http://tinyurl.com/2vgqxj3]
Treadwell, Sophie, Broadways Bravest Woman: Selected Writings of Sophie
Treadwell, Theater in the Americas, eds. by Jerry Dickey and Miriam
Lopez-Rodriguez (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois Press, 2006)
Walker, Julia A., Expressionism and Modernism in the American Theatre:
Bodies, Voices, Words (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005)
[812.509 WAL]
Back to top of page
Week three: Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets (1935)
See also The Provincetown Players, below.

Back to top of page

Week four: The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman (1939)
Adler, Jacob H., Lillian Hellman, Southern Writers Series (New York: SteckVaughn, 1969)
Adler, Thomas P., Lillian Hellman: feminism, formalism, and politics, in
The Cambridge Companion to American Women Playwrights, ed. by
Brenda Murphy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999),
pp.118-133. [812.509 CAM]
Bigsby, C.W.E., Lillian Hellman, chapter 9 of A Critical Introduction to
Twentieth-Century American Drama, v. 1: 1900-1940 (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1982), pp. 274-297 [812.509 BIG]
Bryer, Jackson R., ed., Conversations with Lillian Hellman, Literary
Conversations Series (Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of
Mississippi, 1986)
Clark, Barrett, H., Lillian Hellman, in The English Journal, Vol. 33, No. 10
(Dec., 1944), pp. 519-525
Falk, Doris V., Lillian Hellman, Modern Literature Monographs (New York:
Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1985)
Hellman, Lillian, An Unfinished Woman: A Memoir (London: Penguin, 1973)
Kazin, Alfred, intro., Writers At Work: the Paris Review Interviews, third
series (New York: Secker & Warburg, 1968) [804 WRI]
The interview with Hellman, The Art of Theater, No.1, can also be found
online: <http://www.theparisreview.org/media/4463_HELLMAN.pdf>
Lederer, Katherine, Lillian Hellman, Twaynes United States Authors Series,
No. 338 (Boston: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1979)
Moody, Richard, Lillian Hellman: Playwright (New York: Pegasus Books,
1972)
Plimpton, George, ed., The Paris Review Interviews: Playwrights at
Work (London: The Harvill Press, 2000) {Includes interviews with
Wilder, Hellman, Williams, Miller, Albee, Shepard and Mamet}
Watson Jr., Ritchie D., Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes and the New
South Creed: An Ironic View of Southern History , in The Southern
Literary Journal, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Spring, 1996), 59-68
Video
The Little Foxes, dir. William Wyler, screenplay by Lillian Hellman, 1941 [4157

Video [2nd Floor]]

Back to top of page
Week five: Picnic by William Inge (1953)
Bigsby, C.W.E., A Broadway interlude, in Modern American Drama:
1945-1990 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp.152161 [812.509 BIG]
Johnson, Jeff, Gendermandering: Stereotyping and Gender Role
Reversal in the Major Plays of William Inge, in New Readings in
American Drama: Something's Happening Here, ed. by Norma
Jenckes (New York: Peter Lang, 2002)
Johnson, Jeff, William Inge and the Subversion of Gender: Rewriting
Stereotypes in the Plays, Novels, and Screenplays (Jefferson, North
Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2005)
Shuman, R. Baird, William Inge, Twaynes United States Authors Series,
No. 95 (Boston: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1989)
Voss, Ralph F., A Life of William Inge: The Strains of Triumph (Lawrence,
Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1989)
Video
Picnic, dir. Joshua Logan, screenplay by Daniel Taradash, 1956 [791.437 PIC DVD
[2nd Floor]]
Back to top of page
Week six is Reading Week
Week seven: Dutchman by Amiri Baraka (1964)
See also The Black Arts Movement, below.
Baraka, Amiri (LeRoi Jones), Black Art, in The LeRoi Jones/ Amiri
Baraka Reader, ed. by William J. Harris (New York: Thunder's Mouth
Press, 1991)
Baraka, Amiri (LeRoi Jones), The Revolutionary Theater, in National
Humanities Center Resource Toolbox The Making of African
American Identity: Vol. III, 1917-1968,
<http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai3/protest/text12/bara
katheatre.pdf>
Benston, Kimberly W., Baraka: The Renegade and the Mask (New Haven,
Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1976)
Bigsby, C.W.E., Black theatre, chapter 14 of A Critical Introduction to

Twentieth-Century American Drama, v.3: Beyond Broadway

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 375-415 [812.509 BIG]
Bigsby, C.W.E., Redefining the centre: politics, race, gender, in Modern
American Drama: 1945-1990 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1992), pp.254-341 [812.509 BIG]
Cohn, Ruby, New American Dramatists: 1960-1980, Modern Dramatists
(London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1982) [812.509 COH] {There is also a newer
edition of this book: New American Dramatists: 1960-1990 (1991) at the
same shelfmark}
McGee, Celia, A Return to Rage: Played Out in Black and White, The New
York Times, January 14, 2007 <http://tiny.cc/SRVO8> {An article about the
restaging of Dutchman. You may have to create a free account to read this}
Mitchell, Loften, Voices of the Black theatre (London: James T. White & Co.,
1975) [792.0973 MIT]
Back to top of page
Week eight: Fefu and Her Friends by Mara Irene Forns (1977)
Cole, Susan Letzler, Mara Irene Forns in rehearsal, in Playwrights in
Rehearsal: The Seduction of Company (London: Routledge, 2001),
pp.164-183 [792.9 COL]
Delgado, Maria, and Caridad Svich, eds., Conducting a Life: Reflections
on the Theatre of Mara Irene Forns, Art of Theater Series,
(London: Smith & Kraus, 2000)
Keyssar, Helene, Feminist theatre of the seventies in the United States,
in The Cambridge Companion to American Women Playwrights, ed.
by Brenda Murphy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999),
pp.173-194. [812.509 CAM]
Lopez, Tiffany Ana, Writing Beyond Borders: A Survey of US Latina/o
Drama, chapter 23 of A Companion to Twentieth Century American
Drama (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007), ed. by David Krasner, pp.370387. [812.509 COM]
Marranca, Bonnie, Theatrewritings, PAJ Books (New York: PAJ Publications,
1984) [792.04 MAR]
Robinson, Marc, ed., The Theatre of Mara Irene Forns, PAJ Books (The
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999)
Savran, David, In Their Own Words: Contemporary American
Playwrights (New York: Theatre Communications Group, Inc., 1989)
[812.509 SAV] {Interviews with David Mamet, Mara Irene Forns,
August Wilson, David Henry Hwang, and others}
Sofer, Andrew, Mara Irene Forns: Acts of Translation, chapter 27 of A

Companion to Twentieth Century American Drama (Oxford:

Blackwell Publishing, 2007), ed. by David Krasner, pp.440-455.
[812.509 COM]
Back to top of page
Week nine: FOB by David Henry Hwang (1979)
Search JSTOR for more articles about Hwang.
Hwang, David Henry, Evolving a Multicultural Tradition, in MELUS, Vol.
16, No. 3, Ethnic Theater (Autumn, 1989 - Autumn, 1990), pp. 16-19
Hwang, David Henry, Facing the Mirror, in The State of Asian-America:
Activism and Resistance in the 1990s (Cambridge, Massachusetts:
South End Press, 1999), pp.ix-xii
Lei, Daphne, Staging the Binary: Asian American Theatre in the Late
Twentieth Century, chapter 19 of A Companion to Twentieth
Century American Drama (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007), ed.
by David Krasner, pp.301-317. [812.509 COM]
Savran, David, In Their Own Words: Contemporary American
Playwrights (New York: Theatre Communications Group, Inc., 1989)
[812.509 SAV] {Interviews with David Mamet, Mara Irene Forns,
August Wilson, David Henry Hwang, and others}
Street, Douglas, David Henry Hwang, Boise State University Western
Writers Series, No. 90 (Boise, Idaho: Boise State University, 1989)
Back to top of page
Week ten: Tongues by Sam Shepard and Joseph Chaikin (1978)
Blumenthal, Eileen, Joseph Chaikin: Exploring at the Boundaries of
Theater, Directors in Perspective Series (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1984) [792.092 Ch]
Chaikin, Joseph, The Presence of the Actor (New York: Theatre
Communications Group, 1991) [792.96 CHA]
Daniels, Barry V. ed., and Joseph Chaikin, Letters of Joseph Chaikin, in The
Drama Review: TDR, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Spring, 1987), 89-100
Daniels, Barry, ed., Joseph Chaikin & Sam Shepard: Letters and Texts,
1972-1984 (New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1994)
[812.5 Sh]
Pegnato, Lisa J., Breathing in a Different Zone: Joseph Chaikin, in The
Drama Review: TDR, Vol. 25, No. 3, Actor / Director Issue (Autumn, 1981),
7-18

Video
Chaikin, Joe, Sam Shepard, et al., Nightwalk, a collective work created
by the Open Theatre (New York, 1974) [9565 Video [A/V desk]]
The Open Theater: Fable: with actors from the Open Theater, dir. John
Musilli (New York, 1975) [9567 Video [A/V desk]]
Van Itallie, Jean-Claude et al., The Serpent (New York, 1970) [9566 Video
[A/V desk]]
Back to top of page
Week eleven: Joe Turners Come and Gone by August Wilson (1986)
Search JSTOR for more articles about Wilson.
Bigsby, Christopher, ed., The Cambridge Companion to August Wilson
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007) [812.5 Wi/CAM]
Bloom, Harold, ed., August Wilson, Modern Critical Views (Philadelphia: Chelsea
House Publishers, 2009)
Bogumil, Mary L., Understanding August Wilson, Understanding Contemporary
American Literature (Columbia. SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2009)
Herrington, Joan, Aint Sorry for Nothin I Done: August Wilsons Process of
Playwriting (New York: Limelight Editions, 1998)
Nadel, Alan, May All Your Fences Have Gates: Essays on the Drama of
August
Wilson (Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 1994)
Savran, David, In Their Own Words: Contemporary American
Playwrights (New York: Theatre Communications Group, Inc., 1989)
[812.509 SAV] {Interviews with David Mamet, Mara Irene Forns,
August Wilson, David Henry Hwang, and others}
Snodgrass, Mary Ellen, A Literary Companion to August Wilson, McFarland
Literary
Companions (New York: McFarland & Co. Inc., 2004)
Wilson, August, The Art of Theatre No.14: August Wilson, in Paris Review,
interviewed by Bonnie Lyons and George Plimpton
<http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/839/the-art-of-theaterno-14-august-wilson>
Wolfe, Peter, August Wilson, Twaynes United States Authors Series (Boston:
Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1999)
Back to top of page

D. Groups and movements

Provincetown Players
Bigsby, C.W.E., Provincetown: the birth of twentieth-century American
drama, chapter 1 of A Critical Introduction to Twentieth-Century
American Drama, v. 1: 1900-1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1982), pp.1-35 [812.509 BIG]
Black, Cheryl, The Women of Provincetown, 1915-1922 (Tuscaloosa,
Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 2002)
Egan, Leona Rust, Provincetown as a Stage: Provincetown, the
Provincetown Players and the Discovery of Eugene ONeill (Orleans,
Massachusetts: Parnassus, 1994)
Glaspell, Susan, The Road to the Temple (New York: Frederick A. Stokes,
1927)
Kenton, Edna, The Provincetown Players and the Playwrights Theatre,
19151922, eds. by Travis Bogard and Jackson R. Bryer (Jefferson, North
Carolina: McFarland, 2004)
Murphy, Brenda, The Provincetown Players and the Culture of Modernity
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005)
Sarls, Robert Karly, Jig Cook and The Provincetown Players: Theatre in
Ferment (Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press,
1982)
Back to top of page
The Group Theatre
Bigsby, C.W.E., The Group Theatre and Clifford Odets, chapter 4 of A
Critical Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Drama, v. 1:
1900-1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), pp.159188 [812.509 BIG]
Clurman, Harold, The Fervent Years: The Group Theatre and the Thirties
(New York: Da Capo Press, 1983) [792.0973 CLU] {There is another
copy of this book in the reserve stack}
Smith, Wendy, Real Life Drama: The Group Theatre and America, 1931-1940
(New York: Avalon Travel Publishing, 2000)
Back to top of page
Federal Theatre Project

Flanagan, Hallie, Arena: The History of the Federal Theatre (New York:
Limelight Editions, 1985) [792.0973] {This book is in the reserve
stack, and may have to be ordered}
Mathews, Jane De Hart, The Federal Theatre, 1935-1939: Plays, Relief
and Politics (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1967)
Miller, Jordan Y., with Winifred L. Frazer, eds., American Drama between the
Wars: A Critical History, Twayne's Critical History of American Drama
Series (Boston: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1997)
OConnor, John and Lorraine Brown, eds., Federal Theatre Project: Free,
Adult, Uncensored (London: Methuen Publishing Ltd.,1980)
[792.0973 FED]
Witham, Barry B., The Federal Theatre Project: A Case Study (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2003)
Video
Imagine : Art In Troubled Times, writ. and pres. Alan Yentob, prod. and dir. Jill
Nicholls (BBC: London, 2009) [706.992 ART DVD [2nd Floor]] {Includes
discussion of the Federal Theatre Project}
Cradle Will Rock, dir. Tim Robbins (1999) {A reasonable representation of the
Federal Theatre Project and the real 1937 musical The Cradle Will Rock, by
Marc Blitzstein}
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Negro Ensemble Company
Bigsby, C.W.E., Black theatre, chapter 14 of A Critical Introduction to
Twentieth-Century American Drama, v.3: Beyond Broadway
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 375-415
[812.509 BIG]
Sell, Mike, The Drama of the Black Arts Movement, chapter 17 of A
Companion to Twentieth Century American Drama (Oxford: Blackwell
Publishing, 2007), ed. by David Krasner, pp.263-284. [812.509 COM]
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Black Arts Movement
Benston, Kimberley W., The Aesthetics of Modern Black Drama: From
Mimesis to Methexis, in The Theatre of Black Americans: A Collection
of Critical Essays, ed. by Errol Hill (New York: Applause Books, 1987),
pp.61-78 [792.0973 THE]
Bigsby, C.W.E., Black theatre, chapter 14 of A Critical Introduction to

Twentieth-Century American Drama, v.3: Beyond Broadway

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 375-415 [812.509 BIG]
Bigsby, C.W.E., Redefining the centre: politics, race, gender, in Modern
American Drama: 1945-1990 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1992), pp.254-341 [812.509 BIG]
Cook, William, Mom, Dad and God: Values in Black Theater, in The Theatre
of Black Americans: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. by Errol Hill
(New York: Applause Books, 2000), pp.168-184 [792.0973 THE]
Hill, Errol, ed., The Theatre of Black Americans: A Collection of Critical
Essays (New York: Applause Books, 1987) [792.0973 THE]
Mitchell, Loften, Voices of the Black theatre (London: James T. White &
Co., 1975) [792.0973 MIT]
Neal, Larry, The Black Arts Movement in Annemarie Bean, ed., A
Sourcebook of African-American Performance: Plays, People,
Movements (London: Routledge, 1999), pp.55-67 [792.0973 SOU]
Sell, M., The Black Arts Movement: Performance, Neo-Orality, and the
Destruction of the White Thing, in Harry Elam Jr. and David Krasner, eds.,
African-American performance and theater history : a critical reader
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp.56-80 [792.0973 AFR]
Sell, Mike, The Drama of the Black Arts Movement, chapter 17 of A
Companion to Twentieth Century American Drama (Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing, 2007), ed. by David Krasner, pp.263-284.
[812.509 COM]
Smethurst, James Edward, The Black Arts Movement: Literary Nationalism in
the 1960s and 1970s, John Hope Franklin Series in African American
History & Culture (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North
Carolina Press, 2005) [810.99 SME]
Various background articles about the BAM from the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
<http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/blackarts/blackarts.htm>
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The Open Theater, the Living Theatre, and related groups of the 1960s-1970s
Bigsby, C.W.E., The performing self, in Modern American
Drama: 1945-1990 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992),
pp.230-253 [812.509 BIG]
Bottoms, Stephen J., Playing Underground: A Critical History of the
1960s Off-Off-Broadway Movement, Theater:
Theory/Text/Performance (Ann Arbor, Michigan: The University of
Michigan Press, 2006) [792.0973 BOT]

Kaprow, Allan, Happenings in the New York Scene, in The Modern

American Theater : A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. by Alvin B.
Kernan, 20th Century Views, No.69 (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1967)
[812.509 MOD]
Lahr, John, Acting Out America: Essays on Modern Theatre (London:
Penguin, 1972) {A number of useful essays, including work on
The Open Theaters Serpent, the Living Theater (In Search of a New
Mythology), and theatre on the streets in New York}
Lahr, John, Up Against the Fourth Wall: Essays on Modern Theater (London:
Penguin, 1970) [792.04 LAH] {Contains many of the essays to be
found in Acting Out America}
Olsen, Christopher, Drama of the 1960s, chapter 15 of A Companion to
Twentieth Century American Drama (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing,
2007), ed. by David Krasner, pp.229-246. [812.509 COM]
Smith, Michael, The Good Scene: Off Off-Broadway, in The Tulane Drama
Review, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Summer, 1966), 159-176
Van Itallie, Jean-Claude, Playwright at Work: Off Off-Broadway, in The
Tulane Drama Review, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Summer, 1966), 154-158
Walsh, Richard, Radical Theatre in the Sixties and Seventies, British
Association of American Studies Pamphlet, no.23 (BAAS, 1993)
Available for free online:
<http://www.baas.ac.uk/resources/pamphlets/pamphdets.asp?
id=24> {A very useful overview of the period and guide to further
reading up to 1993}
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