The Playwrights Database
THORNTON WILDER
(1897 - 1975)Nationality: USA
email: n/a Website: Click here
Literary Agent: The Barbara Hogenson Agency, Inc UK representation: Lisa Foster
the official Thornton Wilder website http://www.thorntonwilder.com has provided a large amount of the information for this entry. It should be consulted for fuller details, especially Licensing Information.
Thornton Wilder. Born in Madison, Wisconsin (17 April 1897), and educated at Oberlin, Yale (B.A. 1920) and Princeton (M.A. 1925), Thornton Wilder was an accomplished novelist and playwright whose works, which explore the connection between the commonplace and the cosmic dimensions of human experience, continue to be read and produced around the world. the Bridge of San Luis Rey, one of seven novels, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928, as did two of his four full-length plays, Our Town (1938) and the Skin of Our Teeth (1943). Mr. Wilder's the Matchmaker was later adapted as the musical Hello, Dolly! Wilder was a master of the one act play -- the Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden and the Long Christmas Dinner were among his most celebrated titles -- and an outstanding practitioner of the mini or playlet form. Mr. Wilder also enjoyed enormous success with many other forms of the written and spoken word, among them teaching, acting, opera and film. His screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943) remains a classic psycho-thriller to this day. the genius of Thornton Wilder continues to resonate. In 1998 the Bridge of San Luis Rey was selected by the editorial board of the American Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of the 20th century, and the closing lines of this work were quoted by British Prime Minister Tony Blair during the memorial service for victims of the attacks on September 11, 2001. In 2006, Our Town,performed at least once each day somewhere in this country, received its world premiere as an operA. Mr. Wilder's many honors include the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the National Book Committee's Medal for Literature. On April 17, 1997, the centenary of his birth, Mr. Wilder was honored by the United States Postal Service with a First-class stamp issued in Hamden, Connecticut, his home after 1930. He died there on December 7, 1975.
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below is a list of Thornton Wilder's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Acolyte, The Alcestiad, The And the Sea Shall Give Up Its Dead Angel On the Ship Angel That troubled the Waters, The Beaux' Stratagem, The Bernice Brother Fire Cement Hands Centaurs Childe Roland To the Dark Tower Came Childhood Christmas Interludes, The Doll's House, A Drunken Sisters, The Emporium, The Fanny Otcott Flamingo Red: A Comedy Of Danger Flight Into Egypt Happy Journey To Trenton And Camden Hast Thou Considered My Servant Job? In Shakespeare And the Bible Infancy Leviathan Life In the Sun, A Long Christmas Dinner, The Love and How To Cure It Lucrece Marriage We Deplore Matchmaker, The Merchant of Yonkers, The Message And Jehanne, The Mozart and the Gray Steward Nascuntar Poetae Now the Servant's Name Was Malchus Our Century Our Town Penny That Beauty Spent Prosperpina and the Devil Pullman Car Hiawatha Queens of France, The Ringing Of Doorbells, A Rivers Under the Earth, The Seven Ages Of Man Skin of Our Teeth, The Someone From Assisi Song Of Maria Bentedoa Such Things Only Happen In Books Trumpet Shall Sound, The Unerring Instinct Victors, The Wreck On the Five-Twenty-Five, The YouthAcolyte, The
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Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageAlcestiad, The
Alcestis chose to die for her husband. We are often told that soldiers die for their country, that reformers and men of science lay down their lives for us. Who commands them? Whence, and how do they receive the command? the story of Alcestis has been retold many times. When her husband Admetus, King of thessaly, was mortally ill, someone volunteered to die in his stead. Alcestis assumes the sacrifice and dies. the mighty Hercules happened to arrive at the palace during the funeral; he descended into the underworld, strove with Death, and brought her back to life. the second act of my play retells this story. there is, however, another legend involving King Admetus. Zeus, the Father of gods and men, commanded Apollo to descend to earth and to live for one year as a man among men. Apollo chose to live as a herdsman in the fields of King Admetus. the story serves as the basis of my first act. My third act makes free use of the tradition that Admetus and Alcestis in their old age were supplanted by a tyrant and lived on as slaves in the palace where they had once been the rulers. On one level, my play recounts the life of a woman--of many women--from bewildered bride to sorely tested wife to overburdened old age. On another level it is a wildly romantic story of gods and men, of death and hell and resurrection, of great loves and great trials, of usurpation and revenge. On another level, however, it is a comedy about a very serious matter.
Notes:
aka A Life In the Sun
1st Produced:
Edinburgh
1955
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Contained in: "Alcestaid and the Drunken Sisters" published by Samuel French Inc, New York -
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 18 Female: 4 Other: 1 boy; extras
Further Reference:
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Top of PageAnd the Sea Shall Give Up Its Dead
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1st Produced:
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1st Published:
in "the Angel That Troubled the Waters And other Plays", New York: Coward McCann 1928 -
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Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageAngel On the Ship
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1st Published:
in "the Angel That Troubled the Waters And other Plays", New York: Coward McCann 1928 -
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Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
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Top of PageAngel That troubled the Waters, The
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Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageBeaux' Stratagem, The
Synopsis:
the play tells the story of two young bucks who, having spent all their money by living too well, leave London and roam from town to town in search of love and fortune. In order to find a wealthy heiress for at least one of them, they pose as master and servant - exchanging roles from one town to the next. In Lichfield, Aimwell is the master and Archer the servant, and there they meet the lovely, wealthy Dorinda and her equally desirable sister-in-law, Mrs. Kate Sullen. they set their caps for these women, but problems abound. Kate is married to a drunken sot who despises her; the innkeeper's saucy daughter, Cherry, has set her cap for Archer; Dorinda's mother, Lady Bountiful, mistakenly believes herself to be a great healer of the sick, and she guards her daughter like a dragoness; and a band of brigands plans to rob the house of Lady Bountiful that very night, putting all schemes in jeopardy. This is a play in the great tradition of Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer and Sheridan's the Rivals and the School for Scandal. It is classic, formal, robust and hilarious.
Notes:
Original Playwright - George Farquhar. Adapted by Thornton Wilder And Ken Ludwig. In the summer of 2004, the Estate of Thornton Wilder asked Ken Ludwig to complete a play that Wilder had begun in 1939 and never finished. It was an adaptation of the Beaux' Stratagem, a classic piece of late Restoration comedy written in 1707 by the British playwright George Farquhar (author of the Recruiting Officer). Wilder had made a brilliant start - he'd finished about half of it - and Ludwig was delighted to be asked to complete the rest.
1st Produced:
Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington Dc
07 Nov 2006
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Music:
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Genre:
comedy Adaptation
Parts:
Male: 8 Female: 5 Other: with doubling
Further Reference:
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Top of PageBernice
Set in Chicago in 1911. Walbeck, a thoroughly hated man who cheated hundreds of people out of their money, suddenly returns home from Joliet prison when his sentence is reduced. He is greeted by two people: his attorney, who informs him that Walbeck's wife has fled to California, taking his daughter with her, and a new maid, Bernice, the self-proclaimed "best cook in Chicago" recently hired to keep the home going. Bernice, it turns out, served time for murder, and the advice she gives Walbeck on how to deal with his future allows Wilder to explore the nature of pride. Decisions have to be made quickly when Walbeck learns that his daughter is still in Chicago and coming by to see him at any moment.
Notes:
In the late '50s and early '60s, Thornton Wilder attempted to write seven one-act plays depicting the Seven Deadly Sins (later adding a proposed Seven Ages of Man to the mix). He was very excited at the time by the artistic promise of theater-in-the-round, and pleased that his first proposed "Sin," Someone from Assisi (Lust), could have its premiere in 1961-1962 on the stage of New York City's famed Circle in the Square theatre. During his lifetime only four Sins were completed to his initial satisfaction, and he withdrew two of these from circulation. Since 1997, the centenary of Wilder's birth, thanks to the rich materials in his archives, actors and readers have been able to perform and study all seven of Wilder's Sins: the Drunken Sisters (Gluttony), Bernice (Pride), the Wreck on the 5:25 (Sloth), A Ringing of Doorbells (Envy), In Shakespeare and the Bible (Wrath), Someone from Assisi (Lust) and Cement Hands (Avarice).
1st Produced:
Berlin
1957
Organisations:
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1st Published:
first published in 1997 by TCG in the Collected Short Plays of Thornton Wilder, edited by Donald Gallup and Tappan Wilder
in Thornton Wilder One Act Series: the Seven Deadly Sins, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573700040
in Thornton Wilder One Act Series: the Seven Deadly Sins, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573700040
Music:
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Genre:
short Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageBrother Fire
Synopsis:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
in "the Angel That Troubled the Waters And other Plays", New York: Coward McCann 1928 -
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
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Top of PageCement Hands
Diana Colvin, 21, rich and "the finest girl in the world," is engaged to marry Roger Osterman, 27, very rich and "the finest young fellow in the world." With the help of a mystified waiter, Diana's uncle (her lawyer and guardian) sets up a play within a play to make sure Diana knows what she is getting into: marriage to a supreme tightwad who can give away millions to charity, but can't leave a tip. the action--full of high-jinks as well as a serious message--takes place in a fancy New York City hotel.
Notes:
In the late '50s and early '60s, Thornton Wilder attempted to write seven one-act plays depicting the Seven Deadly Sins (later adding a proposed Seven Ages of Man to the mix). He was very excited at the time by the artistic promise of theater-in-the-round, and pleased that his first proposed "Sin," Someone from Assisi (Lust), could have its premiere in 1961-1962 on the stage of New York City's famed Circle in the Square theatre. During his lifetime only four Sins were completed to his initial satisfaction, and he withdrew two of these from circulation. Since 1997, the centenary of Wilder's birth, thanks to the rich materials in his archives, actors and readers have been able to perform and study all seven of Wilder's Sins: the Drunken Sisters (Gluttony), Bernice (Pride), the Wreck on the 5:25 (Sloth), A Ringing of Doorbells (Envy), In Shakespeare and the Bible (Wrath), Someone from Assisi (Lust) and Cement Hands (Avarice).
1st Produced:
Part Of The Macdowell Colony's Celebration Of The Wilder Centenary As A Staged Reading At The University Club In New York
01 Apr 1997
Organisations:
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1st Published:
irst published in 1997 by TCG in the Collected Short Plays of Thornton Wilder, edited by Donald Gallup and Tappan Wilder.
in Thornton Wilder One Act Series: the Seven Deadly Sins, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573700040
in Thornton Wilder One Act Series: the Seven Deadly Sins, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573700040
Music:
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Genre:
short comedy
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageCentaurs
Synopsis:
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1st Produced:
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1st Published:
in "the Angel That Troubled the Waters And other Plays", New York: Coward McCann 1928 -
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageChilde Roland To the Dark Tower Came
Synopsis:
"Near the scene of battle. . . the sun has set over the great marsh, leaving a yellow-brown Flemish light upon the scene." Badly wounded in battle and knowing himself to be at the point of death, Childe Roland pounds on the door of an ancient tower surrounded by a lonely marsh, believing it the portal to death and the final resting place for dead heroes and royalty. He is determined to join them. But a girl with red hair and a dark girl dressed in a gray robe bar the way.
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1st Produced:
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1st Published:
in the Yale Literary Magazine in 1919
in "the Angel That Troubled the Waters And other Plays", New York: Coward McCann 1928 -
in "the Angel That Troubled the Waters And other Plays", New York: Coward McCann 1928 -
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageChildhood
In this provocative, sometimes chilling comedy, Wilder renders a child's-eye view of the grown-up world, as a father, a mother and their three children play a revealing game of make-believe in which the children pretend to be orphans. Startling truths emerge on both sides, as pretense challenges the family to discard the traditional roles of parent, spouse, child, and sibling--blurring the lines between perception and reality, artifice and innocence.
Notes:
the Ages of Man is a collection of four short plays: Infancy, Childhood, Youth and Rivers Under the Earth. Inspired by Shakespeare's famous monologue about the ages of life, Wilder set out to write seven short plays chronicling the human journey from infancy through extreme old age. the first two pieces, Infancy and Childhood, are delightful comedies which have been widely produced. However, Wilder never published the remaining plays of his series. After his death in 1973, two additional plays intended for this cycle, Youth and the Rivers Under the Earth (a play believed to represent middle age), were found among the playwright's unfinished papers.
1st Produced:
Circle In The Square Theater In New York
01 Nov 1962
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Childhood was first published in November 1960 in the Atlantic Monthly
French. New York 3 vols. 1960, 1961
in the Ages of Man, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> -
French. New York 3 vols. 1960, 1961
in the Ages of Man, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> -
Music:
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Genre:
short comedy
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageChristmas Interludes, The
Synopsis:
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1st Produced:
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To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageDoll's House, A
Synopsis:
about a waning marriage, and the social constructs between a husband and wife.
Notes:
Original Playwright - Henrik Ibsen
1st Produced:
Central City, Colorado
1937
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
adaptation
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 4 Other: 1b, 1g
Further Reference:
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Top of PageDrunken Sisters, The
the Drunken Sisters is Wilder's satyr play that followed the Alcestiad, his adaptation of the ancient Greek "Alcestis" story. Apollo ventures into the land of the three sisters of Fate who control the threads of each man's life, and here in disguise he tricks the sisters into releasing their death hold on King Admetus. His trick: 3 flagons of wine which he declares to be Aphrodite's beauty drink but which make the sisters drunk. He then foils them with a riddle, releasing the king from their snares-- but only on the understanding that another is to die in his stead.
Notes:
In the late '50s and early '60s, Thornton Wilder attempted to write seven one-act plays depicting the Seven Deadly Sins (later adding a proposed Seven Ages of Man to the mix). He was very excited at the time by the artistic promise of theater-in-the-round, and pleased that his first proposed "Sin," Someone from Assisi (Lust), could have its premiere in 1961-1962 on the stage of New York City's famed Circle in the Square theatre. During his lifetime only four Sins were completed to his initial satisfaction, and he withdrew two of these from circulation. Since 1997, the centenary of Wilder's birth, thanks to the rich materials in his archives, actors and readers have been able to perform and study all seven of Wilder's Sins: the Drunken Sisters (Gluttony), Bernice (Pride), the Wreck on the 5:25 (Sloth), A Ringing of Doorbells (Envy), In Shakespeare and the Bible (Wrath), Someone from Assisi (Lust) and Cement Hands (Avarice).
1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Samuel french, New York, 1957 978-0573700040
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
short satyr play
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageEmporium, The
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
Wilder's final, unfinished full length play
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Contained in: "the Collected Short Plays of Thornton Wilder volume Two" published by Theatre Communications Group 1998 -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
play
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageFanny Otcott
Synopsis:
"Outside Mrs. Otcott's home. . . MRS. OTCOTT, that great actress in the tradition of the Siddons, the Oldfield, Bracegirdle and O'Neill, is spending a quiet month in Wales. " Mrs. Otcott is sorting through the artifacts of her past when an old lover appears. He's a former actor, now married, a father, and nothing less than an Anglican Bishop with ambitions-- i.e., a man of the cloth who needs to be sure that an earlier chapter of his life is safely buried away.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Yale University Dramatic Association
01 Dec 1917
Organisations:
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1st Published:
published as That Other Fanny Otcott in the Yale Literary Magazine in April 1918
in "the Angel That Troubled the Waters And other Plays", New York: Coward McCann 1928 -
in "the Angel That Troubled the Waters And other Plays", New York: Coward McCann 1928 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageFlamingo Red: A Comedy Of Danger
Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageFlight Into Egypt
Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
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1st Published:
in "the Angel That Troubled the Waters And other Plays", New York: Coward McCann 1928 -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageHappy Journey To Trenton And Camden
A father, mother and two of their three surviving children drive from Newark, New Jersey to Camden to visit their married daughter, who has recently lost her baby in childbirth. their journey is punctuated by talk, laughter, memories (some mundane, some happy, some painful), and appreciation of the Now - ham and eggs, flowers, family, sunsets and the joy of being alive. In this family Drama, nothing much happens-and yet everything important happens. As Ma Kirby says, "there's nothin' like bein' liked by your family.""
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Yale University Theater In New Haven, Connecticut
25 Nov 1931
Organisations:
Yale Dramatic Association and the Vassar Philalethesis
1st Published:
in the Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays in One Act (New York: Coward-McCann, 1931)
in Wilder's Classic One Acts, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573601781
in Wilder's Classic One Acts, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573601781
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
One act
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
Top of PageHast Thou Considered My Servant Job?
Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
in "the Angel That Troubled the Waters And other Plays", New York: Coward McCann 1928 -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageIn Shakespeare And the Bible
the year is 1898 and the place is an over-sumptuous parlor in New York. Mrs. Mowbrey, a mature, wealthy woman with a history to bury, makes a plan--she'll befriend her estranged niece and fiance, and their subsequent marriage will provide her own entre into respectable society. Or at least, that's what she tells the young couple. In Shakespeare and the Bible uncovers a mystery inside a meloDrama inside a meeting. Mrs. Mowbrey invites her niece, Katy and her niece's fiance Mr. Lubbock to her home separately and unbeknownst to each other. Mr. Lubbock arrives first, and is asked to become Mr. Mowbrey's attorney. Katy comes later, to meet this aunt who has fallen from her family's good graces for unknown reasons. With all three in the room, it becomes apparent that Mr. Lubbock and Mrs. Mowbrey share something that's not deemed proper for Katy to know. Yet Katy insists they tell her. When Mrs. Mowbrey leaves the room, insisting that they work things out among themselves, the mystery looms large. Katy discovers their secret and the true intent of Mrs. Mowbrey's agenda hangs in the balance: Did she intend to use her wealth to buy respectability and family relations? Or exact revenge? After much hard work with a play, which he came to see as dealing, in part, with the motif "that women need their wits about them to survive at all," Wilder put the all but completed draft of this work aside in 1957. Thanks to meticulous research by the actor/director F. J. O'Neil, however, In Shakespeare and the Bible was finally published in 1997 in Volume I of the Collected Short Plays of Thornton Wilder. This play, along with three other one acts found in the Wilder archive, received its world premiere as the centerpiece of the Actors theatre of Louisville's "Wilder Rediscovered" program in the fall of 1997, directed by Tazewell Thompson. In his note on the plays, Michael Bigelow Dixon quotes this line from Two Gentlemen of Verona: "By penitence the Eternal's wrath's appeased," going on to wonder whether penitence and forgiveness are in fact to be found in In Shakespeare and the Bible. How Thornton Wilder would have appreciated the question!
Notes:
In the late '50s and early '60s, Thornton Wilder attempted to write seven one-act plays depicting the Seven Deadly Sins (later adding a proposed Seven Ages of Man to the mix). He was very excited at the time by the artistic promise of theater-in-the-round, and pleased that his first proposed "Sin," Someone from Assisi (Lust), could have its premiere in 1961-1962 on the stage of New York City's famed Circle in the Square theatre. During his lifetime only four Sins were completed to his initial satisfaction, and he withdrew two of these from circulation. Since 1997, the centenary of Wilder's birth, thanks to the rich materials in his archives, actors and readers have been able to perform and study all seven of Wilder's Sins: the Drunken Sisters (Gluttony), Bernice (Pride), the Wreck on the 5:25 (Sloth), A Ringing of Doorbells (Envy), In Shakespeare and the Bible (Wrath), Someone from Assisi (Lust) and Cement Hands (Avarice).
1st Produced:
Actors Theatre Of Louisville's "Wilder Rediscovered" Program
30 Oct 1997
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
first published in 1997 by TCG in the Collected Short Plays of Thornton Wilder, edited by Donald Gallup and Tappan Wilder
in Thornton Wilder One Act Series: the Seven Deadly Sins, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573700040
in Thornton Wilder One Act Series: the Seven Deadly Sins, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573700040
Music:
-
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Genre:
short play
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageInfancy
Millie the nursemaid brings baby Tommy to Central Park in the hopes of a rendezvous with the handsome Patrolman Avonzino. Mrs. Boker soon arrives with baby Moe, and as the two ladies trade snacks and advice on child rearing, the infants compare notes on their parents' bad behavior and pitiful lack of understanding. Babies act like grown-ups and grown-ups act like babies in this comedy about fulfilling basic human needs.
Notes:
the Ages of Man is a collection of four short plays: Infancy, Childhood, Youth and Rivers Under the Earth. Inspired by Shakespeare's famous monologue about the ages of life, Wilder set out to write seven short plays chronicling the human journey from infancy through extreme old age. the first two pieces, Infancy and Childhood, are delightful comedies which have been widely produced. However, Wilder never published the remaining plays of his series. After his death in 1973, two additional plays intended for this cycle, Youth and the Rivers Under the Earth (a play believed to represent middle age), were found among the playwright's unfinished papers.
1st Produced:
Circle In The Square Theater In New York
01 Nov 1962
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
French. New York 3 vols. 1960, 1961
in the Ages of Man, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573700002
in the Ages of Man, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573700002
Music:
-
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Genre:
short comedy
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageLeviathan
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
in "the Angel That Troubled the Waters And other Plays", New York: Coward McCann 1928 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageLife In the Sun, A
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
aka the Alcestaid
1st Produced:
Edinburgh (As The Alcestaid)
1955
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageLong Christmas Dinner, The
the Long Christmas Dinner--nine decades long--showcases the lives of several generations of the Bayard family, and some of their Christmas dinners. Wilder breaks the boundaries of time as we measure it, and invites us to partake of "one long, happy Christmas dinner"-past, present and future. As generations appear, have children, wither and depart, only the audience appreciates what changes and what remains the same. "Every last twig is wrapped around with ice. You almost never see that," young Genevieve marvels, not realizing that her mother has made this observation years earlier nor that her daughter-in-law will one day do the same.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Yale University Theater In New Haven, Connecticut
25 Nov 1931
Organisations:
Yale Dramatic Association and the Vassar Philalethesis
1st Published:
in the Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays in One Act (New York: Coward-McCann, 1931)
in Wilder's Classic One Acts, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573601781
in Wilder's Classic One Acts, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573601781
Music:
-
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Genre:
Christmas Comedy
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 7 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageLove and How To Cure It
This meloDramatic comedy is set in Soho, London, on the stage of the Tivoli Palace of Music in April of 1895. A young man is hopelessly in love with a teenage music-hall dancer who can't stand him, thinks he is stalking her (which he is), and fears that he is going to shoot her (which he isn't). Because she rejects him, he decides to kill himself. the girl's aunt, an actress and singer, and their friend, an over-the-hill comedian still mourning the death of his wife, try to intervene to "cure" him, and at the same time, teach the thwarted lover what true love really means. This is one of Wilder's many treatments of unrequited love.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Yale University Theater In New Haven, Connecticut
25 Nov 1931
Organisations:
Yale Dramatic Association and the Vassar Philalethesis
1st Published:
in the Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays in One Act (New York: Coward-McCann, 1931)
in Wilder's Classic One Acts, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-1559361316
in Wilder's Classic One Acts, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-1559361316
Music:
-
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Genre:
meloDramatic comedy one act
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageLucrece
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
Original Playwright - Andre Obey. Original title "Le Viol De Lucrece"
1st Produced:
Belasco Theatre, New York
20 Dec 1932
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Boston: Houghton Nifflin 1933 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Translation
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageMarriage We Deplore
Synopsis:
A blue blood Boston family contemplate the horrors of marrying beneath themselves
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Contained in: "Collected Short Plays Of Thornton Wilder volume Two" published by Theatre Communications Group 1998 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageMatchmaker, The
Synopsis:
the matchmaker, Wilder's uproarious farce about love and money, stars the irrepressible busybody, Dolly Gallagher Levi, who inspired the Broadway musical, Hello, Dolly! Through Dolly's subtle machinations, several unlikely couples come together to find happiness in 19th-century New York.
Notes:
Original Playwright - Johann Nestroy
1st Produced:
Edinburgh Festival In Scotland
01 Aug 1955
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Longmans, Green and Co, London, 1958 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
adaptation, farce
Parts:
Male: 9 Female: 7 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageMerchant of Yonkers, The
the play has a long and colorful history. John Oxenford's 1835 one-act farce A Day Well Spent had been extended into a full-length play entitled Einen Jux will er sich machen by Austrian playwright Johann Nestroy in 1842. In 1938, Wilder adapted Nestroy's version into an Americanized comedy entitled the Merchant of Yonkers, which attracted the attention of German director Max Reinhardt, who mounted a Broadway production. It was a dismal failure, running for a mere 39 performances. Fifteen years later, director Tyrone Guthrie expressed interest in a new production of the play, which Wilder extensively rewrote and rechristened the Matchmaker. the most significant change was the expansion of a previously minor character named Dolly Gallagher Levi, who became the play's centerpiece. A widow who brokers marriages and other transactions in Yonkers, New York at the turn of the 20th Century, she sets her sights on local merchant Horace Vandergelder, who has hired her to find him a wife. After a series of slapstick situations involving mistaken identities, secret rendezvous behind carefully placed screens, separated lovers, and a trip to night court, everyone finds themselves paired with a perfect match.
Notes:
Original Playwright - Johann Nestroy based on a Well Spent Day by John Oxenford.
probably produced in Boston prior to New York
probably produced in Boston prior to New York
1st Produced:
Guild Theatre, NY
28 Dec 1938
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Harper & Brothers, New York, 1939 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Adaptation
Parts:
Male: 9 Female: 7 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageMessage And Jehanne, The
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Yale University Dramatic Association
01 Dec 1917
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
in "the Angel That Troubled the Waters And other Plays", New York: Coward McCann 1928 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageMozart and the Gray Steward
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
in "the Angel That Troubled the Waters And other Plays", New York: Coward McCann 1928 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageNascuntar Poetae
Synopsis:
"We are gazing into some strange incomprehensible painting of Piero di Cosimo. . . . "Born to be a poet, a gifted boy learns that he has been chosen for this special role in life. the literary life, he is told, will not be all fun and games, however, and the boy quickly discovers that his destiny is both a blessing and a curse-both "wonderful and terrible."
Notes:
Piero di Cosimo (ca. 1462-1521) was a Florentine painter known for his conventional religious art and his fantastical paintings of mythological subjects as well as for panels in which he fused mythology with his own imagination. Wilder drew his title from the Latin aphorism, "Nascuntur poetae, fiunt oratores," or "Poets are born, orators are made." It is important to print the ellipsis dots as part of the title as Wilder wrote it, to imply the second half of the statement. Does it stretch the imagination too far to see a foretelling of Wilder's own life in this playlet?
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
first published in the Yale Literary Magazine in 1918 under the title "the Walled City."
in "the Angel That Troubled the Waters And other Plays", New York: Coward McCann 1928 -
in "the Angel That Troubled the Waters And other Plays", New York: Coward McCann 1928 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageNow the Servant's Name Was Malchus
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
in "the Angel That Troubled the Waters And other Plays", New York: Coward McCann 1928 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageOur Century
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Century Association, New York 1947 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageOur Town
Our Town explores the relationship between two young Grover's Corners neighbors, George Gibbs and Emily Webb, whose childhood friendship blossoms into romance, and then culminates in marriage. When Emily looses her life in childbirth, the circle of life portrayed in each of the three acts of Our Town--growing up, adulthood, and death--is fully realized. This timeless Drama of life in the mythical village of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, has become an American classic with universal appeal. Thornton Wilder's most frequently performed play, Our Town appeared on Broadway in 1938 to wide acclaim, and won the Pulitzer Prize. From the very beginning, Our Town has been produced in amateur and professional theatres around the world. Wilder offers a couple of chairs on a bare stage as the backdrop for an exploration of the universal human experience. the simple story of a love affair is constantly rediscovered because it asks timeless questions about the meaning of love, life and death. In the final moments of the play, the recently deceased Emily is granted the opportunity to revisit one day in her life, only to discover that she never fully appreciated all she possessed until she lost it. "Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you," she says as she takes her place among the dead.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Mccarter Theater In Princeton, New Jersey
22 Jan 1938
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Coward McCann, New York 1938
Samuel French, London (2014) >>> -
Samuel French, London (2014) >>> -
Music:
-
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Genre:
3 act play
Parts:
Male: 17 Female: 7 Other: extras
Further Reference:
Theatre Record Vol VIII (1988) Page 0668 - [Theatre: Contact - Manchester]
Theatre Record Vol XI (1991) Page 1068 - [Theatre: Shaftesbury]
Theatre Record Vol XXXIII (2013) Page 0611 - [Theatre: King's Head]
Theatre Record Vol XXXIV (2014) Page 1048 - [Theatre: Almeida]
Theatre Record Vol XI (1991) Page 1068 - [Theatre: Shaftesbury]
Theatre Record Vol XXXIII (2013) Page 0611 - [Theatre: King's Head]
Theatre Record Vol XXXIV (2014) Page 1048 - [Theatre: Almeida]
Top of PagePenny That Beauty Spent
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
in "the Angel That Troubled the Waters And other Plays", New York: Coward McCann 1928 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageProsperpina and the Devil
Synopsis:
"A puppet show, Venice, 1640 A. D." This piece of madcap farce, featuring a play within a play, stars a Manager, two Manipulators (the term for people who manipulate marionettes), four lively marionettes, and a host of allusions to characters and places from the Bible, Greek and Roman mythology, and medieval and nineteenth century European theater. Is it any wonder that, as the Second Manipulator complains, "A person can't tell which is his right hand and which is his left in this place"?
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
This playlet was published in the Oberlin Literary Magazine in December of 1916, when Wilder was nineteen, and was reprinted in January 1920 in the "little magazine" S4N.
in "the Angel That Troubled the Waters And other Plays", New York: Coward McCann 1928 -
in "the Angel That Troubled the Waters And other Plays", New York: Coward McCann 1928 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PagePullman Car Hiawatha
his one-act comedy, set in a Pullman car on a train traveling from New York to Chicago in December, 1930, introduces techniques Wilder would use in future three-act plays: the stage is virtually bare, with only a balcony or bridge and two flights of stairs, and the play is narrated by a Stage Manager. One of the characters speaks words that foreshadow Emily's words in Our Town. the play includes a character representing Grover's Corners, Ohio-a forerunner of Our Town's Grover's Corners, New Hampshire. the cast includes the hours of the day, the weather, the planets, and supernatural beings. Conventional time is suspended, and the only true measures of existence are life and death. Pullman Car takes us on a metaphorical journey by train through the American landscape, a diverse band of travelers encapsulated in a Pullman car hurtle through time, space and a range of emotions.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Antioch College In Yellow Springs, Ohio
19 Mar 1932
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
in the Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays in One Act (New York: Coward-McCann, 1931)
in Wilder's Classic One Acts, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573601781
in Wilder's Classic One Acts, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573601781
Music:
-
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Genre:
Comedy one act
Parts:
Male: 12 Female: 5 Other: extras
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageQueens of France, The
A con man convinces women that they are the rightful heir to the French throne.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Hill School In Pottsdown, Pennsylvania
09 Mar 1932
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
September 1931 in the Yale Review.
in the Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays in One Act (New York: Coward-McCann, 1931)
in Wilder's Classic One Acts, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> -
in the Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays in One Act (New York: Coward-McCann, 1931)
in Wilder's Classic One Acts, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Comedy one act
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 3 Other: extras
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageRinging Of Doorbells, A
A mother-daughter team of con-artists are putting the touch on the widows of military brass. Mrs. McCullem, housekeep for the wonderfully regal but now wheel chair-bound window of General Beattie, recognizes them in the drug store--having witnessed the two pull their game on her previous employer--and overhears them asking directions to the Beattie home! the play begins as she rushes back to warn Mrs. Beattie of the impending danger. Sure enough, the doorbell rings and our charlatans appear with quite a story. But instead of throwing them out or turning them over to the police, the widow Beattie allows the game to be played.
Notes:
In the late '50s and early '60s, Thornton Wilder attempted to write seven one-act plays depicting the Seven Deadly Sins (later adding a proposed Seven Ages of Man to the mix). He was very excited at the time by the artistic promise of theater-in-the-round, and pleased that his first proposed "Sin," Someone from Assisi (Lust), could have its premiere in 1961-1962 on the stage of New York City's famed Circle in the Square theatre. During his lifetime only four Sins were completed to his initial satisfaction, and he withdrew two of these from circulation. Since 1997, the centenary of Wilder's birth, thanks to the rich materials in his archives, actors and readers have been able to perform and study all seven of Wilder's Sins: the Drunken Sisters (Gluttony), Bernice (Pride), the Wreck on the 5:25 (Sloth), A Ringing of Doorbells (Envy), In Shakespeare and the Bible (Wrath), Someone from Assisi (Lust) and Cement Hands (Avarice).
1st Produced:
13th Annual Brown-Forman Classics In Context Festival At Actors Theatre Of Louisville.
30 Oct 1997
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
in Thornton Wilder One Act Series: the Seven Deadly Sins, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573700040
Music:
-
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Genre:
Short play
Parts:
Male: - Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageRivers Under the Earth, The
On a point of land jutting into a lake in southern Wisconsin, the Carter family enjoys a summer's eve. It's an evening like many others: Nothing happens and everything happens. Each member of the family--sixteen year-old Tom, his seventeen-year-old sister Francesca and their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Carter--shares different memories somehow connected with their surroundings. these memories color the mood of the evening. Young Tom nearly gets into a fight over a girlfriend, whose name, Violet, recalls a key image from his childhood. Francesca never liked this promontory and though she's not sure why, her parents recall their daughter burying a dead robin in that very spot. Mr. and Mrs. Carter struggle with their middle-age in the context of poignant personal memories of moments experienced on that section of rock. Throughout the action, Wilder weaves a tapestry of animosities and affections, memories and confessions, conscious and unconscious behavior and the unfathomable formation of identity.
Notes:
the Ages of Man is a collection of four short plays: Infancy, Childhood, Youth and Rivers Under the Earth. Inspired by Shakespeare's famous monologue about the ages of life, Wilder set out to write seven short plays chronicling the human journey from infancy through extreme old age. the first two pieces, Infancy and Childhood, are delightful comedies which have been widely produced. However, Wilder never published the remaining plays of his series. After his death in 1973, two additional plays intended for this cycle, Youth and the Rivers Under the Earth (a play believed to represent middle age), were found among the playwright's unfinished papers.
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
in the Ages of Man, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573700002
Music:
-
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Genre:
Short play
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageSeven Ages Of Man
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Contained in: "Collected Short Plays volume One" published by Theatre Communications Group 1997 -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Short play
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageSkin of Our Teeth, The
Meet George and Maggie Antrobus of Excelsior, New Jersey, a suburban, commuter-town couple (married for 5,000 years), who bear more than a casual resemblance to that first husband and wife, Adam and Eve: the two Antrobus children, Gladys (perfect in every way, of course) and Henry (who likes to throw rocks and was formerly known as Cain); and their garrulous maid, Sabina (the eternal seductress), who takes it upon herself to break out of character and interrupt the course of the Drama at every opportunity ("I don't understand a word of this play!")
Notes:
Completed by the author less than a month after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the SKIN OF OUR TEETH (1942) broke from established theatrical conventions and walked off with the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Combining farce, burlesque, and satire, and elements of the comic strip, Thornton Wilder depicts an Everyman Family as it narrowly escapes one end-of-the-world disaster after another, from the Ice Age to flood to war.
1st Produced:
New Haven, Connecticut
1942
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Harper & Brothers, 1942 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 5 Other: extras
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageSomeone From Assisi
In this play about the Deadly Sin of Lust, Saint Francis, almost blind and toothless and nearing the end of his life, revisits Assisi, where he encounters Pica, a young girl with the same name as his mother; Mother Clara of Saint Damian's Convent; and Mona Lucrezia (now a mad woman) with whom he had a love affair when he was a wild, willful young man known as Francis the Frenchman, and she was a young married woman. Saint Francis still seeks expiation for the "load of sin" with which he has offended God. the play poses questions about the true meaning of love-and, as Wilder wrote, about "the ideas of the Erotic as Destroyer and the Erotic as Creative."
Notes:
In the late '50s and early '60s, Thornton Wilder attempted to write seven one-act plays depicting the Seven Deadly Sins (later adding a proposed Seven Ages of Man to the mix). He was very excited at the time by the artistic promise of theater-in-the-round, and pleased that his first proposed "Sin," Someone from Assisi (Lust), could have its premiere in 1961-1962 on the stage of New York City's famed Circle in the Square theatre. During his lifetime only four Sins were completed to his initial satisfaction, and he withdrew two of these from circulation. Since 1997, the centenary of Wilder's birth, thanks to the rich materials in his archives, actors and readers have been able to perform and study all seven of Wilder's Sins: the Drunken Sisters (Gluttony), Bernice (Pride), the Wreck on the 5:25 (Sloth), A Ringing of Doorbells (Envy), In Shakespeare and the Bible (Wrath), Someone from Assisi (Lust) and Cement Hands (Avarice).
1st Produced:
Circle In The Square Theater In New York
01 Nov 1962
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
French. New York 3 vols. 1960, 1961
in the Ages of Man, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573700040
in the Ages of Man, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573700040
Music:
-
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Genre:
short play
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 2 Other: 1 girl
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageSong Of Maria Bentedoa
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
playlet
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
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Top of PageSuch Things Only Happen In Books
In this one-act, originally entitled, A Matter of Conscience, a lordly novelist, his wife, their doctor, their maid, her brother, and a visiting stranger are caught up in various deceptions, illusions and mysteries-including a murder mystery in a haunted house. Novelist John's two pleasures in life are losing at solitaire and lecturing his wife about how there are no plots in life. Of course, his wife is cheating on him with the family doctor, who reveals not only their infidelity but a whole network of jailbreaks, murders, mutilations and buried treasure, all of which has taken place in John's house.
Notes:
By 1946-and probably earlier than that date-Wilder withdrew the play from production and publication.
1st Produced:
Yale University Theater In New Haven, Connecticut
25 Nov 1931
Organisations:
Yale Dramatic Association and the Vassar Philalethesis
1st Published:
in the Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays in One Act (New York: Coward-McCann, 1931)
in Wilder's Classic One Acts, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> -
in Wilder's Classic One Acts, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
short satire
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageTrumpet Shall Sound, The
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
New York
1927
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
play
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Top of PageUnerring Instinct
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Contained in: "Collected Short Plays of Thornton Wilder volume Two" published by Theatre Communications Group 1998 -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Short play
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageVictors, The
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
Original Playwright - Jean-Paul Sartre
1st Produced:
New York
1949
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
adaptation
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
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Top of PageWreck On the Five-Twenty-Five, The
In this play, which represents "Sloth" in Wilder's projected cycle on the Seven Deadly Sins, Herb Hawkins, a jovial New Jersey - New York City commuter with iron-bound habits, has called to say he is coming home late. This news sets his wife and daughter on edge, a condition heightened when a neighbor informs them that an unidentified man is hiding in the shadows of their front lawn, staring in at them. the police arrive to arrest the supposed prowler, only to find Herb, quietly observing his family through the windows of his own home. It seems that earlier that day, he received word of a surprise inheritance, left to him by a kind, lonely elderly woman. This sudden gift of a large sum of money prompts Herb to question the meaning and purpose of his own life. He returns to his place in the family with touches of humor, irony and despair.
Notes:
In the late '50s and early '60s, Thornton Wilder attempted to write seven one-act plays depicting the Seven Deadly Sins (later adding a proposed Seven Ages of Man to the mix). He was very excited at the time by the artistic promise of theater-in-the-round, and pleased that his first proposed "Sin," Someone from Assisi (Lust), could have its premiere in 1961-1962 on the stage of New York City's famed Circle in the Square theatre. During his lifetime only four Sins were completed to his initial satisfaction, and he withdrew two of these from circulation. Since 1997, the centenary of Wilder's birth, thanks to the rich materials in his archives, actors and readers have been able to perform and study all seven of Wilder's Sins: the Drunken Sisters (Gluttony), Bernice (Pride), the Wreck on the 5:25 (Sloth), A Ringing of Doorbells (Envy), In Shakespeare and the Bible (Wrath), Someone from Assisi (Lust) and Cement Hands (Avarice).
1st Produced:
Circle In The Square Theater In New York
01 Nov 1962
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
first published in 1997 by TCG in the Collected Short Plays of Thornton Wilder, edited by Donald Gallup and Tappan Wilder
in Thornton Wilder One Act Series: the Seven Deadly Sins, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573700040
in Thornton Wilder One Act Series: the Seven Deadly Sins, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573700040
Music:
-
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Genre:
Short play
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageYouth
To his horror, the middle-aged Captain Gulliver finds himself marooned, dying of hunger and thirst in "the Country of the Young"--a world of youth so mistrustful of age that anyone approaching thirty is ritually dispatched. Here, he encounters an ersatz aristocracy and servant class who are both appalled by and attracted to what they see in him. By virtue of age alone, he represents everything they hate--the old men immortalized in their books who have sent younger men off to war; old men who frustrate and thwart the young in order to keep themselves in power. Yet he appeals to their latent humanity and their need to do something other than just play at childish games. Through his cunning and wisdom, Gulliver manages to gain the trust of one of his female captors and enlist the help of a talented servant-class carpenter. Together they make a narrow escape, the two young islanders looking forward to the promise of a new world in which people may someday see their children grow into manhood and womanhood and hold their grandchildren on their knees.
Notes:
the Ages of Man is a collection of four short plays: Infancy, Childhood, Youth and Rivers Under the Earth. Inspired by Shakespeare's famous monologue about the ages of life, Wilder set out to write seven short plays chronicling the human journey from infancy through extreme old age. the first two pieces, Infancy and Childhood, are delightful comedies which have been widely produced. However, Wilder never published the remaining plays of his series. After his death in 1973, two additional plays intended for this cycle, Youth and the Rivers Under the Earth (a play believed to represent middle age), were found among the playwright's unfinished papers.
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
first published in 1997 by TCG in the Collected Short Plays of Thornton Wilder, edited by Donald Gallup and Tappan Wilder.
in the Ages of Man, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573700002
in the Ages of Man, Samuel French, Inc - New York (2012) >>> 978-0573700002
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
short play
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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