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Lillian Hellman

LILLIAN HELLMAN

  (1907 - 1984)
Nationality:    USA
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    n/a

Born in New Orleans, La on June 20, 1907. at-tended New York University; Columbia Universi-ty and Tufts, M.A. She has written book reviews, magazine articles, screenplays (Dead end, the Little Foxes, the Chase). editor of the Letters of anton Chekhov and Hammett's the Big Knockover. author of an Unfinished Woman, Pentimento, Scoundrel Time. Member: American academy of Arts & Sciences; National academy of Arts and Letters. Recipient: New York Drama Critics Circle award; Brandeis University Creative Arts award; National Institute of Arts & Letters Gold Medal.
address (in 1981) : 630 Park ave., New York, NY 10021.
agent (in 1981) : Don Congdon, c/o Harold Matson Com-pany, 22 east 40th St., New York, NY 10017; (212) 679-4490

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below is a list of Lillian Hellman's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Another Part Of the Forest         Autumn Garden, The         Candide         Children's Hour, The         Days To Come         Lark, The         Little Foxes, The         Montserrat         My Mother, My Father And Me         Regina         Searching Wind, The         Toys In the Attic         Watch On the Rhine

Another Part Of the Forest

Synopsis:
the play takes place in the 1880s. Marcus Hubbard, rich, despotic and despised, made a fortune during the Civil War by running the blockade - and worse. In his family life he is equally injurious: one son he bulldozes while the other he holds in contempt for his frailty. By Marcus's side stands his mentally deranged wife and, finally, Regina, the adored daughter - amoral, conniving, and beautiful as an evil flower. Marcus, it would seem, has been on the top of the heap long enough and someone must depose him. Turning the tables on a tyrant has always made for high Drama, and when Hellman puts her brilliant talents to work on such a theme the result is a play of great theatrical intensity.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Fulton theatre    1946

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1973   -

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Autumn Garden, The

Synopsis:
the premise of the play is contemplating the meaning of middle age to an assorted group of people gathered together in a summer home. all of them are, in one way or another, frustrated and unhappy. Most of them are under the illusion that some day the things from which they suffer will be removed and they will be once more at peace. But when they come to see themselves, they realise that man is the sum of his past life, that they are incapable of any real revolt against their past and that what they have made of themselves in earlier years is what they are when age approaches. and yet they are not tragic figures. all of them are troubled average people, human, commonplace: but they are studied with great understanding and a touch of intelligently unsentimental compassion.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Coronet Theatre, New York    1951

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Little Brown, Boston, 1951   -

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  7            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Candide

Candide
Candide is banished for romancing the daughter of the Baron. In exile he faces many troubles

Notes:
Music by Leonard Bernstein; Book by Lillian Hellman; Lyrics by Richard Wilbur, John La Touche And Dorothy Parker; Based on the novel "Candide" by Voltaire

1st Produced:
Martin Beck Theatre, NY    1956

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Random House (1957)   B001F3IG6G

Music:
Original cast recording: Columbia (38732) 1956

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:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Children's Hour, The

Synopsis:
the bigger the lie the more it will be believed

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Maxine elliott's Theatre, New York    1934

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

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:
Play/Drama. - - Lesbian, full length

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  12            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Days To Come

Synopsis:
the result of a strike on a small mid-Western town.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Vanderbilt Theatre, New York    1936

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Collected Plays, Little Brown; Broadway,    -

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Lark, The

Synopsis:
Chapman, writing in the New York News called the Lark: "a beautiful, beautiful play. . .It is always the story of a simple girl who became an inspired warrior and then was tried by the church-but there have been several ways of telling it. anouilh's way, and Miss Hellman's, is to try to tell the story from two viewpoints. One of them is how we look at the tale now as a piece of history, with our knowledge of how the girl's blundering captors unwittingly created a martyr who became forever a symbol of courage and faith. the other viewpoint has been to try to imagine what it must have been like to be Joan herself. Both approaches to this legend of the Martyr of Rouen have been splendidly realized by the technique of divorcing the Drama from the confinements of time, sequence and space. Until the last moment-a thrilling and uplifting one of Joan's greatest earthly triumph, the coronation of the worthless Dauphin for whom she fought-there is no scenery in the usual sense, merely a few levels of steps and platforms.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Jean Anouilh; Incidental music by Leonard Bernstein

1st Produced:
Longacre Theatre, NY    1955

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Hellman, Lillian, Collected Plays" Macmillan, London, 1972   -

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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  15            Female:  4            Other:  extras

Further Reference:
-

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Little Foxes, The

Synopsis:
Regina had married husband Horace for financial support when her Father left all the family money to her brothers Benjamin and Oscar. Benjamin and Oscar want extra finance to open a cotton mill and they turn to their sister - she cannot help them. It is suggested that Oscar's son marries Regina's daughter - but neither Regina or her daughter want that. Regina asks Horace for the money - he refuses. So Benjamin who works in the bank steals Horace's bonds.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
National Theatre, New York    1939

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Barlow, Judith e. (ed.), Plays By American Women, 1930-1960" Applause Books, 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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Montserrat

Synopsis:
Montserrat a young Spanish officer is sent to Venezuela to help capture Bolivar. Montserrat, however , is helping to hide him. His senior officer finds this out. He knows the young officer wont betray the hiding place so to force him to divulge it he orders the executions of six random townpeople one by one until the hiding place is divulged

Notes:
Based on A play by Emmanuel Robles

1st Produced:
Fulton theatre    29 Oct 1949

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Hellman, Lillian, Collected Plays" Macmillan, London, 1972   -

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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  15            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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My Mother, My Father And Me

My Mother, My Father And Me
Three generations clash in Manhattan apartment and aged mother is put in nursing home.

Notes:
from Burt Blechman's novel How Much?

1st Produced:
New York    1963

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Random House, New York, 1963   -

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:
Satire

Parts:
Male:  14            Female:  14            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Regina

Regina
-

Notes:
Music by Marc Blitzstein; lyrics by Marc Blitzstein; book by Marc Blitzstein And Lillian Hellman. Based on the play "Little Foxes" by Lillian Hellman

1st Produced:
46th Street Theatre, New York    1949

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Chappell 1954   -

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:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Searching Wind, The

Synopsis:
as in no other play the author here Dramatizes most effectively the spirit of compromise and bewilderment, both in politics and human relations, that brought about the present world catastrophe

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Fulton theatre    1944

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  11            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Toys In the Attic

Toys In the Attic
Two sisters are almost disappointed when over indulged brother becomes rich and independent

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York    1960

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Random House, New York, 1960   -

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  extras

Further Reference:
-

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Watch On the Rhine

Synopsis:
Concerns an idealistic German who, with his American wife and two children, flees Hitler's Germany and finds sanctuary with his wife's family in the United States. He hopes for a respite from the dangerous work in which he has been involved, but his desire for personal safety soon comes into conflict with the deeply held beliefs that have made him an active anti-Nazi. In the end his conscience cannot be compromised, and he returns to Germany and the resistance movement-and to what will be, most certainly, his ultimate destruction. Told in compelling, human terms, the play is an eloquent and stirring tribute to the brave men and women who, despite all odds, struggled early on to stem the tide of fascism which was soon to spread throughout europe and the world.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Martin Beck Theatre, New York    1941

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  5            Other:  2b

Further Reference:
-

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