American Drama and Eugene O’Neill

Drama in the Colonies Not much of it, or to it, for a variety of reasons Dominated by British drama until the late 1800s “Ye Bear and Ye Cubbe”—first documented theatrical performance (Virginia, 1665) William & Mary (1700): first American college to offer courses in drama First public American theatre probably in Williamsburg (1716)

American Professional Theatre Beginnings often dated to 1752 and the arrival of the Hallam Company Toured major cities along the east coast After Hallam’s death, his wife remarried and formed with her husband “The London Comedians,” touring in Philadelphia and NY. Later changed their name to the “American Comedians” and mounted the first professional production of an American play, Thomas Godfrey’s The Prince of Parthia (c. 1760s)

Theatre and the Revolution Discouraged by the Continental Congress with other “extravagant diversions” like horse racing and gambling. Re-emerged following the revolution; Baltimore a leading center. Important early playwrights: William Dunlap, Royall Tyler (The Contrast).

18th Century Playhouses spread throughout the country. Popular touring companies with a leading star (Edmund Kean, William Charles Macready, Charlotte Cushman) Astor Place riot (1849) result of rivalry between two actors Melodrama, sensationalism, farce

Late 18th Century Theatrical offerings more diverse: traditional “respectable” theatres, but also burlesque, vaudeville, opera. By late 1800s New York the hub of American theatre. 1880-1920: “The Golden Age of American Theatre”: theatre as mass entertainment; Broadway—”the Great White Way”

Early 20th Century 1912: The Little Theatre Movement gets underway 1915: The Provincetown Players founded on Cape Cod: dedicated to plays by new American playwrights Members: George “Jig” Cram Cook, Susan Glaspell, Eugene O’Neill, Edna St. Vincent Millay—often acted in their own plays In six seasons, presented almost 100 plays by nearly 50 American playwrights, including 16 by O’Neill

Eugene O’Neill Born in 1888, the son of a famous actor, James O’Neill (The Count of Monte Cristo). James played the title role more than 5000 times. O’Neill’s mother, Ella Quinlan, daughter of a well-to-do Irish immigrant businessman.

Eugene O’Neill Born in a hotel room in New York Third son to James O’Neill and Ella Quinlan One brother, James Jr. (“Jamie”), survived

Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953) First eleven years of his life traveled on tour with his father. Educated at Catholic schools, went to Princeton, was suspended, eloped (later divorced), drank, drifted, went to sea and searched for gold in S. America For a short time, was an actor and stage manager.

O’Neill’s Early Adulthood After travels, lived the Bohemian life in NY Nearly died of TB in 1912; while recuperating began to read modern plays and fell under their influence Began to write his own plays as he was sick. 1916: begins his association with the Provincetown Players, first play produced

Early Plays O’Neill’s early plays: grim one-acts based on experiences at sea Introduced new level of realism in setting and dialogue (crude language, slang) 1920: Beyond the Horizon on Broadway, establishes O’Neill as a major new voice, wins O’Neill the first of four Pulitzer Prizes

Experiments Began to experiment with ways to convey characters’ inner conflict, ways of dramatizing those things that people usually keep secret—their fears, innermost thoughts, the subconscious, that which is repressed Experiments with/reintroduces elements of Elizabethan and other classical drama: asides, soliloquies, masks, ghosts, choruses; ignores act and scene divisions and conventions concerning play length Early drama is often deliberately non-realistic in setting and style

O’Neill in the 1920s Following the deaths of his parents and his brother, O’Neill began to focus more on the family as the central element of his drama Mature plays of the 1920s and 1930s focus on families: Desire Under the Elms (1924), Mourning Becomes Electra (1931)

International Recognition American drama received its recognition with the plays that Eugene O’Neill wrote about the inner lives of characters. It allowed people to get a feel of what it would have been like to be the character and it gives the reader the feel of being in their shoes in the exact time period and place they are at. Later more topics were considered more suitable for dramas like race, gender, sexuality, and death.

Later O’Neill Received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936 Major plays written after this: The Iceman Cometh (1946); several not produced until after his death: A Touch of the Poet, A Moon for the Misbegotten, and Long Day’s Journey Into Night

After years of poor health (tuberculosis, depression, alcoholism, Parkinson’s-like tremors), dies November 27, 1953

Long Day’s Journey into Night Written in 1940-41 First produced in Stockholm, 1955 New York premiere 1956; Pulitzer Prize, 1957