Playwrights For Tomorrow

Playwrights for Tomorrow was first published in 1966. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. Four young playwrights, James Schevill, Megan Terry, Elizabeth Johnson, and Terrence McNally, are represented in this collection, which includes four one-act plays and one three-act play. The authors are writers who have participated in an experimental program at the University of Minnesota under the auspices of the Office for Advanced Drama Research, of which Arthur H. Ballet is the director. The program of the Office for Advanced Drama Research, established with the aid of a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, provides an opportunity for promising young playwrights to develop their talents in a situation which offers them, among other advantages, the chance to have their plays actually produced. Dr. Ballet describes the project in an introduction. The plays which make up this collection are two related one-act plays, The Space Fan and The Master (titled together American Power), by James Schevill; Ex-Miss Cooper Queen on a Set of Pills by Megan Terry; A Bad Play for an Old Lady by Elizabeth Johnson; and And Things That Go Bump in the Night by Terrence McNally. Each playwright provides a discussion of his work, and production data are given. All except one of the plays were produced at the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. In addition, one of them, And Things That Go Bump in the Night, has been given on Broadway. Just as the experimental productions helped the playwrights evaluate their work, publication of the plays will, it is hoped, contribute further to the critical process by giving the plays the benefits of wider audiences and broader appraisal. Another collection of plays by writers associated with the program of the Office for Advanced Drama Research is available in a second volume.

Playwrights for Tomorrow was first published in 1966. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. Four young playwrights, James Schevill, Megan Terry, Elizabeth Johnson, and Terrence McNally, are represented in this collection, which includes four one-act plays and one three-act play. The authors are writers who have participated in an experimental program at the University of Minnesota under the auspices of the Office for Advanced Drama Research, of which Arthur H. Ballet is the director. The program of the Office for Advanced Drama Research, established with the aid of a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, provides an opportunity for promising young playwrights to develop their talents in a situation which offers them, among other advantages, the chance to have their plays actually produced. Dr. Ballet describes the project in an introduction. The plays which make up this collection are two related one-act plays, The Space Fan and The Master (titled together American Power), by James Schevill; Ex-Miss Cooper Queen on a Set of Pills by Megan Terry; A Bad Play for an Old Lady by Elizabeth Johnson; and And Things That Go Bump in the Night by Terrence McNally. Each playwright provides a discussion of his work, and production data are given. All except one of the plays were produced at the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. In addition, one of them, And Things That Go Bump in the Night, has been given on Broadway. Just as the experimental productions helped the playwrights evaluate their work, publication of the plays will, it is hoped, contribute further to the critical process by giving the plays the benefits of wider audiences and broader appraisal. Another collection of plays by writers associated with the program of the Office for Advanced Drama Research is available in a second volume.

Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible to scholars, students, researchers, and general readers. Rich with historical and cultural value, these works are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. The books offered through Minnesota Archive Editions are produced in limited quantities according to customer demand and are available through select distribution partners.

Playwrights for Tomorrow was first published in 1975. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. Four plays by writers who have worked under the auspices of the Office for Advanced Drama Research (O.A.D.R.) at the University of Minnesota are published in this volume, the thirteenth in the series of such collections. The O.A.D.R. program, which is directed by Arthur H.. Ballet, the series editor, provides an opportunity for promising playwrights to work with cooperating theatres in the production of their plays. The plays in this volume are The Tunes of Chicken Little by Robert Gordon, The Inheritance by Ernest A. Joselovitz, Blessing by Joseph Landon, and The Kramer by Mark Medoff. Three of the plays—those by Robert Gordon, Joseph Landon, and Mark Medoff—were produced by the American Conservatory Theatre of San Francisco. The play by Mr. Joselovitz was presented by the University of Minnesota Theatre in Minneapolis. In his introduction Mr. Ballet comments on the achievements and problems of the O.A.D.R. program. He reports that since the program began it had had about one hundred plays produced in some sixty theatres, not only in the United States but also in Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, and Canada. However, he writes, it became increasingly difficult to find playhouses willing to risk the challenge of new plays and playwrights. "More dangerous still," he writes, "has been the tendency for some directors to make theatre their own, highly personal art. Because so many of these directors only like what they know, and they don't know what to make of new work at all, they cannot truly judge and anticipate as a stage piece anything beyond their immediate ken. The rejections are cavalier and unthinking. The directors' lament that there are no new, exciting playwrights must be answered with the accusation that there really are damned few new, exciting, perceptive directors."

Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible to scholars, students, researchers, and general readers. Rich with historical and cultural value, these works are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. The books offered through Minnesota Archive Editions are produced in limited quantities according to customer demand and are available through select distribution partners.

Three plays are published in this sixth volume of a series of collections of plays by dramatists who have participated in an experimental program conducted by the Office for Advanced Drama Research (O.A.D.R.), University of Minnesota. Dr. Arthur H. Ballet, editor of the series, is the director of the program. The plays in this volume are The Thing Itself by Arthur Sainer, The Marriage Test by Jonathan Gillman, and The End of the World; or, Fragments from a Work in Progress by Keith Neilson. In an introduction Dr. Ballet briefly describes the O.A.D.R. program and comments on the three plays. Of Mr. Sainer and his play Dr. Ballet writes: "Arthur Sainer represents a new wave in theatrical writing, the semi-improvisational piece which really takes on life only in production, but which also speaks with a voice as old and honorable as theatre itself. The Firehouse Theatre, with its unique and skillful dedication to innovative theatre, brought The Things Itself to exciting production for enthusiastic audiences." Jonathan Gillman's The Marriage Test is, he writes, "a rare and sparkling work for the stage: a classic farce." On the third play and its author he comments: "The End of the World by Keith Neilson was the first play provided with facilities under the O.A.D.R. outside the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in an attempt to see if the program could work at long distance as well as it has at home. The play, the playwright, and the O.A.D.R. were blessed with a wonderful company, theatre, and audience at the Playhouse in the Park, Cincinnati, Ohio, and above all with a dedicated and talented director in Brooks Jones. Neilson is a continuous creator in theatre."