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Overview
This first volume in a two-volume anthology presents the history and evolution of Jewish plays (1920-1960), from the social realism and political concerns of Elmer Rice and Clifford Odets to the urban wit of Neil Simon and Wendy Wasserstein. Many of these plays are unavailable in any other format. (Drama)This first volume in a two-volume anthology presents the history and evolution of Jewish plays (1920-1960), from the social realism and political concerns of Elmer Rice and Clifford Odets to the urban wit of Neil Simon and Wendy Wasserstein. Many of these plays are unavailable in any other format. Original. (Drama)
Editorials
Jack Helbig
As editor Schiff notes in her introduction, although the influence of Jewish writers, performers, and producers on American theater in the twentieth century has been very great, "it generally passes . . . unremarked." This anthology collects four decades' worth of noteworthy Jewish plays, starting with Aaron Hoffman's "Welcome Stranger" (1920) and spanning the period during which Jewish writers, intellectuals, and performers gained increasing, if often begrudging, acceptance by the American mainstream. In compiling the collection, Schiff deliberately did not include classics of Yiddish-American theater, most notably Anski's "Dybbuk", for she felt the rich and influential Yiddish theater deserves its own anthology, nor did she include plays written since 1960--they will be in her next volume. Some of the plays here are old chestnuts, such as Clifford Odets' "Awake and Sing" and Paddy Chayefsky's "Tenth Man". But others, such as "Welcome Stranger", which is concerned with anti-Semitism in a New England town, and Elmer Rice's "Counsellor-at-Law", are long-lost gems of the American theater.Book Details
Published
March 30, 1995
Publisher
New York, N.Y., U.S.A. : Mentor, c1995.
Pages
672
Format
Paperbound
ISBN
9780451628695