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The American Stage: Writing on Theater from Washington Irving to Tony Kushner

Foreword by John Lithgow More

Edited by Laurence Senelick

“Even in a publishing series as uniformly superb as the invaluable Library of America, there are some books that stand out. This is, without question, one of the Library of America’s stellar contributions to American literature of the past few years—as well as one of the richest and most readable collections of writing on the American stage that you will ever come across.”—Buffalo News

Overview
News & Views
Table of Contents
Contributors

Overview

Video Our Town for Our Time: How Thornton Wilder’s Play Speaks to a Changing America and Around the World
August 4, 2022

Story of the Week Djuna Barnes, “Alla Nazimova”
June 10, 2022

News Our Town: A play about the ways we remember and misremember the past
April 14, 2022

Here is the story, told firsthand through electric, deeply engaged writing, of America’s living theater, high and low, mainstream and experimental. Drawing on history, criticism, memoir, fiction, poetry, and parody, editor Laurence Senelick presents writers with the special knack “to distill both the immediate experience and the recollected impression, to draw the reader into the charmed circle and conjure up what has already vanished.” Through the words of playwrights and critics, actors and directors, and others behind the footlights, the entertainments and high artistic strivings of successive eras come vividly, sometimes tumultuously, to life.

Observers from Washington Irving and Fanny Trollope to Walt Whitman and Mark Twain evoke the world of the nineteenth-century playhouse in all its raucous vitality. Henry James confesses his early enthusiasm for playgoing; Willa Cather reviews provincial productions of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Antony and Cleopatra. The increasing diversity and ambition of the American theater is reflected in Hutchins Hapgood’s account of New York’s Yiddish theaters at the turn of the century, Carl Van Vechten’s review of the Sicilian actress Mimi Aguglia, Alain Locke’s comments on the emerging African-American theater in the 1920s, and Ezra Pound’s response to James Joyce’s play Exiles and theatrical modernism. Enthusiasts for the New Stagecraft, such as Lee Simonson and Djuna Barnes, are matched by champions of pop culture such as Gilbert Seldes and Fred Allen. S. J. Perelman lampoons Clifford Odets; Edmund Wilson acclaims Minsky’s Burlesque; Harold Clurman explains Stanislavski’s Method; Gore Vidal dissects the compromises of commercial playwriting. A host of playwrights—among them Thornton Wilder, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Lorraine Hansberry, Edward Albee, Wendy Wasserstein, David Mamet, and Tony Kushner—are joined by such renowned critics as Stark Young, George Jean Nathan, Brooks Atkinson, and Eric Bentley.

Laurence Senelick is Fletcher Professor of Drama and Oratory at Tufts University and a recipient of the George Jean Nathan Prize for dramatic criticism. His award-winning books include The Age and Stage of George L. Fox; The Chekhov Theatre: A Century of the Plays in Performance; and The Changing Room: Sex, Drag and Theatre. He is also a professional actor, director, and translator who has staged a number of American premieres.

This Library of America series edition is printed on acid-free paper and features Smyth-sewn binding, a full cloth cover, and a ribbon marker.

This volume is available for adoption in the Guardian of American Letters Fund.
News & Views

Video Our Town for Our Time: How Thornton Wilder’s Play Speaks to a Changing America and Around the World
August 4, 2022

Story of the Week Djuna Barnes, “Alla Nazimova”
June 10, 2022

News Our Town: A play about the ways we remember and misremember the past
April 14, 2022

Story of the Week Thornton Wilder, “Eddy Greater”
April 14, 2022

Interviews J. D. McClatchy on Thornton Wilder’s “mesmerizing revisionist method of story-telling”
April 5, 2022
Table of Contents

Foreword, by John Lithgow

Introduction, by Laurence Senelick

Washington Irving
from Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent.

Charles Sprague
Prologue for the Opening of the Chestnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia

William Dunlap
from History of the American Theatre

Frances Trollope
from Domestic Manners of the Americans

Alexis de Tocqueville
Some Observations on the Theater of Democratic Peoples

Edgar Allan Poe
On Anna Cora Mowatt’s Fashion

Walt Whitman
The Gladiator—Mr. Forrest—Acting
Miserable State of the Stage
The Old Bowery

Philip Hone
The Astor Place Riot

Anna Cora Mowatt
from Mimic Life; or, Before and Behind the Curtain

Mark Twain
The Menken
The Model Artists
The Minstrel Show

Charles King Newcomb
from The Journals

Olive Logan
About Nudity in Theatres

Edward P. Hingston
from The Genial Showman: The Church in the Theatre and the Theatre in the Church

Henry James
Notes on the Theatres
from A Small Boy and Others

Alan Dale
Clara Morris

William Winter
The Art of Edwin Booth: Hamlet

Willa Cather
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Antony and Cleopatra (1)
Antony and Cleopatra (2)

Hutchins Hapgood
from The Spirit of the Ghetto: Theatres, Actors and Audience

Rollin Lynde Hartt
Melodrama

Lottie Blair Parker
My Most Successful Play

Channing Pollock
Stage Struck

Stark Young
Some American Dramatic Material
Hamlet

William Gillette
“The Illusion of the First Time” in Drama

Ezra Pound
Mr. James Joyce and the Modern Stage

Alexander Woollcott
Mrs. Fiske on Ibsen the Popular

James G. Huneker
Frank Wedekind

Lee Simonson
The Painter and the Stage

Carl Van Vechten
Mimi Aguglia as Salome

Dorothy Parker
The Jest

Ludwig Lewisohn
Mr. Belasco Explains
Susan Glaspell

Robert Benchley
Abie’s Irish Rose Review and Bulletins

Ring Lardner
I Gaspiri—“The Upholsterers”: A Drama in Three Acts

Gilbert Seldes
The Dæmonic in the American Theatre

Edmund Wilson
Burlesque Shows

Alain Locke
The Negro and the American Stage

Don Marquis
the old trouper

George Jean Nathan
The Audience Emotion
On Vaudeville
Eugene O’Neill

Djuna Barnes
The Days of Jig Cook
Alla Nazimova

Hamlin Garland
James A. and Katharine Herne

Sidney Skolsky
Cain’s Warehouse

Langston Hughes
Trouble with the Angels

Thomas Wolfe
from Of Time and the River

S. J. Perelman
Waiting for Santy

Brooks Atkinson
Our Town
Standards in Drama Criticism

Morton Eustis
The Man Who Came to Dinner with George Kaufman Directing

Hallie Flanagan
from Arena

Thornton Wilder
Some Thoughts on Playwriting

Elia Kazan
Audience Tomorrow: Preview in New Guinea

Mary McCarthy
A Streetcar Called Success

Harold Clurman
Tennessee Williams
The Famous “Method”
from The Theatre of the Thirties

John Mason Brown
Even as You and I

Frances Parkinson Keyes
Terry Helburn

Eric Bentley
Folklore on Forty-Seventh Street
from Bentley on Brecht

Arthur Miller
The American Theater

Fred Allen
The Life and Death of Vaudeville

Walter Kerr
Barns

Tennessee Williams
Author and Director: A Delicate Situation

Gore Vidal
Eugene O’Neill’s A Touch of the Poet
The Commercialites
Bernard Shaw’s Heartbreak House

Lorraine Hansberry
“Me tink me hear sounds in de night”

Edward Albee
Which Theater Is the Absurd One?

Charles L. Mee, Jr.
The Becks’ Living Theatre

John Simon
Boredom in the Theatre

Luis Valdéz
El Teatro Campesino

Susan Sontag
Marat/Sade/Artaud

Ed Bullins
A Short Statement on Street Theatre

Elizabeth Hardwick
Notes on the New Theater

William Goldman
from The Season

John Lahr
from Notes on a Cowardly Lion

John Houseman
from Run-Through: A Memoir

Spalding Gray
from A Personal History of the American Theatre

Thomas M. Disch
The Death of Broadway

Charles Ludlam
Gay Theatre

Frank Rich
“Dolly” Goes Away

Wendy Wasserstein
Heidi Chronicled

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
The Chitlin Circuit

David Mamet
The Problem Play

Anne Bogart
from A Director Prepares: Terror

Tony Kushner
Kushner on Miller
Contributors

Edward Albee
Fred Allen
Brooks Atkinson
Djuna Barnes
Robert Benchley
Eric Bentley
Anne Bogart
John Mason Brown
Ed Bullins
Willa Cather
Harold Clurman
Alan Dale
Thomas Disch
William Dunlap
Morton Eustis
Hallie Flanagan
Hamlin Garland
Henry Louis Gates Jr.
William Gillette
William Goldman
Spalding Gray
Lorraine Hansberry
Hutchins Hapgood
Elizabeth Hardwick
Rollin Lynde Hartt
Edward P. Hingston
Philip Hone
John Houseman
Langston Hughes
James Huneker
Henry James
Washington Irving
Elia Kazan
Walter Kerr
Frances Parkinson
Tony Kushner
John Lahr
Ring Lardner
Ludwig Lewisohn
Alain Locke
Olive Logan
Charles Ludlam
David Mamet
Don Marquis
Mary McCarthy
Charles L. Mee Jr.
Arthur Miller
Anna Cora Mowatt
George Jean Nathan
Charles King Newcombe
Dorothy Parker
Lottie Blair Parker
S. J. Perelman
Edgar Allan Poe
Channing Pollock
Ezra Pound
Frank Rich
Gilbert Seldes
John Simon
Lee Simonson
Sidney Skolsky
Susan Sontag
Charles Sprague
Alexis de Tocqueville
Frances Trollope
Mark Twain
Luis Valdéz
Carl Van Vechten
Gore Vidal
Wendy Wasserstein
Walt Whitman
Thornton Wilder
Tennessee Williams
Edmund Wilson
William Winter
Thomas Wolfe
Alexander Woollcott
Stark Young

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