Plays and Theatre Flashcards
Willy Loman is a salesman living in New York City in the late 1940’s. He lives with his wife, Linda, in the same house for the last twenty-five years. The house once sat apart from other homes, now it is surrounded by apartment buildings, which makes Willy feel closed in.
Death of a Salesman
Based on the play by Tennessee Williams, this renowned drama follows troubled former schoolteacher Blanche DuBois as she leaves small-town Mississippi and moves in with her sister, Stella Kowalski, and her husband, Stanley, in New Orleans.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Eugene O’Neill’s tells the story of a day in the life of the Tyrone family. The story closely parallels O’Neill’s own life. Tyrone, the father, is an actor, alcoholic and cheapskate. His wife, Mary, is losing her battle with morphine addiction.
Long Day’s Journey Into Night
A 1962 Broadway play about the troubled marriage of a middle-aged couple named Martha and George. The play critiques the idea of the perfect American family and challenges social expectations about life, love and family.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
It is a small town, roughly 2600 people, who mostly farm. The play centers on two families: the Webb family and the Gibbs family, who live next door to one another. Both couples have children the same ages. In Act one George and Emily are sixteen while their younger siblings, Rebecca and Wally respectively, are eleven.
Our Town
A memory play, and its action is drawn from the memories of the narrator, Tom Wingfield. Tom is a character in the play, which is set in St. Louis in 1937. He is an aspiring poet who toils in a shoe warehouse to support his mother, Amanda, and sister, Laura.
The Glass Menagerie
The Youngers are a poor African-American family living on the South Side of Chicago. An opportunity to escape from poverty comes in the form of a $10,000 life insurance check that the matriarch of the family (Lena Younger or Mama) receives upon her husband’s death.
A Raisin in the Sun
The play is a fictionalized version of the trials and tells thestory of a group of young Salem women who falsely accuse other villagers of witchcraft. The accusations and ensuing trials push the village into a hysteria which results in the arrest of 200 villagers and the deaths of 19.
The Crucible
A powerful, empowering poem all about the struggle to overcome prejudice and injustice. It is one of Maya Angelou’s most popular poems. When read by those who understand the meaning of repeated wrongdoing, the poem becomes a kind of anthem, a beacon of hope for the oppressed and downtrodden.
And Still I Rise
A 1922 expressionist play by American playwright Eugene O’Neill. It is about a beastly, unthinking laborer known as Yank, the protagonist of the play, as he searches for a sense of belonging in a world controlled by the rich.
The Hairy Ape
