" On closer inspection of Stephen Sondheim, we now see that he and his works have been greatly influenced by wonderful past playwrights such as Shakespeare and Plautus. ... Another show influenced by earlier playwrights is "West Side Story." ... In his book "Finishing the Hat", Stephen again acknowledges his use of words and rhyme schemes to be heavily influenced by that of Shakespeare and other earlier playwrights. ... While on the one hand he is seen (and he, himself, is well aware of this) as someone who has revolutionized the American musical theater by choosing stories tha...

• Word Count: 1723
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

William Shakespeare was a great English playwright, dramatist and poet who lived during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. ... American Journal of Psychoanalysis 42(1982): 7-20. ... American Journal of Psychoanalysis 42(1982): 7-20. ...

• Word Count: 1354
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Some supporters of realism said that if the audience did not agree with what they saw on the stage they should aim to change the society around them from where the playwright received his inspiration, and not criticize the playwright himself. ... It began in Paris during the 1880s as a joint venture of artists, playwrights, essayists, critics, sculptors, and poets. ... His influence on European and American production methods was extensive. ...

• Word Count: 1652
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

He was both a poet and a playwright all in one. ... With help from some of his fellow artists and exiles, especially Lion Feuchtwagner, Brecht was able to come to the United States of America. ... Around 1947 The United States of America was going through a red scare, or fear of the spread of communism. The House Un-American Activities Committee, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, questioned and accused anyone remotely suspicious of being a communist. ... As a playwright he was a restless worker and a man in pursuit of idealistic change, by properly presenting his beliefs to the public. ...

• Word Count: 1760
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

Playwright and director David Mamet would suggest that maybe the world is not entirely men's anymore, but the business world certainly is. Moreover, when women enter the male domain of business, they do not understand the basic rules of this male-dominated area of American existence. ... Mamet's theme of women being the monkey wrench in the works of American business appears in Glengarry Glen Ross, though in a more subdued form than in either Speed-the-Plow or Oleanna. ... Indeed, at Oleanna's premiere a female student accused the playwright of creating a play that is "politi...

• Word Count: 1694
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, playwright, author, poet, activist, critic, and educator. ... Also with Diane di Prima he founded, in 1961 the American Theater for Poets, an experimental dramatic troupe which read the works of various poets and dramatist in local coffee houses. ... He was growing tired of the Bohemians, he joined the Beat generation because he regarded its members as spiritual outsiders who were against white middle - class America. ... He felt that the Black artist must express his American experience in forms that spring from his own unique culture and that his art must be eval...

• Word Count: 2297
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

Brilliant, just brilliant," said Jules Feiffer, Cartoonist, novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. ... When the minor terrorizing began as early as 1935, many Jews wanted America to come to their safety or at least be able to flee to America for a safe, free life. ... Many opposed this idea, feeling that it would cause more problems for the Americans. ... Across America, propaganda was spread blaming the Jews for everything, including the depression because they took so many of the American"s jobs. Many people in America were as racist toward Jews, as the Nazis were. ...

• Word Count: 2087
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

She is also one of the most influential African-Americans in American history. ... During the time that Maya was growing up, America was just recovering from the Great Depression and it was also a time when African Americans were oppressed. ... In 1952 Maya met a Greek -American sailor named Tosh Angelos. ... Maya is not only known for her works in poetry, she also took a hand at being a playwright. ... In my opinion, Maya is a true American Genius, not only for her works in poetry, but for beating the odds, and becoming the most influential African American Woman in my opinion. ...

• Word Count: 1253
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Most of his best work deals with themes more known or recognized by black Americans without dwelling on dialect or stereotype. ... He was not only a poet but also a writer, novelist, playwright, critic, editor, educator, and children's author. ... ("Harlem Renaissance" 2) At this time more than ever before the voices of black Americans were being raised and heard like never before so then major publishing houses became eager to put into print the expressions and feeling of the African American writers. Many black writers began to write books for children and for young people using Africa...

• Word Count: 1342
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

The birth control pill introduced to the public in 1960 through the help of many great advocates changed the face of American sexuality, shaping American sex culture, and culture in general, as we know it today. ... The pill, less than one inch long, has been single-handily credited with revolutionizing American sex culture. ... (Asbell 177) The Pill enabled not only the planning of a family but also the planning of a life through the timing of a career. " " Modern women," declared the playwright Clare Booth Luce, "is at last free as a man is free, to dispose of her own body, to earn her l...

• Word Count: 1916
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

Wright to show the inequality women face in that society Susan Glaspell is an American writer who was born in 1876 and she graduated from University of Chicago. ... Glaspell also won an award of Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1931.She has the recognition of first important modern female playwright as an American story teller. Glaspell was not the only American feminist writer whose famous during that time, but Kate Chopin also famous for feminist reputation. ...

• Word Count: 1281
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Playwright Arthur Miller believes that the common man can be a center of dramatic interest, and he demonstrated this belief in Death of a Salesman, a tragedy about a very common common-man: a salesman from Brooklyn. ... His paramount obsession with the American dream, which he has not achieved, causes him to seek solace in past memories while living in the present. ... He dreams the American legend: the brother who walked into the jungle and came out of it rich. ... Miller has captured the tragedy of the American common man in Death of a Salesman. ...

• Word Count: 1343
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

In 1914 Hoover chaired the American Relief Commission, which helped 150000 Americans return home safely from World War One. He was continuously helping Americans during the war, which pleased the people. ... This had nearly no effect because it was brought in too late; American exports in 1932 were less than a third of what they were in 1929. ... In 1935 another organization formed called the Works Progress Administration and this funded various projects such as schools, roadwork's and hospitals and also the Federal Theatre project which employed playwrights artists, actors, musicians and...

• Word Count: 1563
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Giovanni's Room told of a white American expatriate and his coming to terms with his homosexuality. ... First, in 1968, he published Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone as a bitter account of American racism. ... (Both of these recent events have increased African-American political awareness and unity.) ... Essentially, Baldwin is not particularly dramatic, but he can be extremely eloquent, compelling, and sometimes irritating as a playwright committed to his approach to life. ... While African-American anger is definitely a part of Blues for Mr. ...

• Word Count: 1677
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Tennessee Williams The world didn't know it yet, but on March 26, 1911 a man was born that will later, for their America heritage with classic, rebellions literature. ... The helped Blanca the Pandemonium in a wonderful, love filled way, before he died in 1961 of lunge cancer, this sent the Playwright into a long, deeo depressions threatened insanely and Mr. ... Miller condemned the ideal of American prosperity on the grounds that few pursue it w/o making dangerous moral compromises. ...

• Word Count: 1257
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

A Norwegian painter named Edvard Munch, a very competent man he was and known as one of arts histories great and an American writer named Edgar Allan Poe which always has been a paradox in American literary history. ... Edvard Munch lived a longer life then Edgar Allan Poe, but both men were still became a big part of Art and American Literary history. ... His circle of friends included several writers, one of whom was the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. ... Edgar Allan Poe has always been a paradox in American literary history. Although he is probably the most widely read of all Americ...

• Word Count: 1597
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892), American poet, born near Haverhill, Massachusetts, and largely self-educated. ... Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) - American poet, one of the most popular and celebrated poets of his time. ... Langston Hughes (1902-1967) - American writer, known for the use of jazz and black folk rhythms in his poetry. ... Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) - American poet and biographer, known for his unrhymed free verse which uses precise and vivid images to portray the energy and brutality of American urban industrial life. ... Marianne Moore (1887-1972) - American poet, n...

• Word Count: 1931
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

Introduction Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible,"" was first published in 1953 during the politically tumultuous time of McCarthyist America. ... Miller positions audiences to view Proctor as a good honest man and in doing so, the playwright also foregrounds the irony in Proctor's persecution and how this indicates the flaws and true motivations of the Salem witch trials. 15. ...

• Word Count: 1264
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Angelou is a poet, an author, a historian, an actress, a playwright, a civil-rights activist, a producer, and a director. ... In the 1960's she said that being black, female, non-Muslim, non-Arab, six foot tall, and American made for some interesting experiences during her stay in Africa (Williams 1). ...

• Word Count: 1300
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The first account of dancing known to man came from the ancient civilizations of the Middle East, India, the Americas, Africa, and Australia. ... It has also been proven that Australians, the American natives and Africans danced for spiritual reasons and for entertainment purposes. ... Both Lully and Beauchamp, collaborated with France's great playwright Moliére in order to create court ballets, opera-ballets, and other fabulous spectacles. ...

• Word Count: 1480
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Eugene O'Neill - -Long Day's Journey into Night- page 1340 Eugene O'Neill 1888-1953 Eugene O'Neill was the nation's first major playwright and the first to explore serious themes in theatre and to experiment with theatrical conventions. ... He started with nothing but became rich and famous, which symbolises the American dream. ... "Keeping up appearances- has always been important to the American middle class so they by keeping a social fazade are able to hide their problems. ...

• Word Count: 1708
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

In the late fifties Jose founded the Philippine chapter of PEN, an international organization of poets, playwrights, and novelists. ... His works have been translated into 24 languages and have recently been published in North America by Random House Publishing. ...

• Word Count: 1766
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

The Salem witch trials caught the interest of playwright Arthur Miller; he saw relevance in the themes and was inspired to write The Crucible. ... " Miller may not have said explicitly that he didn't agree, but his silent dissent against the FBI's insistence upon changing his screenplays to be "Pro-American" is enough for him, just as Elizabeth doesn't speak out against the hysteria, but shows dissent. ... There is a reason that church and state are separated in America's government. ...

• Word Count: 2297
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

This powerful theme of domestic violence is what caused one Sydney reviewer called it 'the most pernicious book I have ever read' and commented that it made American Psycho look like a spotless lamb. ... Real identities or appearance vs. reality is a strong theme in many books; the great playwright William Shakespeare commonly used it. ...

• Word Count: 1862
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School