By Southern Playwrights: Plays from Actors Theatre of Louisville / Edition 1

by Michael B. Dixon, Michele Volansky, Jon Jory

Overview

By Southern Playwrights is a rare assemblage of works from the 1980s and 1990s by writers continuing the tradition of Tennessee Williams, Lillian Hellman, and Beth Henley, among others. This book makes available for the first time in print Marsha Norman's romantic comedy Loving Daniel Boone, novelist Harry Crews's only play, Blood Issue, and humorist Ray Blount Jr.'s ventures into one-act comedy, Five Ives Gets Named and That Dog Isn't Fifteen. Also included are novelist Elizabeth Dewberry's first play, Head On, Kentucky novelist and essayist Wendell Berry's The Cool of the Day, and Digging In, a remarkable array of Kentucky farm voices adapted for the stage by Julie Crutcher and Vaughn McBride.

Southern playwriting is a distinctive voice in the American theater, a point eloquently made in the foreword by Jon Jory. The literary works of the South, he writes, are dominated by "great language, family, strong women, religion, the land, and the past," all of which makes them wonderful for acting—and for reading. This entertaining book honors southern playwrights in a collection of works that have premiered at Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813108773
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	02/01/1996
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Michael Bigelow Dixon was literary manager and, in his last year, Associate Artistic Director at Actors Theatre of Louisville from 1985 to 2001. Michele Volansky is associate professor and chair of the Drama Department at Washington College. She has served on the artistic staffs at Actors Theatre of Louisville (199295), Steppenwolf Theatre Company (19952000) and Philadelphia Theatre Company (20002004).

Table of Contents

The Cool of the Day
Five Ives Gets Named
That Dog Isn't Fifteen
Blood Issue
Head On
Digging In: The Farm Crisis in Kentucky
Tent Meeting
2: Goering at Nuremberg
Loving Daniel Boone

Editorial Reviews

The plays included in this volume provide good examples of fine Southern writing. They provide humor, serious drama, a sense of place and enough diversity for most readers to find them excellent entertainment.

KY) Daily News (Bowling Green

"The plays included in this volume provide good examples of fine Southern writing. They provide humor, serious drama, a sense of place and enough diversity for most readers to find them excellent entertainment." — Daily News (Bowling Green, KY)

From the Publisher

The plays included in this volume provide good examples of fine Southern writing. They provide humor, serious drama, a sense of place and enough diversity for most readers to find them excellent entertainment.

Daily News (Bowling Green KY)

Presents nine plays, most previously published, which have premiered at Actors Theater of Louisville. Works include Marsha Norman's Loving Daniel Boone, Harry Crewe's only play Blood Issue, Elizabeth Dewberry's Head On, and Wendell Berry's The Cool of the Day. Paper edition (unseen), $39.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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