Plays

**Description:**
//The Tempest// is set on a remote island where the magician-ruler Prospero, his daughter Miranda, the spirit Ariel, and the native-islander turned slave, Caliban, all reside in exile. Prospero uses his magic to shipwreck a royal crew carrying the King of Naples, Alonso; his brother, Sebastian; his son, Ferdinand; his counselor, Gonzalo; the drunken butler and jester, Stephano and Trinculo; furthermore, the boat harbours Prospero's brother Antonio, who had usurped the dukedom of Milan from him. The play intertwines three plots: the romantic exchange between Miranda and Ferdinand, the futile attempt of Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo to overthrow Prospero, and Sebastian's plot to kill Alonso in order to reign King. Through Prospero's wizardry and employment of Ariel and the spirits, he is able to control the fate of all on the island and bring them together in a final scene where he forgives his brother, allows his dau ghter to be married, sets Caliban and Ariel free, and finally gives up his magic.

**Rationale:**
//T////he Tempest// can be seen as a metaphor for the relationship between Britain and its colonies through the relationship of colonizer (Prospero) and colonized (Caliban), and how Caliban attempts to reject that colonization. The play also questions whether Shakespeare's depiction of Caliban produces a racist ideology of Island people, and the idea of "the other". It brings up questions about race, power, language, and justice and mercy.

Resources:
[|BBC Shakespeare Animated Tale] [|The Tempest Movie Trailer] 2010 Film directed by Julie Taymor, starring Helen Mirren John William Waterhouse: Miranda - **The Tempest** - 1916 Painting:



**Description:**
//A Raisin In The Sun// by Lorraine Hansberry, not only gave a voice to her personal experience, but was also deemed as the first realistic portrait of African-American life to ever hit the stage. The play is a social drama portraying a 1950’s working class African-American family with an opportunity to escape their poor surroundings. Lena the matriarch of the family decides to use part of the proceeds from her deceased husband’s insurance policy to buy a house in the //white// suburbs. Each family member has their own ideas as to how to spend the money and is almost torn apart because of it. A Raisin In The Sun starring Sidney Poitier and Claudia McNeil, ran for two years on Broadway. It was made into a film in 1961, a musical in 1973 and produced for television in 1989.

**Rationale:**
//A Raisin In The Sun// is an important cultural document, which Hansberry named after a line from the Langston Hughes poem A Dream Deferred. Arguably the first play to portray black characters, themes, and conflicts in a natural and realistic manner, A Raisin in the Sun received the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play of the Year. Hansberry was the youngest playwright, the fifth woman, and the only black writer at that point to win the award. She used her new fame to help bring attention to the American civil rights movement as well as African struggles for independence from colonialism.

Resources:
[|Watch 1961 Movie Trailer] [|Listen to A Dream Deferred]

=**The Laramie Project (2000) [Rachel]**=

For a year and a half following the murder of Matthew Shepard, Moises Kaufman and his Tectonic Theater Project-whose previous play, Gross Indecency, was hailed as a work of unsurpassed originality-conducted hundreds of interviews with the citizens of Laramie, Wyoming, to create this portrait of a town struggling with a horrific event.
 * Author: Moises Kaufman**
 * Genre: Dramatic Documentary**
 * Lexile Level: N/A**
 * Description: [|(From Goodreads.com])**

The savage killing of Shepard, a young gay man, has become a national symbol of the struggle against intolerance. But for the people of Laramie-both the friends of Matthew and those who hated him without knowing him-the tragedy was personal. In a chorus of voices that brings to mind Thornton Wilder's Our Town, The Laramie Project allows those most deeply affected to speak, and the result is a brilliantly moving theatrical creation.
 * Themes**: Hate crimes, gay rights, freedom of speech, community,
 * Rationale:** This play explores modern conventions (documentary interviewing) with classic techniques (play-writing). It is written from real-life interviews, so the language is dialectical and colorful, but it is arranged artistically and thoughtfully. The themes it explores are difficult, pervasive, and relevant.

[|Press conference of the Matthew Shepard Act]
 * Resources:**

[|The Laramie Project Study Guide]

[|The Tectonic Theater Project website]



Description:
The most anticipated new American play of the decade, this brilliant work is an emotional, poetic, political epic in two parts: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika. Spanning the years of the Reagan administration, it weaves the lives of fictional and historical characters into a feverish web of social, political, and sexual revelations. -amazon.com

Rationale:
This play explores questions about what love is, the intricasies of belief and religion, and coming to terms with sexuality, illness, and personal struggles. It is evocative and controversial with characters that are grappling with some of life's major questions.

Resources:
Movie Review [|Educational Guide] AIDS Timeline



Description:
Long Day's Journey into Night, a deeply autobiographical play, is a "play of old sorrow" that is written by Eugene O'Neill in his attempt to come to terms with his past, "face my dead at last". He is seeking to forgive his family for the painful memories of his past, "write it with deep pity and understanding and forgiveness for all the four haunted Tyrones". In his opening dedication found at the beginning of the book, O'Neill gives us insight into the purpose of him writing the book and the pains he took to do so, "written in tears and blood". I strongly recommend this book to people who enjoy reading literary works because Eugene O'Neill effectively uses stage directions, pathos, characterization, metaphors and other literary techniques to portray the highly dysfunctional family of the Tyrones. Their love for each other is transformed into hurt due to their inability to reach out to each other and this eventually leads to the disintegration of the family. -amazon.com

=
This is a good example of the standard American drama. You can bring in discussions of theatricality versus having this be a movie as everything takes place in one room (on one theatre set). All students should be able to relate to family struggles. =====

Resources:
[|Actor Christopher Plummer reacts to O'Neill's play] Act 2, Scene 2 from the 1962 film directed by Lumet