A unique play anthology featuring five gripping docudramas originally commissioned by L.A. Theatre Works that each explore pivotal moments in 20th century U.S history. With ensemble casts and innovative staging potential these plays are perfect for theatre companies, schools and educational groups looking to stage familiar historical stories in new and original ways. Each play is accompanied by dramaturgical notes that help contextualize and analyze both the events themselves and the dramatic form in which they are presented. The scripts included are: The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial by Peter Goodchild The Real Dr. Strangelove by Peter Goodchild RFK: The Journey to Justice by Murray Horwitz and Jonathan Estrin The Chicago Conspiracy Trial by Peter Goodchild Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers by Geoffrey Cowan and Leroy Aarons (Winner of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Best Live Entertainment Award, 1992) As well as five scripts this anthology includes a foreword by Professor Michael Hackett, professor of directing and theatre history at UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.
Autorentext
Peter Goodchild (born 1939) is a British writer and television producer. He is known for several plays (including his 1958 three-act Secretary Trouble) and for his editing work on the pioneering BBC show Horizon, with which he worked from 1965 to 1975. He later produced a TV series and biography on J. Robert Oppenheimer, the American theoretical physicist who worked on the first atom bomb.
Inhalt
Introduction by Michael Hackett
The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial by Peter Goodchild
Script
Producing Director Note by Susan Loewenberg
Playwright Peter Goodchild's program note
The Real Dr. Strangelove by Peter Goodchild
Script
Program note by playwright Peter Goodchild
Producing Director Note by Susan Loewenberg
Interview with Richard Rhodes, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Making of the Atomic Bomb
RFK: The Journey to Justice by Murray Horwitz and Jonathan Estrin
Script
Dramaturgical note by Elizabeth Bennett
Producing Director Note by Susan Loewenberg
Interview with longtime Kennedy confidante Father Ted Hesburgh (deceased), former President of Notre Dame University
The Chicago Conspiracy Trial by Peter Goodchild
Script
Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers by Geoffrey Cowan and Leroy Aarons
Script
Producing Director Note by Susan Loewenberg
Two interview montages, one from 1991, the other from 2008-9 touring productions