The Cambridge Companion to American Theatre since 1945

Abstract

Despite global recognition of American drama afforded by Eugene O'Neill's 1936 Nobel Prize, it would not be until after World War II that American theatre took flight, came into its own, and developed its own distinctive identity. These postwar years through to 1960 can be viewed as a Golden Age for American drama as new plays, new staging, and new acting styles emerged that could be viewed as distinctly American and would become increasingly influential worldwide. Though developed through the exigencies of this particular period, what audiences witnessed would provide benchmarks for future American theatrical productions in every decade to follow.Although the Federal Theater Project had been shut down in 1939 and Group Theatre had disbanded in 1941, these theatrical pioneers had offered productive training and proving grounds, as well as excellent sounding boards for ideas and talent that would continue to grow as America began to prosper financially and become able and willing to support a more specialized theatre. Also, the Theatre Guild, established in 1918, encouraged theatrical excellence into the 1970s and sponsored many burgeoning playwrights. When coupled with the tremendous optimism of an age in which the United States had emerged as a world superpowerconcerned with establishing its own cultural exceptionalism and validating its sociopolitical beliefswe witness American artists of the period determined to create both drama and musical theatre that were uniquely their own.Changing social and political forces in the nation inspired dramatists to rewrite what was possible on an American stage, and plays of the time expanded on themes, styles, and character types previously witnessed as they began to explore the varied mosaic of American types and concerns and eschew mere entertainment for personal and national scrutiny and contemplation. Edward Albee defines this collective aim in his description of how Arthur Miller's plays "hold a mirror up to us, saying, 'This is who 19