NonFicNov week 3 Be the Expert
Week 3: (Nov. 12 to 16) – Be The Expert/Ask the Expert/Become the Expert (Julie @ JulzReads): Three ways to join in this week! You can either share three or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend (be the expert), you can put the call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you have been dying to read (ask the expert), or you can create your own list of books on a topic that you’d like to read (become the expert).
#NonFicNov
- I enjoy reading plays and learning about the ‘nuts and bolt’ of
- writing and staging them.
- Here a a few books about plays, playwrights and the theater.
Feedback for a comment @ Doing Dewey
- Plays reflect society in a very direct way.
- Death of a Salesman (post WW II consumerism and the American Dream)
- Raisin in the Sun (Black experience of trying
- to assimilate into white society, pros, cons)
- The Father (originally a French play, Le Pere)
- touching look how a son deals
- …with a father slipping into dementia.
- Fences by August Wilson
- …Oscar winning movie 2016, Viola Davis Best Actress
- written 10 years after Arthur Miller’s play DoS set in 1950s is
- considered the black American version of Death of a Salesman.
- I could go on and on!
- If you just take one play…
- …do a little research
- …you never know where you’ll end up!
- Thanks for you comments and as always your
- Friday Non-fiction post that gives
- others an opportunity to share their NF reads!
- Mapping Irish Theater examines the
- …relationship between a society and its theater.
- Irish plays are deeply entrenched sense of place.
- Published: 2013 (175 pg)
- Domestic labor has figured largely on American stages.
- The genre is “kitchen sink realism”.
- Published: 2015 (304 pg)
Female Bodies on the American Stage
- Dress size of a woman makes a bold statement on stage!
- Published: 2014 (239 pg)
- First black female playwright
- …whose play was produced on Broadway
- Published: 2018 (256 pg)
- I’m adding this so you can see…
- …why Hansberry was so important for the theater.
- Opening: New York City on March 11, 1959
15 Comments
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NancyElin.blog 
Nice list of recommendations! I’ve been wanting to read the Hansberry biography for a while, and I’ll have to bump it up on my list. Her plays are all compelling, and most of them have aged well in a way that isn’t true for some of the era’s other major playwrights.
I’m trying to make a list of other playwrights to read that have ‘fallen between the cracks” Theodore Ward an Zona Gale for instance. I also want to read Anna Deavere Smith’s ‘Twilight, Los Angeles 1992. Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving a comment!
I might do this topic as well! I hope you don’t mind x
Oh, wonderful…I love when I fine others who enjoy the theater/plays/playwrigts as much as I do!
You have the enviable position of being able to go to see live performances I can only dream about! Can’t wait to see your post! Thanks for your comment!
I’ve heard about this book which might interest you Nancy – Fifty Playwrights on their Craft by Caroline Jester & Caridad Svich. But the best I can find for Aussie playwrights is this series link – https://brill.com/view/serial/AP
I’ve read a few Aussie playwrights this year (see list plays for reviews)
Cornelius, Purcell, Lee and Butler!
# AWW does not review playwrights as a ‘genre’ as it does poets! Thanks for your suggestion and limk.
These are great recommendations! I should get back to reading plays… maybe something in the genre of kitchen sick realism, I didn’t know that’s a thing, woah.
Plays have a secret life…the fun is discovering what it is!
Plays: reading time 2 hr? Just long enough for a good read in hectic times.
Thanks for stopping by…and leaving your comments!
Some of those looks absolutely fascinating. I’ve had that Hansberry book on my TBR shelf for far too long. Great list!
Than you!
What an interesting and thorough list!
Hope you find something you like on my non-fiction list!
Thanks for your comments!
What an interesting topic! The only plays I’ve read (and almost the only ones I’ve watched) are Shakespeare’s, so this is definitely a topic outside my comfort zone.
Plays reflect society in a very direct way.
Death of a Salesman (post WW II consumerism and the American Dream)
Raisin in the Sun (Black experience of trying to assimilate into white society, pros, cons)
The Father (originally a French play, Le Pere) touching look how a son deals with a father slippping into dementia.
Fences (…also Oscar winning movie 2016) written 10 years after Arthur Miller’s play DoS set in 1950s is considered the black American version of Death of a Salesman.
I could go on and on! If you just take one play…do a little research you never know where you’ll end up! Thanks for you comments and as always your Friday Non-fiction post that gives others an opporunity ot share their NF reads!