Pulling Apart Pulitzer Prize-Winning Dramas

Description Charles Fuller, one of the few African-American playwrights to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, writes one of the most engaging, intense investigation of African-American identity in contemporary America through a murder-mystery. In the opening sequence, a black Captain of a military troupe is shot twice by an unrecognizable person. His last words are, "They'll still hate you! They still hate you . . . The still hate you!" (8) Fuller piques the curiosity of the audience immediately. Who is the "they"? Who is the "you"? What is the hate about? Why was the Captain shot? Why was the captain shot just twice? And off Fuller goes to have a black lawyer investigate the murder through a series of interrogations with the all-black military troupe and a few white officers from another troupe. Throughout the course of the interrogations, it becomes apparent that the Captain treated his officers harshly and was, therefore, widely despised. Fuller...

Description This play has the most unique title of all the Pulitzer Prize-winning dramas, hands-down. I have been curious about this play since the start of this project. When I read the description and synopsis online, I was even more excited. I am frustrated to say that I was disappointed. The plot is problematic and simple; the characters are cartoon-ish. It felt like a D-version of one of my favorites, The Glass Menagerie . So, what's it about? Tillie, or Matilda, is a shy young high school student who is socially awkward. Her older sister, Ruth, is more popular, but equally troubled with fits of seizures. Their mother, Beatrice, might be the cruelest mother you encounter in contemporary American drama. Her bitter attitude about the world pervades all caring relationships. She abuses her children verbally. She speaks rudely about the old woman living with them, Nanny. She attacks all selfless individuals from Tillie's school who try to support her. The title is tak...

Description Well, now I have read all of Albee's Pulitzer Prize-winning plays. A Delicate Balance  has been revived twice on Broadway. The 1995 revival included Elaine Stritch , who I imagine nailed the role of Claire; the 2014 revival with Glen Close and John Lithgow must have been explosive. Here is Playbill.com's summary: " Suburban couple Agnes and Tobias, who live with Agnes's alcoholic sister Claire, must cope with the unexpected arrivals of their friends Harry and Edna and their daughter Julia, in Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize-winning play." Agnes spars with her sister and questions both her life and marriage. At the end of Act One, the best friends of Agnes and Tobias, Edna and Harry, arrive in full-fledged fear. They are terrorized by their loneliness. At the top of Act Two, Julia, Agnes and Tobias' daughter, returns home after her fourth failed marriage. The individuals grapple with their sad lives as they drink and drink and drink and drink...

Description I have recently read Harold Kushner's Why Bad Things Happened to a Good Person: The Book of Job, so I have been especially excited to read this text. It was not what I was expecting. I suppose I was expecting some super-inventive, ultra-creative, Godspell- esque retelling of the Book of Job. What I read was a surprisingly faithful retelling of the Book of Job. It just happens in a circus tent. And there are two people who play the roles of God and the Devil . . . but there is a Voice of God who chimes in intermittently. And Job's friends only show up in one scene to argue with him. I guess there are some significant differences. However, MacLeish inserts several verbatim verses into his purely verse version of the Book of Job.    Candid Reactions The setting is perplexing with the circus setup.  Okay, it is clear who Nickles and Mr. Zuss represent from the get-go . . . How interesting that MacLeish has employed a "play-within-a-play" motif ...

Description I was most excited to read August: Osage County out of all the plays in this project. The title itself was intriguing. The accolades it received from the Tony Awards was notable. The actors involved in the film version were all megastars. What was the buzz all about? The buzz is about the jaw-dropping dysfunction of the venomous Weston family. The three act play begins with a prologue wherein the patriarch, Beverly Weston, confesses his alcoholism and his wife's drug addiction. His wife, the ultra-imposing Violet Weston, suffers from oral cancer. At the start of the play, Beverly abandons Violet. Therefore, all of their daughters return to figure out where Beverly went and to take care of their mother who is completely spiraling out of control. The daughters include Ivy, the shy, youngest and only daughter who has stayed near the parents to look out for them; Karen, the daughter who has escaped to Miami, adopted an out-of-the-Weston norm positive attitude, and is...