The Kentucky Cycle

Robert Schenkkan

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780802125279
• eBook ISBN: 9780802189899
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

The Pulitzer Prize–winning cycle of one-act plays spanning two centuries of American history: "hauntingly memorable [with a] poetic impulse" ( Time).
 
One of the most important contemporary works of political theater,  The Kentucky Cycle was awarded the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for its astute and dramatically epic investigation of the brutal birth of America. Set in the Appalachian Mountains and spanning seven generations—from 1775 to 1975—this saga of rural Kentucky digs beneath our American mythology to confront the truth of our national history.
 
It is the story of three families whose lives are irrevocably intertwined as they struggle for control over a portion of the Cumberland Plateau. From the darker realities of our pioneer heritage to the bloody lessons of the Civil War, and from the Unionization of coal miners to the harsh environmental legacy of strip mining, this fascinating work chronicles the lives of ordinary people struggling to find a better place for themselves in an unpredictable world.
 
"Serious drama with a dark center . . . an epic." — The New Yorker
 
"Riveting theater . . . [a] monumental work." — Los Angeles Times

PART
ONE

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills at prey,

When wealth accumulates, and men decay.

—OLIVER GOLDSMITH

MASTERS OF THE TRADE 1775

THE COURTSHIP OF MORNING STAR 1776

THE HOMECOMING 1792

—INTERMISSION—

TIES THAT BIND 1819

GOD’S GREAT SUPPER 1861

PROLOGUE

(When the audience enters the theater, the house lights are on, exposing the entire stage and its mechanics. When the “curtain” rises, the house lights go out and the actors enter the stage from all four directions. The principal actors surround the earthen pit, facing one another, while the chorus remains stage left and stage right in the waiting areas. The principal actors turn as one and face the audience. A spot singles out one actor/actress, the NARRATOR.*)

NARRATOR: The Kentucky Cycle.

(Once again, the principal actors turn inward to face one another. A single actor [EARL TOD] steps into the dirt pit. As he does so, the work lights shift into stage light and the music begins. Chorus members ritually outfit this actor with a hat and a Kentucky long rifle. A large leather pack is set down beside him. Three wooden “fire” logs are carried on and placed together. As Earl Tod sits down by the “fire,” the Narrator again turns to face the audience.)

NARRATOR: Masters of the Trade.

The year is 1775. A small clearing in a thick forest somewhere in eastern Kentucky. A creek flows nearby. “It was here on the frontier of the middle and upper South that the Indian Wars rose to their fiercest and cruelest pitch. Here the savage was taught his lessons in perfidy by masters of the trade.”

Masters of the Trade.

All the actors leave the stage to sit in the waiting areas offstage left and right, where they will remain in full view of the audience.

The lights shift, and we are in the forest.

The play begins.

* The role of the Narrator should shift among the ensemble so that a different actor or actress assumes the part every time the Narrator appears.

MASTERS
OF THE
TRADE

It was here on the frontier of the middle and upper South that the Indian Wars rose to their fiercest and cruelest pitch. Here the savage was taught his lessons in perfidy by masters of the trade.

—H. CAUDILL

CHARACTERS

EARL TOD a Scottish trapper

MICHAEL ROWEN age thirty-four, an Irish indentured servant

SAM (YOUNG MAN) a Virginia farmer

TASKWAN a Cherokee

DRAGGING CANOE a Cherokee

CHEROKEE WARRIORS (nonspeaking roles)

1775. Early morning, an hour before daybreak. Somewhere in eastern Kentucky. A small clearing in a thick forest. A creek flows nearby.

EARL TOD sits hunched over in front of a dying fire. He dozes, wrapped in a filthy blanket and cradling a ...

Table of contents

• The Kentucky Cycle
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• Geneological Chart
• PREFACE
• PERFORMANCE NOTES
• PART ONE
• MASTERS OF THE TRADE
• THE COURTSHIP OFMORNING STAR
• THE HOMECOMING
• TIES THAT BIND
• GOD'S GREAT SUPPER
• PART TWO
• TALL TALES
• FIRE IN THE HOLE
• WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
• THE WAR ON POVERTY
• AUTHOR'S NOTE
• BACK COVER