Coming to Terms: American Plays & the Vietnam War

James Reston

• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781559368513
• Topic: Littérature
• Subtopic: Théâtre américain

Included in this frequently inspiring and often poignant volume of plays, originally published in 1985, are works penned in the same era as the Vietnam War from some of the most revered playwrights in the national canon. The challenging work within—from playwrights like Terrence McNally, Emily Mann and David Rabe—reflects on the social and political ethos of this pivotal moment for America.

Plays include Streamers by David Rabe, Botticelli by Terrence McNally, How I Got That Story by Amlin Gray, Medal of Honor Rag by Tom Cole, Moonchildren by Michael Weller, Still Life by Emily Mann, and Strange Snow by Stephen Metcalfe.

STILL LIFE

Emily Mann

About Emily Mann

Born in Boston in 1952, Emily Mann received a B.A. from Harvard and an MFA from the University of Minnesota. Her first play, Annulla Allen: Autobiography of a Survivor, premiered at The Guthrie Theater’s Guthrie 2 under her direction in 1977 and was later produced at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre and on Earplay. Mann’s most recent play, Execution of Justice, which depicts the trial of Dan White for the killing of George Moscone and Harvey Milk, was commissioned by the Eureka Theatre Company of San Francisco and first produced by Actors Theatre of Louisville, as co-winner of its 1984 Great American Play Contest. Mann’s directorial credits include the BAM Theater Company’s productions of He and She and Oedipus the King, the Guthrie’s The Glass Menagerie and ATL’s A Weekend near Madison, which subsequently ran Off Broadway. She has been the recipient of a CAPS grant, a Guggenheim fellowship and an NEA artistic associateship, and is a 1985 McKnight Fellow. In 1983 Mann received the Rosamond Gilder Award from the New Drama Forum for “outstanding creative achievement in the theatre.”

Production History

Still Life premiered at the Goodman Studio Theatre in October 1980, and was then produced at American Place Theatre in New York in early 1981. The American Place production, under Mann’s direction, won Obies for playwriting, direction and all three performances, as well as for best production. The play has subsequently been performed around the world—in Johannesburg, at the Avignon and Edinburgh festivals, in London and Paris, and in major regional theatres and universities throughout the United States.

Playwright’s Note

Still Life is about three people I met in Minnesota during the summer of 1978. It is about violence in America. The Vietnam War is the backdrop to the violence at home. The play is dedicated to the casualties of the war—all of them.

The play is a “documentary” because it is a distillation of interviews I conducted during that summer. I chose the documentary style to insure that the reality of the people and events describe...