Modern American Drama

c.w.e.bigsby

Ten years ago I wrote a study of twentieth-century American drama. It quickly outgrew its proposed length, expanding from one brief volume to three extensive ones. Eight  years later I was asked to write a , word section of the Cambridge History of American  Theatre. I had reached , words before I realised I  had inadvertently written another book.  Discipline has never been my strong suit. I did then com- plete the original commission but what  follows is that accidental study. It covers territory I have charted before and there are bound to  be a few echoes, but it is surprising how a familiar country can change over time. The book is  offered as a series of reflections on American drama in the second half of the twentieth century. It  does not aim to be comprehen- sive. What I hope it does is reflect my fascination with writers who

in staging their plays have also staged the anxieties, the tensions and the myths of a nation en  route from a world war to the end of a millennium.