Playwriting Commons^™

A Critical Study Of The Dramas Of Four Major Romantic Poets, Earl Murphy Jr.

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Since little critical attention has been given to the dramas of this period, it would seem that further examination of them would be of value. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to investigate the dramas of the major Romantic poets in order to provide a new critical perspective on their plays specifically and Romantic drama generally. From this it is hoped useful conclusions can be drawn. The study will be limited to the plays of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Wordsworth, and George Gordon, Lord Byron. John Keats has been omitted from this group because his only …

Amahl And The Night Visitors

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1969 performance of Amal and the Night Visitors by Gian-Carlo Menotti.

Amal and the Night Visitors is an opera about a young crippled boy name Amal who lives with his mother, and special night they are visited by the Magi, who are journeying in search of the Christ child.

Charley's Aunt

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1969 performance of Charley’s Aunt by Brandon Thomas.

Charley’s Aunt is the story of Lord Fancourt Babberley, an undergraduate persuaded by two of his friends, Jack and Charley, to impersonate Charley’s aunt so they can spend time with they beaus. Their plan is complicated when an elderly fortune hunter tries to woo the fake aunt and Charley’s real aunt appears.

The Cocktail Party

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1969 performance of The Cocktail Party by T. S. Elliot.

The Cocktail Party by T. S. Elliot is the story of a separated couple who are brought together by their psychiatrist to a cocktail party so they might be reunited.

This show was performed by the Faculty Readers reader’s theater.

The World Of Carl Sandburg

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1969 performance of The World of Carl Sandburg arranged by Norman Corwin.

The World of Carl Sandburg features selections from the poetry and prose of Carl Sandburg.

The Madwoman Of Chaillot

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1969 performance of The Madwoman of Chaillot by Jean Giraudoux.

The Madwoman of Chaillot is a satire about an eccentric woman who uncovers the plot of a group of businessmen to dig up Paris for oil and sets out to thwart them with the help of other ordinary and peculiar people.

Oklahoma!

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1969 performance of Oklahoma!. Books and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, music by Richard Rogers.

The high-spirited rivalry between the farmers and cowmen of the Western Indian Territory provides the colorful, turn-of-the-century backdrop for Curley and Laurey’s love story. But with these headstrong romantics holding the reins, the road to love is as bumpy as a surrey ride down a dusty road. Despite many hardships, their rocky romance leads to a new life beginning in a brand new state. Rodgers & Hammerstein's first collaboration remains, in many ways, their most innovative, having set …

An Evening Of One-Act Plays

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s 1968 student-directed productions, including The American Dream by Edward Albee, The Room by Harold Pinter, and The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco.

All My Sons

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1968 performance of All My Sons by Arthur Miller.

All My Sons is the story of the Keller family, whose father knowingly sent a batch of defective engine cylinder heads to the military in World War II, and how the discovery of his crime impacts his family and neighbors.

Cry Of Dawn In Dark Babylon

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1968 performance of Cry Dawn in Dark Babylon by P. W. Turner.

From the playbill: “According to the author, this is a play about death, the Resurrection and the Church. It is a true story, based on his own experience as a pastor in an industrial parish in England.”

Performed by the Taylor Religious Drama Company. It was second of three projects developed by the class for the semester.

The Potting Shed

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1967 performance of The Potting Shed by Graham Greene.

The Potting Shed tells the story of a man who returns home to his estranged family as his father is dying. Unsure why he was estranged from his family, he pursues answers his family will not provide. He realizes the answer is found in his blank memory about an event in a potting shed when he was fourteen.

The Rivals

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1967 performance of The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

The Rivals tells the story of young lovers, Lydia Languish and Captain Jack Absolute and the mishaps which happen when Jack’s father tries to arrange a marriage for him and a sequence of gossip and misdelivered letters sets off a clash between Lydia’s suitors.

This show was performed by the Faculty Readers reader’s theater.

The Mikado

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1967 performance of Mikado by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan.

The Mikado is the comic opera about the romance between Nanki-Poo, the son of Japan’s Mikado, and Yum-Yum, the ward of the High Executioner of Titipu.

An Evening Of One-Act Plays

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s 1966 student-directed productions, including The Shoemaker’s Wife translated by David Thompson, The Starting March by Jerry McNeely .

The Master Builder

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1966 performance of The Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen.

The Master Builder tells the story of Halvard Solness, the master builder in a small Norway town who meets a young woman whom he made advances on early in life and takes into his home.

This show was performed by the Faculty Readers reader’s theater.

The Birds

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1966 performance of The Birds by Aristophanes.

The Birds tells the story of two Athenians who are tired of their life among the gods and people and seek a king who became a bird, that they may form an allegiance with the birds form a city of their own.

The Fantasticks

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1966 performance of The Fantasticks with music by Harvey Schmidt and book and lyrics by Tom Jones.

The Fantasticks is an allegorical musical about two scheming neighbor fathers who pretend to feud in order to make their children fall in love.

An Evening Of One-Act Plays

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s 1965 student-directed productions, including The Apollo of Bellac by Jean Giradoux, Long Stay Cut Short by Tennessee Williams, and The Valiant by Holsworthy Hall and Robert Middlemass.

Hedda Gabler

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1965 performance of Hebba Gabler by Henrik Ibsen.

Hebba Gabler is the story of newlywed Hedda Tesman and her reunion with a former lover and how she manipulates events to secure and create a life for herself with her husband.

The Cave Dwellers

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1964 performance of The Cave Dwellers by William Saroyan.

The Cave Dwellers tells the story of four homeless persons living on the stage of a theater about to be torn down, and how they recount the memories of their better days with joy.

Arsenic And Old Lace

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1964 performance of Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring.

Arsenic and Old Lace is the story about the Brewsters, an insane homicidal family, and the one sane member, Mortimer Brewster, who must decide whether or not to go through with his promise to marry the woman he loves, Elaine Harper, who lives next door.

The House By The Stable

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Players of Genesius 1964-1965 performances of The House by the Stable by Charles Williams.

A Comparative Study Of Caroline & Restoration Drama, Jane Pfingston

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The original plan for research was to make a comparative study of plays written in the twenty year span before the theaters closed and in the twenty year period after the theaters reopened - a comparative study of Jacobean and Restoration drama. However, the availability of play copies limited the number of plays read and the authors used. Therefore the twenty year plan proved to be quite cumbersome and the plays were reduced roughly to a twelve year period. The subject for research then became "A Comparative Study of Caroline and Restoration Drama."

The Dark At The Top Of The Stairs

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1963 performance of The Dark at the Top of the Stairs by William Inge.

The Dark at the Top of the Stairs is the story of Cora Flood, the wife of a traveling salesman. Learning that her husband might have an affair with another woman, she plans to leave the marriage. When her husband returns, having lost his job, Cora must decide how to respond.

The Heiress

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1963 performance of The Heiress by Ruth and Augustus Goetz adapted from the 1880 Henry James novel Washington Square.

The Heiress tells the story of Catherine Sloper, a rather plain-looking woman set to receive a large inheritance from her father. When a man comes to court her, her father suspects it is for the money and attempts to thwart his plan.

Right You Are

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1963 performance of Right You Are by Luigi Pirandello, translated by Eric Bentley.

Right You Are is the story of Mr. Ponza and his mother-in-law, Lady Frola, and the attempt by their village to determine the truth behind their story, as each claims the other is insane.

Three By Ionesco

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1962 performance of Three by Ionesco, featuring Man's Futile Effort, The Lesson, and The Chairs by Eugéne Ionesco, translated by Donald M. Allen.

The Miser

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1962 performance of The Miser by Molière, adapted by Miles Malleson.

The Miser tells the story of old man obsessed with wealth, determined to marry a young woman who is actually in love with his son, and marry his daughter to a rich man, though she is in love with someone else. As the children are trying to live according to their own designs, events are complicated further when the miser’s hoard is stolen.

The Crucible

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1962 performance of The Crucible by Arthur Miller.

The Crucible is a fictional story of the Salem Witch trials, telling the deterioration of a Massachusetts town when a group of women are accused of practicing witchcraft. Millar wrote the play as an allegory for McCarthyism.

The Importance Of Being Earnest

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1962 performance of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.

The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, is a farcical comedy about two men who each take on the personas with the name of Earnest in order to escape the burdens of social obligations.