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History of Great Playwrights

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From the beginnings of western democracy in ancient Greece, plays have been a part of the human experience, helping us understand ourselves and make sense of the world. This five part series, A History of Great Playwrights, hosted by William Ambrose, founder of Ambrose Video Publishing, focuses on the rich literary tradition of the theater - its plays and playwrights, including such greats as Sophocles, Terence, William Shakespeare, Molière, Henrik Ibsen, Eugene O'Neill, Bertolt Brecht, Tennessee Williams, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tom Stoppard. With their unique perspective of the world around them, these playwrights have added depth and meaning to the world's great body of literature.

Episodes:

• The Great Resurgence of the Theater

  At the end of the 20th Century and the beginning of the 21st, change engulfed the world from social issues to the transmission of information. In Program five we'll see how playwrights dealt with the psychological and social changes of the era. 1953 - Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot Premieres. 1954 - Brendan Behan's The Quare Fellow Premieres in Dublin. 1959 - Eugène Ionesco's 'Theater of the Absurd'. 1962 - Edward Franklin Albee Writes Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. 1987 - August Wilson Wins a Pulitzer and a Tony for Fences. 2005 - Harold Pinter Wins the Nobel Prize. 2008 - The New Wave in Theater.

  Next Airing:	Mon, May 13th, 2024 at 11:30 AM on UEN-TV
  Length:	00:28:16
  Usage rights:	Expires 6/30/2026

• Antiquity to the Renaissance

  Program one examines the origins of plays and the earliest playwrights from ancient Greece to the Elizabethan Age. 456 BC - Sophocles and the Greek Playwrights. 191 BC - Titus Maccius Plautus and the Roman Theater. 1587 - Christopher Marlowe Writes Tamburlaine the Great. 1594 - Shakespeare Pens Romeo and Juliet.

  Length:	00:28:56
  Usage rights:	Expires 6/30/2026

• The Theater Responds to Industrialization

  Program two investigates how playwrights all over Europe reacted to social change in the Age of Industrialization. 1598 - Ben Jonson Establishes a New Kind of Comedy. 1662 - Molière's The School for Wives Premieres in Paris. 1867 - Henrik Ibsen Revitalizes the Theater with Peer Gynt. 1888 - August Strindberg, Father of Naturalistic Drama. 1895 - Oscar Wilde's Masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest.

  Length:	00:28:39
  Usage rights:	Expires 6/30/2026

• The Theater Responds to Modernism

  Program 4 examines how the epicenter of the theater and playwriting shifted to the United States, and how the musical became a major part of the theater. 1928 - Brecht's The Threepenny Opera is Performed. 1938 - Thornton Wilder Writes Our Town. 1948 - Tennessee Williams Wins His First Pulitzer Prize for A Streetcar Named Desire. 1949 - Arthur Miller Produces Death of a Salesman. 1949 - The Musical Comes of Age.

  Length:	00:28:55
  Usage rights:	Expires 6/30/2026

• The Theater Turns Inward

  As the Age of Industrialization reached its zenith in Europe and America, playwrights responded by delving into the depths of the human mind. Program three shows how European and American playwrights turned to psychology for inspiration. 1897 - Edmond Rostand Writes Cyrano de Bergerac. 1904 - Anton Chekhov's Last Play, The Cherry Orchard, Premieres in Moscow. 1913 - George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion. 1920 - John Galsworthy's The Skin Game is Performed. 1920 - Eugene O'Neill Wins First Pulitzer Prize. 1923 - Sean O'Casey Begins the Dublin Trilogy.

  Length:	00:28:55
  Usage rights:	Expires 6/30/2026

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