American Labor on Stage: Dramatic Interpretations of the Steel and Textile Industries in the 1930s

by Susan Duffy

Overview

This study reclaims a lost body of theatrical work by focusing on four labor plays of the 1930s. These works dramatize union organizing efforts in American industry, using documentary detail in the dialogue and plot. To date, little attention has been given to the use of documentary detail in American scripts. Placing the labor plays in a social and historical context, Duffy raises interesting questions about the depiction of women as labor leaders and the overlooked role of women playwrights in the 1920s and 30s. The discussion focuses on the function of the plays and the question of whether they were merely didactic or if they served greater propagandistic ends. This work will be of interest to scholars in theatre history, American studies, southern history, and American labor history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313298615
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/13/1996
Series:	Contributions in Drama and Theatre Studies , #72
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

SUSAN DUFFY is Professor of Speech Communication at California Polytechnic State University. Her research interests focus on propagandistic uses of the theatre by leftist groups in the 1920s-1940s. She has published Shirley Chisholm: A Bibliography of Writings By and About Her (1988), and The Political Left in the American Theatre of the 1930's: A Bibliographic Sourcebook (1992).

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Strike Song
Strike!
Altars of Steel
Steel
Epilogue
Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Duffy (speech communications, California Polytechnic State U.) analyzes four plays that represent artistic responses to industries that epitomize the settings of American labor in two geographical regions, steel in the North and textiles in the South. She examines the other work, background, and political views of the playwrights; the interaction of characters, pace of the action, representations of different groups, and other internal aspects; and the reception of the plays. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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