Understanding John Guare

William Demastes

Description

A comprehensive study of an award-winning playwright known for unconventional blending of genres

John Guare, one of the most innovative and influential contemporary American playwrights of the last sixty years, is best known for such works as House of Blue Leaves, winner of an Obie Award, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play, and four Tony Awards, and Six Degrees of Separation, recipient of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play and the Olivier Best Play Award and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. In Understanding John Guare, William W. Demastes provides a concise biography and analyzes the playwright's career from his earliest works produced off-off Broadway in the 1960s to his most recent Broadway play, A Free Man of Color, a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Drama.

Often compared to his contemporaries Sam Shepard and David Mamet, who have distinctive voices tied to their mastery of realistic, idiomatic American English, Guare has a style that is perhaps more varied, Demastes speculates, the result of his formal training in theater. After earning a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University, Guare earned an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama. He then polished his theater craft in New York City during the exciting and turbulent 1960s, breaking from realist conventions and creating an unlikely blend of comedy, burlesque, stand-up comedy, and absurdly incongruous plotlines. The result has been a theater of surprise that is rich in stage action and experimentally invigorating.

Demastes examines Guare's tools and techniques such as mixing serious with comic, creating characters who break into song and dance, inserting stand-up comedy routines, and drawing from the most absurd incongruities of everyday life. In doing so, Guare has created plays about the best and worst of humanity, about lost souls, and about delusional ideals.

Sujets

• Literary Criticism
• Theater
• William Motter Inge
• América
• Theatre
• John Rando
• Our Country's Good
• Clive Barnes
• The Realist
• Arthur Kopit
• George C. Wolfe
• John Guare
• For Hope
• Tybalt
• Melodrama
• William Inge
• David Hampton
• General officer
• Playwright
• Lanford Wilson
• Au-delà des maux
• General
• American
• John Houseman
• Nathan Lane
• Edward Albee
• Bradley Whitford
• John Lithgow
• John Cassavetes

Informations

• Publié par: University of South Carolina Press
• Date de parution: 28 février 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781611177398
• Langue: English

Extrait

UNDERSTANDING
JOHN GUARE
UNDERSTANDING CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN LITERATURE
Matthew J. Bruccoli, Founding Editor
Linda Wagner-Martin, Series Editor
UNDERSTANDING
JOHN GUARE
William W. Demastes

The University of South Carolina Press
2017 University of South Carolina
Published by the University of South Carolina Press
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Demastes, William W., author.
Title: Understanding John Guare / William W. Demastes.
Description: Columbia : The University of South Carolina Press, 2017. | Series: Understanding contemporary American literature | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016054277 (print) | LCCN 2016054680 (ebook) | ISBN 9781611177381 (hardback) | ISBN 9781611177398 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Guare, John. | BISAC: LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General. | PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / Playwriting.
Classification: LCC PS3557.U2 Z57 2017 (print) | LCC PS3557.U2 (ebook) | DDC 812/.54 [B]-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016054277
Font cover photo Susan Johann
CONTENTS
Series Editor s Preface
Acknowledgments
Professional Chronology
Chapter 1
Understanding John Guare
Chapter 2
Early Work
Chapter 3
The House of Blue Leaves (1971) and Two Gentlemen of Verona (1971)
Chapter 4
After Blue Leaves
Chapter 5
Atlantic City (1980)
Chapter 6
Capturing America s Heritage
Chapter 7
Six Degrees of Separation (1990)
Chapter 8
Four Baboons Adoring the Sun (1992)
Chapter 9
A Free Man of Color (2010)
Chapter 10
A Career of Short Works
Conclusion
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
SERIES EDITOR S PREFACE
The Understanding Contemporary American Literature series was founded by the estimable Matthew J. Bruccoli (1931-2008), who envisioned these volumes as guides or companions for students as well as good nonacademic readers, a legacy that will continue as new volumes are developed to fill in gaps among the nearly one hundred series volumes published to date and to embrace a host of new writers only now making their marks on our literature.
As Professor Bruccoli explained in his preface to the volumes he edited, because much influential contemporary literature makes special demands, the word understanding in the titles was chosen deliberately. Many willing readers lack an adequate understanding of how contemporary literature works; that is, of what the author is attempting to express and the means by which it is conveyed. Aimed at fostering this understanding of good literature and good writers, the criticism and analysis in the series provide instruction in how to read certain contemporary writers-explicating their material, language, structures, themes, and perspectives-and facilitate a more profitable experience of the works under discussion.
In the twenty-first century Professor Bruccoli s prescience gives us an avenue to publish expert critiques of significant contemporary American writing. The series continues to map the literary landscape and to provide both instruction and enjoyment. Future volumes will seek to introduce new voices alongside canonized favorites, to chronicle the changing literature of our times, and to remain, as Professor Bruccoli conceived, contemporary in the best sense of the word.
Linda Wagner-Martin, Series Editor
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
All thanks go to John Guare himself. He chose not to call security when an enthusiastic theatergoer jumped onstage to introduce himself. Later Guare agreed to share information and insights with this same theatergoer when the idea of a book came up. Reading Guare s work over the years should have prepared me for the fact that nothing would really surprise Mr. Guare, including a stalking academic. Thanks, John.
Thanks also go to ever-patient Jean and Erin, who help in these projects in numerous ways, tangible and otherwise.
PROFESSIONAL CHRONOLOGY
Performances and Readings
1966
Something I ll Tell You Tuesday and The Loveliest Afternoon of the Year are presented by Joe Cino at the Caffe Cino, New York City, 25 October, directed by Russ Kaiser.
1967
A Day for Surprises is presented by Joe Cino at the Caffe Cino, New York City, August, directed by Bernie Wagner.
Muzeeka is first performed at the Eugene O Neill Memorial Theatre, Waterford, Conn., 19 July, directed by Melvin Bernhardt. It is also performed at the Mark Taper Forum in the Los Angeles Music Center, 10 October, directed by Edward Parone. The cast includes Philip Proctor, Sheree North, and Philip Austin.
1968
Muzeeka opens at the Provincetown Playhouse, New York City, 28 April, directed by Melvin Bernhardt, starring Sam Waterston, Marcia Jean Kurtz, and Peggy Pope. A Waterford Company Production. It wins an Obie Award.
Cop-Out is performed at the Eugene O Neill Theater Center, Waterford, Conn., July, directed by Melvin Benhardt, starring Ron Leibman and Linda Lavin.
1969
Cop-Out is produced at Cort Theatre, New York, April, directed by Melvin Bernhardt, starring Ron Leibman and Linda Lavin.
Home Fires is performed as curtain-raiser for Cort Theatre production of Cop-Out .
Kissing Sweet , a one-act television play, airs 25 November on the New York Television Theater as part of a commissioned series of plays about pollution, FOUL!
1971
The House of Blue Leaves premieres at the Truck and Warehouse Theatre, New York, 10 February, directed by Mel Shapiro, presented by Warren Lyons and Betty Ann Besch. It wins the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best American play.
Two Gentlemen of Verona , a musical adaptation by John Guare and Mel Shapiro, opens at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Central Park. Lyrics by Guare, music by Galt MacDermot. Cast includes Frank O Brien, Alix Elias, Clifton Davis, Alvin Lum, R ul Juli , Jerry Stiller, Carla Pinza, and Norman Matlock. It opens 1 December at the St. James Theatre, New York, winning the 1972 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best musical and Tony Awards for best musical and best book. Guare receives the Drama Desk Award for outstanding lyrics.
Taking Off (film), cowritten by Guare, Milos Forman, Jean-Claude Carri re, and John Klein, is released. Directed by Forman.
1973
Two Gentlemen of Verona receives a London West End production at the Phoenix Theatre, opening 26 April and running for 237 performances.
Marco Polo Sings a Solo opens July at the Nantucket Stage Company, Mass., directed by Mel Shapiro and featuring Piper Laurie, Beeson Carroll, and Kevin O Connor.
1974
Rich and Famous is produced in August by William Gardner at the Academy Festival Theater, Lake Forest, Ill., directed by Mel Shapiro, starring Ron Leibman, Linda Lavin, Charles Kimbrough, and William Jay. It transfers to Williamstown (Mass.) Theater Festival same month.
1976
Rich and Famous is produced by the New York Shakespeare Festival, 19 February, directed by Mel Shapiro, featuring Ron Leibman, Anita Gillette, and William Atherton. Music and lyrics by Guare.
1977
Landscape of the Body is produced in July by William Gardner at the Academy Festival Theatre, Lake Forest, Ill., directed by John Pasquin, starring Shirley Knight, F. Murray Abraham, and Peg Murray. Settings by John Wulp, lighting by Jennifer Tipton. It transfers to the Public Theatre, New York City, 12 October, presented by Joseph Papp and the New York Shakespeare Festival, settings by Santo Loquasto.
Marco Polo Sings a Solo presented by the New York Shakespeare Festival, produced by Joseph Papp, opens 6 February at New York s Public Theatre. Directed by Mel Shapiro, starring Madeline Kahn, Chris Sarandon, Sigourney Weaver, and Joel Grey. Setting by John Wulp, lighting by Jennifer Tipton.
1979
Bosoms and Neglect opens 3 May at the Longacre Theatre, New York City, following an initial engagement at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago (Gregory Mosher, artistic director), that opened 1 March. The cast includes Kate Reid, Paul Rudd, and Marian Mercer. Directed by Mel Shapiro, presented by Bernard Gersten and John Wulp. Scenery by John Wulp, lighting by Jennifer Tipton.
1980
Atlantic City (film), screenplay by Guare, is released. Directed by Louis Malle, starring Susan Sarandon, Burt Lancaster, and Kate Reid. Wins the Golden Lion Award for best film at the Venice Film Festival. It is nominated for five Academy Awards, including best original screenplay.
1981
In Fireworks Lie Secret Codes is presented by Lincoln Center Theater, New York City, at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, 5 March, as part of the Lincoln Center One Act Play Festival. Directed by Guare, starring William Newman, Kathleen Widdoes, and James Woods.
1982
Lydie Breeze opens 25 February at the American Place Theater, New York City, presented and scenery by John Wulp, directed by Louis Malle, starring Cynthia Nixon, Roberta Maxwell, and Madeleine Potter.
Gardenia opens 28 April at the Manhattan Theater Club, New York City, directed by Karel Reisz, starring Sam Waterston, JoBeth Williams, Edward Herrmann, and James Woods. Design by Santo Loquasto, lighting by Craig Miller, costumes by Ann Roth.
1984
Women and Water , first draft, is produced at the Los Angeles Actors Theater, directed by Bill Bushnell and starring Laurie O Brien and David Huffman.
1985
Women and Water is presented in November at the Arena Stage, Washington, D.C., a Zelda Finchlander production, direc