Theatre's Impact On American Theatre

Theatre is a huge part of American culture. American playwrights have had a profound impact on theater today. In this essay I am going to discuss a few influential playwrights. Their names are Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller.

Eugene O’Neill was born on October 16, 1888 in New York. He was one of the greatest playwrights of all time. He was the son of James O’Neill, a stage actor and Mary Ellen “Ella” ("Eugene O'Neill."). Eugene spent his early life with his father on the road. At the age of 7, Eugene was sent to a boarding school. In 1906 Eugene enrolled at Princeton University, he was not that into studies and left school after 10 months or was dismissed because he missed too many classes ("Eugene O'Neill."). In 1912, Eugene battled with

The play is about depressed alcoholics in a bar. Most of the characters have their own wild dreams which are an important theme in the play ("The Iceman Cometh"). Most of the characters dreams revolve around their former glory days and think that they will live that life again, which is far from reality. One of the main themes is being self-delusion ("The Iceman Cometh"). Many folks have dreams such as, they want to become Michael Jordan, but they lack the athletic ability to do so. Just like many of his plays, Iceman Cometh had a lot to do with Eugene’s dysfunctional family ("The Iceman Cometh"). His mother was addicted to morphine and his father was a heavy drinker. The play was set in 1912, and ironically during 1910-1912, Eugene was a heavy drinker and literally became broke.

Eugene was never a supportive parent. He fell out with his daughter Oona when she married Charlie Chaplin and broke off ties with his son Shane for drug possession ("Eugene O'Neill."). In 1953, he died of bronchopneumonia, at the age of 65 in Boston, Massachusetts ("Eugene

He was raised in a well-off neighborhood, until his family lost all their wealth in the Great Depression (Galvin). After graduating from high school, Miller worked odd jobs to save money for college ("Arthur Miller"). In college he wrote his first play called No Villain ("Arthur Miller"). Miller took courses in college with Kenneth Rowe and was really inspired by him, and decided to start his career ("Arthur Miller"). Things at first started rocky and later on, in 1944, his play The Man Who Had All the Luck, closed after four performances and with negative reviews. His next play, All my sons was a hit and earned him the Tony’s Award in 1946. Miller’s next play, the Death of a Salesman was loved by everybody, and won him three awards: “the Pulitzer Prize, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and a Tony’s Award” ("Arthur Miller"). In 1953, the play Crucible was released. The play Crucible, I believe was a significant play due to its context. Arthur Miller used the “Salem Witch Trials as an allegory to the Anti-communist Red Scare and the congressional hearings of Senator Joseph McCarthy” ("The Crucible"). The play had a huge theme of injustice; you could get executed on the basis of suspicion, in this case for being a witch. Another big theme in the play is lying; most characters in the play are liars ("The Crucible Theme of Lies and Deceit"). For example, the ministers and judges just want to protect