Description
Following a biographical introduction, the book examines such early plays as Getting Out, Third and Oak, and Circus Valentine, which, according to the playwright herself, taught her the skills she needed to write her more successful works--most notably the much-lauded two-character drama 'night, Mother, which centers around an apparently rational young woman's choice to commit suicide. Subsequent chapters examine Norman's underrated novel The Fortune Teller and three mid-career plays that rewrite the traditions of the Western, the biblical story of Sarah and Abraham, and the legend of Daniel Boone. Her more recent plays, including Trudy Blue, 140, and Last Dance, acknowledge the limitations of romantic relationships, while her forays into musical theater and television, including scripts for such programs as Law and Order: Criminal Intent and the Peabody-winning HBO Series In Treatment, signal a dramatist who is ever willing to take risks and venture into new genres.
At her best when writing about interesting and troubled women and their relationships with each other, Norman has received much less critical attention than male contemporaries such as Sam Shepard and David Mamet. This engaging and edifying book helps rectify that disparity.
About the Author
Lisa Tyler is a professor of English at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, and a member of the editorial advisory board of the Hemingway Review. She is the author of Student Companion to Ernest Hemingway and the editor of the anthologies Teaching Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms and Wharton, Hemingway, and the Advent of Modernism.
Book Information
ISBN 9781643360027
Author Lisa Tyler
Format Hardback
Page Count 160
Imprint University of South Carolina Press
Publisher University of South Carolina Press
