This is an extraordinarily important and unique book that is essential for playwrights, theater enthusiasm and courses on drama. Dramatists from the past 200 years, among them Chekhov, Shaw, O'Neill, and Miller, speak on their dramatic credos and on their specific plays. Preface v Introduction xi Part 1 Credos and Concepts Henrik Ibsen The Task of the Poet 3(2) Emile Zola Naturalism on the Stage 5(10) August Strindberg On Modern Drama and Modern Theatre 15(8) Anton Chekhov Advice to Playwrights 23(7) Maurice Maeterlinck The Tragic in Daily Life 30(7) William B. Yeats Language, Character, and Construction 37(8) John Galsworthy Some Platitudes Concerning Drama 45(8) Bernard Shaw How to Write a Popular Play 53(5) Federico Garcia Lorca The Authority of the Theatre 58(4) Jean Giraudoux Two Laws 62(3) Eugene O'Neill Memoranda on Masks 65(7) Bertolt Brecht A Short Organum for the Theatre 72(34) Thornton Wilder Some Thoughts on Playwriting 106(10) Jean-Paul Sartre Forgers of Myths 116(9) Christopher Fry Why Verse? 125(6) Friedrich Duerrenmatt Problems of the Theatre 131(9) John Osborne Declaration 140(5) Eugene Ionesco The Starting Point 145(6) Part 2 Creations Henrik Ibsen A Doll's House 151(3) Ghosts 154(2) Hedda Gabler 156(15) August Strindberg Miss Julie 171(11) A Dream Play 182(2) Anton Chekhov Ivanov 184(9) William Archer-Bernard Shaw Widowers' Houses: A Collaboration 193(8) John Millington Synge The Playboy of the Western World 201(1) The Tinker's Wedding 202(2) Luigi Pirandello Six Characters in Search of an Author 204(14) Ernst Toller Transfiguration 218(2) Masses and Man 220(2) The Machine-Wreckers 222(1) Hoppla, Such Is Life! 223(5) Federico Garcia Lorca Mariana Pineda 228(3) The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife 231(2) Eugene O'Neill The Sea Plays 233(1) Beyond the Horizon 234(1) The Emperor Jones 234(1) The Hairy Ape 235(2) The Great God Brown 237(3) Jean Cocteau Les Maries de la Tour Eiffel 240(7) Sean O'Casey Cock-A-Doodle Dandy 247(3) T. S. Eliot Murder in the Cathedral 250(4) The Family Reunion 254(3) The Cocktail Party 257(4) Arthur Miller Death of a Salesman 261(16) Tennessee Williams Camino Real 277(5) Eugene Ionesco The Bald Soprano 282(2) The Chairs 284(1) Appendix From Hebbel's Journals 285(4) Bibliography 289(6) Index 295