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His books, such as “The Hunt for RedOctober”, “Red Storm Rising” and “Patriot Games” top both the hardback and overallbestseller books.The TheaterThe greatest flowering of American drama came between 1920 and 1970. In thoseyears, startling, powerful, and illuminating works, both tragic and comic, flowed from thepens of Eugene O’Neill, Thornton Wilder, Maxwell Anderson, Robert Sherwood,Kaufman and Hart, Lillian Hellman, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and WilliamInge. These playwrights reflected the events of their times, beginning with World War I,theGreat Depression, World War II, and the Cold War. In his plays “Desire Under theElms”(1924), “Mourning Becomes Electra”(1931),”Long Day’s journey into Night”, “TheIceman Cometh”(1946) the first important American playwright of serious drama EugeneO’Neil ( 1988-1953) made deep and sensitive analyses of human relationships. The plays ofnotable playwrightArthur Miller(1915) “All My Sons”(1947), “Death of aSalesman”(1949),”The Crucible”(1953) , “A View from the Bridge”(1955) and others werestaged in many countries of the world and brought him a world prominence.The playwrights who came after them were inspired by many events of their time:assassination of John F.
Kennedy, the student rebellions of the 1960s, the war in Vietnam, etc.Each playwright, with an individual style and a message, has been mining the Americansociety. Several of them A.R. Gurney, John Guare, David Rabe, Sam Shepard receivedboth national and international popularity. There were also a number of women playwrightsTina Howe, Marsha Norman, and Wendy Wasserstein.One notable development in recent years is the “theater of absurd” (Edward Albee).There are also experiments with electronic music and lighting, body movements instead ofspoken words, and spontaneous audience participation in some performances.Black theater presents plays about black people, written by black playwrights, andperformed by black casts.
Originally such plays used to carry messages of protest againstracial prejudice. Today black theater is increasingly concerned with blacks as individualhuman beings and their life problems. Black theatrical performances usually use black music:spirituals, gospel singing and jazz.Most important new plays are produced in the theaters located on or near Broadway inthe midtown area of New York City. There are over 15000 professional actors in New Yorkalone and another 20000 or so in the state of California.
Over 16000 professional musiciansand composers live in New York, and almost 23000 more in California. Every yearoutstanding Broadway playwrights, actors, musicians, directors, choreographers andtechnicians are nominated for Tony Awards. August Wilson, an Afro-American playwright,received both a Tony and a Pulitzer Prize for his play “Fences”, devoted to the fate of abaseball player who struggles with the difficulties of everyday life. Wendy Assertion, afemale playwright won a Tony for her “The Heidi Chronicles”.Off-Broadway theaters are shown around Manhattan in small theaters and off-offBroadway companies often play in former garages, offices and stores.
Sometimes there is noraised stage and the actors perform in the center of the hall, surrounded by the audience (socalled (“theater-in-the-round”). In almost every major city there are professional companies,which follow repertory (rep) schedules. There are also traveling acting companies that tourthroughout the country. Very many theater groups suffer from the lack of financing and mustcharge high prices for tickets in order to pay production costs and make profit.The moviesOriginally American cinema was born in the East, when in 1903 a cameramanEdwin S.
Porter turned out a short film. The first “Patent Cinema Company” was formed in1908 in Chicago. The first crew included 8 cinema-making firms. Those who did not go intoit went to Los-Angeles, California. Soon the number of film companies, producers, actors,technical staff grew up there and the first film studio was founded in 1911 in Hollywood.There were several reasons why Hollywood, the former provincial small town was to becomethe main center of American cinema industry. Besides the favorable natural conditions, brightsun all the year round and splendid landscape, the land was very cheap there.
Besides therewas enough manpower around for building and servicing of film studious. By 1915 60% of allAmerican film production was accumulated in Hollywood. After the beginning of World WarI film industry in many European countries was in crises. Hollywood filled the gap to createthe supremacy at the world cinema market. American movies poured over the cinema screensof the world. . By the middle of the 20s Hollywood had modern financial and technical basisof film production and the professional stuff.
There were 5 large studios at that time: “MetroGolden Myer”, “Paramount”, “Fox”, “Universal” and “Warner”, headed by the producersLuise .Mayor, Sam Goldwine, Adolf Zuker, William Fox, Karl Lemale and Warner Brothers.One of the most popular and prolific producers of silent movies of that time was David YorkGriffit. He made 61 melodramas, comedies, historical films, thrillers, westerns, screenversions of the Bible and literature.In the 20th the system of film stars appeared. Film stars were the most highly paidactors and actresses, whose names attracted crowds of filmgoers to movie-houses. The starswere necessary for the cash success of the film All over the world, from Berlin and London toTokyo and Buenos Aires millions of people lined up every day to see their favoriteHollywood stars Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pikford, Douglas Ferbenks, Greta Garbo, RomanNavarro and others..
For most people the world of the movies remained a dream world,separate from real life. It helped to create the “American Dream” and to convincecinemagoers that the American way of life was the ideal one. At the same time the moviesmade people think of their own lives, which could be changed and improved.One of the greatest American actors, directors and scriptwriters was Charlie Chaplin(1889-1977).
All Charlie Chaplin’s biographers agree that his miserable childhood in Londonslums made the decisive influence on his development as an artist. In his early “silent”comedies and satires Chaplin was never afraid to fight against tyranny and injustice. Hereleased a parody on war “Shoulder Arms” (1918) only some time before the American troopscame home from the trenches of the World War I. In the “Pilgrim” (1923) Chaplin attackednonconformist religion. In “City Lights” he was mocking capitalism. In “Modern Times”(1936) Chaplin parodied the inhuman destruction of the machine age.
His comedies “GoldRush”(1925), “City Lights”(1931), “Modern Times»(1935), Limelight”(1952), “A King inNew York”(1957) are filled with deep human feelings and dramatic undertones. the In 1940he created his first “talking” film “The Great Dictator “- a satire on Hitler and his policy- andduring World War II called for the opening of the second front and support of. the Russianpeople.The theme of human dignity is very strong in Chaplin’s art. His constant image - thefigure of a small, lonely man in a creased black suit, a derby hat, big clumsy shoes, blackmoustaches and a walking stick attracted millions of filmgoers not only due to his funnyappearance but also to his openhearted character.
“Oscar” – the best-known award for filmactors was given to Charlie Chaplin in 1952, but when Chaplin emigrated to Europe, the USState Department banned his reentry. In 1972 in recognition of his lifetime contribution tofilm art Chaplin was at last given by the American film establishment a special Second Oscar.He was also commemorated with a statue at the historic corner of Hollywood and Vine. Healso received special golden prize at the International Film Festival in Venice.The first “talking” movies appeared in the 30s.
Change over to sound cinema was notvery simple. Many actors were not ready to speak. Attached to microphones they stopped tomove and act. Besides in Hollywood there were many foreign actors with strong nativeaccents. When Hollywood developed production of the films with sound track it quicklyrecovered its image. During the World War II American cinema created a number of filmsdevoted to the war problems. One of the best films of that time “Lifeboat” (1944) by AlfredHitchcock analyzed Nazi threat.
“Bataan” (1943) by Tray Harriet showed the cruelties ofthe war. Many cinema celebrities went to the front. Some famous producers risked their lives,shooting war chronicles.The years before the Second World War and after it became “the golden age” ofHollywood. During that period 7500 full-length films were shot there. Eight large firmsspecialized in different themes: family movies, musicals, topics of wealth, power and humanpassions, history, gangster or horror.One of the most popular studious working in the USA became Disney Studio opened byits creator and the greatest cartoon maker Walt Disney (1901-1966).
Walt Disney was thefirst producer to shoot colored animated films with synchronized soundtrack. In his numerousworldwide cartoons he created the wonderful animal world of optimism and success. All hisanimal characters in human-like situations are always kind, friendly and smart. His MickeyMouse’s and Donald Duck’s phenomenal popularity put the animated characters into theranks of the most popular screen personalities in the world. Among Disney’s most famousmasterpieces there are also “ The Silly Symphonies”, “Cinderella” and full-length animation“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. The most spectacular interpretation of musical classicswas his movie “Fantasia”(1940). Besides cartoons Disney studio produced a number ofwonderful documentary films about animals, nature and different popular TV programs.
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