Street Scene (play)
| Street Scene | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Elmer Rice |
| Characters |
Abraham Kaplan Greta Fiorentino Emma Jones Olga Olsen Willie Moran Anna Moran Daniel Buchanan Frank Moran George Jones Steve Sanket Agnes Cushing Carl Olsen Shirley Kaplan Filippo Fiorentino Alice Simpson Laura Hildebrand Mary Hildebrand Charlie Hildebrand Samuel Kaplan Rose Moran Harry Easter May Jones Dick McGann Vincent Jones Dr. John Wilson Officer Harry Murphy A Milkman A Letter-Carrier An Ice-Man Two College Girls A Music Student Marshall James Henry Fred Cullen An Old-Clothes Man An Interne An Ambulance Driver A Furniture Mover Two Nurse-Maids Policemen Two Apartment Hunters Passers-By (In the 1931 film version those characters with the surname Moran were changed to Maurrant.) |
| Date premiered | January 10, 1929 |
| Place premiered |
The Playhouse New York City, New York |
| Original language | English |
| Setting | The exterior of a "walk-up" apartment house in New York City |
Street Scene is a play by Elmer Rice that opened at the Playhouse Theatre in New York City on January 10, 1929 and ran for a total of 601 performances.[1] The action of the play takes place entirely on the front stoop of a New York City brownstone and in the adjacent street in the early part of the 20th century. It studies the complex daily lives of the people living in the building (and surrounding neighborhood) and the sense of despair that hovers over their interactions.
The main characters are Anna Maurrant, dealing with issues of infidelity; Rose Maurrant, her daughter, who struggles with the demands of her job and boss and her attraction to a Jewish neighbor, Sam Kaplan; Frank Maurrant, the domineering and sometimes abusive husband and father of Anna and Rose; Sam, a caring and concerned neighbor in love with Rose; and many other neighbors and passersby.
In the script, Rice indicated the play's setting should be "the exterior of a 'walk-up' apartment house in a mean quarter of New York. It is of ugly brownstone."[2] Rice was thinking of a building on West 65th Street in Manhattan while writing the play.[2]
It won the 1929 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.[3] It was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1928 - 1929.
Adaptations
Street Scene was adapted by Rice for a film in 1931. It was adapted by Kurt Weill for an opera in 1946.
Sidewalk production
New York's Brave New World Repertory Theater staged a production on a street in Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood in late June 2013.[2] Fifth Street in the borough was closed for the two matinée performances.[2]
References
- ↑ Street Scene at the Internet Broadway Database
- 1 2 3 4 Dwyer, Jim. (2013, June 21). With the Street as a Stage, a Fictional Murder Plays Out in Brooklyn. The New York Times, p A16.
- ↑ The Pulitzer Board (2000). "Pulitzer Prize Winners for 2000". The Pulitzer Prizes. Archived from the original on 2008-03-07. Retrieved 2008-07-10.
External links
- Street Scene at the Internet Broadway Database
- Street Scene at the Internet Movie Database
- 1949 Theatre Guild on the Air radio adaptation of play at Internet Archive