Paul Green | |
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| Born | (1894-03-17)March 17, 1894 Lillington, North Carolina, US |
| Died | May 4, 1981(1981-05-04) (aged 87) Chapel Hill, North Carolina, US |
| Education | Campbell University University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (BA) Cornell University (MA) |
| Period | Expressionist |
| Notable awards | Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1927) |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Lay |
Paul Eliot Green (March 17, 1894 – May 4, 1981) was an Americanplaywright whose work includes historical dramas of life in North Carolina during the first decades of the twentieth century. He received thePulitzer Prize for Drama for his 1927 play,In Abraham's Bosom, which was included inBurns Mantle'sThe Best Plays of 1926-1927.
His playThe Lost Colony has been regularly produced since 1937 nearManteo, North Carolina, and the historic colony of Roanoke. Its success has resulted in numerous otherhistorical outdoor dramas being produced; his work is still the longest-running.
Born inBuies Creek, inHarnett County, nearLillington, North Carolina, Green was educated at Buies Creek Academy. (It developed as what is now known asCampbell University). He went on to study at theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he joined theDialectic and Philanthropic Societies and theCarolina Playmakers. Green also studied atCornell University.
Green first attracted attention with his 1925 one-act playThe No 'Count Boy, which was produced by theNew York Theatre Club. The next year his full-length playIn Abraham's Bosom (1926) was produced by theProvincetown Players and received thePulitzer Prize for Drama. The play was considered remarkable for its depiction ofAfrican Americans in the South. Its hero, a man ofmixed-race ancestry, finds his idealistic attempts to better the lives of the African Americans around him doomed to failure. With this success, Green was recognized as one of the leading regional voices in the American theatre. His plays were often compared with the folk plays of Irish playwrightJohn Millington Synge. This included his 1926 play,The Last of the Lowries, a fictional account ofHenry Berry Lowry, a mixed-race leader of theLumbee people during and after the Civil War.[1][2]
Green'sTheHouse of Connelly was a tragedy of the decline of an old Southern family. It was chosen by the newly formedGroup Theatre for its inaugural production. Often compared toAnton Chekhov'sThe Cherry Orchard in its contrast of aristocratic decay and parvenu energy,The House of Connelly was praised by criticJoseph Wood Krutch as Green's finest play to date.[citation needed]
But Green had begun to shift from the realistic style of his early work. In 1928–29 he traveled to Europe on aGuggenheim Fellowship and was impressed by the non-realistic productions that he saw there. He began to experiment withexpressionism and theEpic theatre ofBertolt Brecht andErwin Piscator. In the 1930s Green largely abandoned the New York theatre, whose commercialism he found distasteful. His experiments in non-realistic drama,Tread the Green Grass (1932) andShroud My Body Down (1934), both premiered in Chapel Hill. They were never professionally produced in New York.
During the summer of 1936, Green,Cheryl Crawford,Kurt Weill and Weill's wifeLotte Lenya rented an old house inNichols, Connecticut, near the summer rehearsal headquarters of theGroup Theatre atPine Brook Country Club. Green returned to the Group Theatre to write his pacifist musical play,Johnny Johnson, with a score by Kurt Weill. In it, Green experimented withgenre, writing the first act as a comedy, the second as a tragedy, and the third as a satire. During this time he had an affair withLotte Lenya, which would be her first Americanlove affair.[3][4]
The production encountered problems of style early on: set designerDonald Oenslager designed the first act in poetic realism, the second in expressionism, and the final act in an extremely distorted style, directorLee Strasberg wanted to stage it realistically, and others in the company wanted it to be staged expressionistically throughout. Reviews ranged from the enthusiastic to the dismissive. The play closed after 68 performances.
Green created a new dramatic form that he calledsymphonic drama. Inspired by historical events, it incorporated music and pageantry, usually for outdoor performance. His first experiment in this form wasRoll Sweet Chariot (1934), which ran for four performances on Broadway. Much more warmly received was the first of his outdoor symphonic dramas,The Lost Colony (1937), with music byLamar Stringfield. Based on the Lost Colony of Roanoke and produced during theGreat Depression, it is still produced during the summers in an outdoor theater atFort Raleigh National Historic Site nearManteo, North Carolina.The Lost Colony is the oldest outdoor historical drama in the United States and is one of three still being performed. It has become a community institution.
Among Green's other outdoor symphonic dramas areFaith of Our Fathers,Wilderness Road,Texas,The Common Glory;The Founders; andTrumpet in the Land, which tells the story of the European-American massacre of Native American ChristianMoravians inGnadenhutten, Ohio, during the American Revolution;Cross and Sword, the state play of Florida; andThe Stephen Foster Story, which continues to be played each summer inBardstown, Kentucky.
In 1936, Green noticed a small log cabin standing in a rural area of North Carolina―he bought it, had it taken apart, moved, and put back together at his home inChapel Hill, North Carolina. He then used the cabin as a writing retreat. After his death, the cabin was moved to the North Carolina Botanical Garden where it is preserved as an exhibit open to the public.[5]
Green also wrote screenplays:The Cabin in the Cotton (1932) andState Fair (1933). He also wrote extensively on the subject of his belovedNorth Carolina. He helpedRichard Wright adapt his novelNative Son for the stage in 1940.
Green founded theNorth Carolina Symphony Orchestra and theInstitute for Outdoor Drama. He servedUNESCO traveling around the world to lecture onhuman rights anddrama. Green served as aprofessor of drama at UNC until his death in 1981.
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