2016 is the 100th Anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize, Columbia University has launched the Centennial Campfires Initiative “to ignite broad engagement with the journalistic, literary, and artistic values” the Prizes represent. The project hopes to generate grassroots events and conversations across the country about the impact of journalism and the humanities on our lives and times, illuminating their value to public life today and imagining their future.
Plays Read in Our First Year
The Seagull, by Anton Chekhov
Uncle Vanya, by Anton Chekhov
Oleanna, by David Mamet
The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde
Hamlet, by William Shakespeare
Rosencrantz and Guildensterna are Dead, by Tom Stoppard
Tartuffe, by Moliere
Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett
The Cocktail Party, by T. S. Eliot
The Sunset Limited, by Cormac McCarthy
A Life in the Theatre, by David Mamet
Hedda Gabler, by Henrik Ibsen
The Piano Lesson, by August Wilson
The Birthday Party, by Harold Pinter
By the Skin of Our Teeth, by Thornton Wilder
Mrs. Warren’s Profession, by George Bernard Shaw
Thanks to Gabrielle Johansen for hosting Thursday mornings while Sandra and I belatedly celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary, with Hallie, in Paris, Mont Saint Michel, and Amsterdam. Wonderful weather, fabulous time.
Now back to the business of reading plays.
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Plays, like novels, tell stories about people interacting with the world. They’re just as rich in plot and character, language, moral theme; they’re just as entertaining, funny, sad, enlightening, emotional.
We real novels to ourselves, by ourselves, in silent solitude. Plays are written to be spoken.
Spending time with other people who read plays is in itself well worth the time. Reading a play is entertaining, learning line by line, scene by scene, sharing the plot and characters, the theme, the language, rhythm—all of Aristotle’s elements but spectacle (live on stage).
It’s like a book club, only we read plays aloud, together, stopping to discuss along the way, instead of reading silently alone and talking after. Continue reading Cold Reads & Book Clubs
Cold Reads/International 