Kennedy Center Presents: Award-Winning Plays from the American College Theater Festival

Book Description

• Forward by Neil La Bute plus the Kennedy Center imprimatur

• Exciting new material for theater producers, playwrights, aspiring playwrights, and drama students at every level

Since 1969 the American College Theater Festival has recognized the finest work produced in college and university drama programs through state, regional, and national festivals around the country. At last, many recent competition winners have been gathered into one volume, an anthology of the work the Kennedy Center judges to be the best from our young dramatists. Entertaining, challenging, and sometimes startling, these plays introduce readers to the emerging playwrights who are sure to be the theater giants of tomorrow.

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Welcome to Kennedy's nightmare

Adrienne Kennedy in One Act (Emergent Literatures)
Adrienne Kennedy
Manufacturer: University of Minnesota Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0816616922

Customer Reviews:

Welcome to Kennedy's nightmare.......2001-10-06

"Adrienne Kennedy in One Act" collects eight plays by this remarkable American playwright: six original pieces and two adaptions of Greek drama. The original plays are as follows: "Funnyhouse of a Negro" (which won an Obie Award for the 1964-65 theater season), "The Owl Answers," "A Lesson in Dead Language," "A Rat's Mass," "Sun," and "A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White." The Greek adaptations are "Electra" and "Orestes."

Kennedy's original work is surreal and nightmarish. Her most striking plays feature African-American female protagonists, and explore such topics as failed marriage, racial segregation, middle-class Black aspiration, sexual transgression, guilt, and the conflict between light- and dark-skinned African-Americans.

Kennedy often uses bizarre props and stage directions, as well as weird and unsettling dialogue. Her plays often employ iconic figures from Western culture: European royalty, classic Hollywood stars, and characters from Christian tradition. Kennedy has a sharp satiric eye, and her characters are frequently suffering from intense pain.

"A Lesson. . ." and "A Rat's Mass" feature grotesque half-human, half-animal figures. "A Movie Star. . ." has as its main character a Black female aspiring playwright, and incorporates references to other plays in this collection; this piece thus has a particularly reality-warping feel.

Customer Reviews:

Good plays!.......2000-10-17

These plays written by Adrienne Kennedy are truly interesting to read. I am currently directing one of them, called "She Talks To Beethoven." Its a very compelling story and shows the contrasts between 1961 Ghana and old-time Berlin. These plays are very dramatic and I encourage anyone, whoever is interested in direting a one-act play, or just to read, to purchase this book.

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The Kennedys: An American Drama
Critically fair portrayal of the elder Kennedys
The Tragedy of the name Kennedy
Way awesome. Interesting, heartbreaking, and well-researched
Family history

The Kennedys: An American Drama
Peter Collier
Manufacturer: Encounter Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1893554317

Book Description

The Kennedys: An American Drama is a fascinating and brilliantly comprehensive history that brings together, for the first time, all the complex strains of the story of the Kennedys' rise and fall.

Customer Reviews:

The Kennedys: An American Drama.......2007-08-17

I read this book in 1984 and found it quite relevant and enlightening at the time. I am glad that the third generation has gotten itself together and are doing good things.

I have also notice that any books written after Jackie's death have a wealth of information! President Kennedy is a real person (not some far off statesman). Jackie's plus and minuses are explored and she becomes human too! The way she raised Caroline and John was amazing and they seemed to have avoided any of the pitfalls of their other cousins. Except one of course and that was and will always be a great tragedy of a life unfinished.

Another excellent book written at the same time is Doris Goodwin's: The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga. John B. Davis, Jackie's first cousin has written serveral books on Jackie, Kennedy's and the Mafia. You will not be disappointed.

Critically fair portrayal of the elder Kennedys.......2005-05-19

Well written and engaging, the book surveys three generations of Kennedys over four sections, beginning with how Joseph Patrick Kennedy shaped his family and gave his sons a calling (Architect of Their Lives) then moves on to how his sons Jack and Bobby developed their public careers following Joe, Jr.'s death in WWII (The Stand In) then moving to the peak Kennedy years of Jack's Presidency and Bobby's campaign (Brothers Within). The drama ends as both a sad farce describing Teddy's troubles and as a tragedy invading the lives of the lost generation of Kennedy children (The Lost Boys).

The book centers, as did the family, around the elder Joseph Kennedy and his wife, the queenly Rose Fitzgerald. JPK's generosity and his sincerity surprise the reader given his raw ambition, his selfishness, his manipulation of people, his womanizing, and his incompetence as a diplomat. All this was equaled only by his talent as a business man and in the end surpassed by his devotion as a father. On the other hand, Rose comes off rather dry and unappealing, which is a little difficult to believe given that she had nine children.

A disturbing revelation of the book was how high on drugs (usually prescribed) Jack was during his presidency. His awful health mandated pain killers and other drug therapies to allow him to function, but at the same time must have affected his judgment and his ability to work. Given the confrontational character of the Kennedys, one shudders to think of how badly the Cuban crisis could have turned out.

I have two strong criticism of the book. First, not enough space is given to JPK's most important contribution to the United States: he created and established the Securities and Exchange Commission, which gave the USA for decades a virtual monopoly on fair and transparent financial markets. (President Roosevelt apparently responded to critics of this appointment that "it takes a crook to catch a crook".)

Second, in the interest of protecting privacy, the material on the last Kennedy generation should have been left out. The book was published in 1984 when the lost Kennedys were still in their teens and twenties. The authors needlessly (though with sympathy) sensationalized sad stories, at too early a time in those lives to pass any sort of critical judgment.

The most interesting discovery for me was Lem Billings. He basically followed all three generations: best friend to Jack Kennedy, reassuring JPK that his son had someone supporting him outside the family, and surrogate father to some of the young Kennedys after Bobby's assassination until his death in the early 80s. A short book on Billings would be welcome.

The Tragedy of the name Kennedy.......2005-04-09

One of the first things you will see are family-trees at the beginning of every part, where you can see all the members of the family, their children and their birth- and deathdates. Unfortunately for the Kennedy family many died prematurely, as is well recognized.

Most Kennedy books will be focused on John F and his brother Robert F who were both shot. But in this book they still play main parts, but not the only ones. The book starts when the Kennedy's, and Fitzgeralds, came to America and how they quickly rose in first Boston and later American society, even though they had one big disadvantage; they were Irish.

JFK's grandfather Honey Fitz became mayor of Boston by using the Irish vote. Joe Kennedy Sr. started out selling newspapers but was soon a movie producer, even having an alleged affair with movie star Gloria Swanson, something his sons would later copy with Marylin Monroe of course.

Then came the biggest move in Joe Kennedy's life; he became Ambassador in England under Roosevelt, with whom he had a somewhat strained relationship. He would ever since be referred to as the Ambassador, even in his own family.

Collier and Horowitz make it clear that the Ambassador is the most important member of the Kennedy family and that every child's actions are in some way related to him. The story is sometimes a little TV-movie sentimental, but whould would you do if you lose 4 children when you are still alive. The oldest son Joe dies in a WWII plane crash, his oldest daughter marries but loses her noble husband soon and dies herself in a plane crash a few months later.

And of course there are the deaths of JFK and RFK.

It's certainly not a hagiography telling how great the Kennedy's were. Old Joe Kennedy is sometimes shown as a towering figure who completely dominated his family's life until his stroke. JFK got his last rites twice and was often very sick with pain in his back and Addisson's desease. His medication is mentioned in the book and also are his numorous flings with women in the White House, his own house, even Airforce One. RFK seems to have been the most moral person and I believe the authors feel that way too. They explain his religion, his fight against organized crime and Jimmy Hoffa and also his meetings with minorities all over the world. He seemed to have had the Kennedy promise even more than his brother Jack or later Ted.

The last part of the book is devoted to the next generation who cannot seem to deal with their heritage and often get into trouble, it seems as if everyone in the family is doing drugs, the last Kennedy death in the old edition, even loses his life because of it.

It's a gripping story that sometimes reads like a novel. I think it gave a balanced story of the family with the good but also the bad, which made them even more human. It's a lot clearer now why the family was so loved and hated at the same time.

A must-read for Kennedy-admirer and Kennedy-hater alike.

Way awesome. Interesting, heartbreaking, and well-researched.......2005-03-04

I never really cared about the Kennedys before I read this book. I cried on certain stories, especially David Kennedy's. What makes the Kennedy "dramas" so heartbreaking is the fact they're real.
A lot of Kennedys and their friends were interviewed for this book, so it's all the more interesting. Chris Lawford, Bobby Jr., David Kennedy, etc., and their old girlfriends and friends tell tales of misadventures and personal heartaches. Go buy it. =)

Family history.......2002-12-07

An excellent account of the Kennedys from the beginnings up to 1984, when the book was written. This book gives you a blow-by-blow history of the family and the kids. I found it most interesting learning about the little known real story of Camelot. There has been so much written about the Kennedys but the authors did some serious research and told some never before written stories, such as the JFK's back problems and Rosemary's retardation, also stories about the Kennedy kids and their drug problems. Quite informative and thorough, this book is excellent history.

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The Adrienne Kennedy Reader
Adrienne Kennedy
Manufacturer: University of Minnesota Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0816636036

Book Description

Adrienne Kennedy has been a force in American theatre since the early 1960s, influencing generations of playwrights with her hauntingly fragmentary lyrical dramas. Exploring the violence racism visits upon people's lives, Kennedy's plays express poetic alienation, transcending the particulars of character and plot through ritualistic repetition and radical structural experimentation. Frequently produced, read, and taught, they continue to hold a significant place among the most exciting dramas of the past fifty years.

This first comprehensive collection of her most important works traces the development of Kennedy's unique theatrical oeuvre from her Obie-winning Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) through significant later works such as A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White (1976), Ohio State Murders (1992), and June and Jean in Concert, for which she won an Obie in 1996. The entire contents of Kennedy's groundbreaking collections In One Act and The Alexander Plays are included, as is her earliest work "Because of the King of France" and the play An Evening with Dead Essex (1972). More recent prose works "Secret Paragraphs about My Brother," "A Letter to Flowers," and "Sisters Etta and Ella" are fascinating refractions of the themes and motifs of her dramatic works, even while they explore new material on teaching and writing. An introduction by Werner Sollors provides a valuable overview of Kennedy's career and the trajectory of her literary development.

Customer Reviews:

A princess in her own mind..........2003-10-20

Today's newspaper carried the news that Hickory Hill, the McLean, Virginia, home of Bobby and Ethel Kennedy, has just been placed on the market for $25 million. I hope to heaven that the prospective buyers read this book before putting down a contract...

Jerry Oppenheimer does a masterful job at detailing the life of Ethel Skakel Kennedy, daughter of a shrewd, self-made millionaire father and a mother who was both a compulsive spender and an extremely devout Catholic, a faith she passed on to her daughter Ethel. Neither Skakel parent expressed any boundaries and limits over the children's out-of-control behavior, which led to tragic results later in life.

A number of family insiders trusted Oppenheimer enough sufficiently to open up to him for some startlingly frank interviews. Ethel comes across as a mass of contradictions: devout and rowdy, self-congratulatory about her parenting skills as well as blind to her children's unmet needs, arrogant and surprisingly insecure.

According to Oppenheimer, Ethel Kennedy was forced to curtail her spending severely after her husband's death, and yet she did not. At one point, her sister-in-law Jackie Onassis bought a new roof for Hickory Hill--again, I hope whoever buys this famous American home has deep, deep pockets!

A fascinating story of a woman who essentially isn't all that interesting herself.

Eye opener!!!!!!.......2001-09-01

Slapping maids? Calling them niggers? Spending thousands on the same belt in different colors? Driving cars into pools? I've always wondered about Ethel Kennedy and now I think I know all there is to know. Including the fact that she was a spoiled, uninterested, racist who was obsessed with her husband, and turned a blind eye towards his affairs. Any glamour I had attached to her is now gone and I'm utterly disappointed. Of all the Kennedy brothers I held Bobby in highest esteem because he was a tenacious man who fought hard to rid this country of many injustices. Now in light of his having married Ethel I question that. How could he love and marry a woman like that? She was reckless and had no respect for personal boundaries erected by others. She was a poor mother and left the day-to-day raising of her children to nannies, dogs, horses, friends, and whoever else happened to be hanging around Hickory Hill on a given day. I could appreciate to a certain extent, her love and devotion to Bobby. However, she was on the brink of being obsessed. She was horribly jealous of both Jackie and Joan and would make rude comments at their expense. In short she could dish it out, but was hard pressed to take it. It seemed as though she believed everyone was put here on earth to serve her. In light of her "I'm a princess" attitude and her strong religious beliefs, I cannot fully understand WHY she tolerated Bobby's infidelities. All in all, this book was disappointing as it revealed a side of Ethel I would have preferred not to see.

Camp David Diaries Volume IV Jackie Kennedy 1961-1963

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This Is FICTION
HOAX
Need another opinion
FINALLY! New Information On Jackie!

Camp David Diaries Volume IV Jackie Kennedy 1961-1963
Pamela Thorson
Manufacturer: Sterling-Miller Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0931791073

Book Description

Volume IV Jackie Kennedy (1961-1963). After being lulled into complacency by the Father-Knows-Best Eisenhower administration, Americans are suddenly caught up in the whirlwind of the vivacious Kennedy presidency. Blue-collar workers earn $100 a week. Postage stamps rise from four to five cents and the zip code system begins. We are all mesmerized by Alan Shepard and John Glenn, the Beatles, the Bay of Pigs, and the Cuban missile crisis. The Berlin Wall is built in just four days, and Nikita Khrushchev begins testing nuclear bombs in the atmosphere.

Volume IV contains comments by each succeeding First Lady (Lady Bird, Pat, Betty, Rosalynn, Nancy, Barbara and Hillary), who also have diaries of their own (Volumes V - XI).

Customer Reviews:

This Is FICTION.......2006-08-06

Many people have purchased, read and provided reviews of this series "Camp David Diaries", with the belief that these are the actual diaries and the words written are that of the actual First Ladies. This series is not fact and these "diaries" where NOT written by the First Laides themselves, as many have been lead to believe. This is simply Pamela K Thorson's idea of what the First Ladies MAY have written. I am deeply disappointed as I purchased these books and read them believing they were written by the actual First Ladies. Upon reading an interview of Pamela K Thorson in 2004, Ms. Thorson states that she made up the diaries and she made up the entire concept of the diaries. I am angry as I feel as I have been duped into thinking this was the real thing. No where in the book is there a disclaimer that this is fiction. Many people are under the impression these are the words of the First Ladies and have developed opinions of these women (some negative which is unfair to the First Ladies since they did not write this), based on the idea that this is a factual account of their time in the White House. Pamela K Thorson and her publisher, Miller-Sterling, has done a disservice to the public and should be ashamed of themselves for not being honest with the public.

HOAX.......2006-08-04

On publisher's information included on a different website, this series of books was identified as "historical fiction." Be advised these are not actual diaries kept by the first ladies. These are concepts developed by Pamela Kay Thorson who has further turned them into scripts for a one-woman show she performs around the nation. Readers are not getting an inside look at the private thoughts of legendary women. They are reading one dramatist's idea of what the first ladies thoughts might have been.

I give them one star for Ms. Thorson's dishonesty and blatant misleading of her readership.

Need another opinion.......2003-12-30

Reading Mr. Russo's review had me ready to order this book - I too, am an admirer of Mrs. Kennedy's style and grace - until I read that he admired Hillary Clinton, and cheered her comment to Nancy Regan "Shrivel up you old prune". The image of one First Lady referring to another in that manner shows a sad lack of civility - not to mention a rather vicious, juvenile turn of phrase. (Which, now that I think about it, is not inconsistent with the "Ha-ha!" and smiley face Mr. Russo used in his review.)

Sorry, but I can't find value in this review. Perhaps someone more....discerning....has read this book and has an opinion? Is there something worthwhile apart from the Mrs. Clinton's petty sneers and self-aggrandizing comparisons of herself to Mrs. Kennedy? I cannot imagine two more disparate First Ladies than the private, composed, elegant Mrs. Kennedy and, um, well....Hillary. Can anyone?

FINALLY! New Information On Jackie!.......2003-06-11

I am a huge Jackie Kennedy book collector and have read almost all there is written on her. I can say that although this is a very short book that it has to be one of my absolute favorite books on Jackie. It does what all the other books only speculate on, which is: describe Jackie's feelings on her husband's infidelity. As this book is taken from the private journals of not only Jackie during her time at Camp David, but of other First Ladies and their thoughts on Jackie's entries, I have to say it is the most honest book I've read. The honesty factor does go both ways though. It also shows how catty and petty other First Ladies were in regards to Jackie. Nancy Reagan is especially foul and resentful of Jackie's stay in the White House, which is shown in this book. I almost cheered from joy though when reading Hillary Clinton's entry in response to Nancy's vile messages about Jackie: "Oh shrivel up you old prune!" Ha-ha. :) In fact, after reading this book I have found new respect for Hillary as she states that she can relate to Jackie in that her husband was also unfaithful while in office. And even shock of shocks, Barbara Bush has an entry that she feels her husband was also untrue to her with his own personal secretary. All in all, this book was just so good that I couldn't put it down. I encourage all Jackie fans, or even those interested in the lives of First Ladies, to consider this book. You'll be very happy you did.

"Color Struck" Under the Gaze: Ethnicity and the Pathology of Being in the Plays of Johnson, Hurston, Childress, Hansberry, and Kennedy (Contributions in Afro-American and African Studies)

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"Color Struck" Under the Gaze: Ethnicity and the Pathology of Being in the Plays of Johnson, Hurston, Childress, Hansberry, and Kennedy (Contributions in Afro-American and African Studies)
Martha Gilman Bower
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0313322287

Book Description

Using a psychoanalytic approach, the author assesses the consequences of judging persons of color by an "impure gaze" that undermines their humanity and psychological health. "Color Struck Under the Gaze" examines the characters in the plays of Georgia Douglas Johnson (1880-1966), Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960), Alice Childress (1916-1994), and Adrienne Kennedy (1931- ). The author employs the theories of Kristeva, Freud, Lutz, Foucault, Lacan, and Laing to support a psychoanalytic approach that penetrates beneath the surface of the characters, exposing the pathologies therein. A fascinating look at race and perception, this book includes unpublished excerpts from the works of Georgia Douglas Johnson and Zora Neale Hurston. The identity of the characters, their authors, and their place in the world, is threatened by a division of self, which, the author argues, can lead to schozophrenia, depression, neurasthenia, and paranoia. The resulting identity confusion and personality fragmentation, Bower asserts, pervade the characters' psyches as they are manipulated and judged, not only by a white male hierarchical gaze, but also by the gaze of men and women of their own race who privilege light skin over dark. Bower argues that the schizoid attitudes towards racial differences have not measurably changed.

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