The Collected Short Plays of Thornton Wilder Volume II

The Collected Short Plays of Thornton Wilder Volume II

Published: May 1, 1998
Type: Short Plays and Essays

The Collected Short Plays of Thornton Wilder Volume II includes Wilder’s collection of one-acts, The Angel That Troubled the Waters and Other Plays, along with two previously unpublished plays—The Unerring Instinct and The Marriage We Deplore. This volume also brings back one of Wilder’s most remarkable and least-known full-length plays, The Alcestiad, an inventive retelling of the ancient Greek legend of Alcestis, who gave her life for her husband Admetus and was brought back from hell by Hercules. The volume is rounded out by Wilder’s exemplary essay, “Some Thoughts on Playwriting.”

Table of Contents
Preface
by A. Tappan Wilder

Introduction
by A.R. Gurney

Part I
The Angel that Troubled the Waters and Other Plays
Three-Minute Plays for Three Persons and The Marriage we Deplore

Foreword
by Thornton Wilder

Nascuntur Poetae
Proserpina and the Devil
Fanny Otcott
Brother Fire
The Penny That Beauty Spent
The Angel on the Ship
The Message and Jehanne
Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came
Centaurs
Leviathan
And the Sea Shall Give Up Its Dead
Now the Servant’s Name Was Malchus
Mozart and the Gray Steward
Hast Thou Considered My Servant Job?
The Flight into Egypt
The Angel That Troubled the Waters

The Marriage We Deplore

Part II
The Unerring Instinct
A Play in One Act

Part III
The Emporium”

Scenes from “The Emporium”
Notes Toward “The Emporium

Part IV
The Alcestiad with its Satyr Play The Drunken Sisters

Foreword
by Isabel Wilder

Notes on The Alcestiad
by Thornton Wilder
The Alcestiad
— Transition from The Alcestiad to The Drunken Sisters
The Drunken Sisters

Some Thoughts on Playwriting
by Thornton Wilder

Bibliographic and Production Notes


For further information on the works within The Collected Short Plays of Thornton Wilder Volume II, please visit the Bibliography.

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