美国戏剧概说美国戏剧的历史较短。
从殖民地时代起到19世纪初，戏剧在成就上远逊于同时期的散文、诗歌和小说。
直到20世纪初，才渐趋成熟，在两次世界大战之间赶上了世界水平而进入黄金时代殖民地时代的戏剧戏剧等文艺活动由于受清教主义的束缚和教会的敌视而被视为一种―罪恶‖，尽管如此，17和18世纪仍然出现个别欧洲移民创作的剧本，例如，W.达尔贝(William Darby) 1665年写的《裸者和幼兽》(Ye Bare and Ye Cubb)是迄今已知的第一出北美戏剧，但已失传18世纪的戏剧•American subjects began to be treated seriously. The first tragedy is The Contrast(1787) by Royal Tyler. It is considered ―typical American play‖ about American soldiers.19世纪的戏剧–poetical plays, esp in the first half of a group of playwrights–after civil war: realism, melodrama情节剧, emotional incidents (domestic melodrama), with simple plots•The latter half of the 19th century was a time of great change for the American theater. It was atime of tremendous growth in population in America, especially in cities on the East Coast. Americans had more leisure time and better standards of living, and they looked to the theater to provide entertainment. As the population of the country grew rapidly, the number of theaters in large and mid-size cities grew as well. From the 1850s until the turn of the century, thousands of new theaters were built•The 1828 election of Andrew Jackson as President of the United States fueled the spirit ofnationalism that had been growing in the country. Hallmarks of the nationalistic movement were patriotism, optimism, and idealism, and these values were reflected in the American theater. Romanticism, the dominant aesthetic mode in writing and the arts in Europe, was embraced in America theater as well but was blended with nationalistic overtones, producing more democratic and populist themes•Another aspect of the prosperity of this era was the growth of businesses serving the theater industry. Especially in New York City, there was tremendous growth of businesses such as dramatic agencies, costume shops, theater suppliers, photography studios, trade newspapers, boarding houses公寓and hotels, and restaurants catering to the theater trade20世纪的戏剧separation from the old tradition•1920s: ―Little Theatre Movement‖ began after 1912, Washington Square Players华盛顿广场剧团, Provincetown普罗温斯顿剧团Players (New York City, Greenage Village). They are freed from the conventional theatre and can be as experimental as they like.As the new medium of cinema was beginning to replace theatre as a source of large-scale spectacle, the Little Theatre Movement developed in the United States around 1912. In several large cities, beginning with Chicago, Boston, Seattle and Detroit companies formed to produce more intimate, noncommercial, and reform-minded致力改革的entertainments•1930s: Eugene O‘Ne il, Clifford Odets•Post-war: second climax of American drama, Arthur Miller: Death of a Salesman•60s: Theatre of the Absurd, Edward AlbeeEugene O’Neil尤金·奥尼尔（1888-1953）作品•Bound East for Cardiff《东航卡迪夫》•Beyond the Horizon《天边外》•The Emperor Jones《琼斯皇帝》•The Hairy Ape《毛猿》•Desire under the Elms《榆树下》•The Iceman Cometh《卖冰的人来了》•Long Day‘s Journey into Night《长夜漫漫路迢迢》point of view•His purpose is to get the root of human desires and frustrations.人的欲望和挫败的根源•He showed most characters in his plays as seeking meaning and purpose in their lives, some through love, some through religion, some through revenge, all met disappointment.•The characters seem to share O‘Neil‘s perplexities of human nature人性的困惑. As a result of his tragic and nihilistic虚无主义view of life, his works, in general, indicated chaos混乱andhopelessness无望.The Hairy Ape•《毛猿》(1922)是作者在完成《安娜·克里斯蒂》(Anna Christie)的同时又创作的一部兼有现实主义、表现主义和象征主义的戏剧•主人公扬克(Yank)是一艘远洋轮船上的司炉，以身强力壮得到同伴的敬畏而自豪，但遭到旅客中一个有钱的女人的侮辱,便到去寻找他的生活地位,最后只好与动物园的一只大猩猩结交朋友，结果却死在它的大力拥抱之中。
•剧本表明在冷酷无情的资本主义社会，象扬克这样的工人只能忍受非人的待遇。
要想改变这种状况，只会遭到更加悲惨的结局。
•《毛猿》表现的是美国现代文学中―自我寻找‖的主题，作品刻画了处在社会底层的小人物杨克从盲目乐观到自己在社会中无足轻重的可悲地位的心理过程，反映了工业高速发展的现代社会里劳动者失去身份、找不到归宿的迷惘和痛苦。
风格•O‘Neil was a tireless experimentalist in dramatic art. He paid little attention to the division of scenes. He introduced the realistic or even the naturalistic into the American theatre.•He borrowed freely from the best traditions of European drama, especially the stream of consciousness意识流.•He made use of setting and stage property to help in his dramatic representation.•He wrote long introduction and directions for all the scenes, explaining the mood and atmosphere.•He sometimes wrote the actors‘ lines in dialect.His position•He was the first playwright to explore serious themes in theatre.•With him, American drama developed into a form of literature.•And in him, American drama came of age (mature).•He came only after Shakespeare and Bernard Shaw in the world of drama.•He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1936.Clifford Odets克利福德·奥德茨（1906-1963）•美国现代著名剧作家,三十年代美国左翼戏剧的代表人物。