Ben Hecht's Theatre of Jewish Protest

By: Garrett Eisler

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Synopsis: Ben Hecht is most remembered as a famous Hollywood screenwriter and Broadway playwright, but only recently has his extensive Jewish activism during the Holocaust and its aftermath received scholarly attention. Unlike other, more expansive Hecht biographies, this book focuses in depth on his Jewish political theatre, drawing on extensive archival research of four dramas: We Will Never Die (1943), A Jewish Fairy Tale (1944), A Flag Is Born (1946), and The Terrorist (1947). Garrett Eisler's readings of these little-known (and out of print) texts reclaim them as pivotal to the history of Jewish American drama, being among the first works of U.S. theatre to address the Holocaust. The full texts of all four works are republished here for the first time, along with production details and full performance histories. Hecht also introduced a new heroic Jewish identity to the American stage, one that challenged popular stereotypes of villainy or weakness. This powerful and (still) controversial body of work stands as a striking testament to the power of theatre to rise to the moment. In Hecht's use of the stage to aggressively engage with history as it was happening, his story is a compelling case of an artist who made a difference.

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:: 9781978835948
Related ISBNs:: 9781978835962, 9781978835955
Publisher:: Rutgers University Press
Date of Addition:: 02/13/25
Copyrighted By:: Garrett Eisler
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: History, Entertainment, Nonfiction, Art and Architecture, Literature and Fiction, Religion and Spirituality, Social Studies, Drama, Plays and Theater, Language Arts
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.