Introduction:

A Pultizer Prize-winning playwright an originator of the symphonic drama, Paul Green is best known for his literary depictions of rural American life during the early decades of the twentieth century. Raised in North Carolina, he would go on to work with many important people in the American theatre, including Bette Davis, Kurt Weil, and the influential Group Theatre.

Biography:

Born on March 17, 1894 in Lillington, North Carolina, Paul Green spent his youth on his family’s cotton farm. As a boy he is recorded having spent much of his time reading, often bringing books to the field as he followed a mule-drawn plow. At age ten he developed osteomyelitis, a rare bone disease, in his right arm. After a costly operation, Green went on to develop his left arm for throwing a baseball, a talent that served him later on in his life as an ambidextrous baseball pitcher. After the death of his mother to a brain hemorrhage at age thirteen, Green invested three dollars in a Stradivarius model violin and taught himself how to play- an ability that would become useful as he later composed music for his own dramas. After graduating from Buies Creek Academy (now Campbell University) Green taught classes and played semi-professional baseball until he could afford tuition to enter the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where, at age 22, his knowledge was found sufficient enough to teach the freshman English class while still a freshman himself. However, his college career was interrupted by World War 1, and after two years of voluntary service, Green returned to Chapel Hill, where he would teach for thirteen years while beginning his career as a playwright.

While at Chapel Hill, Green came into contact with Professor Frederick H. Koch, an instructor of playwriting with testimonials from writers such as Thomas Wolfe, Maxwell Anderson, and Howard Mumford Jones. After winning an award for a play festival, one of Green’s plays, The Old Man of Edenton, was produced for the campus community. According the Green, he had only read two plays before writing it, and the production of his play was the first play production he’d ever seen. In 1920, Paul Green began the Carolina Playmakers, a troupe or regional playwrights of North Carolina. Contributing to the Playmakers over the next five years would have him cross paths with author Thomas Wolfe, and his future wife Elizabeth Lay. In 1923 Green began taking his works beyond North Carolina, having his play White Dresses produced by the Studio Theatre in Buffalo, NY and, in 1924, contributing The No ‘Count Boy to the Little Theatre of Chicago. The success of the latter play was eventually noticed by the New York Theatre Club and Green’s next play, In Abraham’s Bosom, became his first hit of note. Produced by the Provincetown Players on December 30th, 1926, In Abraham’s Bosom would run for 200 performances.

Paul Green and American Theatre in the 30’s:

After his contribution to Provincetown, the door connecting Green and the heartbeat of the American theatre began to open. His next major work, The House of Connelly, is particularly significant- if not or its literary merit, then for its place as the Group Theatre’s inaugural production. Important for its contributions of original plays the American stage, as well as the introduction of the Stanislavski acting Method, the Group Theatre offered a serious environment for Green’s play to be realized. Often compared to Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, Connelly is a tragedy centered around the decline of an old Southern family. Opening at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York on September 28th, 1931, the play ran for 72 performances. Green’s next major production, Hymn to The Rising Sun, was a social commentary on the treatment of chain-gang prisoners following a controversial case in North Carolina. Produced by the Federal Theatre Project, the play’s first page bears the title “A Drama of Man’s Waste”, and mirrors a case against the state of North Carolina where two black convicts were chained in a unheated building for two weeks in the middle of January. Green’s play raised the question: how can the brutal treatment of prisoners, such as these two who were recorded as suffering from frost-bite and gangrene, help send convicts back into society better prepared for responsible citizenship?

In 1936 Paul returned to the Group Theatre with his pacifist musical play, Johnny Johnson. The score was written by Kurt Weil, and served as his first American effort after fleeing Hitler’s Germany. In the play, Green experimented outside his usual naturalistic style by creating a play whose first act was a comedy, whose second act was a tragedy, and whose third act was a satire. The production is reported to have encountered problems of style early on, with director Lee Strasberg wanting to stage the show realistically, while most others in the company wanted it staged expressionistically. Scenic designer Donald Oenslager, attempting to find a cure, designed the first act in poetic realism, the second in expressionism, and the final act in an “extremely distorted style”. Reviews for the show ranged from enthusiastic to dismissive during its 68-show run. Green’s next, and potentially most important, production left the New York stage for the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Produced by the Roanoke Island Historical Association at the outdoor Waterside Amphitheatre, The Lost Colony opened as the first symphonic drama. Featuring music, dancer, pantomime, and poetic dialogue, The Lost Colony tells about Sir Walter Raleigh’s doomed colony on Roanoke Island and, save for two years during World War 2, has been staged annually since 1937. Green would go on to write sixteen more outdoor symphonic dramas, including Faith of Our Fathers, Wilderness Road, The Founders, Trumpet in the Land, which tells the story of the American massacre of Native American Moravians in Gnadenhutten, Ohio, and The Stephen Foster Story, which continues to be played each summer in Bardstown, Kentucky.

Other Artistic Endeavors:

Aside from his career as a playwright, Paul Green also wrote a number of short fictions involving the history and culture of North Carolina. Many of his stories, among them Salvation on a String and The Cornshucking, took place in Green’s fictional world of Little Bethel Country which has many parallels to his home in Harnett County, North Carolina. Aside from being the first white American playwright to take the plight of African-Americans seriously, Green’s credits include founding the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Institute for Outdoor Drama. He won two Guggenheims to study European drama and routinely traveled internationally to lecture on human rights and drama. Paul Green returned to serve as a professor of drama at UNC-Chapel Hill until his death on May 4th, 1981.

Important Productions of the 20's-30's:

"Old Wash Lucas" and "The Old Man of Edenton," produced by the Carolina Playmankers, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 11 February, 1920

"The Last of the Lowries," produced by the Carolina Playmakers, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 30 April, 1920

"Wrack P’int," produced by the Carolina Playmakers, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 26 January, 1922

"White Dresses," produced by the Studio Theatre, Buffalo, NY, 1923

"The No ‘Count Boy," Produced by the Little Theatre, Chicago, IL, 6 December, 1924

"The Man Who Died at Twelve O’Clock," produced by the Western Players, Thermopolis, WY, fall, 1925

In Abraham’s Bosom, produced by the Provincetown Players at the Provincetown Playhouse in New York City, NY, opened 30 December, 1926 for 200 performances

The Field God, produced by the Provincetown Players at the Greenwich Village Theatre in New York City, NY, opened 21 April for 45 performances

The House of Connelly, produced by the Group Theatre at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York City, NY, opened 28 September, 1931 for 72 performances

"Hymn to the Rising Sun," and "Unto Such Glory," produced by the Federal Theatre Project at the Civic Repertory Theatre in New York City, NY, opened 12 January, 1936

Johnny Johnson, (music by Kurt Weill), produced by the Group Theatre at the Forty-fourth Street Theatre in New York City, NY, opened 19 November, 1936 for 68 performances

The Lost Colony, produced by the Roanoke Island Historical Association at the Waterside Amphitheatre in Manteo, NC, opened 4 July, 1937 and continues each summer

Books:

Avery, Laurence G. A Paul Green Reader. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1998

Electronic Sources:

Paul Green Foundation Website

http://www.ibiblio.org/paulgreen/

Paul Green Theatrical and Literary Credits

http://www.ibiblio.org/paulgreen/bibliography.html

Paul Green Theatre Website

http://www.dps.unc.edu/dps/specialevents/paul_green_theater.htm

The Lost Colony Website

http://www.thelostcolony.org/

Wikipedia Article on Paul Green

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Green