Look Homeward, Angel has long been a favourite of acting teachers for female monologues and female/male scenes.

Look Homeward, Angel is a full-length drama adapted for the stage by Ketti Frings, from the first and largely autobiographical novel of the same name by Thomas Wolfe. Tells the emotional story of Eugene Gant, whose overbearing mother forces her alcoholic husband and three children into helping her run "Dixieland" a seedy North Carolina boardinghouse, nearly crushing his dream to go to college and become a writer.

Look Homeward, Angel examines the life of a young man growing up in a small town in the mountains of North Carolina during the early part of the 20th century. An authentic American classic, this powerful and vital play captures the sardonic humour and the grief, both private and universal, of Thomas Wolfe's novel about a youth coming of age. Concentrating on the last third of Wolfe's story, the play vividly portrays Eugene Gant, his mother, who is obsessed by her material holdings and who maintains barriers against the love of her family, his father, a stonecutter imprisoned by his failures, and the brother who never breaks away.

Look Homeward, Angel premiered in 1957 on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, ran for 564 performances, and received six Tony Award nominations. For this play, Ketti Frings received the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, and was named by the Los Angeles Times as "Woman of the Year." The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and is regularly performed in repertory, high school, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 8 female, 10 male

What people say:

"One of the finest plays in American dramatic literature." — The New York Post

About the Playwright:

Ketti Frings (1909-1981) was an American author, playwright, and screenwriter. A Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, she produced an impressive number of plays, novels, and screenplays during her 35-year career, but Look Homeward Angel, her adaptation of Thomas Wolfe's autobiographical novel, remains the work for which she is best known.

Thomas Clayton Wolfe (1900-1938) was a major American novelist of the early 20th century who wrote four lengthy novels, plus many short stories, dramatic works and novellas. He is known for mixing highly original, poetic, rhapsodic, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing. His influence extends to the writings of famous Beat writer Jack Kerouac, authors Ray Bradbury and Philip Roth among others.