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The Mound Builders
The Mound Builders
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Biz Staff Pick!
Author: Lanford Wilson Publisher: Dramatists Play Service (cover may change) Format: Softcover # of Pages: 81 Pub. Date: 1996 Edition: Acting ISBN-10: 0822213877 ISBN-13: 9780822213871 Cast Size: 4 female, 3 male
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About
the Play:
The Mound Builders has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female/Female Scenes, Female/Male Scenes, and Male/Male Scenes.
The Mound Builders is a full-length drama by Lanford
Wilson. A team of archaeologists descends on an Illinois town to
unearth the mysteries of the Mound Builders before the site is
flooded as part of a dam project. As they excavate the remains of
this Native American civilization, they confront powerful and
dangerous forces of ambition and legacy.
The Mound Builders dramatizes a confrontation of Native
American traditions with the demands of 20th century society. At an
archeological dig in the Midwest, a party of university scientists
are unearthing vestiges of a lost Indian civilization. Heading the
group is Dr. Howe, accompanied by his wife and daughter, and by a
younger associate and his wife. They are all joined by Dr. Howe's
sister, a famous and jaded novelist, who is "drying out"
after many years of dissipation in remote parts of the world. There
is also an outsider, the acquisitive son of a local landowner, who
wants the digging site to be turned into a commercialized tourist
trap. As they excavate they confront powerful and dangerous forces of
ambition, greed and legacy. Interweaving past and present, the action
of the play probes into the lives, and violent conflicts of this
disparate group. Their story evokes resonances that illuminate what
we are and will surely become, and which underscore the irony of our
collective blindness to the disturbing lessons that a close study of
the past must inevitably reveal. This searing drama of class, culture
and gender clash finds a chilling relevance for the present – and
future – in the unlocked mysteries of the past.
The Mound Builders premiered in 1975 Off-Broadway by the
Circle Repertory Company and won the 1975 Obie Award for
Distinguished Playwriting. This often-studied American theatre classic has become a
favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops, was
revived by Off-Broadway's Signature Theatre Company at The Pershing
Square Signature Center in 2013, and is
regularly performed in regional and college theatre productions. Cast: 4 female, 3 male
What people say:
"It is probably Mr. Wilson's
most profound and resonant play to date. It is original and brilliant
and sends you out onto the street with your mind spinning
cartwheels." — WQXR Radio
"…there is fabulous beauty
in the play's writing." — New York Post
"The Mound Builders
is among the five or ten most significant American plays of the
decade." — Village Voice
About the Playwright:
Lanford Wilson (1937-2011) was one of the most distinguished American
playwrights of the late 20th century. He was instrumental in drawing attention to Off-Off Broadway,
where his first works were staged in the mid-1960s. He was also among
the first playwrights to move from that milieu to renown on wider
stages, ascending to Off Broadway, and then to Broadway, within a
decade of his arrival in New York. His work has also long been a
staple of regional theaters throughout the United States. He received
the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1980, was elected in 2001 to the
Theater Hall of Fame, and in 2004 was elected to the American Academy
of Arts and Letters.
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