Fireworks (play)

Last updated April 01, 2019

Fireworks is a set of three one-act plays about American life by Jon Swan. The set includes the plays The Report, Football, and Fireworks For a Hot Fourth. The work premiered Off-Broadway at the Village South Theatre on June 11, 1969 where it ran for a total of seven performances.^[1]

A one-act play is a play that has only one act, as distinct from plays that occur over several acts. One-act plays may consist of one or more scenes. In recent years, the 10-minute play has emerged as a popular subgenre of the one-act play, especially in writing competitions. The origin of the one-act play may be traced to the very beginning of drama: in ancient Greece, Cyclops, a satyr play by Euripides, is an early example.

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

Jon Swan is an American poet, playwright, librettist, journalist, and editor. He studied at Oberlin College, from which he graduated with a degree in English in 1950. In the 1950s, he taught at the Ecole d'Humanite in Switzerland, worked for the American Friends Service Committee, and received a master's degree in English from Boston University. From 1956 to 1960, he was a fact checker and poetry reader at The New Yorker. In 1962, he and Marianne Hamaker were married in Haarlem, the Netherlands. During the 1970s, he worked as a translator, from Dutch and German, and was senior editor at Saturday Review and, later, senior editor of the Columbia Journalism Review. After retiring in 1994, he worked as an editor in Beijing and Kathmandu. As a free-lance journalist, he has written about environmental issues in the U.S. and Iceland. He was awarded a Rockefeller Grant for playwriting in 1968 and a Guggenheim Fellowship for filmwriting in 1981.

The Report

The Report is a commentary on the American Press. It follows two characters: Meg Lehmann, a journalist, and Ben Bran, a celebrated writer. Meg cons her way into an interview with Ben which develops into a game of cat and mouse with both trying to manipulate the other. The original production starred Monica Moran as Meg and Stephen Joyce as Ben.^[1]

Football

Football is an allegorical play which uses an angry football coach at a Press Conference as a commentary on Lyndon B. Johnson and the Vietnam War. The original production starred Stephen Joyce as The Coach, Haig Chobanian as Claymore, Colgate Salsbury as Norden, John Wardwell as Geiger, Laurinda Barrett as Mrs. Ashland, and Arnold Wilkerson as Gore.^[1]

As a literary device, an allegory is a metaphor in which a character, place or event is used to deliver a broader message about real-world issues and occurrences. Allegory has occurred widely throughout history in all forms of art, largely because it can readily illustrate or convey complex ideas and concepts in ways that are comprehensible or striking to its viewers, readers, or listeners.

Lyndon Baines Johnson, often referred to as LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. Formerly the 37th vice president of the United States from 1961 to 1963, he assumed the presidency following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. A Democrat from Texas, Johnson also served as a United States Representative and as the Majority Leader in the United States Senate. Johnson is one of only four people who have served in all four federal elected positions.

Vietnam War 1955–1975 conflict in Vietnam

The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, and in Vietnam as the Resistance War Against America or simply the American War, was an undeclared war in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and other communist allies; South Vietnam was supported by the United States, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Thailand and other anti-communist allies. The war is considered a Cold War-era proxy war from some US perspectives. It lasted some 19 years with direct U.S. involvement ending in 1973 following the Paris Peace Accords, and included the Laotian Civil War and the Cambodian Civil War, resulting in all three countries becoming communist states in 1975.

Fireworks For a Hot Fourth

Fireworks For a Hot Fourth is a commentary on Suburban life in America. The play takes place at a cocktail party on the Fourth of July. The original cast included Arnold Wilkerson as the waiter, John Wardwell as Growth, Laurinda Barrett as Gloria, Kristina Callahan as Anna, Monica Moran as Belle, Stephen Joyce as Old Local, Colgate Salsbury as Sidney, and Haig Chobanian as Harold.^[1]

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References

1 2 3 4 Barnes, Clive (June 12, 1969). "Theater: 'Fireworks' Offers 3 Views of American Way of Life; Jon Swan's Triple Bill Views the Press 'Football' Used to Draw Analogy With War". The New York Times . Retrieved April 7, 2009.

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[NYT-1] 1 2 3 4 Barnes, Clive (June 12, 1969). "Theater: 'Fireworks' Offers 3 Views of American Way of Life; Jon Swan's Triple Bill Views the Press 'Football' Used to Draw Analogy With War". The New York Times . Retrieved April 7, 2009.