Customer Reviews

The Collected Short Plays of Thornton Wilder Volume II

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First, a correction to a previous review. Anyone looking for Pullman Car Hiawatha in this book will be disappointed: it's in Volume I of The Collected Short Plays.
Both volumes have been edited with great care and love. The better-known plays may be in Volume I, but the works here are no less fascinating, even the less successful ones. And despite the title, Wilder's fourth finished full-length play The Alcestiad (with its "satyr play" The Drunken Sisters) is included. Perhaps most tantalizing of all are two completed scenes from the ambitious The Emporium, along with extensive diary notes illuminating Wilder's struggles to make progress on this unfinished project. These two volumes are a must for anyone who loves Wilder's work, and especially for writers and anyone involved in the theater.

I performed as Harriet from Pullman Car Hiawatha in State Competition for one-acts, and we won! It is quite moving if done right, and is a lot like Our Town - on a shorter and more eccentric verson.