Today in History - 1916
The experimental Playwrights' Theater opened its first New York season at 139 MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village. The premiere featured three short plays: The Game, by journalist and social activist Louise Bryant; King Arthur's Socks, a comedy by Floyd Dell; and Bound East for Cardiff, a one-act play by then unknown playwright Eugene O'Neill.
The November 3 production marked the New York debut of one the most influential American artists of the twentieth century. O'Neill, who wrote more than twenty full-length plays over the course of the next two decades, is credited with transforming American theater into a literary medium which, in its artistry, rivaled the best in American fiction and painting. He won four Pulitzer Prizes for his plays and remains the only American playwright to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The November 3 production marked the New York debut of one the most influential American artists of the twentieth century. O'Neill, who wrote more than twenty full-length plays over the course of the next two decades, is credited with transforming American theater into a literary medium which, in its artistry, rivaled the best in American fiction and painting. He won four Pulitzer Prizes for his plays and remains the only American playwright to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
