Show and Tell Post Two

Basic Information 

The People by Susan Glaspell is a one act play published in 1918. It now is in the public domain and can be performed without royalties. I found it from the following website: http://www.one-act-plays.com/dramas/people.html. This play was most likely first performed at the Provincetown Playhouse, in its first season of the theatre after moving to New York City around 1916-1917. Many plays have been produced here since its opening, it is still running today producing plays mostly for New York University’s educational theatre department. More about the production done here can be found at this website: http://www.provincetownplayhouse.com/thepeople.html

Outline of Plot

The play starts as staff members of The People: A Journal of the Social Revolution wait for their editor Ed to get back from a trip that will determine the fate of the newspaper. The characters discuss what is wrong with the paper and each person proclaims what should be done in order to “fix” the paper. As the staff is losing hope a women, a boy, and a man walk into the office and explain how the paper has changed their lives for the better. The women talks to the editor and gets him to believe in his words again like she believes in them. In the end, Ed decided to keep the paper running and let the truth be open for the public. 

Dramaturgical Choice 1 

          Looking at this play one of the first dramaturgical choices we notice is Glaspell’s decision to only have four of the twelve characters have proper names. The other names given tell us either where they are from like the Boy from Georgia, or give their status of how they work with the paper like the Artist or the Earnest Approach. I find this choice notable because these characters are more than a single person but more of representatives of smaller communities of thinking. I believe because each of their titles represent a larger scale, they themselves are The People that the paper was first established for. 

Dramaturgical Choice 2

       Another significant dramaturgical choice is Glaspell’s decision to have the point of attack and the inciting incident all be in the first few lines of the script. Within three short lines the plot begins and we find out the major conflict in the play. I think this choice kicks off the play quickly and lets the readers know exactly what the play is about and what major conflicts the characters are facing in just a short moment. I like plays that take this approach because then more time is spent on the rising action when tension is growing and keeping the readers interested. I believe it works for especially well for this play because we get a taste of what is going on and then in the rising action everything becomes more intriguing as more conflicts arise.