1. America's first great playwright - Eugene O'Neill
Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953) was a playwright that became the first U.S. playwright to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature and is regarded as America's first great playwright. His plays were highly estimated for including characters marginalized by society like prostitutes in the theater for the first time and eal psychological and social issues, and for using American vernacular.
2. Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American author best known for writing <em>Uncle Tom's Cabin</em>, an anti-slavery novel that is said to have influenced the abolitionist movement in the 1850s and to have been one of the elements that ignited the Civil War.
3. a re-enactment of a Bible story - mystery play
A mystery play, also called a miracle play, was a type of play mostly developed in medieval Europe which represents or re-enacts Bible stories in churches, such as the Creation, the Last Judgement and the Murder of Abel.
4. the main character of a play - protagonist
The protagonist is the main character and fundamental piece of a play or narrative; it is usually the one who faces the most difficult challenges and keeps the story going. An example of a protagonist is Uncle Tom in the novel <em>Uncle Tom's Cabin.</em>
5. turning point of a play - climax
The Climax stage is that which comes right after the Rising Action (where the central conflict unfolds) and which is the turning point in the conflict of a play or a story, where the main characters must make a decision or take an action that determines the direction of the story for better or for worse.
6. the people involved in the action of a play - characters
Characters refer to anyone that participates in the action of a play. There are several types of characters, for example, some changes gradually during the course of the story (Dynamic character), others are complex in nature, with multiple aspects to their personality (Round character), others are predictable with only one or two dominant traits (Flat character), and others are more interesting although they do not develop much, or nothing at all, during the play (Static character).
7. guide and narrator for Our Town - the stage manager
The State Manager is the person who narrates, comments, addresses, and guides the audience and even participates as the main character in <em>Our Town</em>, which is a play consisting of three acts, first produced in 1938 and written by American Thornton Wilder.
8. a morality play of the Middle Ages - Everyman
<em>Everyman</em>, in full <em>The Somonyng of Everyman</em>, is a morality play of the Middle Ages, whose author is unknown, and which deals with issues like death, moral, Christian salvation and what men must do to attain it.
9. Act III of Our Town - the cemetery scene
This act begins nine years later, with a local cemetery scene, and the state manager speaking about death, eternity and people who have died since George and Emily’s wedding, two of the main characters of the play.
10. the setting of Our Town - Grover's Corner, New Hampshire
The play takes place in 1938, in an American fictional small town called Grover's Corner, located in New Hampshire.
