We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,569,424.37 | Books Available: 794,953 | Members Online: 34

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - Mister Lincoln: A Drama in Two Acts

Mister Lincoln A Drama in Two Acts
Author: Herbert Mitgang

Herbert Mitgang has spent a quarter of a century studying Lincoln. He wanted to create in this one-man show a Lincoln who was historically accurate, but also one who was human: ?What had to be avoided was a feeling by the audience that it was watching a play with a lectern at dead-center for high-minded speeches.? At this he succeeds. Mitgang?s ... more »Lincoln moves easily from private citizen to public servant to orator speaking lines destined to live forever. This is a two-act play with the first act taking place in Illinois, where Lincoln was mainly an advocate. The second act is set in Washington, where Lincoln assumed his historical position as liberator: ?The central theme that emerged,? Mitgang says, ?was his own evolving stand on slavery that led to the Emancipation Proclamation.? Lincoln promised that if he ever got the chance to hit the institution of slavery, he would hit it hard. The set and props remain simple. Stage right is for legal and official business; stage left is for relaxing at home. Lincoln delivers his great public speeches from center stage. He comes downstage to address the audience directly. The play works. It has been produced successfully in Washington and New York, on foreign and domestic tours, and was the first Hallmark Hall of Fame production to run on PBS. ?The authenticity,? as Mitgang notes, ?derives from the language.? Mitgang shows many sides of Lincoln: the president making an eloquent moral judgment??With all my heart, I believe that those perpetuating slavery are blowing out the moral lights around us?; the president overruling his cabinet to make a tough military and political decision; and the melancholy man making his load tolerable through humor??And if I laugh at any mortal thing,? wrote Byron, ??tis that I may not weep.? Wit and eloquence form the essence of Mister Lincoln. Ancient kings had their court jesters, men like Lear?s fool who broke the tension created by a weighty crown. But most of all, these jesters provided perspective. It was their job to puncture the balloon of pomposity before its light, hot air dragged the ruler from earth to Olympian heights. President Lincoln was his own court jester, as he shows in this sequence describing the opening shots of the Civil War: ?Washington became an armed camp. War knows no holidays but that is how the Civil War began. Some civilians actually carried picnic lunches from Washington to watch the first battle across the Potomac at a little creek called Bull Run. Our retreat was led by a scared, fast-running Congressman with his coattails flying.?

ISBN-13: 9780809310340
ISBN-10: 0809310341
Publication Date: 2/1/1982
Pages: 64
Edition: 1st
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
Book Type: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

Genres:

Arts & Photography >> Performing Arts >> Theater
Literature & Fiction >> Dramas & Plays >> United States

Back to the Top ↑

Search - Mister Lincoln: A Drama in Two Acts

Loading...