Two Short Plays

Two Short Plays by Kenneth Sawyer Goodman breathes new life into Chicagos historic Little Theater Movement. This illustrated edition of two of Goodmans best-known plays, The Wonder Hat and Back of the Yards, recalls that Goodmanstill wellremembered as a key figure in Chicagos theater scene and the man for whom the Goodman Theatre was namedwrote and produced his own works before the influenza epidemic of 1918 cut short his life. Cowritten in 1916 with Ben Hecht, The Wonder Hat comically updates classic European commedia dellarte. The Wonder Hat was Goodmans most widely performed play and is still his bestknown work. Whimsical illustrations accompany this vivid play, which features a hat that confers invisibility on the wearer, a pair of star-crossed lovers, and the assurance that love still conquers all. In contrast, Back of the Yards presents a gritty realist drama about Irish Americans in one of Chicagos toughest neighborhoods, in which a cop and a priest collaborate to save a young man at risk. Original artwork accompanies both plays, and Ioana Cornea and Benjamin Goluboffs critical introduction uses material from the Kenneth Sawyer Goodman archives at Chicagos Newberry Library to illustrate Goodmans life and career, the Little Theater Movement, and Goodmans collaboration with Hecht.