A Study Guide for William Inge's "Picnic," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.

THE STORY: The play takes place on Labor day Weekend in the joint backyards of two middle-aged widows. The one house belongs to Flo Owens, who lives there with her two maturing daughters, Madge and Millie, and a boarder who is a spinster school tea

A Study Guide for William Inge's "Bus Stop," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.

A Study Guide for William Inge's "Come Back, Little Sheba," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.

This book is a biography of Willian Inge, the American playwright who committed suicide in 1973. By 1962 he had written an unprecedented string of Broadway hits Picnic, Bus Stop, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs and Come Back, Little Sheba. All four plays had become successful films featuring top Hollywood stars. Inge had received a Pulitzer Prize for Picnic and an Academy Award for his screenplay, Splendour in the Grass. Even his long-time friend and mentor, Tennesse Williams, was envious of his success.

Cherie was a chanteuse. She said, “I call m'self Cherie. Thass all the name ya need -- like Hidegarde. I won a amateur contest down in Joplin, Missouri, and that got me a job in a night club in Kanz City. But working in a night club ain't all roses..." Bo Decker had his picture taken by Life magazine because he was a champion professional rodeo rider. Bo had heard about women only he'd hardly ever seen one. Bo was a large, beautiful hunk of man -- but green as new grass when it came to Cherie. Bo and Cherie got together when they were stranded at a bus stop one night. Their story is one of high humor -- a mixture of brag, heartache, bluster, and the funniest tough love affair ever put on stage, screen, or between the covers of a book. It is filled with comedy, compassion and tenderness.

THE STORY: The setting is a small Oklahoma town in the early 1920s and the home of the Flood family. Here we find Rubin, a traveling salesman for a harness firm, Cora, his sensitive and lovely wife, Sonny, their little boy and Reenie, their teenage daught

THE STORY: Good looking, a star athlete, and son of the richest man in town, Bud Stamper is the prize catch in his high-school class, and Deanie Loomis is the girl lucky enough to get him. But both Bud and Deanie are disturbed by the powerful feeli

THE STORY: As told by Chapman: The setting...is a modest bungalow in a small town near Kansas City, and here lives Miss Field, a widow, and her twenty-one-year-old son...The time is 1933--the Depression--and they are lucky to have jobs, she as a hospita

Inspired by a meeting with Tennessee Williams, American playwright William Inge found success early, winning a Pulitzer for drama and an Academy Award for best screenplay. His small-town upbringing profoundly influenced his writing, and one of his major recurring themes was the traditional roles of gender. This close study of Inge's work focuses particularly on his technique of "gendermandering," patterns of gender-role reversals which Inge exploits not only for dramatic effect but also to subvert social expectations. Fully considered are stereotypes and established gender roles, especially as they were reinforced socially during the 1940s and 1950s. The author concentrates largely on material that is strictly Inge's, not adaptations or collaborations, and on work that has been published and is readily available to the general public. All major plays; a collection of his short plays; the screenplay of Splendor in the Grass (1961); and his novel Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff are covered. Some of Inge's more inaccessible material, including a few short published plays as well as some of the unpublished manuscripts held in the Inge Collection at Independence Community College in Independence, Kansas, is also addressed.