The Shrike (play)
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The Shrike (play)
''The Shrike'' is a play written by American dramatist Joseph Kramm. The play won the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Plot The play, set in the mental ward of a city hospital, revolves around a theatrical director named Jim Downs, who has been driven to the verge of insanity and suicide by his estranged wife Ann. To outsiders, Ann seems to epitomize sweetness, kindness and graciousness. In reality, she is a bitter, manipulative shrew. Like the shrike, a small predatory bird that kills and impales its prey, Ann seems harmless but her coercion of Jim incapacitates his free will and traps him under her control. Ann married Jim in hopes that he eventually would gain wealth and stardom, and so his lack of success galls her. Her mockery and nagging led Jim to a suicide attempt when he swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills. The play opens with Jim's being admitted to the hospital, where doctors manage to save his life. Upon waking, Jim discovers that he is legally trapped in the hospital ...
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Mary Bell (actress)
''The Shrike'' is a play written by American dramatist Joseph Kramm. The play won the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Plot The play, set in the mental ward of a city hospital, revolves around a theatrical director named Jim Downs, who has been driven to the verge of insanity and suicide by his estranged wife Ann. To outsiders, Ann seems to epitomize sweetness, kindness and graciousness. In reality, she is a bitter, manipulative shrew. Like the shrike, a small predatory bird that kills and impales its prey, Ann seems harmless but her coercion of Jim incapacitates his free will and traps him under her control. Ann married Jim in hopes that he eventually would gain wealth and stardom, and so his lack of success galls her. Her mockery and nagging led Jim to a suicide attempt when he swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills. The play opens with Jim's being admitted to the hospital, where doctors manage to save his life. Upon waking, Jim discovers that he is legally trapped in the hospital b ...
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Joseph Kramm
Joseph A. Kramm (September 30, 1907 – May 8, 1991) was an American playwright, actor, and director. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama The Pulitzer Prize for Drama is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were a ... in 1951 for his play '' The Shrike'', later adapted into a motion picture of the same title in 1955. His wife, stage actress Isabel Bonner, died of a brain hemorrhage while performing his play in 1955. Works Plays *''The Cry of the Watchman'' (1947) *''Giants, Sons of Giants'' (Jan. 6–13, 1962) *'' The Shrike'' (November 25, 1953 - December 6, 1953, revived January 15, 1952 - May 31, 1952) References External links * * 1907 births 1991 deaths Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners 20th-century American male actors 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights American male dra ...
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Cort Theater
The James Earl Jones Theatre, originally the Cort Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 138 West 48th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. It was built in 1912 and designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb for impresario John Cort. An annex to the west of the theater, built between 2021 and 2022, was designed by Kostow Greenwood Architects. The Jones has 1,092 seats across three levels and is operated by the Shubert Organization. Both the facade and interior of the theater are New York City designated landmarks. The theater maintains much of its original neoclassical design. Its 48th Street facade has a glass-and-metal marquee shielding the entrances, as well as a colonnade with an additional story above. The lobby has marble paneling and a coved ceiling. The auditorium contains a ground-level orchestra and two overhanging balconies with boxes. The auditorium's proscenium arch is designed ...
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Pulitzer Prize For Drama
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were awarded that year."1917 Winners"
The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-12-20.
(No Drama prize was given, however, so that one was inaugurated in 1918, in a sense.) It recognizes a theatrical work staged in the U.S. during the preceding calendar year. Until 2007, eligibility for the Drama Prize ran from March 1 to March 2 to reflect the Broadway "season" rather than the calendar year that governed most other Pulitzer Prizes. The drama jury, which consists of one academic and four critics, attends plays in

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Shrike
Shrikes () are passerine birds of the family Laniidae. The family is composed of 34 species in four genera. The family name, and that of the largest genus, ''Lanius'', is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also known as butcherbirds because of their feeding habits. The common English name shrike is from Old English , alluding to the shrike's shriek-like call. Distribution, migration, and habitat Most shrike species have a Eurasian and African distribution, with just two breeding in North America (the loggerhead and northern shrikes). No members of this family occur in South America or Australia, although one species reaches New Guinea. The shrikes vary in the extent of their ranges, with some species, such as the great grey shrike, ranging across the Northern Hemisphere; to the Newton's fiscal, which is restricted to the island of São Tomé. They inhabit open habitats, especially steppe and savannah. A few species of shrikes are forest dwell ...
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José Ferrer
José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón (January 8, 1912 – January 26, 1992) was a Puerto Rican actor and director of stage, film and television. He was one of the most celebrated and esteemed Hispanic American actors during his lifetime, with a career spanning nearly 60 years between 1935 and 1992. He achieved prominence for his portrayal of Cyrano de Bergerac in the play of the same name, which earned him the inaugural Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1947. He reprised the role in a 1950 film version and won an Academy Award, making him the first Hispanic actor and the first Puerto Rican-born to win an Oscar. His other notable film roles include Charles VII in ''Joan of Arc'' (1948), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in ''Moulin Rouge'' (1952), defense attorney Barney Greenwald in ''The Caine Mutiny'' (1954), Alfred Dreyfus in ''I Accuse!'' (1958), which he also directed; the Turkish Bey in ''Lawrence of Arabia'' (1962), Siegfried Rieber in ''Ship of Fools'' (1965), a ...
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Judith Evelyn
Judith Evelyn (born Evelyn Morris, March 20, 1909 – May 7, 1967) was an American-Canadian stage and film actress who appeared in around 50 films and television series. Early years Evelyn was born Evelyn MorrisProfile
ancestry.com; accessed January 28, 2020.
in 1909 (later shaving four years off of her age) in



Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in Midtown Manhattan. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances. One is also given for regional theatre. Several discretionary non-competitive awards are given as well, including a Special Tony Award, the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre, and the Isabelle Stevenson Award. The awards were founded by theatre producer and director Brock Pemberton and are named after Antoinette "Tony" Perry, an actress, producer and theatre director who was co-founder and secretary of the American Theatre Wing. The trophy consists of a spinnable medallion, with faces portraying an adaptation of the comedy and tragedy masks, mounted on a black base with a pewter swivel. The rules for the Tony Awards are set forth in the off ...
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Van Heflin
Emmett Evan "Van" Heflin Jr. (December 13, 1908 – July 23, 1971) was an American theatre, radio and film actor. He played mostly character parts over the course of his film career, but during the 1940s had a string of roles as a leading man. Heflin won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in ''Johnny Eager'' (1942). He also had memorable roles in Westerns such as ''Shane'' (1953), '' 3:10 to Yuma'' (1957), and ''Gunman's Walk'' (1958). Early life Heflin was born in Walters, Oklahoma, the son of Fanny Bleecker (née Shippey) and Dr. Emmett Evan Heflin, a dentist.Parker, John. ''Who's Who in the Theatre: Volume 17, Part 1.'' Pitman, 1952, p. 762. He was of Irish and French ancestry. Heflin's sister was Daytime Emmy-nominated actress Frances Heflin (who married composer Sol Kaplan). Heflin attended Classen High School in Oklahoma City. One source says Long Beach Polytechnic High School. He also went to the University of Oklahoma, where he received a b ...
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Dane Clark
Dane Clark (born Bernard Zanville; February 26, 1912September 11, 1998) was an American character actor who was known for playing, as he labeled himself, "Joe Average." Early life Clark was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Jewish immigrants – Samuel, a sporting goods store owner, and his wife Rose. His date of birth is a matter of some dispute among different sources. He graduated from Cornell University in 1936 and earned a law degree in 1938 at St. John's University School of Law in Queens, New York. During the Great Depression, he worked as a professional boxer, minor league baseball player, construction worker, and model. Acting career Modeling brought him in contact with people in the arts. He gradually perceived them to be snobbish, with their talk of the "theatah," and "I decided to give it a try myself, just to show them anyone could do it." Theatre Clark's early acting experience included work with the Group Theatre in New York City. He progressed fr ...
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Isabel Bonner
Isabel Bonner (June 12, 1907 – July 1, 1955) was an American stage actress. Biography Bonner was born on June 12, 1907, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a child, she began her career in her father's stock company. She later studied in New York under Alex Koiransky and Maria Ouspenskaya, and made her Broadway debut as the ingénue in ''Let Freedom Ring''. She had several later theatre roles, including parts in '' Processional'', ''Trojan Incident'', ''Uncle Harry'', ''Liliom'', ''Medicine Show'', ''Laura'', ''Foolish Nation'', ''The Front Page'', and ''The Biggest Thief in Town''. She also had some roles in television productions, such as ''Suspense'' and ''The Philco Television Playhouse'', and in the radio serials ''Nora Drake'' and ''The Right to Happiness''. She played roles multiple times in '' The Shrike'', a drama play written by her husband, Joseph Kramm. She first portrayed Dr. Barrow, a psychiatrist, during its Broadway debut in 1952. Then, when the show went on an exte ...
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June Allyson
June Allyson (born Eleanor Geisman; October 7, 1917 – July 8, 2006) was an American stage, film, and television actress, dancer, and singer. Allyson began her career in 1937 as a dancer in short subject films and on Broadway in 1938. She signed with MGM in 1943, and rose to fame the following year in ''Two Girls and a Sailor''. Allyson's "girl next door" image was solidified during the mid-1940s when she was paired with actor Van Johnson in six films. In 1951, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in ''Too Young to Kiss''. From 1959 to 1961, she hosted and occasionally starred in her own anthology series, ''The DuPont Show with June Allyson'', which aired on CBS from 1959 to 1961. In the 1970s, she returned to the stage starring in ''Forty Carats'' and ''No, No, Nanette''. In 1982, Allyson released her autobiography ''June Allyson by June Allyson'', and continued her career with guest starring roles on television and occasional film appearances. ...
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