''My Heart's in the Highlands'' is a

one act play A one-act play is a play that has only one act, as distinct from plays that occur over several acts. One-act plays may consist of one or more scenes. The 20-40 minute play has emerged as a popular subgenre of the one-act play, especially in writi ...

Armenian-American Armenian Americans ( hy, ամերիկահայեր, ''amerikahayer'') are citizens or residents of the United States who have total or partial Armenian ancestry. They form the second largest community of the Armenian diaspora after Armenians in ...

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

and author

William Saroyan William Saroyan (; August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film ''The ...

, adapted from his short story, "The Man with the Heart in the Highlands". Saroyan's first play, it is a comedy about a young boy and his Armenian family. It was produced on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

at the Guild Theatre.

Adaptations

Chamber opera

The play was adapted into a

chamber opera Chamber opera is a designation for operas written to be performed with a chamber ensemble rather than a full orchestra. Early 20th-century operas of this type include Paul Hindemith's ''Cardillac'' (1926). Earlier small-scale operas such as Pergoles ...

by U.S. composer

Jack Beeson Jack Hamilton Beeson (July 15, 1921 – June 6, 2010) was an American composer. He was known particularly for his operas, the best known of which are ''Lizzie Borden'', ''Hello Out There!'', and ''The Sweet Bye and Bye''. Early life Born in Muncie ...

in 1969 and had its world debut on U.S. network

National Educational Television National Educational Television (NET) was an American non-commercial educational, educational terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Ford Foundation and later co-owned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It o ...

, the predecessor of the U.S.

Public Broadcasting Service The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educati ...

, March 17, 1970. The 90-minute broadcast, directed by pioneering operatic TV director

Kirk Browning Kirk Browning (March 28, 1921 – February 10, 2008) was an American television director and producer who had hundreds of productions to his credit, including 185 broadcasts of ''Live from Lincoln Center''. Born in New York City, Browning dropp ...

, was part of the NET Opera Theater series, which aired on NET and then on PBS. The TV broadcast also included, for the first time, simulcast high-fidelity stereo audio. “NET organized links with FM stations throughout the country to broadcast the stereo soundtrack of ''My Heart’s in the Highlands'' simultaneously with the telecast,” writes Brian G. Rose, professor of communication and media studies at New York’s Fordham University. “By turning off the volume of their televisions and turning on their stereos, home viewers could now have the chance to hear opera with extraordinary fidelity and range. The technique would become an important adjunct of non-commercial television’s music programming from that point onward.”

References

{{reflist 1939 plays Plays by William Saroyan Plays set in the United States American plays adapted into films One-act plays Plays adapted into operas Plays based on short fiction