These seven plays are part of the collected dramatic scripts written by Mordecai Gorelik, internationally known designer, whose career in the U.S. theatre now spans a period of 65 years. Although he was one of the first American adherents of Brechtian theatre, Gorelik created his own kind of writing, joining tragedy to farce-comedy in a combination as animated as it is deeply feltóand on diverse themes. Their author tells how the plays came to be written, and quotes some of the reactions, ranging from acclaim to insult, that they have received. Gorelik's study of the historic forms of staging, New Theatres for Old (1940) remains as a classic in its field. His adaptation of Max Frisch's The Firebugs has been accorded almost 550 separate U.S. stage productions to date.
