The American Place Theatre

As I Lay Dying

by William Faulkner

One of William Faulkner's finest novels, As I Lay Dying was originally published in 1930, and remains a captivating and stylistically innovative work. The story revolves around a grim yet darkly humorous pilgrimage, as Addie Bundren's family sets out to fulfill her last wish: to be buried in her native Jefferson, Mississippi, far from the miserable backwater surroundings of her married life. Told through multiple voices, it vividly brings to life Faulkner's imaginary South, one of the great invented landscapes in all of literature.

Invisible Man

by Ralph Ellison

A classic from the moment it first appeared in 1952, Invisible Man chronicles the travels of its narrator, a young, nameless black man, as he moves through the hellish levels of American intolerance and cultural blindness. Searching for a context in which to know himself, he exists in a very peculiar state. "I am an invisible man," he says in his prologue. "When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination--indeed, everything and anything except me." Invisible Man is more than just a book about race, it is also a book about humanity stumbling down the path to identity.

Poems & Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe

by Edgar Allan Poe

Scattered between live presentations of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, The Tell Tale Heart and his poems, Annabel Lee and The Bells, students will have the chance to meet Poe, first the writer and then the man including a portrait of his extraordinary ambition and determination. Students will explore the nature and origins behind the artist's tortured soul.

The Bluest Eye

by Toni Morrison

The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, is the first novel written by Toni Morrison, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature. It is the story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove--a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others. Pecola prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning and the tragedy of its fulfillment.

The Grapes of Wrath

by John Steinbeck

This Pulitzer Prize winning American Classic, set during the Great Depression focuses on a poor family of sharecroppers, the Joads, driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, and changes in the agriculture industry. The novel illustrates the dignity and spirit of man in desperate circumstances.

The Old Man and the Sea

by Ernest Hemingway

The last novel Ernest Hemingway saw published, The Old Man and the Sea has proved itself to be one of the enduring works of American fiction. It is the story of an old Cuban fisherman and his supreme ordeal: a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Using the simple, powerful language of a fable, Hemingway takes the timeless themes of courage in the face of defeat and personal triumph won from loss and transforms them into a magnificent twentieth-century classic.

The Poetry of Emily Dickinson

by Emily Dickinson

Their Eyes Were Watching God

by Zora Neale Hurston

Initially published in 1937, this novel about a proud, independent black woman's quest for identity, a journey that takes her through three marriages and back to her roots, has been one of the most widely read and highly acclaimed novels in the canon of African-American literature.

To Kill A Mockingbird

by Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee tells of Scout and Jem's childhood in Alabama and how a series of events shook their innocence, shaped their character and taught them about human nature. Lee examines racism and other prejudices through a page turning story told in a wonderful, Southern voice.