Green, Paul Eliot (1894–1981), American dramatist, born on a farm, who gained a knowledge of Negro folk-life from working in the fields, and used it in his plays. Early in his career he wrote almost 40 one-act plays, mainly produced by the Carolina Playmakers, on the problems of Negroes and poor whites in the American South. His first full-length play
In Abraham's Bosom (1926), which deals with the frustrated attempts of an ambitious but illiterate Negro, son of a white man, to start a school for Negro children, culminating in his murder at the hands of an infuriated mob, was awarded a
Pulitzer Prize for its imagination, sympathy, and power. Other full-length plays include
The Field God (1927), on religious repression,
Tread the Green Grass (1929),
The House of Connelly (1931), the first independent production by the
Group Theatre,
Johnny Johnson (1936), with music by Kurt Weill, and an adaptation of Richard Wright's novel
Native Son for a production by Orson
Welles in 1941. In 1937 Green wrote
The Lost Colony (produced at Roanoke Island, NC), the first of 15 ‘symphonic dramas’ celebrating American history, all designed to be performed out-of-doors in specially built amphitheatres and using professionals with local amateurs. They include
The Founders (Williamsburg, Va., 1957),
Trumpet in the Land (New Philadelphia, Ohio, 1970), and
Louisiana Cavalier (Natchitoches, La., 1976). Many of these productions have become annual events in their localities.
