Stage Construction And Urban Space In Rice’s Early Plays,1914-1932

Elmer Rice was an American playwright andactive in the first half of the 20 th century.Previous studies on Rice’s works mostly focus on themes,characters,dramatic techniques and other aspects,but there is no systematic study of Rice’s dramatic creation from the perspective of space.In this paper,based on the research of predecessors,combined with Rice’s autobiography,works and interview records,reports,and other historical documents,attempting to four important early Rice plays as investigation object,through related four heavy interconnected space,reduction of Rice instead of at the scene of the drama of history,to explore the creation of Rice is affected by the environment and the concept of,And the factors of time and human geography behind the affirmation of his works.In addition to the introduction,this paper is divided into four chapters: the first chapter discusses the theater in New York and the stage space of Rice’s works,the second chapter discusses the dramatic space and the space consciousness contained in Rice’s works,and the third chapter discusses the space problem of New York City as the background of Rice’s works.Based on the investigation to the above question,discovered the Rice works in the construction of the scene props,set design,use of European drama learning,thinking and learning,analyzes the commercial theater in New York and theater movement influence on Rice creation,explored the Rice behind the scenes in the play is touching social psychology,probes into the causes of these social psychology,It also explores the historical and cultural roots of Rice’s plays being widely accepted.This paper discusses the spatial issues in Rice’s plays from different angles and levels,in an attempt to extend the research focus from Rice’s texts of plays to other elements related to Rice’s works,and change the status quo of relatively isolated research on Rice’s plays.