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59-653: The first instance of what might be termed Territorialism, though the term did not yet exist, much predated Zionism. In 1825 the playwright , diplomat and journalist , Mordecai Manuel Noah —the first Jew born in the United States to reach national prominence—tried to found a Jewish "refuge" at Grand Island in the Niagara River , to be called " Ararat ", after Mount Ararat , the Biblical resting place of Noah's Ark . He purchased land on Grand Island—then on

118-458: A Jewish Autonomous Region was established in 1934. The Jewish Autonomous Oblast or JAO for short ( Russian : Евре́йская автоно́мная о́бласть , Yevreyskaya avtonomnaya oblast ; Yiddish : ייִדישע אווטאָנאָמע געגנט , romanized :  yidishe avtonome gegnt ) is still today an autonomous oblast situated in Russia 's far east ; where both Russian and Yiddish are its official languages. In

177-482: A murder mystery play which is the longest-running West End show , it has by far the longest run of any play in the world, with its 29,500th performance having taken place as of February 2024. Contemporary playwrights in the United States are affected by recent declines in theatre attendance. No longer the only outlet for serious drama or entertaining comedies, theatrical productions must use ticket sales as

236-876: A Jewish colony in Africa. And in April ;1903 his efforts in London seemed to bear fruit. In response to the horrors of Kishinev , England's Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain proposed to Herzl the creation a semiautonomous region on the Uasin Gishu plateau in British East Africa for Jewish settlement. When Herzl revealed Chamberlain's offer to the Sixth Zionist Congress in August ;1903, Israel Zangwill spoke in favor of

295-512: A form of playwright. Outside of the Western world there is Indian classical drama , with one of the oldest known playwrights being Śudraka , whose attributed plays can be dated to the second century BC. The Nāṭya Shāstra , a text on the performing arts from between 500BC-500AD, categorizes playwrights as being among the members of a theatre company, although playwrights were generally the highest in social status, with some being kings. In

354-426: A local newspaper accused the region's Jews of killing a Christian child as part of their Passover rituals. This inflammatory use of the ancient " blood libel " sparked a three-day pogrom which resulted in the deaths of over forty Jews, as well as the destruction and looting of hundreds of Jewish homes and businesses. The specter of Kishinev profoundly influenced Zangwill's actions and work. Indeed, several years after

413-419: A person who has "wrought" words, themes, and other elements into a dramatic form—a play. (The homophone with "write" is coincidental.) The first recorded use of the term "playwright" is from 1605, 73 years before the first written record of the term "dramatist". It appears to have been first used in a pejorative sense by Ben Jonson to suggest a mere tradesman fashioning works for the theatre. Jonson uses

472-654: A playwright, winning awards for his play The Phoenix at both the New York International Fringe Festival in 1999 and the Route 66 American Playwriting Competition in 2000. Today, theatre companies have new play development programs meant to develop new American voices in playwriting. Many regional theatres have hired dramaturges and literary managers in an effort to showcase various festivals for new work, or bring in playwrights for residencies. Funding through national organizations, such as

531-525: A source of income, which has caused many of them to reduce the number of new works being produced. For example, Playwrights Horizons produced only six plays in the 2002–03 seasons, compared with thirty-one in 1973–74. Playwrights commonly encounter difficulties in getting their shows produced and often cannot earn a living through their plays alone, leading them to take up other jobs to supplement their incomes. Many playwrights are also film makers . For instance, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock began his career as

590-562: A stricter interpretation of Aristotle, as this long-lost work came to light in the late 15th century. The neoclassical ideal, which was to reach its apogee in France during the 17th century, dwelled upon the unities , of action, place, and time. This meant that the playwright had to construct the play so that its "virtual" time would not exceed 24 hours, that it would be restricted to a single setting, and that there would be no subplots. Other terms, such as verisimilitude and decorum, circumscribed

649-632: Is Hans Sachs (1494–1576) who wrote 198 dramatic works. In England, The Second Shepherds' Play of the Wakefield Cycle is the best known early farce. However, farce did not appear independently in England until the 16th century with the work of John Heywood (1497–1580). Playwright William Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted. Most playwrights of

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708-519: Is a person who writes plays , which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading . Ben Jonson coined the term "playwright" and is the first person in English literature to refer to playwrights as separate from poets . The earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are

767-542: Is still useful to playwrights today is the " French scene ", which is a scene in a play where the beginning and end are marked by a change in the makeup of the group of characters onstage rather than by the lights going up or down or the set being changed. Notable playwrights: Greek theater was alive and flourishing on the island of Crete. During the Cretan Renaissance two notable Greek playwrights Georgios Chortatzis and Vitsentzos Kornaros were present in

826-494: The Ancient Greeks . William Shakespeare is amongst the most famous playwrights in literature, both in England and across the world. 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 term for a craftsperson or builder (as in a wheelwright or cartwright ). The words combine to indicate

885-406: The Ancient Greeks . These early plays were for annual Athenian competitions among play writers held around the 5th century BC. Such notables as Aeschylus , Sophocles , Euripides , and Aristophanes established forms still relied on by their modern counterparts. We have complete texts extant by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides . The origins of Athenian tragedy remain obscure, though by

944-583: The Jewish Agency , including "determining the allocation of funds." The first Zionist Congress was held in Basel , Switzerland in 1897. Any Jew over age 18 who belongs to a Zionist association is eligible to vote, and the number of elected delegates to the Congress is 500. 38% of the delegates are allocated to Israel, 29% to the United States of America, and 33% to the remainder of the countries of

1003-556: The Knesset , Israel's parliament, are deemed to fulfill this function, and Zionist parties represented in the Knesset are apportioned a number of Congress delegates proportional to their strength in the Knesset. The late left-wing leader Shulamit Aloni on several occasions criticized this practice, stating that "Most Israeli citizens neither know nor care that when they go to the polls they are among other things also electing delegates to

1062-630: The Land of Israel . Theodor Herzl hoped for a Jewish homeland in the Land of Israel but recognized that global events demanded an immediate solution to the Jewish problem, in Russia at least, even if that solution required Jewish refugees to settle outside of Eretz Israel . Theodor Herzl 's Der Judenstaat argued for a Jewish state in either Palestine, "our ever-memorable historic home", or Argentina , "one of

1121-624: The National Endowment for the Arts and the Theatre Communications Group , encouraged the partnerships of professional theatre companies and emerging playwrights. Playwrights will often have a cold reading of a script in an informal sitdown setting, which allows them to evaluate their own plays and the actors performing them. Cold reading means that the actors haven't rehearsed the work, or may be seeing it for

1180-671: The Portuguese government, the colonial power at the time), Asia , and Australia , but with little success. The Balfour Declaration and the subsequent British occupation of Palestine had made the territorial alternatives to Eretz Israel less viable. Accordingly, in 1925 the ITO was dissolved and most of its members returned to the Zionist movement. In pre-1917 the Zionist Socialist Workers Party also took up

1239-570: The frontier of white settlement—for $ 4.38 per acre, in order to build a refuge for Jews of all nations. He had brought with him a cornerstone which read "Ararat, a City of Refuge for the Jews, founded by Mordecai M. Noah in the Month of Tishri, 5586 (September, 1825) and in the Fiftieth Year of American Independence." However, the scheme failed to attract Noah's fellow Jews. It began and ended with

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1298-449: The 4th century BCE, Aristotle wrote his Poetics , in which he analyzed the principle of action or praxis as the basis for tragedy. He then considered elements of drama: plot ( μύθος mythos ), character ( ἔθος ethos ), thought ( dianoia ), diction ( lexis ), music ( melodia ), and spectacle ( opsis ). Since the myths on which Greek tragedy were based were widely known, plot had to do with

1357-543: The 5th century it was institutionalised in competitions ( agon ) held as part of festivities celebrating Dionysos (the god of wine and fertility ). As contestants in the City Dionysia's competition (the most prestigious of the festivals to stage drama), playwrights were required to present a tetralogy of plays (though the individual works were not necessarily connected by story or theme), which usually consisted of three tragedies and one satyr play. For

1416-618: The Diaspora. In addition there are about 100 delegates which are appointed by International Organizations (e.g. B'nai B'rith, see below) affiliated with WZO. After the First Zionist Congress in 1897, the Zionist Congress met every year until 1901, then every second year from 1903 to 1913 and 1921 to 1939. Until 1946, the Congress was held every two years in various European cities, save for interruptions during

1475-659: The Freeland League". After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Steinberg criticized the exclusivist politics of the Israeli government and continued his attempts to create a non-nationalist Jewish settlement in some other region of the world. After Steinberg's death in 1957 the Freeland League was led by Mordkhe Schaechter , who gradually changed the focus of the organization to more cultural, Yiddishist goals. Playwright A playwright or dramatist

1534-561: The Middle Ages, the earliest of which is The Play of the Greenwood by Adam de la Halle in 1276. It contains satirical scenes and folk material such as faeries and other supernatural occurrences. Farces also rose dramatically in popularity after the 13th century. The majority of these plays come from France and Germany and are similar in tone and form, emphasizing sex and bodily excretions. The best known playwright of farces

1593-611: The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and the end of the 17th century, classical ideas were in vogue. As a result, critics of the time mostly rated Shakespeare below John Fletcher and Ben Jonson. This period saw the first professional woman playwright, Aphra Behn . As a reaction to the decadence of Charles II era productions, sentimental comedy grew in popularity. Playwrights like Colley Cibber and Richard Steele believed that humans were inherently good but capable of being led astray. The Italian Renaissance brought about

1652-466: The Russian Jewish delegation to the Congress. Few historians believe that such a settlement scheme could have attracted immigrants, Jewish financial support, or international political support. Since there was strong support on the part of some members of the Zionist leadership, however, peace was kept in the movement by the time-honored parliamentary maneuver of voting to establish a committee for

1711-833: The United States, the Organization for Jewish Colonization in Russia worked to encourage the emigration and settlement of Jews there, likewise with the Gezerd in Australia. Territorialist projects in the USSR ended mostly with the advent of the Great Purge (which saw the dissolution of the Territorialist KOMZET and its agitprop counterpart OZET ), and then in their totality following the Holocaust ; which saw

1770-540: The World Zionist Congress are free to form Brit Olamit or Zionist World Unions (ideological groupings), which are somewhat like political parties . While Israeli political parties can participate in the Congress, brits are also organized and voted into the Congress by non-Israelis, making the Congress a multinational deliberative body for the Jewish diaspora. However, as aliyah has brought Jews to Israel from other countries, Israeli representation in

1829-693: The World Zionist Congress. (...) Had the Zionist Movement been required to do in Israel what it does in other countries - i.e., recruit paying members and get these members to hold specific elections to the World Zionist Congress - there might have been revealed an embarrassing low number of committed Zionists in Israel". Two women's organizations have special status in the Zionist Organization and have full voting rights: The international Jewish organizations have also been represented in

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1888-615: The Zionist Congress since 1972, provided that they accept the Jerusalem Program , even if not all their members are declared Zionists. These bodies have limited voting rights – they do not vote on matters of candidature and elections to the institutions of the WZO. The following are the International Jewish Organizations (limited voting rights): The Zionist Congress is conducted by

1947-636: The Zionist movement. It attempted to locate territory suitable for Jewish settlement in various parts of America (e.g. Galveston ), and on the African, Asian, and Australian continents, yet with little success. Zangwill's interest in territorialism began in 1903 in response to the Kishinev Pogrom . In April of that year in Kishinev , Bessarabia , a Western province of the Russian Empire ,

2006-420: The ancient Greeks, playwriting involved poïesis , "the act of making". This is the source of the English word poet . Despite Chinese Theatre having performers dated back to the 6th century BC with You Meng , their perspective of theatre was such that plays had no other role than "performer" or "actor", but given that the performers were also the ones who invented their performances, they could be considered

2065-404: The arrangement and selection of existing material. Character was determined by choice and by action. Tragedy is mimesis —"the imitation of an action that is serious". He developed his notion of hamartia , or tragic flaw, an error in judgment by the main character or protagonist , which provides the basis for the "conflict-driven" play. There were also a number of secular performances staged in

2124-534: The basis for governance. Though Zangwill's literary works suggest his nostalgia for the ghetto, he too recognized the need for a modern Jewish polity. Both concurred that a self-governing Jewish territory should be based on a preponderance of Jews in the region rather than British legislative fiat , and both concurred that the new government should be formed on a modern, democratic basis rather than some earlier biblical ideal or Eastern European Kehilla structure. This basic agreement between Zangwill and Wolf would lead to

2183-620: The blindest the need of a publicly and legally safeguarded home for our unhappy race. When you come to consider where this centralized home should be you will find no place as practicable as Palestine, or at least for a start, its neighborhood. But few in the Zionist Organization supported the Uganda Scheme , as the East Africa offer was called, particularly representatives from Eastern Europe who argued that Palestine

2242-627: The ceremonial laying of that cornerstone. The Jewish Colonization Association , created in 1891 by the Baron Maurice de Hirsch , was aimed at facilitating mass emigration of Jews from the Russian Empire and other Eastern European countries, by settling them in agricultural colonies on lands purchased by the committee, particularly in North and South America (especially Argentina ). Before 1905 some Zionist leaders had seriously considered proposals for Jewish homelands in places other than

2301-518: The destruction of Jewish agricultural colonies in Ukraine and the Crimea. There were attempts to establish Crimea as a Jewish Homeland following World War II, which had some support from Vyacheslav Molotov , however such plans were rejected by Stalin who went on to recognise Israel , along with launching another series of political purges against Jewish organisations within the USSR. In the face of

2360-640: The end men of his own party called him traitor and broke his heart. He worked for his people: they paid him his wages and he has gone home. In 1905 the members of the Seventh Zionist Congress formally rejected the Uganda Scheme. Following the rejection of the East Africa offer, Zangwill contacted Lucien Wolf, an English Jewish journalist and member of the Board of Deputies of British Jews , the main representative body of Anglo Jewry . Wolf

2419-590: The event, Zangwill would make the protagonist of his most important play, "The Melting Pot", a survivor of the pogrom who escapes to America after witnessing the murder of his family. The events of Kishinev also convinced Zangwill of the immediate need to find a place of Jewish refuge be it in Palestine or some other site. In commenting on the pogroms in a greeting to the Federation of American Zionists Zangwill commented: The Kishineff massacre has brought home to

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2478-499: The first time, and usually, the technical requirements are minimal. The O'Neill Festival offers summer retreats for young playwrights to develop their work with directors and actors. Playwriting collectives like 13P and Orbiter 3 gather members together to produce, rather than develop, new works. The idea of the playwriting collective is in response to plays being stuck in the development process and never advancing to production. World Zionist Congress The Zionist Congress

2537-711: The formation of the Jewish Territorial Organisation (ITO), an organisation dedicated to "obtaining a large tract of territory (preferably within the British Empire) wherein to found a Jewish Home of Refuge", and to the elevation of Zangwill to the ITO presidency. The ITO's members were known as territorialists or "ITOmen". ITO attempted to locate territory suitable for Jewish settlement in various parts of America (e.g. Galveston , Alaska ), Africa (in Angola , establishing several contacts with

2596-629: The idea, combining it with a strong Socialist Revolutionary orientation, and for a time had a considerable influence among Russian Jews. The party supported Herzl during the debate over the Uganda Scheme. After the October Revolution there was in the USSR a Territorialist effort in Ukraine , the Crimea (see: Jewish autonomy in Crimea ), and then in a region surrounding Birobidzhan , where

2655-399: The idea, preferring Palestine, but after the April 1903 Kishinev pogrom Herzl introduced a controversial proposal to the Sixth Zionist Congress to investigate the offer as a temporary measure for Russian Jews in danger. Notwithstanding its emergency and temporary nature, the proposal still proved very divisive, and widespread opposition to the plan was demonstrated by a walkout led by

2714-435: The investigation of the possibility, which was not finally dismissed until the Seventh Zionist Congress in 1905. The Jewish Territorial Organization (ITO) was founded by British Jewish author, critic, and activist Israel Zangwill and British Jewish journalist Lucien Wolf in 1903 and institutionalized in 1905. The establishment was a response to Herzl's rejection of Uganda proposal, as the ITO led by Zangwill split off from

2773-490: The latter part of the 16th century. The plays of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Friedrich Schiller , and other Sturm und Drang playwrights inspired a growing faith in feeling and instinct as guides to moral behavior and were part of the German romanticism movement. Aleksandr Ostrovsky was Russia's first professional playwright). Author and playwright Agatha Christie wrote The Moustrap ,

2832-557: The legislature has increased at the expense of non-Israeli Jewish diaspora representation. A Brit Olamit (World Union) must have representation in at least five countries to send a delegation to the Congress. There are currently six Zionist World Unions (with full voting rights): Since the creation of the State of Israel, there are no elections held for Israeli delegates to the World Zionist Congress. Rather, elections to

2891-473: The looming Nazi genocide , Isaac Nachman Steinberg established the Freeland League for Jewish Territorial Colonization (Frayland-lige far Yidisher Teritoryalistisher Kolonizatsye) in London in 1935. This organization attempted, unsuccessfully, to pursue Jewish autonomy by obtaining a large piece of territory in sparsely populated areas in Ecuador , Australia, or Suriname . One of the more well-known ventures

2950-524: The most fertile countries in the world". Some socialist Zionist groups were more territorialist than Zionist, such as Nachman Syrkin 's Zionist Socialist Workers Party (the Z.S.). As early as 1902, Herzl's negotiations with the Ottoman Empire for a Jewish homeland in Palestine had proven so futile and the dream of Zion so distant that he decided to approach the British about the creation of

3009-407: The period typically collaborated with others at some point, as critics agree Shakespeare did, mostly early and late in his career. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. In England, after the interregnum , and Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, there was a move toward neoclassical dramaturgy. Between

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3068-600: The proposal. In his speech to the Congress Zangwill made clear that, though he did not see East Africa as the ultimate consummation of the Zionist cause, he did believe that it proved a particularly useful, temporary (if still somewhat long-term) solution to the Jewish problem in Russia. In 1903 British cabinet ministers suggested the British Uganda Program , land for a Jewish state in " Uganda " (actually in modern Kenya ). Herzl initially rejected

3127-557: The subject matter significantly. For example, verisimilitude limits of the unities. Decorum fitted proper protocols for behavior and language on stage. In France, contained too many events and actions, thus, violating the 24-hour restriction of the unity of time. Neoclassicism never had as much traction in England, and Shakespeare 's plays are directly opposed to these models, while in Italy, improvised and bawdy commedia dell'arte and opera were more popular forms. One structural unit that

3186-693: The two World Wars. Their goal was to build an infrastructure to further the cause of Jewish settlement in Palestine. Since the Second World War, meetings have been held approximately every four years. Also, since the creation of the State of Israel , the Congress has met every four or five years in Jerusalem. The 38th World Zionist Congress took place in 2020. The World Zionist Congress includes representatives of Zionist World Unions , Women's Zionist Organizations with Special Status and International Jewish Organizations . Zionist participants in

3245-441: The word in his Epigram 49, which is thought to refer to John Marston or Thomas Dekker : Jonson described himself as a poet, not a playwright, since plays during that time were written in meter and so were regarded as the province of poets. This view was held as late as the early 19th century. The term "playwright" later again lost this negative connotation. The earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are

3304-459: Was an opponent of political Zionism, but did support the creation of Jewish colonies in the Diaspora . In August 1905 Zangwill and Wolf met to discuss the Uganda Scheme, and in subsequent correspondence between the two we learn that both supported the creation of a Jewish colony in British East Africa. Wolf had objected to any specifically "Jewish national homeland", that is to say a state which ghettoized Jews, preserving Jewish customs and law as

3363-399: Was established in 1897 by Theodor Herzl as the supreme organ of the Zionist Organization (ZO) and its legislative authority. In 1960 the names were changed to World Zionist Congress ( Hebrew : הקונגרס הציוני העולמי HaKongres HaTsioni HaOlami ) and World Zionist Organization (WZO), respectively. The World Zionist Organization elects the officers and decides on the policies of the WZO and

3422-409: Was the Kimberley Plan , to secure land in Australia. The Kimberley Plan was officially vetoed on 15 July 1944 by Australian Prime Minister, John Curtin , who informed Steinberg that the Australian government would not "depart from the long-established policy in regard to alien settlement in Australia" and could not "entertain the proposal for a group settlement of the exclusive type contemplated by

3481-459: Was the sole acceptable site for a Jewish homeland. Herzl was severely criticized for his willingness to seek a Jewish state outside of the Middle East, and such criticism, Zangwill claimed, contributed to Herzl's death from heart failure in 1904. In a 1905 speech on the East Africa offer he exclaimed: Herzl is dead: he worked for his people as no man ever worked for them since Judas Maccabaeus . His people called him dreamer and demagogue, and towards

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