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The plays of L. Frank Baum are an important aspect of Baum's writing career about which some of the least is known. While even most brief biographies, long before the Internet, have noted Baum's work as a playwright, these works have been rarely performed beyond his lifetime, and almost none have been published aside from two scenarios and a first act of three unfinished works in ''The Musical Fantasies of L. Frank Baum'', compiled with an introduction by Alla T. Ford. Aside from his youthful success with ''The Maid of Arran'', his blockbuster eight-year run with ''The Wizard of Oz'', his failure with ''The Woggle-Bug'', and ''The Tik-Tok Man of Oz'' as source material for his novel, ''Tik-Tok of Oz'', very little is known about his dramatic output, and mostly from the publications of Michael Patrick Hearn, Susan Ferrara, and Katharine M. Rogers. Hearn identifies 41 different titles in the bibliography of the 2000 edition of ''The Annotated Wizard of Oz'', plus one play without a title, although some of these titles clearly refer to drafts of the same play, such as the early titles of ''The Tik-Tok Man of Oz''. One of the most contentious works is ''The Whatnexters'' (1903). Michael Patrick Hearn listed it under the plays in ''The Annotated Wizard of Oz'' (2000). Katharine M. Rogers takes this citation and suggests that this is "one of Baum's little jokes" and that the play never actually existed.〔Katharine M. Rogers. ''L. Frank Baum: Creator of Oz: A Biography''. New York, St. Martin's Press, 2002. p. 114.〕 In fact, Hearn's source is ''The Story of the House of Witmark: From Ragtime to Swingtime'',〔New York: Lee Furman, Inc., 1939, p. 230.〕 which refers to it as the "first chapter of an unfinished book" by Baum and Isidore Witmark. Rogers cites an article by Russel P. MacFall in the Winter 1982 issue of ''The Baum Bugle'' that exemplifies the estranged Frank Joslyn Baum not knowing what he is talking about. His biography, of L. Frank Baum, ''To Please a Child'' was written after being estranged from his mother, and contains numerous made up details. ==The early years: Louis F. Baum== (詳細はacting under the family name, so he adopted the pseudonym of George Brooks. Eventually, Benjamin Baum bought a theatre in Richburg, New York, calling it Baum's Opera House, and relaxed the idea of one of his own performing in them, thinking it might well represent the interest of the company by bankrolling his son's acting career. Never much for his first name, Lyman Frank Baum, who had been known as "Frank" for most of his childhood, chose the new pen name "Louis F. Baum." Most of these plays are known only from their copyrights. ''The Maid of Arran'', based on a novel by William Black, went on a very successful tour with Baum in the lead. While most of Baum's later musical theatre works featured music by other composers, Baum himself composed the music for this piece, which is apparently the only musical of the group. ''Matches'', a drawing room comedy, and ''Kilmourne'' are lost, but they are known to have been performed in repertory. ''The Mackrummins'' and ''The Queen of Killarney'' may never have actually been written—the latter is mentioned by Isidore Witmark and Isaac Goldberg in ''From Ragtime to Swingtime'' with a date of 1885;〔p. 230〕 Witmark published the music to Baum's Oz plays. The theatre in burned to the ground a few months later. ''Matches'' was withdrawn after a performance at Brown's Opera House, also in Richburg, when a fire broke out behind the theatre.〔D.E. Kessler. "L. Frank Baum and His New Plays." ''The Theatre'', August 1909. http://www.hungrytigerpress.com/tigertreats/baumonstage.shtml〕 ''The Maid of Arran'' is known to survive in manuscript, as well as microform and microfiche copies of it, which can be found in many larger and academic libraries, and a selection of six of the eight songs published for consumer use survives and was reprinted in two parts in ''The Baum Bugle'' using a copy found at the University of Minnesota by Scott Andrew Hutchins and Ruth Berman, both of whom received credit. *The Mackrummins (11 February 1882) *The Maid of Arran: An Irish Idyl (11 February (opened 15 May) 1882) *Matches (11 February (opened 18 May) 1882) *Kilmourne, or O'Connor's Dream (opened 4 April 1883) *The Queen of Killarney (1883) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Plays of L. Frank Baum」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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