Green, Paul (Eliot) (1894–1981)

US playwright, who pioneered what he termed a ‘symphonic form of drama’, combining music, dance, mime, lighting, costumes, and other theatrical elements to capture some episode or theme in American history. His first such work, The Lost Colony (1937), about the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island, North Carolina, would remain his best known of several such historical pageants that he wrote.

Green was born near Lillington, North Carolina. After interrupting his studies at the University of North Carolina for service in World War I, he began to write plays about Southern rural people, often dealing with the problems of African-Americans as well as white poor folk. His other works include In Abraham's Bosom (1926), which ends in a lynching, and for which he won a Pulitzer Prize; the antiwar play Johnny Johnson (1936), featuring music by Kurt Weill; and a dramatization of Richard Wright's novel Native Son (1941), written in collaboration with the author. In addition to his plays, he wrote novels, essays, and film scripts while teaching at the University of North Carolina (1923–44) and serving as president of the American Folk Festival (1934–45).