A Study Guide for Warren Leight's "Nine Ten"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Warren Leight's "Nine Ten", excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama for Students.This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: May 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9781410393999

Book preview

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Nine-Ten

Warren Leight

2001

Introduction

Warren Leight's Nine-Ten is a brief one-act play set on the eve of the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. It was first performed just thirteen days after the attacks and may be the earliest piece of literature to deal with 9/11. Its treatment is ironic, focusing on what seem to be everyday events and only revealing at the end that they take on a wholly different significance because they take place on September 10, the day before the attack. Working within a surprisingly classical dramatic form, Leight deals with many of the issues that were already emerging in American culture as a result of the attacks, such as racial profiling and the intrusion of security measures into the lives of ordinary Americans (which has remained a highly controversial issue). He also explores the clash of cultures between East and West that led to the attack. Though somewhat obscure to the general public, Leight's work has in recent years become more widely known since he is one of the main creators of the Law & Order television franchise. Nine-Ten is available in Dark, No Sugar (2007), a collection of plays by Leight.

Author Biography

Leight was born in the borough of Queens, New York City, on January 17, 1957, but grew up in another borough, Manhattan. His father was a jazz musician, a sideman, meaning that he would play in recordings and with established bands when an additional performer was needed. A great deal of Leight's dramatic work is based on his father's life. Leight attended Stanford University on a scholarship and took a degree in journalism but has principally worked as a dramatist and especially as a screenwriter for film and television. His work has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and for Tony Awards several times.

Upon graduation Leight took a series of odd jobs in an effort to support his parents. His father's career as a musician, though memorable, had left him constantly on the verge of bankruptcy. Leight's first produced script was for the low-budget horror movie Mother's Day in