Teacher Guide

August: Osage County Lesson Plan

Introduction to August: Osage County

August: Osage County is the fourth play written by American dramatist Tracy Letts. The play focuses on a turbulent few weeks in the home of the Westons, an Oklahoma family plagued by death, abuse, addiction, and secrets.

The play begins with the disappearance and suicide of the family patriarch, Beverly Weston, a tortured alcoholic and poet who chooses to escape his miserable marriage to his wife, Violet. Violet has her own addiction—prescription pills—and is undergoing treatment for mouth cancer. As news of heir father's disappearance spreads, the middle-aged Weston daughters, Barbara, Ivy, and Karen, return to the family home to support their mother and eventually bury their father....

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