William Alfred's Hogan's Goat: Power and Poetry in Brooklyn

William alfred's verse play Hogan's Goat , recounting the four days in April and May, 1890, when Matt Stanton gets his big chance to become mayor of Brooklyn, was New York's surprise hit of 1965–66. Directed by Frederick Rolf and starring Faye Dunaway (before Bonnie and Clyde ), Ralph Waite (before The Waltons ), and Barnard Hughes (before Da ), it opened in November, 1965, at the American Place Theatre and ran during the next eighteen months for 607 performances there and at the East 74th Street Theatre, winning the 1965–66 Theatre Club Gold Medal for best play and gaining Alfred the 1965 Drama Desk – Vernon Rice award. Selected for inclusion in Otis L. Guernsey's Best Plays yearbook (and chosen best play of 1965), it also appears in John Gassner and Clive Barnes's Best American Plays series, Harold Clurman's anthology Famous American Plays of the 1960s , and Francis Griffith and Joseph Mersand's Eight Ethnic American Plays . In 1971, the play was produced on PBS television.