::Finally:: Essential Plays for Your Summer Reading List

So a few of you asked me along the years to compile a basic list of plays that every theatre major should be conversant in/familiar with. I have finally compiled that list, with the help of various professors and professional (most of the credit goes to Daina!).

This list is in no way exhaustive, but more of a starting point. Plays are listed by playwright (when playwrights are listed alone, it just means you should be familiar with their work in general.) You'll notice the absence of Shakespeare...that's because he's Shakespeare...yeah, you should pretty much know him.

So here's the task:

What are your essential plays/playwrights? Let me know, and I'll add them to the list!

Here Goes!

Albee, Edward
- The Zoo Story
- Three Tall Women
- Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf

Anouilh, Jean
- Antigone
- The Lark

Auburn, David
- Proof

Baraka, Amiri
- Dutchman

Beckett, Samuel
- Waiting for Godot
- Endgame

Behn, Aphra
- The Rover

Blessing, Lee
- A Walk in the Woods

Bond, Edward
- Saved

Brecht, Bertolt
- The Caucasian Chalk Circle
- Mother Courage
- The Good Person of Setzuan
- The Threepenny Opera

Brown, Carlyle

Chekhov
- Uncle Vanya
- Three Sisters
- The Cherry Orchard
- The Seagull

Churchill, Caryl
- Top Girls
- Cloud Nine

Childress, Alice

Congreve
- The Way of the World

Coward
- Private Lives
- Hayfever

Cruz, Nilo
- Anna in the Tropics

Durang, Christopher

Dürrenmatt, Friedrich
- The Visit
- The Phycisians

Edson, Margaret
- Wit

Fo, Dario
- The Accidental Death of an Anarchist

Fornes, Maria Irene
- Fefu and Her Friends

Friel
- Translations
- Philadelphia, Here I Come!

Fugard, Athol
- Master Harold…and the Boys

Gay, John
- The Beggar’s Opera

Genet, Jean
- The Maids
- The Balcony

Gibson, William
- The Miracle Worker

Giradoux, Jean
- Tiger at the Gates
- The Madwoman of Chaillot

Goethe, Wolfgang von

Goldoni, Carlo
- The Servant of Two Masters

Goldsmith, Oliver
- She Stoops to Conquer

Gorky, Maxim
- The Lower Depths

Gotanda, Philip Kan

Gozzi, Carlo
- The King Stag

Gray, Simon
- Butley

Greenberg, Richard
- Take Me Out

Guare, John
- Six Degrees of Separation

Hansberry, Lorraine
- A Raisin in the Sun

Hart, Moss and George Kaufman
- The Man Who Came to Dinner
- You Can’t Take It With You

Hauptmann, Gerhart
- The Weavers

Hecht and MacArthur
- Front Page

Hellman, Lillian
- The Children’s Hour
- The Little Foxes

Henley, Beth
- Crimes of the Heart

Howe, Tina
- Coastal Disturbances

Hwang, David Henry
- M. Butterfly

Ibsen, Henrik
- Hedda Gabler
- A Doll’s House
- Wild Duck
- Peer Gynt

Inge, William
- Bus Stop
- Picnic

Ionesco, Eugene
- Rhinoceros
- The Chairs
- The Bald Soprano

Jarry, Alfred
- Ubu Roi

Kane, Sarah
- Blasted

Kennedy, Adrienne

Kopit, Arthur

Kushner, Tony
- Angels in America

Letts, Tracy
- August: Osage County

Linney, Romulus

Littlewood, Joan
- Oh, What a Lovely War

Lorca, Federico Garcia
- Blood Wedding
- The House of Bernarda Alba

Lucas, Craig

Mamet, David
- Glengarry Glen Ross
- American Buffalo
- Sexual Perversity in Chicago

Mann, Emily
- Execution of Justice

Margulies, Donald
- Dinner with Friends

Martin, Jane
- Keely and Du

McDonagh, Martin
- The Pillowman

McNally, Terrence
- Love! Valour! Compassion!

Miller, Arthur
- Death of a Salesman
- The Crucible
- All My Sons

Moliere
- The Misanthrope
- Tartuffe
- The Imaginary Invalid
- The Miser

Mrozek, Slawomir
- Tango

Mueller, Heiner
- Hamletmachine

Norman, Marsha
- ‘night Mother

Nottage, Lynn
- Intimate Apparel
- Ruined

O’Casey, Sean
- Juno and the Paycock

O’Neill, Eugene
- A Moon for the Misbegotten
- Long Day’s Journey Into Night
- Desire Under the Elms
- Ah, Wilderness!

Odets, Clifford
- Waiting for Lefty
- The Golden Boy
- Awake and Sing!

Orton, Joe
- What the Butler Saw

Osborne, John
- Looking Back in Anger

Parks, Suzan-Lori
- Topdog/Underdog

Pinter, Harold
- The Birthday Party
- The Homecoming
- Betrayal

Pirandello, Luigi
- Six Characters in Search of an Author

Rabe, David
- Hurlyburly
- Streamers

Rivera, Jose
- Marisol

Ruhl, Sarah
- Eurydice

Saroyan, William
- The Time of Your Life

Sartre, Jean-Paul
- No Exit

Schnitzler, Arthur
- La Ronde

Shaffer, Peter
- Equus

Shange, Ntozake
- for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enough

Shanely, John Patrick
- Doubt

Shaw, George Bernard
- Arms and the Man
- Man and Superman
- Saint Joan
- Major Barbara

Shepard, Sam
- Fool for Love
- True West
- Curse of the Starving Class
- Buried Child

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley
- The School for Scandal

Sherman, Jason

Simon, Neil
- Lost in Yonkers
- The Odd Couple
- Barefoot in the Park

Smith, Anna Devere
- Fires in the Mirror

Son, Diana
- Stop Kiss

Stoppard, Tom
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
- Arcadia

Strindberg, August
- Miss Julie

Syne, John Millington
- Riders to the Sea
- The Playboy of the Western World

Taylor, Regina
- A Night in Tunisia

Terry, Megan

Thompson, Judith
- Perfect Pie

Treadwell, Sophie
- Machinal

Vogel, Paula
- How I Learned to Drive

Walker, George

Ward, Douglas Turner
- Day of Absence

Wasserstein, Wendy
- The Heidi Chronicles
- Uncommon Women and Others

Wedekind, Frank
- Spring’s Awakening

Wertenbaker, Timberlake
- Our Country’s Good

Wilde, Oscar
- The Importance of Being Earnest

Wilder, Thorton
- The Skin of Our Teeth
- Our Town

Williams, Tennessee
- A Streetcar Named Desire
- The Glass Menagerie
- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Wilson, August
- Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
- Fences

Wilson, Lanford
- Talley’s Folly
- The Fifth of July

Wolfe, George C.
- The Colored Museum

Wycherley, William
- The Country Wife


Now send me your suggestions and start reading!

R