List of Plays to Read and Know
(compiled by Lenora Inez Brown and Jonathan Dorf)
came across this on the dramaturgy listserv and couldn’t resist sharing with everyone. Any additons? Add them in the commenst section… e
GREEK DRAMA
Euripides
Electra
Iphigenia at Aulis
Alcestis
The Bacchae
Medea
Sophocles
The Oedipus cycle
Electra
Aristophanes. The Frogs
Aeschylus. The Orestia
Aristotle’s Poetics
ROMAN DRAMA
Plautus
Seneca
The Menechami
MEDIEVAL DRAMA
The Second Shepherd Play
The Wakefield Mysteries
Hrsovitha (first female playwright known in Western canon)
RENAISSANCE DRAMA
Shakespeare
Hamlet
MacBeth
Romeo and Juliet
Richard III
Measure for Measure
Midsummer’s Night Dream
King Lear
The Tempest
Merry Wives of Windsor
Henry V
Ben Jonson
Bartholomew Fair
Volpone
JACOBEAN DRAMA
Webster. The Duchess of Malfi
Middleton
The Changeling
Women Beware Women
Marlowe
Dr. Faustus
Edward the Second
Goldoni. A Servant of Two Masters
FRENCH DRAMA
Moliere
Tartuffe
The Misanthrope
Corneille. El Cid
Feydeau. A Flea in her Ear
Racine. Phaedra
Dion Boucicult
The Octoroon
The Shagraun
Alfred Jarry. The Ubu Plays
SPANISH DRAMA
Calderon. Life is a Dream
Lope de Vega. Fuente Ovejuna
BELGIAN DRAMA
Maeterlink
The Stranger/The Intruder
The Blue Bird
RESTORATION DRAMA
Sheridan
Congreve
Aphra Behn. The Rover
Goldsmith. She Stoops to Conquer
Wycherly
The Country Wife
The Man of Mode
SCANDANAVIAN DRAMA
Henrik Ibsen
A Doll’s House
Peer Gynt
Hedda Gabler
Ghosts
The Masterbuilder
August Strindberg
Miss Julie
The Father
A Dream Play
GERMAN DRAMA
Schiller
Goethe
RUSSIAN DRAMA
Stanislavski. An Actor Prepares
Anton Chekhov
The Cherry Orchard
Three Sisters
The Seagull
Uncle Vanya
Gorky. The Lower Depths
EARLY AMERICAN DRAMA
Clifford Odets
Golden Boy
Eugene O’Neill
Mourning Becomes Electra
Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Iceman Cometh
Susan Glaspell
Trifles
Gertrude Stein
Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters
T.S. Eliot
Murder in the Cathedral
The Cocktail Party
20th CENTURY BRITISH DRAMA
Oscar Wilde
Importance of Being Earnest
Salome
Noel Coward
Blithe Spirit
Private Lives
POSTMODERN DRAMA
Beckett
Waiting for Godot
Endgame
Krapp’s Last Tape
Happy Days
Pirandello
Enrico IV
Six Characters in Search of an Author
Brecht
Mother Courage
Caucasian Chalk Circle
Good Woman of Szechuan
Essays:
On Alienation
On Epic theatre
Durrenmatt. The Visit of the Old Lady
Ionesco
The Chairs
The Lesson
Rhinoceros
Sartre. No Exit (Huis Clos)
Genet
The Blacks
The Maids
The Balcony
Artaud
Cenci
Jet of Blood
Theatre and Its Double
Boal. Theatre of the Oppressed
BRITISH DRAMA, Post WWII
Alan Ayckbourn
The Norman Conquests
House and Garden
David Hare
Slag
Plenty
Pravda
The Secret Rapture
The Blue Room
The Vertical Hour
Edward Bond. Saved
Arnold Wesker. Roots
Osborne. Look Back in Anger
Joe Orton
What the Butler Saw
Loot
Tom Stoppard
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Arcadia
Rock and Roll
Harold Pinter
The Homecoming
Betrayal
The Birthday Party
The Dumbwaiter
Caryl Churchill
Top Girls
Cloud Nine
Far Away
Sarah Kane
4.48 psychosis
Blasted
NIGERIAN DRAMA
Wole Soyinka. Death and the King’s Horseman
SOUTH AFRICAN DRAMA
Athol Fugard
Blood Knot
Master Harold and the Boys
The Road to Mecca
Boseman and Lena
GERMAN DRAMA
Heiner Muller. Hamletmachine
Buchner
Woyzeck
Danton’s Death
20th CENTURY AMERICAN DRAMA
Arthur Miller
Death of a Salesman
A View from the Bridge
Thornton Wilder. Our Town
Edward Albee
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe
Zoo Story
Three Tall Women
A Delicate Balance
The Goat
Adrienne Kennedy
Funnyhouse of a Negro
She Talks to Beethoven
Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White
Ohio State Murders
Tennessee Williams
A Streetcar Named Desire
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Glass Menagerie
Sweet Bird of Youth
William Inge
Bus Stop
Picnic
Come Back Little Sheba
Neil Simon
The Odd Couple
Brighten Beach Memoirs
Sam Shepard
True West
Buried Child
Curse of the Starving Class
Tooth of Crime
John Patrick Shanley
Doubt
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea
Ntozake Shange. For colored girls who considered suicide when the rainbow isn’t enuf
Charles Ludlam. The Mystery of Irma Vep
William Alfred. Hogan’s Goat
David Mamet
American Buffalo
Glengarry Glenn Ross
Oleanna
Speed-the-plow
Amiri Baraka. Dutchman
Wendy Wasserstein
Uncommon Women
The Heidi Chronicles
Marsha Norman. ’Night Mother
Israel Horowitz. Indian Wants the Bronx
Anna Deavere Smith
Fires in the Mirror
Twilight
House Arrest: The Search for American Character
Lynn Nottage
Crumbs From the Table of Joy
Fabulation
Intimate Apparel
August Wilson
Fences
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Piano Lesson
A.R. Gurney
The Dining Room
Sylvia
Horton Foote
Young Man from Atlanta
Trip to Bountiful
Lanford Wilson
The Fifth of July
Burn This
David Rabe
Hurlyburly
Streamers
Tony Kushner
Angels in America
Homebody/Kabul
William Hoffman. As Is
Larry Kramer. The Normal Heart
Jose Rivera
Marisol
Cloud Tectonics
References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot
Paula Vogel
How I Learned to Drive
Hot L Baltimore
The Long Christmas Ride Home
Suzan-Lori Parks
Topdog/Underdog
In The Blood
The America Play
Sarah Ruhl
Eurydice
Dead Man’s Cell phone
David Henry Hwang
M. Butterfly
Yellowman
Nilo Cruz. Anna and the Tropics
Maria Irene Fornes
Mud
The Successful Life of Three
Fefu and her Friends
Steven Dietz
Lonely Planet
God’s Country
Robert Schenkkan. The Kentucky Cycle
Christopher Durang
The Marriage of Bette and Boo
Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All for You
Lorraine Hansberry
A Raisin in the Sun
The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window
Carson McCullers. A Member of the Wedding
Milcha Sanchez Scott. Roosters
George C. Wolfe. The Colored Museum
IRISH DRAMA
Bernard Shaw
Man and Superman
Pygmalian
Major Barbara
Mrs. Warren’s Profession
Heartbreak House
Martin McDonaugh
The Cripple of Inishmaan
The Pillowman
The Beauty Queen of Lenane
Conor McPherson
The Weir
Dublin Carol
Shining City
CHILDREN’S THEATRE
Suzan Zeder
The Mother Hicks series
Wiley and the Hairy Man
Laurie Brooks
The Wrestling Season
The Selkie
David Saar. The Yellow Boat
James Still
And Then They Came for Me
The Velveteen Rabbit
Y York (Many published texts)
Barry Kornhauser. This is Not a Pipe Dream
Jose Cruz Gonzalez
The Highest Heaven
Two Donuts
Lowell Swortzel. Around the World in 21 Plays: Theatre for Young Audiences
Coleman A. Jennings. Theatre for Young Audiences: 20 Great Plays for Children
OTHER TEXTS
David Ball. Backwards and Forwards
Declan Donnellan. The Actor and the Target
Anne Bogart. The Viewpoints Book
Liz Lerman. The Critical Response Process