<p>My teacher hands out an article at the beginning of every year. On this article is a list of plays that any student serious about professional theatre training should read (or at the very least have a sound knowledge of). </p>
<p>Now, I go to a public school, so I must say that European literature and American theatre is a topic not really touched upon as much as it should. Those of you who go to a magnet or charter school might have already read these.</p>
<p>For the sake of fun, I thought I would include some of the plays on the list. I have lots of summer reading:</p>
<p>THE AMERICANS (parital list):</p>
<p>O'NEILL: Ah, Wilderness!; Long Day's Journey Into Night; The Iceman Cometh; The Emporer Jones; Desire Under the Elms
RICE: Street Scene; The Adding Machine
KAUFMAN AND HART: You Can't Take It With You; The Man Who Came to Dinner
ODETS: Waiting for Lefty; Awake and Sing; Golden Boy
SHERWOOD: The Petrified Forest
HELLMAN: The Children's Hour; The Little Foxes
STEINBECK: Of Mice and Men
WILDER: Our Town; The Skin of Our Teeth; The Matchmaker
WILLIAMS: The Glass Menagerie; Summer and Smoke; A Streetcar Named Desire; Cat On a Hot Tin Roof
MILLER: Death of a Salesman; The Crucible: A View from the Bridge; The Price
SIMON: Barefoot in the Park; Lost in Yonkers; The Odd Couple; The Sunshine Boys
ALBEE: The Zoo Story; The Death of Bessie Smith; The American Dream; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; A Delicate Balance
BARAKA (JONES): Dutchman
HANSBURY: A Raisin in the Sun; The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window
LANFORD WILSON: Hot I Baltimore; Balm in Gilead; The Rimers of Eldritch; The Fifth of July
SHEPHERD: True West; Curse of the Strarving Class; Buried Child
RABE: Streamers; Sticks and Bones; The Basic Training of Pavel Hummel
MAMET: Sexual Perversity in Chicago; American Buffalo; Glengarry Glenn Ross; Speed-the-Plow
HENLEY: Crimes of the Heart; The Miss Firecracker Contest
AUGUST WILSON: Fences; Ma Rainey's Black Bottom; The Piano Lesson; Two Train's Running
KRAMER: The Normal Heart
WASSERSTEIN: The Heidi Chronicles; The Sisters Rosenweig</p>
<p>ANONYMOUS: Everyman; The Second Shepherd’s Play
BEN JOHNSON: Volpone; The Alchemist
MARLOWE: Edward II; Dr. Faustus
SHAKESPEARE: Hamlet; Julius Caesar; Othello; Macbeth; King Lear; Romeo and Juliet; Twelfth Night; As You Like It; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; The Tempest; Much Ado About Nothing; Richard II; Henry IV Parts 1 and 2; Henry V; Richard III
BEHN: The Rover
WYCHERLEY: The Country Wife
SHERIDAN: The Rivals; The School for Scandal
GOLDSMITH: She Stoops to Conquer
WILDE: The Importance of Being Earnest; Lady Windermere’s Fan
SHAW: Pygmalion; Major Barbara; Man and Superman; Arms and the Man; Saint Joan; Caesar and Cleopatra; Mrs. Warren’s Profession; Heartbreak Hotel
SYNGE: Playboy of the Western World
COWARD: Hay Fever; Private Lives; Blithe Spirit
BECKETT: Waiting for Godot; Endgame; Happy Days; Krapp’s Last Tape
OSBORNE: Look Back in Anger; The Entertainer
PINTER: The Caretaker; The Homecoming; The Dumbwaiter; The Birthday Party; The Lover; The Collection
STOPPARD: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Travesties; The Real Thing; Jumpers</p>
<p>GOGOL: The Inspector General
TURGENOV: A Month in the Country
CHEKHOV: The Sea Gull; Uncle Vanya; The Three Sisters; The Cherry Orchard; The Marriage Proposal; The Boor</p>
<p>THE SCANDANAVIANS:</p>
<p>IBSEN: Hedda Gabler; A Doll’s House; Ghosts; The Master Builder; An Enemy of the People (adapted by Arthur Miller)
STRINDBERG: Miss Julie; The Father; A Dream Play; The Ghost Sonata</p>
<p>THE GREEKS AND ROMANS:</p>
<p>AESCHYLUS: The Oresteia Trilogy; Prometheus Bound
SOPHOCLES: Oedipus Rex; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone; Electra
EURIPIDES: Medea; The Trojan Women; The Bacchae; Hyppolytus
ARISTOPHANES: The Clouds; The Frogs; Lysistrata
PLAUTUS: The Twin Manaechmi (very similar to Shakespeare’s “A Comedy of Errors”); Amphitryon
SENECA: Medea</p>
<p>THE GERMANS, AUSTRIANS, AND SWISS (Partial List):</p>
<p>GOETHE: Faust I and II
WEDEKIND: Spring’s Awakening; The Lulu Plays
STERNHEIM: The Snob
BRECHT: The Threepenny Opera; Mother Courage; Galileo; The Caucasian Chalk Circle; The Good Person of Setzuan; Man is Man
WEISS: Marat/Sade</p>
<p>MOLIERE: Tartuffe; The Miser; The School for Wives; The Misanthrope; The Doctor in Spite of Himself
BEAUMARCHAIS: The Barber of Seville; The Marriage of Figaro
DUMAS, FILS: Camille
ZOLA: Therese Raquin
GIRADOUX: The Madwoman of Chaillot; Amphitryon 38; The Enchanted; Tiger at the Gates; Electra
SARTRE: The Flies; No Exit (existentialism, anyone?)
IONESCO: The Bald Soprano; The Chairs; The Lesson; Rhinoceros
GENET: The Maids; The Blacks; The Balcony</p>
<p>THE SPANISH:</p>
<p>LOPE DE VEGA: Fuente Ovejuna
CALDERON DE LA BARCA: Life is a Dream
LORCA: Yerma; Blood Wedding; The House of Bernarda Alba
TIRSO DE MOLINA: The Trickster of Seville</p>
<p>THE ITALIANS:</p>
<p>GOLDONI: The Servant of Two Masters
PIRANDELLO: Right You are If You Think So [If You Think You Are]; Six Characters in Search of An Author; Henry IV</p>
<p>THE EASTERN EUROPEANS (Partial List):</p>
<p>HAVEL: The Memorandum (Czech) </p>
<p>THE AFRICANS:</p>
<p>SOYINKA: The Death and the King’s Horseman
FUGARD: Sizwe Bansi is Dead; The Island; Blood Knot; Master Harold…and the Boys</p>
<p>A contemporary favorite of mine is Richard Greenberg. He is best known for Take Me Out and Three Days of Rain, both very good plays, but he is a prolific writer and has written between 30 and 40 others. I haven’t read one yet that I haven’t enjoyed. :)</p>
<p>I think we’re all forgetting to mention Canada’s most prominent playwrights Let’s add Judith Thompson, David French, Daniel MacIvor, and Michael Healey to the list.</p>
Let’s add Judith Thompson, David French, Daniel MacIvor, and Michael Healey to the list.</p>