Plays Every College Student Should Know

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 2/24/10 at 8:20pm

A friend and I both teach college and today we got into a discussion about what plays we thought students should read in theater survey courses. I favored some non-mainstream choices (like the works of Cherrie Moraga) while my friend thought in a survey course you should learn strictly from the canon: Miller, Williams, et al, which I somewhat agree with to an extent. Either way, I guess it made me wonder what people on here thought were plays that college students should be taught.
I'll start:
ANGELS IN AMERICA-Tony Kushner
FENCES-August Wilson
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE-Tennessee Williams

Thoughts?

[Patash]

Posted: 2/24/10 at 8:29pm

No doubt many non-theatre college students get turned off by "theatre appreciation classes" when their study revolves around Our Town, Glass Menagerie, Macbeth, and Deat of a Salesman -- period.

[Kad]

Posted: 2/24/10 at 8:29pm

I think the best would be to do a mix of standard canon and more obscure pieces.

Not including your choices, I'd say (and omitting Shakespeare, the standards should be:

Death of a Salesman
Waiting for Godot
A Raisin in the Sun
A Doll's House
Hedda Gabler
The Cherry Orchard
Woyzeck
Dr. Faustus
Tartuffe
Life is a Dream
Oedipus Rex
Lysistrata
Medea


This is a pretty standard overview of major theatrical works, but it's also a little boring and obvious.

[misto625]

Posted: 2/24/10 at 8:30pm

I'll second Angels in America!! Wonderful and socially important show. I would add:

Long Day's Journey Into Night- Eugene O'Neill

Mother Courage and/or Good Woman of Setzuan- Bertolt Brecht

Brighton Beach Memoirs- Neil Simon (not as serious but I think it teaches play structure and plot development well)

Fires in the Mirror or Twilight LA 1992- Anna Deveare Smith

Updated On: 2/24/10 at 08:30 PM

[JudasIscariot]

Posted: 2/24/10 at 9:07pm

To name a few contemporary works:

The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh
The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh
The Seafarer by Conor McPherson
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by Stephen Adly Guirgis
Dog Sees God by Bert V. Royal
Fat Pig by Neil LaBute
The Shape of Things by Neil LaBute
Doubt by John Patrick Shanley

I also second Mother Courage, and would like to add Fear and Misery of the Third Reich, Waiting for Godot, Pygmalion, and Ivanov.

Posted: 2/24/10 at 9:13pm

No Exit
Glass Menagerie
Our Town
You Can't Take it With You or Harvey
Six Degrees of Separation
Inherit the Wind

[DMsquared2]

Posted: 2/24/10 at 10:41pm

In my History of Theatre class last semester we've read/are reading:

Antigone
Medea
Lysistrata
Dulcitius
Everyman
The Dentist
Othello
The Masque of Blackness
Life is a Dream
Tartuffe
The Rover
The Love Suicides at Sonezaki
The London Merchant
Hernani
Uncle Tom's Cabin
A Doll House
Riders to the Sea
At the Hawk's Well
Desire Under the Elms
Six Characters in Search of an Author
The Bald Soprano
Krapp's Last Tape
The Glass Menagerie
How I Learned to Drive

Next year I'll be taking Foundations of Modern Drama. I'm pursuing a B.A. in Theatre.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 2/24/10 at 11:19pm

Those are some really great ones. I took a class in undergrad where we studied Anna Deveare Smith's TWILIGHT LA 1992 and FIRES IN THE MIRROR, both brilliant. I agree she should definitely be taught in college.
I was also thinking about the work of Lynn Nottage, I thought RUINED was incredibly brilliant and I also like her CRUMBS FOR A TABLE OF JOY.

[jpbran]

Posted: 2/24/10 at 11:20pm

I can't believe nobody said "I Can Do Bad All By Myself."

[E.Davis]

Posted: 2/24/10 at 11:46pm

Three Sisters
The Revengers Tragedy
Moon Over Buffalo

[broadwaybabe1234]

Posted: 2/25/10 at 12:15am

i think THE LARAMIE PROJECT should be known. Not just the topic but how it was compiled. its an amazing piece

REASONS TO BE PRETTY is so new but i think it will needed to be know in the future

[perfectliar]

Posted: 2/25/10 at 12:18am

It depends on what you're trying to accomplish by teaching these plays. I took two different drama classes in college, World Drama and American Drama, and both served two different functions: the former to be a general introduction to major texts from multiple locations/time periods and the latter to introduce different styles of playwriting/performance in America.

World Drama:

Everyman
Lysistrata
Medea
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Hamlet
The Recognition of Sakuntala
Autumn in the Palace of Han
Hedda Gabler
The Cherry Orchard
Our Town
The Constant Wife
Waiting for Godot
The American Dream
Top Girls

American Drama:

Our Town
The Skin of Our Teeth
The Long Christmas Dinner
The Hairy Ape
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
All My Sons
The Zoo Story
The American Dream
Curse of the Starving Class
The Heidi Chronicles
Eleemosynary
Painting Churches
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Angels in America, Part 1

[tellybox]

Posted: 2/25/10 at 1:09am

Among the plays I've studied in school have been:

The Cherry Orchard
Oedipus Rex
The Tempest
The Wild Duck
The Three Sisters
Saint Joan
Faust
The Glass Menagerie
Long Days Journey Into Night
Oleanna
The Cripple of Inishmaan
Galileo
Mother Courage
Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
Fences
Buried Child
Top Girl

And among some of the more obscure titles:

The Sea by Edward Bond
Art by Yasmina Reza
Hamletmachine by Heiner Muller
Billy Bishop Goes to War by John Gray with Eric Peterson
Fefu and Her Friends by Maria Irene Fornes
The America Play by Suzan-Lori Parks
Phaedra's Love by Sarah Kane

And countless other plays, including European, American, and Canadian. I feel like I've got a pretty good knowledge of many different plays under my belt.

Updated On: 2/25/10 at 01:09 AM

[wonkit]

Posted: 2/25/10 at 7:43pm

Mamet? Shaw? Pinter?

[WiCkEd BaCcHaE]

Posted: 2/25/10 at 8:23pm

I would substitute GEM OF THE OCEAN instead of FENCES for an Augest Wilson play. It's a less linear play and it's the play representing the earliest decade in the Century Cycle, making it vital to have an understanding of if you wish to read the rest of the cycle.

I would use VENUS for the Suzan-Lori Parks example since it carries a linear plot while utilizing less realistic elements, such as a chorus.

[EugLoven]

Posted: 2/25/10 at 11:06pm

College is the chance to digest the staples. It takes reading the Most Popular to open-the-doors to new authors and not-so-popular reads...

The Denver Post took some impressive numbers gathering The 10 Most Important Plays

TOP 10 ARE...
Death of a Salesmen
Angels in America
A Streetcar Named Desire
Long Days Journey into Night
Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Our Town
The Glass Menagerie
A Raisin in the Sun
The Crucible
Fences

BUT TAKE A LOOK AT THE PHENOMENAL TITLES BEYOND THE TOP 10...
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14397304

[Marie Christine2]

Posted: 2/26/10 at 1:19am

The Denver Post list has Funny Girl as being written by Jerry Herman. Are there any other works that are attributed incorrectly?

[xxdrewboy85xx]

Posted: 2/26/10 at 3:13pm

This is a partial list of the plays every college student should Know. Most people have not read every play on the list!

THE AMERICANS:
Kushner: Angles in America: A Gay Fantasia
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

THE BRITISH Styles

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
______________________________________________________________
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

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

THE GREEKS AND ROMANS:

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
GOETHE: Faust I and II

GERMAN

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
Jarry: Ubu Rex (roi), and the whole trilogy.

THE FRENCH:

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

PLUS: The Complete works of Shakes.




Updated On: 2/26/10 at 03:13 PM

[GlennMoore]

Posted: 12/6/19 at 6:39am

It does nto matter which play. Choose any. After graduating, students will successfully implement their acquired skills in life, in business and in creativity: 80% of students who want to enter a creative university or act in films have realized their dream. Some graduates have been successful at the international level essay writer.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 12/6/19 at 8:53am

It looks like Drewboy made the most comprehensive list ever nine years ago...As a theater teacher myself, I think that if you want to have a career in the theater it is important to be well educated in the greatest classic works, but to also know the most important modern plays. It is just part of being a well-rounded artist.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 12/7/19 at 3:03pm

Confidential to Drewboy:

As much as I would like to see what Shaw would do with HEARTBREAK HOTEL, I think that's a Shel Silverstein song. HEARTBREAK HOUSE, on the other hand, is my favorite Shaw and a play I taught for many years.

***

In general, I have years of experience of teaching undergraduates at three, very different universities. In a survey course, the best you can do is get students to read one play per week PLUS supporting material (a textbook like Brockett or dramaturgical essays such as Aristotle's POETICS), OR two plays per week.

And that's only if you use carrots and sticks such as pop quizzes, short papers and class discussions that require knowledge of the required text(s).

And I'm talking about students with 4.0+ averages in high school who go on to an elite university.

So while it's easy to say undergrads should know all 37 (or whatever the latest number) of Shakespeare's plays, it isn't going to happen. Particularly not at universities that emphasize WORLD theater as opposed to just WESTERN.

What one ends up doing is a lot of trade offs--choosing Williams or Miller, Marlowe or Shakespeare, Shaw or Chekhov, Kushner or Kramer--in order to make room for Zeami, Chikamatsu, Soyinka, Valdez, et al.

And then one gets student evaluations complaining that a play from Argentina was taught, but not one from Brazil; plays from four east and south Asian cultures were included, but not Korea; and the African-American play taught was only a one-act (DUTCHMAN, also on Drewboy's list). LOL.

This thread reminds me how glad I am not to have to make these decisions any more. My graduate school once gave an entrance exam that measured knowledge of dramatic literature and then gave students a year to rectify their deficiencies; by the time I got there, this practice had been discontinued because the faculty couldn't agree on which plays to include.

FTR, I taught 80% of the plays listed above, varying my syllabi from term to term and year to year. But I never succeeded in significantly increasing the number of plays students would read. (They did take some classes in specific genres, such as Chicano theater, so they read additional plays in other courses, but nothing that could be called a "canon".)

Updated On: 12/7/19 at 03:03 PM

[A Director]

Posted: 12/7/19 at 3:07pm

^ Well, ain't you special.

 

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 12/8/19 at 7:51am

A issue we face now of course is what feels like the sudden realization that almost all of classic (Western) theatrical literature is written by white men. Depending on what school you teach at, you may get a lot of backlash if you teach only these works.

Ultimately though, students must also educate THEMSELVES. Despite having both a B.A. and an M.F.A., I have learned - and continue to learn - about theatrical works and authors both past and present on my own.

[inception]

Posted: 12/8/19 at 9:21am

Wow! What an interesting thread, and such invaluable input from longtime contributors!
It makes me feel like such a goof for giving my opinions on here about new works since my only theatre education is from going to the theatre. (not that I think I need a university diploma to pass judement, as I recently have, on a new Cirque specatacle or a Mrs Doubtfire?); and the plays I have read are only for my own pleasure - like most Shakespeare a few times, as well as Ibsen, Chekov, Shaw, Wilder, & O'Neil.
Since I read for my own fun, I would probably never read a lot on the lists above. Even things like Williams or Miller, which I maybe read once 20 or 30 years ago, I wouldn't bother re-reading. (& I only ever read Miller in the 1st place as a teen because he had been married to Marilyn Monroe).
Thinking about reading so-called "classics," got me thinking about how difficult it is to actually see many of these plays performed. Shakespeare is easy since there are so many different festivals. I live in a city where the main professional Equity subscription company has openly stated that they have no interest in performing classics. Fortunately here there are three major university acting programs, and it is only because of these that I have seen performances of, for example, all the major works of Brecht. But even these in recent years, have started presenting more popular works like musicals Grease or even this past spring "9 to 5" (kind of a piece of crap).

[FosseTharp]

Posted: 12/8/19 at 2:31pm

Holy blast from the past! I saw this thread title and immediately remembered this thread and wanted to go search for it to post here— until I noticed the thread was started by Ray and realized it was most likely the same thread. I was Drewboy... that was my old account which I can’t access anymore as I’ve long forgotten that password and used a now obsolete Hotmail account when I joined BWW. Gaveston: I literally LOL’d when I read your response. I can not believe I made that blunder re: Heartbreak Hotel/House. I’m dead.