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Plays Everyone Should Read

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#1

Plays Everyone Should Read

Posted: 4/30/06 at 7:40pm

I wanted to start a discussion of plays theatre majors should read. I'm more of a musical person, but that is no excuse for me to be ignorant. I want to start seeing/reading more drama.

I'm reading Extremities right now, and gonna read The Woolgatherer and Betrayal next. What are some plays you've seen/read over the years that just absolutely stand out in your mind?

Yeah, I'm sure I should be taking a class that opens this kind of discussion, but my school's theatre programme isn't the greatest.
"What a mystery this world. One day you love them and the next day you want to kill them a thousand times over." The Masked Bandit in THE FALL
#2

re: Plays Everyone Should Read

Posted: 4/30/06 at 7:43pm

the history boys.

one of the best plays i've ever read
"Picture "The View," with the wisecracking, sympathetic sweethearts of that ABC television show replaced by a panel of embittered, suffering or enraged Arab women" -the Times review of Black Eyed
#4

re: Plays Everyone Should Read

Posted: 4/30/06 at 7:46pm

Everyman
Oedipus
Hamlet
Othello -- (pretty much anything by Shakespeare)
The Seagull
A Doll's House
Hedda Gabler
A Streetcar Named Desire
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Orpheus Descending
Sweet Bird of Youth -- (pretty much anything by Williams)
Long Day's Journey Into Night
Death of a Salesman
Endgame
Waiting for Godot
The American Dream
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The Pillowman

...I'll think of more
"You've gotta have a swine to show you where the truffles are."
#6

re: Plays Everyone Should Read

Posted: 4/30/06 at 7:48pm

American Plays: My Top 10 Must Reads

Long Day's Journey Into Night
The Iceman Cometh
The Crucible
Death of a Salesmean
A Streetcar Named Desire
The Glass Menagerie
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Angels in America
You Can't Take it With You
#7

re: Plays Everyone Should Read

Posted: 4/30/06 at 7:51pm

Come Back, Little Sheba
Side Man
Buried Child
True West
Angels in America
Love Letters
Little Foxes
The Children's Hour
"You've gotta have a swine to show you where the truffles are."

Updated On: 4/30/06 at 07:51 PM

#8

re: Plays Everyone Should Read

Posted: 4/30/06 at 7:54pm

Apart from the classics (Oedipus, Shakespear etc.)
The shape of things
The Goat (or who is Sylvia)-or anything by Albee
Tartuffe
Spring Awakening

Not a play but you should also read Poetics if you have any interest in theatre.
David walked into the valley With a stone clutched in his hand He was only a boy But he knew someone must take a stand There will always be a valley Always mountains one must scale There will always be perilous waters Which someone must sail -Into the Fire Scarlet Pimpernel
#10

re: Plays Everyone Should Read

Posted: 4/30/06 at 7:59pm

I worked on my high school's production of "Harvey" about 4 years ago and I throughly enjoyed it. I went out and bought the play for my collection. It's adorable!
What good is a life, With no one to share, The light of the moon, The honor of a swear?
#12

re: Plays Everyone Should Read

Posted: 4/30/06 at 8:04pm

waiting for gadot
our lady of 121st street
jesus hopped the a train
#13

re: Plays Everyone Should Read

Posted: 4/30/06 at 8:55pm

Raisin in the Sun is amazing!
"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
To Kill A Mockingbird
#14

re: Plays Everyone Should Read

Posted: 4/30/06 at 8:57pm

The Importance of Being Earnest
"We don't value the lily less for not being made of flint and built to last. Life's bounty is in it's flow, later is too late. Where is the song when it's been sung, the dance when it's been danced? It's only we humans who want to own the future too." - Tom Stoppard, Shipwreck
#15

re: Plays Everyone Should Read

Posted: 4/30/06 at 9:07pm

I just bought 6 plays that I think are really important, so I'll give you that list.

First off, I've read Angels in America 3 times, and it never fails to astound me. You must read it.

Waiting for Godot
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?
I Am My Own Wife
The Pillowman
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
#17

re: Plays Everyone Should Read

Posted: 4/30/06 at 9:09pm

At my college they give out a list of the 100 plays that should be read before you graduate. If anyone is interested I can email it to you.
(Martha Graham from a letter to Agnes de Mille) "There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening That is translated through you into action, And because there is only one of you in all time, This expression is unique. If you block it, It will never exist through any other medium And be lost. The world will never have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, Nor how valuable it is, Nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours, clearly and directly, To keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware Directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, A blessed unrest that keeps us marching And makes us more alive than others."
#18

re: Plays Everyone Should Read

Posted: 4/30/06 at 9:10pm

Night of the Iguana and anything else by tennessee williams!

...What happened next, was stranger still, a woman breathless and afraid, appeared out of the night, completely dressed in white. She had a secret she would tell, of one who had mistreated her. Her face and frightened gaze, my mind cannot erase...But then she ran from view. She looked so much like you...
#19

re: Plays Everyone Should Read

Posted: 4/30/06 at 9:15pm

The Rimers of Eldritch- Landford Wilson

Im doing the play now and I love it. Mary is fun :)

And I would be very interested if you could PM me the list of the top 100 plays, TheatreBoi
"I wouldn't let Esparza's Bobby take my kids to the zoo...I'd be afraid he'd steal their ice cream and laugh."- YankeeFan
"People who like Sondheim enjoy cruelty."-LuvtheEmcee
#22

re: Plays Everyone Should Read

Posted: 4/30/06 at 9:36pm

I second Angels in America and Equus.

Two to add to the list: Marat/Sade & The House of Blue Leaves
#23

re: Plays Everyone Should Read

Posted: 4/30/06 at 10:19pm

A Raisin In The Sun
The Crucible
And everything Shakespeare!
The course of true love never did run smooth.
#24

re: Plays Everyone Should Read

Posted: 4/30/06 at 10:23pm

A good reference list of plays worth reading is the contents of THE BEST PLASY... series of books. Each season from 1919-1920 until 1994-95 the editors chose the 10 best plays and musicals each season. They included all the major award winners but also some more obscure plays that maybe only had limited runs or off-off-Broadway stagings.

It was through the BEST PLAYS series I first read STICKS AND BONES, THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE, THE GREAT WHITE HOPE and many more. Of course if you enjoy their abridged versions you can search out the complete text.

A shame they have done away with running a detailed synopsis of each play in favour of essays about the chosen shows. Still for the statistical data (Cast changes, awards, performances) the entire series is a must for any theatre fan. I have the complete set including three volumes covering the early years (1884-1919) that were added to the series in the 1950s, and I await each new release eagerly.

Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!

I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com

#25

re: Plays Everyone Should Read

Posted: 4/30/06 at 10:25pm

I'm surprised no one has mentioned "Wit" (W!t) yet... I was quite moved after reading it.
Love, Miss Britt

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