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#1

Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 9:30pm

Just wondering as a head start for me next year when i go off to college to pursue a BFA in acting what do you think are the vital plays that me (or really anyone) should read before going to college or in life...obviously my first thoughts were Miller and Willaims and those classics but was wondering what kind of a list we could make thanks....

RIP Natasha Richardson. ~You were a light on this earth ~

#2

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 10:01pm

I think it is essential for anyone in the theatre, whether it be Acting or Musical Theatre, to read ANYTHING TONY KUSHNER. Especially Angels in America!

#3

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 10:03pm

Yes Williams, Miller, Simon, and Kushner. Read the classics like Chekov, Moliere, Ibsen, Shaw, etc...

Be the change you want in the world....

#4

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 10:06pm

my personal favorites:

As You Like It....Shakespeare
Ghosts....Ibsen
Hitchcock Blonde....Johnson

#5

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 10:10pm

The Pulitzer Prize winning play, Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon

#6

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 10:11pm

the normal heart- larry kramer
angels in america- tony kushnier
the elephant man
who's afraind of virginia woold- albee
the glass menagerie- williams
thos are what i would read. Enjoy them

"At the opening night party, they had clowns on stilts, jugglers, a chocolate fountain, popcorn, hot dogs. [My son] looked at me like I had been holding back. Like, 'This is what you do?' I had to tell him, 'No, no, darling. Opening nights don't usually look like this.' It's usually a dark bar with a bottle of vodka." ?Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's Jan Maxwell plus i proudly share the title of the shortest member over the age of 10 with wickedrentq!

#7

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 10:12pm

I did the Elephant Man, great script...Carole Shelley won a Tony for her portrayal of Ms. Kendall in it. It's a great show.

#8

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 10:13pm

Death of a Salesman
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
The Cherry Orchard
.....

Happy...Everything! Kaye Thompson

#9

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 10:14pm

The Rivers and Ravines

BSoBW2: I punched Sondheim in the face after I saw Wicked and said, "Why couldn't you write like that!?"

#10

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 10:14pm

my favorite are Noises Off and You Can't Take It With You.

<--- the set of A Midsummer Night's Dream that I was assistant stage manager for during the 2007 season at the STNJ outdoor stage.

-Dre- You must remember all the same that at the crux of every game is knowing when it's time to leave the table... And it's important to be artful in your exit. No turning back, you must accept the con is done... It was a ball, it was a blast. And it's a shame it couldn't last. But every chapter has to end, you must agree.
~Dirty Rotten Scoundrels~
There's a special kind of people known as show people. We live in a world full of dreams. Sometimes we're not too certain what's false and what's real. But we're seldom in doubt about what we feel.
~Curtains~
It is a far, far better thing I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to, than I have ever known.
~A Tale of Two Cities ~

#11

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 10:21pm

I'm going to read The Crucible.

#12

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 10:23pm

I loved the crucible its one of millers best in my opinion with Death... of course...thanks soo much you guys can't wait to go to the library on tommorow

RIP Natasha Richardson. ~You were a light on this earth ~

#13

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 10:35pm

A few suggestions from off the beaten path.

The Time Of Your Life by William Saroyan
Fat Men in Skirts and Pterodactyls by Nicky Silver
Cloud 9 by Caryl Churchill
Every play by Israel Horovitz
The plays of Jean Anouilh (especially the Lillian Hellman translation of The Lark)

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea by John Patrick Shanley
Fefu and her Friends by Maria Irene Fornes
The Mystery of Irma Vep by Charles Ludlam

Fortinbras by Lee Blessing
The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe
Kimberly Akimbo by David Lindsay Abaire

just some of my favorites

#14

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 10:43pm

LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT -O'Niel
ANGELS IN AMERICA- KUSHNER

#15

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 10:45pm

i'm actually in "Kimberly" right now homosez....isn't it just the best?? I play Jeff and am having a blast Abaire is a genuis!

RIP Natasha Richardson. ~You were a light on this earth ~

#16

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 10:52pm

Anything Shaw and read Harvey and Old Town.

#17

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 11:08pm

Lend Me A Tenor! It's the funniest play I've read in a while...

What the puck?!

#18

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 11:12pm

Our Town, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, A Raisin In The Sun and Three Tall Women come to mind and have not been listed.

#19

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 11:15pm

Something old, something new... read "A Doll's House," then read "The Shape of Things" by Neal Labute.

Avatar - Isaac, my blue-fronted Amazon parrot. Adopted 9/7/07. Age 30 (my pet is older than me!)

#20

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 11:18pm

Inherit the Wind
Death of a Salesman
place anything from Ol' Billy Shakespeare here
some Chekov, Ibsen, Shaw, etc.

"Who is Stephen Sondheim?" -roninjoey
"The man who wishes he had written Phantom of the Opera!" - SueleenGay

GO CARDINALS!!!

#21

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 7/31/05 at 11:50pm

Honestly - these are all good suggestions -- but you're going to have to read all these plays IN college if you're a theater major. Don't bother reading them now - wait until you GET to college, then if there's any you missed, catch up.

This is coming from a theater major who turned into an English teacher.

Hi, Shirley Temple Pudding.

#22

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 8/1/05 at 1:05am

I agree that you should not read everything over the summer. Some things are harder to understand and require time to appreciate. Also, it WILL require the help of college professors to really get to completely understand every work. That is why you pay thousands of dollars to go to their classes. But if you are talking about life in general, I think everyone who is involved in theatre should read at least one play from each major theatrical movement. Personally I like to start each year in Greek theatre and move into Roman, Commedia, Elizabethan, Realism, Expressionism, Modernism, Absurdism and others just to name a few. There are so many great playwrights outside of the accepted standards like Shakespeare, Moliere, Williams, Checkov, Simon, Miller, and Kushner (although he is particularly contraversial). I would suggest reading some contemporaries like Handke, Rivera, Mamet, Churchill, or Beckett (and not just Godot). And if you are looking for older works, try reading some Marlowe which will give you a new perspective on William Shakespeare's work.

#23

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 8/1/05 at 1:14am

Something that hasn't been said yet. When I took dramatic lit, I really enjoyed David Henry Hwang's (sp?) "M. Butterfly" and Norman's "'night, Mother." Also Sam Shepard is a good contemporary writer.

#24

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 8/1/05 at 3:04am

Hamlet paired with Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead".

Durang's "Laughing Wild" and "Beyond Therapy"
Streetcar Named Desire, Glass Menagerie

Rosencrantz: "Be happy - if you're not even HAPPY what's so good about surviving? We'll be all right. I suppose we just go on." - from Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

#25

re: Plays you MUST read

Posted: 8/1/05 at 3:09am

FROZEN by BRYONY LAVERY usually pops up at some point in every acting student's career.

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