Who is the greatest living playwright?- Page 2

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 6:46am

Albee/Simon, Kushner/Mamet. Though these people are from 2 different generations and the first 2 don't seem to be writing a whole lot now. BUT they're still alive and well!

[3bluenight]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 7:13am

I would also include Michael Frayn in this conversation.
I'd also give an honorable mention to David Henry Hwang and Lynn Nottage.

I do find it frustrating that more women aren't included in this conversation. Two of the most prominent - Wendy Wasserstein and Sarah Kane - having passed.

I appreciate writers like Lee Blessing, Charles Mee, Anna Deavere Smith, Dael Orlandersmith, and Sarah Jones.

But when push comes to shove, i'd go with Albee as well.

[3bluenight]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 7:13am

I would also include Michael Frayn in this conversation.
I'd also give an honorable mention to David Henry Hwang and Lynn Nottage.

I do find it frustrating that more women aren't included in this conversation. Two of the most prominent - Wendy Wasserstein and Sarah Kane - having passed.

I appreciate writers like Lee Blessing, Charles Mee, Anna Deavere Smith, Dael Orlandersmith, and Sarah Jones.

But when push comes to shove, i'd go with Albee as well.

[AC126748]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 9:54am

I do find it frustrating that more women aren't included in this conversation. Two of the most prominent - Wendy Wasserstein and Sarah Kane - having passed.

I think we're currently seeing a time of unprecedented success for women playwrights, and perhaps if this question is asked again in a decade or so, there will be many more female candidates. It's wonderful that we currently have female artists as varied as Suzan-Lori Parks, Theresa Rebeck, Sarah Ruhl, Lynn Nottage, Paula Vogel, Amy Herzog, Lisa D'Amour, Gina Gionfriddo, Dael Orlandersmith, Rebecca Gilman, Kate Fodor, and Katori Hall getting their work produced on Broadway and by major Off Broadway and regional companies. It would be foolish to say that drama isn't still a predominantly white, predominately male field, but it's encouraging to see so many women writers working and being recognized.

[3bluenight]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 10:03am

I absolutely agree that it's encouraging to see an influx of female and minority playwrights emerging.

but if the arts are a reflection of the society or culture that produces them, i think it's also telling that we are still so mired in identity politics when it comes to these types of conversations.

i believe it's important to advocate for female and minority playwrights, but it's also a sign that we as a culture haven't been able to get past these issues.

[AC126748]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 10:10am

I definitely agree with you that it's easy to get bogged down in identity politics when having a discussion about such a broad, sweeping question. That said, I still think it's rather telling that even in 2011, theatre is still very much written, produced, and directed by a ground of solidly privileged white males, with women and artists of color only just beginning to make significant strides. (As wonderful as pioneering artists like Hansbury or Fornes were/are, they have to be seen as an exception to the rules of their time) We HAVEN'T gotten past these issues, as you say, which is why there seems to be such an uproar whenever "non-traditional casting" et al is discussed around here.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 10:22am

>Albee/Simon, Kushner/Mamet. Though these people are from 2 different generations and the first 2 don't seem to be writing a whole lot now. BUT they're still alive and well!<

Simon is actually not well, which is why he hasn't been writing anything. Albee, however, is still very active and vital at 83. In the last few years, he's written At Home at the Zoo (his rewritten/retitled two-act version of Zoo Story), Me Myself and I, and his newest play, Laying an Egg, which was supposed to be a part of Signature's first Signature Center season, til Albee hit some Act 3 trouble. It's now delayed for a future season, but per Riedel's column yesterday, those who have read it say what he HAS written is apparently first rate.

[3bluenight]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 10:34am

oh i totally agree that even at this point in history we are still living with what Bell Hooks and others have called the White Supremacist Colonialist Capitalistic Heterosexual Patriarchy.

we live in this global world that is dominated by white, straight businessmen. be it the business of politics, entertainment, what have you; our reality is under an umbrella of these structural forces that we must live with or in reaction to.

we see this throughout all aspects of modern society. The influence that emerging markets like the Asian Markets and previously the Central and South American markets has over the central structure seems to be infinitesimal.

So it's easy to see why it's so hard for people who don't neatly fit into the mold are struggling against the odds.

That being said, i believe in polyculturalism. that it's important to honor our heritage and histories, but that those identities don't exist in a vacuum. they overlap. i am asian and male and american and gay/bisexual and educated and raised in a rural and poor area in an upper middle class family. all of these identities (and the attendant cultures/sub-cultures) exist within me and aren't easily separated. moreover, it's naive to think they are distinct.

european americans, african americans, native americans, latin americans, and eventually asian americans are all creating the culture together, aspects seep from one population to another.

the classic metaphor is the salad bowl versus the melting pot - multiculturalism is portrayed as a salad bowl - in that cultures are static and remain so even when tossed in with other cultures. that they are immutable.

whereas - some argue (myself included) that in reality humanity is more fluid, more malleable.

[junkyard]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 5:35pm

kyle4 is the worlds greatest playwright, living or dead. Just ask hime. Did anyone ( and I mean anyone) see his masterpiece GARBO? Genius, pure genius, boffo and all of those old Variety words.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 8:48pm

Chris Durang.

Brilliant and funny as hell.

No other living playwright comes close.