Your Favorite Plays to Read / Study

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 9:50pm

What are some of your favorite plays to read, rather than see performed?

I find that there are so many intricate details in plays that I personally often miss while viewing a performance for the first time because I'm focusing on so much at once. Therefore, I find reading plays to be more satisfying at times.

My favorites would have to be anything by Tennessee Williams. I just finished studying "The Glass Managerie" in my Literature class, hence my avatar, and it really blew me away and I wanted some other suggestions and your opinions.

Updated On: 12/22/06 at 09:50 PM

[D2]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 9:54pm

Anything by Shaw, anything by Tom Stoppard. The use of language is dazzling both to hear and to read.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 10:02pm

Ok, I love going through "Angels in America" for all of it's varying facets.
"The Goat or Who Is Sylvia" is another fun one to do research on.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 10:03pm

Angels in America. I must play Roy Cohn before I die.

[sally1112]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 10:32pm

I read Jittney with my 9th graders. They love it.

[keen on kean]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 11:35pm

Any Shakespeare. The Don Juan in Hell act from Shaw's Man and Superman but only because I once saw a fabulous production of it on TV and that resonates in my head when I read it. The House of Yes.
I guess it is hard to say I prefer to read these to seeing them produced as much as I like to read them even though I have seen them produced. It can be hard to love reading something for which I have no visual memory. Updated On: 12/22/06 at 11:35 PM

[ashley0139]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 11:37pm

I love reading W;t. So much to discover every time you read it.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 11:37pm

Anything by Shaw, Williams, OUR TOWN, and much of Albee, especially WOOLF.

[MyNameInLights]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 11:44pm

Angels in America
Never the Sinner
Hamlet
Raised in Captivity
Marco Polo Sings a Solo
Waiting For Godot

Those are my favorite. I think I MIGHT be a fan of absurdist theatre. Perhaps. =]

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 2:14am

I can't really answer the question exactly, since I almost always prefer seeing the show as opposed to reading it. But this past semester I've done a lot of reading of plays that I wouldn't be able to see anyway, and my favorite all semester was Sticks and Bones. The first time through I was like WTF? but then immediately reread it and really grasped it. It truly is a fantastic play. I was reading the book about Joe Papp, and it discussed the amazing reception the play got, but showed how over a very short time span the work kind of faded into a bit of oblivion and is quite unknown. So I'm very glad I had the opportunity to discover the wonderful play.

[jenna2]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 4:31am

I love "The Seagull". I find most other Chekov hard to get into if you're not seeing it, but I've probably read The Seagull five times.

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 4:35am

Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams is wonderful! My favorite play and an excellent one to study or just read when you feel like it!

Also:
ANYTHING by Neil Simon or Terrence Mcnally
Torch Song Trilogy
The Man Who Came to Dinner
many others.

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 7:27am

Munk, I loved Reading Woolf. It was so original and so real in a twisted way - a great piece of writing.

[D2]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 9:08am

In response to Keen on Kean "It's hard to love reading something when you have no visual memory"

I must admit I have a completely different take on that. I love to create my own visuals when I read a play. They may differ completely from what I have seen if I've seen the play already, and they may differ completely if I see a production after I've read it. It really doesn't matter, because what reading does for me is fire up my own imagination. And I believe this is a problem with many people today - the lack of imagination and originality in their thinking. I do not mean you, KonK, specifically, just the population in general. Unless we are spoon fed what to think, no one seems to be able to have or express an original idea.

With the exception of most of the posters on this board.

[DRSisLove]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 10:26am

I read OUR TOWN over the summer.
It was amazing.

[keen on kean]

Posted: 12/25/06 at 12:04am

D2 - that's what I get for generalizing! I actually read Waiting for Godot before seeing it and had some lovely visualizations while I read. Still haven't seen anything produced that is as as interesting as what I see in my head when I read it! Reading plays without active imagination is very boring!

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 12/25/06 at 12:42am

Any of the four big Chekhovs, pretty much anything by John Guare (especially Landscape of the Body, Lydee Breeze, Gardenia, and Bosoms and Neglect), a lot of Shakespeare (especially King Lear, Coriolanus, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, The Tempest, All's Well, . . . well, so many of them), a lot of Moliere (especially Don Juan and The Misanthrope), a lot of Ibsen (especially John Gabriel Borkman and Little Eyolf), Long Day's Journey Into Night, The Ghost Sonata, and lots of others.

[Perfectly Marvelous]

Posted: 12/25/06 at 3:04am

The Glass Menagerie is a wonderful play [just auditioned for it earlier this week, but haven't heard back yet]. I also really love A Streetcar Named Desire -- I think that is my all time favorite Tennessee Williams play. Yet I also like Camino Real, too.

Our Town is my other all-time favorite, it's really the first play I ever obsessed over.

Other good reads:

WASP - Steve Martin
The General of Hot Desire and Other Plays - John Guare
Corpse! - Gerald Moon

[winston89]

Posted: 12/25/06 at 3:30am

I have found that a problem with reading plays for some people is the format in which its done in. I know a few people who when reading a novel can easily imagen what is going on up to how the characters sound. However, due to the format of a play they have trouble reading it. I personally love reading plays. I love the whole idea of reading a story in general. And because I ahve been busy with school and other stuff I don't have the time to read a full novel so I opt for plays instead. Some of my favorites have been, Doubt, Pillowman, Art, Take Me Out. And many others.

[gonnapassmealaw]

Posted: 5/20/07 at 9:29pm

I love reading the Sunday in the Park With George libretto. I was fascinated with it this winter, and will probably read it again this summer.

[EponineThenardier]

Posted: 5/20/07 at 10:15pm

I love "The Lion In Winter"

[Dover]

Posted: 5/22/07 at 1:39am

After I saw Arcadia I had to buy it. To this day I probably read it once every six months at least, usually in one night, which often results in a lack of sleep. Still my absolute favorite theatrical experience.

[Perfectly Marvelous]

Posted: 5/22/07 at 2:04am

I admit, I'm a sucker for Hamlet.

He's just a very fascinating fellow, in my opinion.

[DickonDefysGravity]

Posted: 5/22/07 at 3:13am

NOISES OFF
RUMORS
THE ILLUMINATORS
HAMLET

[xxdrewboy85xx]

Posted: 5/22/07 at 4:06am

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
A Delicate Balance
The Goat, or Who is Sylvia
The Glass Menagerie
Look Back in Anger
Angels in America
The Lady's Not for Burning (some of the most beautiful verses written IMO)
The Exonerated