8/2/2019 A Guide to Modern Playwrights

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 A Guide to

 Modern

Playwrights,

Plays, and 

Productions 

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Major Modern 

Plays 

Major Modern

Productions 

Major Modern

Playwrights 

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Major Modern Playwrights(including Ibsen, Strindberg, and

Shaw) 

Modern drama as we know it in the twentiethand twenty-first century began when Nora

slammed the door on her family in Ibsen’s ADoll’s House. Together with Strindberg andShaw, Ibsen swept away romanticmelodrama heavy with the passions of stereotypical heroes and heroines to createdramatic works that presented real-lifecharacters in action that reflected and

questioned prevailing morals and mores.Dialogue, once florid and poetic becamesharp, pointed, and often witty. 

Albee, Edward If you visit Albeeland, expect the unexpected. Sea creatures

may engage you in conversation, friends may drop in and then

move in, and if a stranger joins you on a park bench, beware:

the encounter may end in murder. The fascination of a play by

Edward Albee is that its unexpected quirkiness is viewed as

ordinary and everyday....MORE 

Beckett, Samuel The greatest dramatist of the twentieth century and the most

influential, Samuel Beckett was forty-six when his first

successful play, “Waiting for Godot,” written in French as  Enattendant Godot, opened in Paris in January 1953...MORE 

Brecht, Bertolt Bertolt Brecht was born in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany, in

February 1898, studied medicine in Munich and served in an

army hospital during World War I....MORE 

Chekhov, Anton Russian playwright Maxim Gorky said of Chekhov that in his

presence, "everyone felt in himself a desire to be simpler,

more beautiful, more oneself. . .MORE 

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Churchill, Caryl Caryl Churchill, with "Top Girls" being revived at theAldwych Theatre in the West End and "Far Away" scheduledto open in New York, wouldn't mind being called "The

Mother of Us All." ... MORE 

Coward, Noel "Mr. Coward. . . is his own invention and contribution to this

century." John Osborne ...MORE 

Eliot, T. S. Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in

1888. He is not only one of the greatest playwrights of the

twentieth century, but he is also thepoet of that

century....MORE 

Gorky, Maxim In its premiere by the Moscow Arts Theatre in 1902 the stark 

realism of Gorky’s "The Lower Depths," with its cast of 

derelicts and drifters struck the death knoll for stage

romanticism....MORE 

Hellman, Lillian America’s foremost woman playwright is as well known for 

her private life as for her plays, thirteen in all, including prize-

winners...MORE 

Ibsen, Henrik In London in 2003 Henrik Ibsen enjoys a popularity equal to

that of Shakespeare, with impressive productions that shed

new light on the well- and lesser-known works and reveal the

playwright’s timeless appeal...MORE 

Kaufman, George S. Satirist George S. Kaufman, witty master of American theater

comedy, inventor of the stage "wisecrack," and titled "the

great collaborator," because he preferred being a co-

author, was born in Pittsburgh November 14 1889....MORE 

LaBute, Neil You might not guess it from his plays, but thirty-nine-year old

Neil LaBute is a mild-mannered, practicing Mormon and the

father of two....MORE 

Lorca, Federico Garcia The greatest Spanish poet and playwright of the twentieth

century, Federico Garcia Lorca was executed at the age of 38

 by Franco’s Nationalists during the Spanish Civil

War....MORE 

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Mamet, David David Mamet was born on November 30, 1947, in Flossmore,

Illinois, received his B.A. at Goddard College in Vermont in

1969, and became interested in theater while working as a

busboy at the Second City in Chicago...MORE 

Miller, Arthur Arthur Miller in his ninetieth year died just before the birthday

of Abraham Lincoln, the historical figure he most identified

with, according to a Vanity Fair questionnaire....MORE 

O'Neill, Eugene Mourning Becomes Electra, one of Eugene O'Neill's greatest

plays, was presented by the National Theatre in 2003

celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the playwright's

death.....MORE 

Pinter, Harold Harold Pinter at seventy is indisputably Britain’s greatest

living playwright, and he was celebrated in July 2001 at a

Pinter Festival in New York at Lincoln Center, with

productions of nine of his plays and eight films....MORE 

Shaw, George Bernard When Bernard Shaw died in 1950 at the age of ninety-six, his

plays had been famous, or infamous, for over half a

century...MORE 

Shepard, Sam Sam Shepard’s works, especially those concerning the

American family, have been growing in popularity. Once

considered too far out, these plays are becoming more and

more significant, especially as it is recognized that while they

may look naturalistic, their symbolic and mythic overtones

speak to our times...MORE 

Sondheim, Stephen With three major productions running simultaneously

in London and New York, and a fourth scheduled, Stephen

Sondheim’s contribution to musical theater is foremost in both

capitals....MORE 

Stoppard, Tom Tom Stoppard is making theater news again, with a hit playin the West End and his trilogy opening on Broadway in the

new season....MORE 

Strindberg, August

Johan August Strindberg, the foremost Swedish playwright

and a major influence on modern drama, was born in

Stockholm on January 22, 1840, the son of a shipping

merchant and his former servant....MORE 

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Wilde, Oscar The life of Oscar Wilde was as theatrical as his plays, and his

downfall and death more melodramatic than the stage of the

Victorians who first celebrated him and then condemned

him....MORE 

Williams, Tennessee “Tennessee Williams Explored” will celebrate the playwright

in a festival from April to July at the Kennedy Center in

Washington, D.C....MORE