40+ Plays Every Actor Should Read
There are certain plays that every actor should read at least once in their lifetime. This list is no exception. While you’re stuck at home, hunkered down in quarantine due to COVID-19, check out these 40+ plays on Amazon.
The Laramie Project
The Laramie Project is a 2000 play by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project about the reaction to the 1998 murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming
Sweat
Sweat is a 2015 play by American playwright Lynn Nottage. Centered on the working class of Reading, Pennsylvania, it won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Indecent
Indecent is a play by Paula Vogel. It recounts the controversy surrounding the play God of Vengeance by Sholem Asch, which was produced on Broadway in 1923, for which the cast of the original production was arrested on the grounds of obscenity.
Noises Off
Noises Off is a 1982 play by the English playwright Michael Frayn. The idea for it came in 1970, when Frayn was watching from the wings a performance of The Two of Us, a farce that he had written for Lynn Redgrave.
August: Osage County
August: Osage County is a comedy-drama play by Tracy Letts and recipient of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The action is centered on an extremely dysfunctional family with a patriarch who has disappeared…
Time Stands Still
Set in Brooklyn, Time Stands Still is a play written by Donald Margulies about changing relationships and developing social issues. It was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play in 2010.
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599, as Shakespeare was approaching the middle of his career. The play tackles the themes of social grace, deception as a means to an end, loss of honor, and public shaming
A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire is a play written by Tennessee Williams in 1947. Set in the French Quarter of New Orleans during the restless years following World War Two, the play tackles the themes of dependence on men, the relationship between sex and death, and fantasy’s inability to overcome reality.
A Long Days Journey Into Night
Long Day's Journey into Night is a drama play in four acts written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1941–42, first published in 1956. The play is widely considered to be his magnum opus and one of the finest American plays of the 20th century. Paralleling O’Neill’s own life, Long Day's Journey into Night tells the story of a small middle class family in the early nineteenth century. All of the characters have numerous tragic flaws that eventually lead to the family’s collapse.
A Raisin in the Sun
A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The title comes from the poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes.
Proof
Proof is a 2000 play by the American playwright David Auburn. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Proof is a passionate, intelligent story about fathers and daughters, the nature of genius, and the power of love.
Taming Of The Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1592. This is an interesting play in that Shakespeare explores the relationship between men and women intensely – more so than in any other play. The way women are treated and the effects of that is the main theme of the play. It’s a comedy, but Shakespeare is making a serious point.
Our Town
Our Town is a 1938 metatheatrical three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play tells the story of the fictional American small town of Grover's Corners between 1901 and 1913 through the everyday lives of its citizens
Reasons To Be Pretty
reasons to be pretty is a play by Neil LaBute, his first to be staged on Broadway. The plot centers on four young working class friends and lovers who become increasingly dissatisfied with their dead-end lives and each other.
Venus In Fur
Venus in Fur is a mysterious, funny, erotic drama by David Ives. Set in modern New York City, Venus in Fur blurs the lines of reality and pretend.
Dog Sees God
Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead is a play written by Bert V. Royal. An "unauthorized continuation," the play reimagines characters from the popular comic strip Peanuts as degenerate teenagers.
The Crucible
The Crucible is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93.
Inherit The Wind
Inherit the Wind is an American play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, which debuted in 1955. The story fictionalizes the 1925 Scopes "Monkey" Trial as a means to discuss the then-contemporary McCarthy trials
How I Learned To Drive
How I Learned to Drive is a play written by American playwright, Paula Vogel. Vogel received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the work.
The Heiress
The Heiress is a 1947 play by American playwrights Ruth and Augustus Goetz adapted from the 1880 Henry James novel Washington Square.
A Doll's House
A Doll's House is a three-act play written by Norway's Henrik Ibsen in 1879. The play is significant for the way it deals with the fate of a married woman, who at the time in Norway lacked reasonable opportunities for self-fulfillment in a male-dominated world.
Intimate Apparel
Intimate Apparel is a play written by Lynn Nottage in 2003. Set in 1905, the play follows Esther, a seamstress who makes lingerie for the women of Manhattan, and a man named George. George sends Esther letters from Panama, and eventually with the help of Esther's strange "friends," the two fall in what they call love.
All My Sons
All My Sons is a three-act play written in 1946 by Arthur Miller. The major theme of the play is the conflict between self-interest and the wider responsibility that people owe to the society in which they live.
Pygmalion
Pygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw, named after a Greek mythological figure. It was first presented on stage to the public in 1913. In ancient Greek mythology, Pygmalion fell in love with one of his sculptures, which then came to life.
Dinner With Friends
Dinner with Friends is a play written by Donald Margulies. In this contemporary age when couples befriend other couples to find family companions with common ground, Dinner with Friends seeks to explore what happens when one of these romantic pairs breaks down, and the waves that can make across households. The play received the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Machimal
Machinal is a 1928 play by American playwright and journalist Sophie Treadwell, inspired by the real-life case of convicted and executed murderer Ruth Snyder. Its Broadway premiere, directed by Arthur Hopkins, is considered one of the highpoints of Expressionist theatre on the American stage.
Enemy Of The People
An Enemy of the People is an 1882 play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Ibsen wrote it in response to the public outcry against his previous play, Ghosts, which challenged the hypocrisy of 19th-century morality.
Meteor Shower
Meteor Shower is a 2016 comedy written by Steve Martin. The play follows the existential mischief caused one night in 1993 when a deluge of meteors rained down on the boutique city of Ojai, California.
The PillowMan
The Pillowman is a 2003 play by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. It tells the tale of Katurian, a fiction writer living in a police state, who is interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories and their similarities to a number of bizarre child murders occurring in his town.
The Curious Savage
The Curious Savage, written by John Patrick in 1950, is a comedic play about Ethel P. Savage, an elderly woman whose husband recently died and left her approximately ten million dollars.
The Merchant Of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a 16th-century play written by William Shakespeare in which a merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock. It is believed to have been written between 1596 and 1599.
The Children’s Hour
The Children's Hour is a 1934 American play by Lillian Hellman. It’s drama set in an all-girls boarding school run by two women, Karen Wright and Martha Dobie.
Clybourne Park
Clybourne Park is a 2010 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Bruce Norris written as a spin-off to Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun. It portrays fictional events set during and after the Hansberry play, and is loosely based on historical events that took place in the city of Chicago.
Twelve Angry Men
Twelve Angry Men is a play by Reginald Rose adapted from his 1954 teleplay of the same title for the CBS Studio One anthology television series.
Harry Potter And The Cursed Child
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a 2016 British two-part play written by Jack Thorne based on an original story by J. K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Thorne.
Red
Red is a play by American writer John Logan about artist Mark Rothko. It was the 2010 Tony Award winner for Best Play.
Death Of A Salesman
Death of a Salesman is a 1949 stage play written by American playwright Arthur Miller. It won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play.
Uncle Vanya
Uncle Vanya is a play written between 1895–1897 by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. The play, originally staged by Stanislavski, tackles the themes of wasted life and impossible love.
The Heidi Chronicles
The Heidi Chronicles is a 1988 play by Wendy Wasserstein. The play won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Cloud 9
Cloud 9 is a timeless and bitingly funny modern play written by British playwright Caryl Churchill. Set in colonial Africa and 1979 London, this landmark play is about power, politics, family, Queen Victoria and sex. A timeless and bitingly funny modern classic, Cloud Nine has not been seen in a major New York production since 1981, when it ran for over two years.
Angels in America
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is a two-part play by American playwright Tony Kushner. The work won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony Award for Best Play, and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play.
Curious incident of the Dog In The Night-Time
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a play by Simon Stephens based on the novel of the same name by Mark Haddon. During its premiere run, the play tied the record for winning the most Olivier Awards, including Best New Play at the 2013 ceremony
The Wolves
The Wolves is a 2016 play by Sarah DeLappe. It centers on the experiences of high school girls through their weekly Saturday morning pre-game soccer warmups. The play was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Hand To God
Hand to God is a play written by Robert Askins. The play was produced Off-Broadway in 2011 and 2014 and on Broadway in 2015. The Broadway production received five Tony Award nominations, including for Best New Play.
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