A Guide to Modern Playwrights
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Transcript of A Guide to Modern Playwrights
8/2/2019 A Guide to Modern Playwrights
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/a-guide-to-modern-playwrights 1/4
A Guide to
Modern
Playwrights,
Plays, and
Productions
Home
Major Modern
Plays
Major Modern
Productions
Major Modern
Playwrights
About
Us
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