Here’s a list of some recommended reading our Literary Manager, Nick Gandiello, compiled for our Advanced Playwriting Workshop.
Got a ‘must-read’ play that’s missing from this list? Email us at [email protected]!
| Playwright | Play | First Publication/Performance | ||
| Aeschlyus | Agamemnon | 458 BC | ||
| Aeschlyus | The Libation Bearers | 458 BC | ||
| Aeschlyus | The Eumenides | 458 BC | ||
| Edward Albee | A Delicate Balance | 1966 | ||
| Edward Albee | A Zoo Story | 1958 | ||
| Edward Albee | Seacape | 1975 | ||
| Edward Albee | The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? | 2002 | ||
| Edward Albee | Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | 1962 | ||
| Jon Robin Baitz | The Film Society | 1985 | ||
| Jon Robin Baitz | The Substance of Fire | 1991 | ||
| Jon Robin Baitz | Three Hotels | 1991 | ||
| Jon Robin Baitz | Other Desert Cities | 2011 | ||
| Samuel Beckett | Endgame | 1957 | ||
| Samuel Beckett | Happy Days | 1961 | ||
| Samuel Beckett | Krapp’s Last Tape | 1958 | ||
| Samuel Beckett | Not I | 1972 | ||
| Samuel Beckett | Play | 1962 | ||
| Samuel Beckett | Rockaby | 1980 | ||
| Samuel Beckett | Waiting for Godot | 1952 | ||
| Bertolt Brecht | Life of Galileo | 1943 | ||
| Bertolt Brecht | Mother Courage and Her Children | 1939 | ||
| Bertolt Brecht | The Caucasian Chalk Circle | 1944 | ||
| Bertolt Brecht | The Good Person of Szechwan | 1943 | ||
| Anton Chekhov | The Cherry Orchard | 1904 | ||
| Anton Chekhov | The Seagull | 1896 | ||
| Anton Chekhov | Three Sisters | 1901 | ||
| Anton Chekhov | Uncle Vanya | 1897 | ||
| Caryl Churchill | A Number | 2002 | ||
| Caryl Churchill | Cloud Nine | 1979 | ||
| Caryl Churchill | Drunk Enough to Say I Love You | 2006 | ||
| Caryl Churchill | Mad Forrest | 1990 | ||
| Caryl Churchill | Top Girls | 1982 | ||
| Caryl Churchill | Far Away | 2000 | ||
| Lisa D’Amour | Detroit | 2010 | ||
| Margaret Edson | W;t | 1995 | ||
| Euripides | Iphigenia at Aulis | 405 BC | ||
| Euripides | The Bacchae | 405 BC | ||
| Euripides | Medea | 431 BC | ||
| Euripides | Electra | 410 BC | ||
| Robert Farquhar | Bad Jazz | 2007 | ||
| Maria Irene Fornes | Mud | 1983 | ||
| Michael Frayn | Noises Off | 1982 | ||
| Athol Fugard | Master Harold… and the Boys | 1982 | ||
| Jean Genet | The Balcony | 1957 | ||
| John Guare | Free Man of Color | 2010 | ||
| John Guare | Six Degrees of Separation | 1990 | ||
| John Guare | The House of Blue Leaves | 1966 | ||
| Stephen Adly Guirgis | Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train | 2000 | ||
| Stephen Adly Guirgis | In Arabia, We’d All Be Kings | 1999 | ||
| Stephen Adly Guirgis | The Last Days of Judas Iscariot | 2005 | ||
| Stephen Adly Guirgis | The Motherfucker with the Hat | 2011 | ||
| Lorraine Hansberry | A Raisin in the Sun | 1959 | ||
| David Hare | A Map of the World | 1994 | ||
| David Hare | The Power of Yes | 1982 | ||
| David Hare | Racing Demon | 1990 | ||
| David Hare | Murmuring Judges | 1991 | ||
| David Hare | The Absence of War | 1993 | ||
| David Harrower | Blackbird | 2005 | ||
| Beth Henley | Crimes of the Heart | 1980 | ||
| Henrik Ibsen | A Doll’s House | 1879 | ||
| Henrik Ibsen | An Enemy of the People | 1882 | ||
| Henrik Ibsen | Ghosts | 1882 | ||
| Henrik Ibsen | Hedda Gabler | 1881 | ||
| Henrik Ibsen | Little Eyolf | 1894 | ||
| Henrik Ibsen | Pillars of Society | 1877 | ||
| Henrik Ibsen | The Wild Duck | 1884 | ||
| Eugene Ionesco | The Chairs | 1952 | ||
| Eugene Ionesco | Rhinoceros | 1959 | ||
| Sarah Kane | Blasted | 1995 | ||
| Sarah Kane | Phaedra’s Love | 1996 | ||
| Sarah Kane | Cleansed | 1998 | ||
| Sarah Kane | Crave | 1998 | ||
| Sarah Kane | 4.48 Psychosis | 2000 | ||
| Tony Kushner | A Bright Room Called Day | 1987 | ||
| Tony Kushner | Angels in America | 1991 | ||
| Tony Kushner | Caroline, or Change | 2003 | ||
| Byrony Lavery | Frozen | 2004 | ||
| Tracy Letts | August: Osage County | 2007 | ||
| Tracy Letts | Bug | 1996 | ||
| David Lindsay-Abaire | Rabbit Hole | 2006 | ||
| John Logan | Red | 2009 | ||
| Suzan Lori-Parks | Topdog/Underdog | 2001 | ||
| David Mamet | The Cryptogram | 1995 | ||
| David Mamet | Glengarry Glenn Ross | 1984 | ||
| Patrick Marber | Dealer’s Choice | 1995 | ||
| Patrick Marber | Closer | 1997 | ||
| Donald Margulies | Dinner with Friends | 1998 | ||
| Donald Margulies | Time Stands Still | 2009 | ||
| Martin McDonagh | Beauty Queen of Leenane | 1996 | ||
| Martin McDonagh | The Cripple of Inishman | 1996 | ||
| Martin McDonagh | The Pillowman | 2003 | ||
| Conor McPherson | The Seafarer | 2006 | ||
| Conor McPherson | St. Nicholas | 1997 | ||
| Conor McPherson | Shining City | 2004 | ||
| Conor McPherson | The Weir | 1997 | ||
| Arthur Miller | After the Fall | 1964 | ||
| Arthur Miller | All My Sons | 1947 | ||
| Arthur Miller | The Crucible | 1953 | ||
| Arthur Miller | Death of a Salesman | 1949 | ||
| Moliere | The School for Wives | 1662 | ||
| Moliere | Tartuffe | 1664 | ||
| Moliere | The Misanthrope | 1666 | ||
| Bruce Norris | Clybourne Park | 2010 | ||
| Lynn Nottage | Ruined | 2007 | ||
| Eugene O’Neill | A Moon for the Misbegotten | 1947 | ||
| Eugene O’Neill | Long Day’s Journey into Night | 1956 | ||
| Eugene O’Neill | The Iceman Cometh | 1939 | ||
| John Osborne | Look Back in Anger | 1956 | ||
| John Osborne | The Entertainer | 1957 | ||
| Harold Pinter | The Birthday Party | 1957 | ||
| Harold Pinter | The Dumb Waiter | 1960 | ||
| Harold Pinter | The Homecoming | 1965 | ||
| Harold Pinter | The Room | 1957 | ||
| Harold Pinter | Old Times | 1971 | ||
| Frank Pugliese | Aven’U Boys | 1994 | ||
| Frank Pugliese | “Hope” is the Thing with Feathers | |||
| David Rabe | The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel | 1977 | ||
| David Rabe | Streamers | 1975 | ||
| Jean Racine | Phedre | 1677 | ||
| Mark Ravenhall | Shopping and Fucking | 1996 | ||
| Yasmina Reza | Art’ | 1994 | ||
| Yasmina Reza | God of Carnage | 2006 | ||
| Sarah Ruhl | Eurydice | 2004 | ||
| Sarah Ruhl | Melancholy Play | 2002 | ||
| Sarah Ruhl | Late: A Cowboy Song | 2003 | ||
| Sarah Ruhl | Dead Man’s Cellphone | 2007 | ||
| Sarah Ruhl | In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) | 2009 | ||
| Seneca | Thyestes | 62 CE | ||
| William Shakespeare | A Midsummer Night’s Dream | 1600 | ||
| William Shakespeare | As You Like It | 1623 | ||
| William Shakespeare | Hamlet | 1600 | ||
| William Shakespeare | King Lear | 1608 | ||
| William Shakespeare | Macbeth | 1606 | ||
| William Shakespeare | The Tempest | 1610 | ||
| John Patrick Shanley | Beggars in the House of Plenty | 1991 | ||
| John Patrick Shanley | Danny and the Deep Blue Sea | 1983 | ||
| John Patrick Shanley | Doubt | 2004 | ||
| John Patrick Shanley | The Dreamer Examines His Pillow | 1985 | ||
| Sam Shepard | A Lie of the Mind | 1985 | ||
| Sam Shepard | Buried Child | 1978 | ||
| Sam Shepard | Curse of the Starving Class | 1978 | ||
| Sam Shepard | Fool for Love | 1983 | ||
| Sam Shepard | True West | 1980 | ||
| Christopher Shinn | Dying City | 2006 | ||
| Christopher Shinn | Four | 1998 | ||
| Christopher Shinn | Now or Later | 2008 | ||
| Christopher Shinn | Other People | 2000 | ||
| Christopher Shinn | Teddy Ferrara | 2012 | ||
| Christopher Shinn | Where Do We Live | 2002 | ||
| Sophocles | Antigone | 441 BCE | ||
| Sophocles | Oedipus at Colonus | 401 BC | ||
| Sophocles | Oedipus the King | 429 BCE | ||
| Wole Soyinka | Death and the King’s Horseman | 1975 | ||
| Wole Soyinka | The Strong Breed | 1964 | ||
| Simon Stephens | Harper Reagan | 2008 | ||
| Simon Stephens | Motortown | 2005 | ||
| Simon Stephens | One Minute | 2003 | ||
| Simon Stephens | Pornography | 2007 | ||
| Simon Stephens | Punk Rock | 2009 | ||
| Tom Stoppard | Arcadia | 1993 | ||
| Tom Stoppard | Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead | 1966 | ||
| Tom Stoppard | The Coast of Utopia (trilogy) | 2002 | ||
| Tom Stoppard | The Real Thing | 1982 | ||
| August Strindberg | Creditors | 1889 | ||
| August Strindberg | Miss Julie | 1888 | ||
| John Synge | In the Shadow of the Glen | 1903 | ||
| John Synge | Riders to the Sea | 1904 | ||
| John Synge | The Playboy of the Western World | 1907 | ||
| Paula Vogel | How I Learned to Drive | 1997 | ||
| Paula Vogel | The Long Christmas Ride Home | 2003 | ||
| PaulaVogel | The Baltimore Waltz | 1990 | ||
| Naomi Wallace | The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek | 2000 | ||
| Naomi Wallace | One Flea Spare | 1995 | ||
| Naomi Wallace | The War Boys | 2004 | ||
| Michael Weller | Moonchildren | 1971 | ||
| Michael Weller | Loose Ends | 1979 | ||
| Michael Weller | Split | 1979 | ||
| Tennessee Williams | The Glass Menagerie | 1944 | ||
| Tennessee Williams | A Streetcar Named Desire | 1947 | ||
| Tennessee Williams | Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | 1955 | ||
| Tennessee Williams | Night of the Iguana | 1961 | ||
| Tennessee Williams | Suddenly, Last Summer | 1958 | ||
| August Wilson | Joe Tuner’s Come and Gone | 1988 | ||
| August Wilson | Fences | 1983 | ||
| August Wilson | The Piano Lesson | 1990 | ||
| August Wilson | Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom | 1984 |
