The following is a list of plays and books we suggest that theatre students read during their college careers. The list is not exhaustive but touches upon most works thought to be seminal. 100 of these works are in bold face to indicate their relative importance.

At least one play should be read every week, including summers. Obviously, a good number of these plays will be encountered in both classes and production work.

All students should develop a facility for using the library and other research resources as early as possible.

In order to retain information for future reference, students are advised to keep a computer file, journal, or file of index cards with the following information for all plays read in and out of class:

• Title
• Playwright
• Year written
• First Performance
• Style and Genre
• Principle Characters
• Plot Synopsis (50-60 words)
• Brief Analysis (statement of theme, or central action, or main dramatic question)
• Significance

Plays

Aeschylus	The Oresteia
Albee, Edward	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Zoo Story, A Delicate Balance
Anderson, Maxwell	Winterset
Anonymous	The Second Shepherd's Play, Everyman
Anouilh, Jean	Antigone
Ansky, S.	The Dybbuk
Arden, John	Serjeant Musgrave's Dance
Aristophanes	The Birds, The Frogs , Lysistrata
Baraka, Imaru	Slave Ship, The Dutchman
Beckett, Samuel	Endgame, Waiting for Godot , Krapp's Last Tape
Behan, Brendan	The Hostage
Behn, Aphra	The Rover
Bolt, Robert	A Man for All Seasons
Brecht, Bertolt	Baal, Caucasian Chalk Circle, Mother Courage, Threepenny Opera, Galileo
Büchner, Georg	Danton's Death, Woyzeck
Calderón de la Barca, Pedro	Life is a Dream
Camus, Albert	Caligula
Capek, Karel	RUR
Chekhov, Anton	Cherry Orchard, The Seagull, The Three Sisters, Ivanov, Uncle Vanya
Churchill, Caryl	Top Girls, Cloud Nine
Cocteau, Jean	The Infernal Machine
Congreve, William	The Way of the World
Corneille, Pierre	Le Cid
Coward, Noel	Blithe Spirit, Private Lives
Dürrenmatt, Friedrich	The Physicists, The Visit
Eliot, T. S.	Murder in the Cathedral
Euripides	The Bacchae, Trojan Women, Medea
Farquhar, George	The Recruiting Officer, The Beaux' Strategem
Feydeau, Georges	A Flea in Her Ear
Fo, Dario	Accidental Death of an Anarchist
Fornés, María Irene	The Conduct of Life
Frisch, Max	The Firebugs
Fugard, Anthol	Master Harold and the Boys, Sizwe Banzi is Dead
García Lorca, Federico	Blood Wedding, House of Bernarda Alba
Genet, Jean	The Balcony, The Maids
Giraudoux, Jean	Tiger at the Gates, The Madwoman of Chaillot
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von	Faust
Gogol, Nicolai	The Government Inspector
Goldsmith, Oliver	She Stoops to Conquer
Goldoni, Carlo	The Servant of Two Masters
Gorky, Maxim	The Lower Depths
Handke, Peter	Kaspar
Hansberry, Lorraine	A Raisin in the Sun
Hellman, Lillian	The Little Foxes, Toys in the Attic
Hochhuth; Rolf	The Deputy
Horváth, Õdön von	Tales from the Vienna Woods
Hwang, David Henry	Golden Child
Ibsen, Henrik	A Doll's House, An Enemy of the People, Hedda Gabler, Ghosts
Inge, William	Come Back Little Sheba, Bus Stop, Picnic
Ionesco, Eugene	Bald Soprano, Rhinoceros , The Chairs
Jarry, Alfred	Ubu Roi
Jonson, Ben	Volpone, The Alchemist
Kaufmann and Hart	You Can't Take it With You, The Man Who Came to Dinner
Kaufmann, Moisés	The Laramie Project
Kushner, Tony	Angels in America, A Bright Room Called Day
Kyd, Thomas	The Spanish Tragedy
Lilo, George	The London Merchant
McCullers, Carson	A Member of the Wedding
MacLeish, Archibald	J. B.
Mamet, David	A Life in the Theatre, American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen Ross, Oleanna
Marlowe, Christopher	Dr. Faustus, The Jew of Malta
McDonagh, Martin	The Beauty Queen of Leenane
Miller, Arthur	The Crucible, Death of a Salesman, A View from the Bridge, All My Sons
Molière	Tartuffe, The Miser , The School for Wives, The Misanthrope
Müller, Heiner	Hamletmachine
Nichols, Peter	Joe Egg
Norman, Marsha	Getting Out, 'Night Mother
O'Casey, Sean	Juno and the Paycock, The Plough and the Stars
O'Neill, Eugene	Anna Christie, Emperor Jones , The Iceman Cometh, A Long Day's Journey into the Night, Desire Under the Elms
Odets, Clifford	Awake and Sing!, Waiting for Lefty
Orton, Joe	What the Butler Saw
Osborne, Joh	Look Back in Anger, The Entertainer
Pinero, Arthur Wing	The Schoolmistress
Pinter, Harold	Dumb Waiter, The Birthday Party, Homecoming, Betrayal, The Caretaker
Pirandello, Luigi	Six Characters in Search of an Author
Plautus	The Twin Menaechmi
Rabe, David	Streamers
Racine	Andromanque, Phaedre
Rice, Elmer	The Adding Machine
Rostand, Edmund	Cyrano de Bergerac
Saroyan, William	The Time of Your Life
Sartre, Jean Paul	No Exit, The Flies
Schnitzler; Arthur	La Ronde
Shakespeare, William	A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Comedy of Errors, Hamlet, King Henry IV - Part I, King Lear, Macbeth, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Julius Caesar, Merchant of Venice
Shange, Ntozake	For Colored girls Who Have Considered Suicide
Shaw, George Bernard	Candida, Heartbreak House, Pygmalion, The Arms and the Man, St. Joan, Man and Superman
Shepard, Sam	Buried Child, Curse of the Starving Class, True West, Angel City
Sheridan, Richard	The School for Scandal
Simon, Neil	Good Doctor, Biloxi Blues, The Odd Couple, Plaza Suite
Sophocles	Oedipus the King, Electra, Antigone, Philoctetes
Stoppard, Tom	Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead, Arcadia, The Real Thing
Strindberg, August	A Dream Play, Miss Julie
Synge, John Millington	The Playboy of the Western World
Thomas, Dylan	Under Milkwood
Tourneur, Cyril	The Revenger's Tragedy
Vogel, Paula	How I Learned to Drive
Wasserstein, Wendy	The Sisters Rosensweig
Webster, John	The Duchess of Malfi
Wedekind, Frank	Spring's Awakening, Pandora's Box, Earth Spirit
Weiss, Peter	The Assassination and Persecution of Jean Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum at Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade
Wilde, Oscar	The Importance of Being Earnest
Wilder, Thornton	Our Town, The Skin of Our Teeth
Williams, Tennessee	A Streetcar Named Desire, Night of the Iguana, The Glass Menagerie, Camino Real
Wilson, August	Fences, The Piano Lesson, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Wilson, Lanford	Fifth of July, Rimers of Eldrich
Wycherley, William	The Country Wife

 

The following list of theatre books covers most aspects of theatre study. Many of these are indispensiple additions to any theatre student's library. Most of these can be found in Scribner Library and many are available in paperback editions.

Books

Adler, Stella	The Technique of Acting
Aristotle	The Poetics
Aronson, Arnold	American Set Design
Artaud, Antonin	The Theatre and it's Double
Ball, William	A Sense of Direction
Bartow, Arthur	The Director's Voice
Bay, Howard	Stage Design
Beckerman, Bernard	Dynamics of Drama: Theory and Method of Analysis
Benedetti, Robert	The Director at Work
Bentley, Eric	The Playwright as Thinker, The Life of the Drama
Berry, Cicely	The Actor and the Text
Bloom, Harold	Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human
Bogart, Anne	Viewpoints
Boleslavski, Richard	Acting: The First Six Lessons
Brecht, Bertolt	Brecht on Theatre
Brockett, Oscar	History of the Theatre
Brook, Peter	The Empty Space, Threads of Time, The Open Door
Bruder, Melissa	The Practical Handbook of the Actor
Brustein, Robert	The Theatre of Revolt, Letters to a Young Actor
Burris-Meyer/Cole	Scenery for the Theatre
Chaikin, Joseph	The Presence of the Actor
Chekhov, Michael	To The Director and Playwright, To the Actor
Clurman, Harold	On Directing
Cole, Susan	Directors in Rehearsal
Cole, Toby	Directors on Directing
Corson, Richard	Stage Makeup
Craig, Edward Gordon	The Art of the Theatre
Dukore, Bernard	Dramatic Theory and Criticism: Greeks to Grotowski
Esslin, Martin	An Anatomy of Drama, Brecht, Theatre of the Absurd
Farber, Donald	From Option to Opening, Producing Theatre
Gillette, J. Michael	Theatre Design and Production
Goldman, William	The Season
Gorelik, Mordechai	New Theatres for Old
Grotowski, Jerzy	Towards a Poor Theatre
Hagen, Uta	Respect for Acting , A Challenge for the Actor
Hays, David	Light in the Subject
Hodge, Francis	Play Directing
Hull, Loraine	Strasberg's Method
Jones, David	Great Directors at Work
Jones, Robert Edmond	The Dramatic Imagination
Langley, Stephen	Theatre Management in America
Lewis, Robert	Advice to the Players
Linklater, Kirstin	Freeing the Natural Voice
Mamet, David	Writing in Restaurants, True and False
Marranca, Bonnie	Theatre of Images
Meisner, Stanford	On Acting
Moore, Sonia	The Stanislavsky System
Parker & Smith	Scene Design and Stage Lighting
Pecktell, Lynn	Designing and Painting for the Theatre
Pilbrow, Richard	Stage Lighting
Roose-Evans, James	Experimental Theatre
Rosenthal, Jean	The Magic of Light
Rudlin, John	Commedia Dell' Arte: An Actor's Handbook
Russell, Douglas	Stage Costume Design
Schechner, Richard	Environmental Theatre, The End of Humanism
Simonson, Lee	The Stage is Set
Southern, Richard	The Seven Ages of the Theatre
Spolin, Viola	Improvisation for the Theatre
Stanislavski, Konstantin	An Actor Prepares, Building a Character, Creating a Role, My Life in Art
Styan, J. L.	Modern Drama in Theory and Practice
Stern, Lawrence	Stage Management
Suzuki, Tadashi	The Way of Acting
Watson and McKernie	A Cultural History of the Theatre
Willett, John	The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht