Wednesday, February 16, 2011

if you like to read

but you haven't read any plays, i recommend you do. for the non-theatre artist i believe they can remain quite an untapped avenue of literature that many readers never get to. and you're missing out on so much. here are my favorites:

-a streetcar named desire, tennessee williams
-the glass menagerie, tennessee williams
-27 wagons full of cotton & other plays, tennessee williams
-waiting for godot, samuel beckett
-the caucasian chalk circle, bertolt brecht
-death of a salesman, arthur miller
-master harold and the boys, athol fugard
-a doll's house, henrik ibsen
-medea, euripides
-lysistrata, aristophanes
-miss julie, august strindberg
-the heidi chronicles, wendy wasserstein
-oleanna, david mamet
-the hairy ape, eugene o'neill
-dinner with friends, donald margulies

number one: if it's by tennessee williams you can bet i already love it. i love everything by tennessee williams. number two: this is by no means an exhaustive list. i could go on and on. number three: keep an open mind, reading plays is much different than reading novels. number four: try to do a rapid bit of research about the play and the time it was written before you read it. many of these plays, while they seem dry now, were extremely revolutionary and racy for their time. this kind of thing is quite important to know.

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