Theatre Reading List
Greek Tragedy:
Aeschylus AGAMEMNON
THE PERSIANS
THE ORESTEIA
Euripides MEDEA
Sophocles OEDIPUS REX
ANTIGONE
ELECTRA
Greek Comedy:
Aristophanes LYSISTRATA
THE FROGS
THE POET AND THE WOMEN
Euripides THE BACCHAE
Roman Comedy:
Plautus THE MENAECHMI
Roman Tragedy:
Seneca THE TROJAN WOMEN
OEDIPUS
MEDEA
The Medieval Period:
Anon. EVERYMAN
THE SECOND SHEPHERD’S PLAY
Renaissance Comedies:
Johnson VOLPONE, or THE FOX
Udall RALPH ROISTER-DOISTER
Shakespeare TWELFTH NIGHT
A MID-SUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
Renaissance Tragedies:
Marlowe DOCTOR FAUSTUS
Webster THE DUCHESS OF MALFI
Shakespeare KING LEAR
HAMLET
MACBETH
OTHELLO
Shakespeare’s Histories:
RICHARD II
HENRY IV Part One
HENRY IV Part Two
HENRY V
HENRY VIII
RICHARD VIII
17th Century Comedies:
Moliere TARTUFFE
THE MISER
THE MISANTHROPE
THE IMAGINARY INVALID
THE BOURGEOIS GENTLEMAN
George Etherege SHE WOULD IF SHE COULD
THE MAN OF MODE
Wm. Wycherly THE COUNTRY WIFE
Wm. Congreve THE WAY OF THE WORLD
George Fahrquar THE BEAUX STRATAGEM
17th Century Tradegdies:
John Dryden THE INDIAN EMPEROR
Thomas Otway VENICE PRESERVED
Racine PHAEDRA
18th Century Comedies:
Cibber & Vanbrugh THE PROVOKED HUSBAND
THE RELAPSE
John Gay THE BEGGAR’S OPERA
Richard Brindsley Sheridan THE RIVALS
THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL
Oliver Goldsmith SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER
Beaumarchais THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO
David Garrick A MISS IN HER TEENS
19th Century Romanticism:
J.W. von Goethe FAUST
Friedreich Schiller THE ROBBERS
DON CARLOS
Georg Buchner WOYZECK
Heinrich von Kleist THE PRINCE FROM HOMBURG
Alexandre Dumas, fils CAMILLE
Realism (late 19th-20th Century)
Henrik Ibsen A DOLL’S HOUSE
THE WILD DUCK
HEDDA GABLER
Anton Chekhov THE CHERRY ORCHARD
THE SEAGULL
UNCLE VANYA
August Strindberg MISS JULIE
A DREAM PLAY
Maxim Gorky THE LOWER DEPTHS
Gerhart Hauptmann THE WEAVERS
Vladimir Mayakovsky THE BEDBUG
G.B.Shaw ARMS AND THE MAN
CANDIDA, or MAJOR BARBARA
SAINT JOAN
Oscar Wilde THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
SALOME
Noel Coward HAY FEVER
Eugene O’Neill LONG DAY’ JOURNEY INTO NIGHT/THE EMPEROR JONES
Luigi Prinadello SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR
Susan Glaspell TRIFLES
Feydeau A FLEA IN HER EAR
Surrealism/Expressionism/The Absurd:
Guillaume Apollinaire THE BREASTS OF TIRESIAS
Artaud SPURT OF BLOOD
Georg Kaiser FROM MORN TO MIDNIGHT
Alfred Jarry KING UBU
Elmer Rice THE ADDING MACHINE
Nikolai Gogol THE INSPECTOR GENERAL
20th Century:
Bertolt Brecht MOTHER COURAGE, THREE PENNY OPERA
Jean Anouilh ANTIGONE
Frank Wedekind SPRING AWAKENING
Friedrich Durrenmatt THE VISIT
Gerhart Hauptmann THE WEAVERS
Frederico Garcia Lorca BLOOD WEDDING
John Osborn LOOK BACK IN ANGER
Jean Paul Sartre NO EXIT
Jean Genet THE MAIDS, THE BALCONY
Samuel Beckett WAITING FOR GODOT, ENDGAME, HAPPY DAYS
Harold Pinter THE HOMECOMING, THE CARETAKER
Peter Weiss MARAT/SADE
Tennessee Williams THE GLASS MENAGERIE, A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
Arthur Miller DEATH OF A SALESMAN
Thornton Wilder OUR TOWN
Joe Orton WHAT THE BUTLER SAW
Amiri Baraka DUTCHMAN
Edward Albee WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF, THE ZOO STORY
Edward Bond SAVED
Sam Shepard BURIED CHILD, A LIE OF THE MIND
Tom Stoppard ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, ARCADIA
August Wilson FENCES, THE PIANO LESSON
Tony Kushner ANGELS IN AMERICA (PARTS ONE AND TWO)
Suzan-Lori Parks TOP DOG/UNDERDOG, THE DEATH OF THE LAST BLACK MAN IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD
Athol Fugard BLOOD KNOT, A LESSON FROM ALOES
Peter Shaffer EQUUS
Lorraine Hansbury A RAISIN IN THE SUN
George C. Wolfe THE COLORED MUSEUM
Maria Irene Fornes FEFU AND HER FRIENDS
Lee Breuer THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS
David Mamet AMERICAN BUFFALO, GLENGARRY GLENN ROSS, OLEANNA
Caryl Churchill TOP GIRLS, CLOUD NINE
Terrance McNally CORPUS CHRISTI
Dario Fo THE ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST
David Rabe STREAMERS
Peter Handke KASPAR, THE RIDE ACROSS LAKE CONSTANCE
Heiner Muller HAMLETMACHINE
Paula Vogel HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE
Sarah Ruhl THE CLEAN HOUSE
Dramatic theory/history/design texts:
Aristotle THE POETICS
Artaud THE THEATRE AND IT’S DOUBLE
Bogart THE VIEWPOINTS BOOK
Brecht BRECHT ON THEATRE
Brockett HISTORY OF THEATRE
Brook THE EMPTY SPACE
Craig THE ART OF THEATRE
Esslin THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD
Fuchs THE DEATH OF CHARACTER
Grotowski TOWARDS A POOR THEATRE
Jones THE DRAMATIC IMAGINATION
Stanislavki AN ACTOR PREPARES