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Literature: Playwrights

 
Wikipedia: List of playwrights
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List of notable playwrights.

See also Literature; Drama; List of playwrights by nationality and date of birth; Lists of authors


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Essential Desk Reference: Literature: Playwrights
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The following list spans time periods and nationalities. In addition to recognized masters, the list features important theatrical innovators and the authors of popular plays.

Name

Dates

Nationality

Major Works

Aeschylus

525–456 BC

Greek

The Oresteia (458 BC)

Albee, Edward

1928–

American

The Zoo Story (1959); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962)

Aristophanes

c.448– c.380 BC

Greek

The Birds (414 BC); Lysistrata (411 BC); The Frogs (405 BC)

Beckett, Samuel

1906–1989

Irish-born French

Waiting for Godot (1953); Endgame (1957); Happy Days (1961)

Brecht, Bertolt

1898–1956

German

Mother Courage (1938–39); The Good Woman of Setzuan (1938–41); The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1943–45); The Threepenny Opera (1928);The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1930)

Büchner, Georg

1813–1837

German

Danton’s Death (1835); Wozzeck (1837)

Calderón de la Barca, Pedro

1600–1681

Spanish

Life is a Dream (1635)

Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich

1860–1904

Russian

The Seagull (1896); Three Sisters (1900);The Cherry Orchard (1904); Stories: “The Steppe” (1888); “Ward No. 6” (1892); “The Lady with the Dog” (1899)

Corneille, Pierre

1606–1684

French

Médée (1635); Le Cid (1637)

Coward, Sir Noel

1899–1973

English

Private Lives (1930); Blithe Spirit (1941); Present Laughter (1942)

Dryden, John

1631–1700

English

All for Love (1678); Marriage à la Mode (1672)

Euripides

484– 406 BC

Greek

Medea (431 BC); Hippolytus (428 BC); Electra (413 BC); The Bacchae (posthumous)

Fugard, Athol

1932–

South African

The Blood Knot (1963); “Master Harold” and the Boys (1982)

García Lorca, Federico

1898–1936

Spanish

Blood Wedding (1933); Yerma (1934) The House of Bernarda Alba (posthumous; 1945)

Giraudoux, Jean

1882–1944

French

Amphitryon ’38 (1939); Ondine (1939); The Madwoman of Chaillot (1945)

Hellman, Lillian

1905–1984

American

The Children’s Hour (1934); The Little Foxes (1939); Watch on the Rhine (1941)

Henley, Beth

1952–

American

Crimes of the Heart (1982)

Ibsen, Henrik

1828–1906

Norwegian

Peer Gynt (1867); A Doll’s House (1878–79); Ghosts (1881); The Wild Duck (1884); Hedda Gabler (1890)

Inge, William

1913–1973

American

Come Back, Little Sheba (1950); Picnic (1953);
The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1957)

Ionesco, Eugène

1912–1994

Romanian-born French

The Bald Soprano (1948); The Lesson (1951); Rhinoceros (1958)

Jonson, Ben

1572–1637

English

Volpone (1605–06); The Alchemist (1610); Bartholomew Fair (1614)

Kaiser, Georg

1878–1945

German

The Burghers of Calais (1914)

Kaufman, George S.

1889–1961

American

Dinner at Eight (1932); Stage Door (1936); You Can’t Take it With You (1936)

Kushner, Tony

1957–

American

Angels in America, Parts One and Two (1992, 1993)

Mamet, David

1947–

American

American Buffalo (1977); Speed-the-Plow (1987)

Marlowe, Christopher

1564–1593

English

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (1604); The Jew of Malta (1633)

McNally, Terrence

1939–

American

And Things That Go Bump in the Night (1965); Love! Valour! Compassion! (1994); Master Class (1996)

Miller, Arthur

1915–

American

Death of a Salesman (1949); The Crucible (1953)

Molière [Jean Baptiste Poquelin]

1622–1673

French

The School for Wives (1662); Tartuffe (1664); Le Misanthrope (1666)

Molnár, Ferenc

1878–1952

Hungarian

Liliom (1909); The Guardsman (1910); The Swan (1920)

O’Casey, Sean

1880–1964

Irish

Juno and the Paycock (1924); The Plough and the Stars (1926)

O’Neill, Eugene

1888–1953

American

Anna Christie (1921); Mourning Becomes Electra (1931); The Iceman Cometh (1946); Long Day’s Journey into Night (1956)

Odets, Clifford

1906–1963

American

Waiting for Lefty (1935); Awake and Sing! (1935)

Osborne, John

1929–1994

English

The Entertainer (1957); Luther (1961)

Pinter, Harold

1930–

English

The Birthday Party (1958); The Caretaker (1960); The Homecoming (1965)

Pirandello, Luigi

1867–1936

Italian

Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921); Henry IV (1922)

Plautus

c.251 BC–c.184 BC

Roman

Pseudolus (192 BC); The Menaechmi (?); Miles Gloriosus (?)

Rabe, David

1940–

American

The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel (1969); Streamers (1975)

Racine, Jean

1639–1699

French

Andromaque (1667); Bérénice (1671); Phèdre (1677)

Rostand, Edmond

1868–1918

French

Cyrano de Bergerac (1898)

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus

c.4 BC– AD 65

Roman

Medea; Phaedra; Agamemnon (all undated)

Shakespeare, William

1564–1616

English

Romeo and Juliet (1594–95); A Midsummer’s Night Dream (1595–96); Hamlet (1600–1); Othello (1604–5); King Lear (1605–6); Macbeth (1605–6)

Shaw, George Bernard

1856–1950

English

Arms and the Man (1894); Mrs. Warren’s Profession (1893); Candida (1895); Caesar and Cleopatra (1898); Man and Superman (1901–3); Major Barbara (1905); Pygmalion (1913); Saint Joan (1923)

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley

1751–1816

Anglo-Irish

The Rivals (1775); The School for Scandal (1777); The Critic (1779)

Simon, Neil

1927–

American

Barefoot in the Park (1963); The Odd Couple (1965); Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983); Lost in Yonkers (1991)

Sophocles

496–406 BC

Greek

Antigone (c. 442 BC); Oedipus Rex (c. 425 BC); Oedipus at Colonus (406 BC)

Soyinka, Wole

1934–

Nigerian

Three Plays (1963); The Road (1965); The Forest of a Thousand Daemons (1968); Ake (1981)

Stoppard, Tom

1932–

English

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1967); The Real Inspector Hound (1968)

Strindberg, August

1849–1912

Swedish

The Father (1887); Miss Julie (1888); A Dream Play (1902)

Synge, J. M.

1871–1909

Irish

Riders to the Sea (1904); The Playboy of the Western World (1908)

Vega, Lope de

1562–1635

Spanish

The Peasant in His Nook (1611–15); The King’s Best Magistrate (1620–23)

Wasserstein, Wendy

1950–

American

The Heidi Chronicles (1989); The Sisters Rosenzweig (1993)

Wilde, Oscar

1854–1900

Irish

Salome (1892); An Ideal Husband (1895); The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

Wilder, Thornton

1897–1975

American

Our Town (1938); The Skin of Our Teeth (1942); The Matchmaker (1954)

Williams, Tennessee

1911–1983

American

The Glass Menagerie (1945); A Streetcar Named Desire (1947); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)

Wilson, August

1945–

American

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1985); Fences (1986); The Piano Lesson (1990)

Wilson, Lanford

1937–

American

The Hot L Baltimore (1973); Talley’s Folly (1980)


Image Billington, Michael, ed. Contemporary Dramatists, 5th ed. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993.
Hartnoll, Phyllis, ed. The Oxford Companion to the Theatre, 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Hawkins, Mark-Dady, ed. International Dictionary of Theatre, 3 vols. Chicago: St. James, 1992.


 
 

 

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