Core Play-Reading List for Theater Studies Majors
Before graduating from St. Mary's College of Maryland, TFMS theater studies majors should read the following 65 plays, which exemplify the historical and cultural variety of dramatic literature. The list includes plays that are representative of significant dramaturgies and will provide a basis for further reading in these periods and cultures.
CLASSICAL DRAMA (GREECE AND ROME)
Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.)
The Oresteia (includes: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides)
Sophocles (c.496-406 B.C.)
Oedipus Rex
Euripides (c.485-406 B.C.)
The Bacchae
Aristophanes (c.448-c.380 B.C.)
The Birds
Plautus (c.254-c.184 B.C.)
The Twin Menaechmi
Seneca (c.5 B.C.-65 A.D.)
Thyestes
DRAMA OF EASTERN CULTURES
(as recorded by Valmiki in The Ramayana, c. 400-200 BCE)
The Reincarnation of Rama (a Javanese shadow puppet play, in On Thrones of Gold, trans. James R. Brandon, 1970)
(Indian Hindu epic, c. 350 CE)
The Mahabharata (see also: Peter Brook film of the same)
Sudraka (Indian Sanskrit, 8th C.)
The Little Clay Cart (Mrcchakatikâ)
Tang Xianzu (Chinese Kunqu play, 1598)
Peony Pavilion
Namiki Sosuke (Japanese kabuki play, 1751)
The Chronicle of the Battle of Ichinotani
(Japanese noh play, 1753)
Dojoji
MEDIEVAL DRAMA
Hrotsvit von Gandersheim (10th c. German-Saxon nun)
Dulcitius
Anonymous
The Second Shepherd's Play (in the Wakefield Cycle, 15th c.)
Everyman (c.1500 A.D.)
ITALIAN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
The Mandrake
ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN DRAMA
Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)
Doctor Faustus
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Henry IV, Part I
As You Like It
King Lear
The Tempest
Ben Jonson (1573-1637)
Volpone
John Webster (c.1580-c.1630)
The Duchess of Malfi
SPANISH GOLDEN AGE DRAMA
Lope Felix de Vega Carpio (Lope de Vega, 1562-1635)
Fuente Ovejuna
Pedro Calderon de la Barca (Calderon, 1600-1681)
Life is a Dream
FRENCH NEO-CLASSICAL DRAMA
Molière (Jean Baptiste Poquelin, 1622-1673)
Tartuffe
Jean Racine (1639-1699)
Phaedra
RESTORATION AND EIGHTEEENTH CENTURY ANGLO-EUROPEAN DRAMA
John Dryden (1631-1700)
All For Love
Aphra Behn (1640-1689)
The Rover
William Wycherley (1640-1715)
The Country Wife
George Lillo (1693-1739)
The London Merchant
Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793)
La Locandiera (The Mistress of the Inn, a.k.a. Mirandolina)
Pierre de Beaumarchais (1732-1799)
The Marriage of Figaro
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Faust, Part I
MODERN ANGLO-EUROPEAN DRAMA
Georg Buchner (1813-1837)
Woyzeck
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)
Peer Gynt
Ghosts
August Strindberg (1849-1912)
A Dream Play
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
Heartbreak House
Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)
The Three Sisters
Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936)
Six Characters in Search of an Author
Alfred Jarry (1873-1907)
Ubu Roi
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)
The Good Person of Setzuan
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989)
Waiting for Godot
Jean Genet (1910-1986)
The Maids
Peter Weiss (1916-1982)
Marat/Sade
Friedrich Durrenmatt (1921-1990)
The Visit
Harold Pinter (1932- )
Old Times
Caryl Churchill (1938- )
Cloud Nine
Naomi Wallace (1960- )
One Flea Spare
DRAMA OF AFRICAN CULTURES
Athol Fugard (South African, 1932- )
Blood Knot
Wole Soyinka (Nigerian, 1934- )
Death and the King's Horseman
DRAMA OF AMERICAN CULTURES
Eugene O'Neill (1888-1954)
Long Day's Journey into Night
Sophie Treadwell (1891-1970)
Machinal
Thornton Wilder (1897-1976)
The Skin of Our Teeth
Arthur Miller (1915-2005)
Death of a Salesman
Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965)
A Raisin in the Sun
Maria Irene Fornes (1930- )
Fefu and Her Friends
Luis Valdez (1942- )
Zoot Suit
August Wilson (1945- )
Fences
Henry David Hwang (1957- )
M. Butterfly
Holly Hughes (1955- ), Peggy Shaw (1945- ), and Lois Weaver (1950- )
Dress Suits for Hire
Tony Kushner (1956- )
Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches
Anna Deavere Smith (1950- )
Fires in the Mirror
Suzan-Lori Parks (1963- )
Venus
Compiled by J. Klein, 11/91; revised by the TFMS department, 5/05
