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Major Modern Playwrights (including Ibsen, Strindberg, and Shaw)

Modern drama as we know it in the twentieth and twenty-first century began when Nora slammed the door on her family in Ibsens A Dolls House. Together with Strindberg and Shaw, Ibsen swept away romantic melodrama heavy with the passions of stereotypical heroes and heroines to create dramatic works that presented real-life characters in action that reflected and questioned prevailing morals and mores. Dialogue, once florid and poetic became sharp, pointed, and often witty.

Albee, Edward If you visit Albeeland, expect the unexpected. Sea creatures may engage you in conversation, friends may drop in and then move in, and if a stranger joins you on a park bench, beware: the encounter may end in murder. The fascination of a play by Edward Albee is that its unexpected quirkiness is viewed as ordinary and everyday....MORE Beckett, Samuel The greatest dramatist of the twentieth century and the most influential, Samuel Beckett was forty-six when his first successful play, Waiting for Godot, written in French as En attendant Godot, opened in Paris in January 1953...MORE Brecht, Bertolt Bertolt Brecht was born in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany, in February 1898, studied medicine in Munich and served in an army hospital during World War I....MORE Chekhov, Anton Russian playwright Maxim Gorky said of Chekhov that in his presence, "everyone felt in himself a desire to be simpler, more beautiful, more oneself. . .MORE

Churchill, Caryl
Caryl Churchill, with "Top Girls" being revived at the Aldwych Theatre in the West End and "Far Away" scheduled to open in New York, wouldn't mind being called "The Mother of Us All." ... MORE

Coward, Noel "Mr. Coward. . . is his own invention and contribution to this century." John Osborne ...MORE Eliot, T. S. Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1888. He is not only one of the greatest playwrights of the twentieth century, but he is also thepoet of that century....MORE Gorky, Maxim In its premiere by the Moscow Arts Theatre in 1902 the stark realism of Gorkys "The Lower Depths," with its cast of derelicts and drifters struck the death knoll for stage romanticism....MORE Hellman, Lillian Americas foremost woman playwright is as well known for her private life as for her plays, thirteen in all, including prizewinners...MORE Ibsen, Henrik In London in 2003 Henrik Ibsen enjoys a popularity equal to that of Shakespeare, with impressive productions that shed new light on the well- and lesser-known works and reveal the playwrights timeless appeal...MORE Kaufman, George S. Satirist George S. Kaufman, witty master of American theater comedy, inventor of the stage "wisecrack," and titled "the great collaborator," because he preferred being a coauthor, was born in Pittsburgh November 14 1889....MORE LaBute, Neil You might not guess it from his plays, but thirty-nine-year old Neil LaBute is a mild-mannered, practicing Mormon and the father of two....MORE Lorca, Federico Garcia The greatest Spanish poet and playwright of the twentieth century, Federico Garcia Lorca was executed at the age of 38 by Francos Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War....MORE

Mamet, David David Mamet was born on November 30, 1947, in Flossmore, Illinois, received his B.A. at Goddard College in Vermont in 1969, and became interested in theater while working as a busboy at the Second City in Chicago...MORE Miller, Arthur Arthur Miller in his ninetieth year died just before the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the historical figure he most identified with, according to a Vanity Fairquestionnaire....MORE O'Neill, Eugene Mourning Becomes Electra, one of Eugene O'Neill's greatest plays, was presented by the National Theatre in 2003 celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the playwright's death.....MORE Pinter, Harold Harold Pinter at seventy is indisputably Britains greatest living playwright, and he was celebrated in July 2001 at a Pinter Festival in New York at Lincoln Center, with productions of nine of his plays and eight films....MORE Shaw, George Bernard When Bernard Shaw died in 1950 at the age of ninety-six, his plays had been famous, or infamous, for over half a century...MORE Shepard, Sam Sam Shepards works, especially those concerning the American family, have been growing in popularity. Once considered too far out, these plays are becoming more and more significant, especially as it is recognized that while they may look naturalistic, their symbolic and mythic overtones speak to our times...MORE Sondheim, Stephen With three major productions running simultaneously in London and New York, and a fourth scheduled, Stephen Sondheims contribution to musical theater is foremost in both capitals....MORE Stoppard, Tom
Tom Stoppard is making theater news again, with a hit play in the West End and his trilogy opening on Broadway in the new season....MORE

Strindberg, August Johan August Strindberg, the foremost Swedish playwright and a major influence on modern drama, was born in Stockholm on January 22, 1840, the son of a shipping merchant and his former servant....MORE

Wilde, Oscar The life of Oscar Wilde was as theatrical as his plays, and his downfall and death more melodramatic than the stage of the Victorians who first celebrated him and then condemned him....MORE Williams, Tennessee Tennessee Williams Explored will celebrate the playwright in a festival from April to July at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C....MORE