Favorite Living Playwrights

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Favorite Living Playwrights

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1sycoraxpine
Redigeret: aug 15, 2006, 1:42 am

I have been inspired by various "favorites" threads in other groups to create a "top ten" list of playwrights who are currently living and/or working whose work I find most exciting. The criterion I used was this question: would I go to a play or read a play simply because this person had written it?

In some cases I have (sadly) only encountered one play by these playwrights. As with all lists of this sort, it is a constant work in progress, and I am sure I have unintentionally left off many of my favorite playwrights, as well as many superlative writers I don't even know about yet.

I can't tell you how much enjoyment I will get from hearing your additions and emendations to it, as well as any alternate lists you want to offer. So... What playwrights do you find most exciting right now?

1) Tom Stoppard
2) Adrienne Kennedy
3) Martin Crimp
4) Manjula Padmanabhan (see Postcolonial Plays for her wonderful play "Pantomime")
5) Conor McPherson
6) Martin McDonagh
7) Robin Soans
8) Griselda Gambaro
9) David Edgar
10) Derek Walcott

(It might be worth making another list of the best collaborative groups, whose work cannot be associated with any single author. I would certainly include the Theatre de Complicite in that list.)

2lilithcat
aug 14, 2006, 10:29 pm

Tony Kushner, as brilliant and charming and angry in person as he is in his work.

Regina Taylor, a fine actress and finer playwright.

Mary Zimmerman, writer, director, interpreter and official genius (really, she won a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant"!).

Guillem Clua, award-winning Catalan playwright.

Terrence McNally, especially Master Class

3marietherese
aug 15, 2006, 12:15 am

Great topic!

My choices would be (in no particular order and subject to change at any moment):

1. Tom Stoppard
2. John Patrick Shanley
3. Marina Carr
4. Timberlake Wertenbaker
5. Terrence McNally
6. Sarah Daniels
7. Hideki Noda
8. Paloma Pedrero
9. Simon Gray
10. Dario Fo

4sycoraxpine
Redigeret: aug 15, 2006, 2:56 am

Oh dear. As predicted, Tony Kushner and Timberlake Wertenbaker are two of my favorites, completely ignored in the making of my list. I am heartened to know that there are so many exciting playwrights working right now that they could never be limited to a group of ten. One more who should DEFINITELY have made my list is Sam Shepard.

I just saw a play of Marina Carr's at the Royal Court in London -- Woman and Scarecrow. It featured a quite extraordinary performance (hovering between poetry and realism) by Fiona Shaw. I also just saw one of Hideki Noda's there (The Bee), at the Soho -- I suspect we might be seeing the same productions, marietherese!

As for Mary Zimmerman, I am kicking myself for missing her Pericles TWICE in DC. I am eager to look into the work of Guillem Clua - what play would you recommend starting with, lilithcat?

5lilithcat
aug 15, 2006, 10:43 am

Where are you? Because Skin in Flames is going to be staged in Philadelphia next year: http://www.interacttheatre.org/season2007/index.html#SKIN (It says it's the U.S. premiere, but that's wrong; the play was produced in St. Louis earlier this year.)

As far as I know, this is his only play that has been translated into English.

I saw Zimmerman's Pericles in Chicago - it was great! Living here, I get to see lots of her stuff. Goodman Theatre will be doing her Mirror of the Invisible World next season.

7ftmichael Første besked:
Redigeret: aug 28, 2006, 11:21 am

Terrence McNally, hands down. Amazing, fully human characters and stories.

8bookishbunny
sep 18, 2006, 9:13 am

I love Sam Shepard. I have had a deep, physically moving crush on him since I was 13.

9abductee
sep 18, 2006, 11:07 pm

Anything by Tony Kushner would be an easy selection for me. I think that Lanford Wilson might have some sparks left in him yet - although his last play was in 2000 (I think); I'd like to see a post 9/11 work of his.

If Alan Ball would give up his new day job and go back to writing for the theatre, I'm in. As a side note, I wish that more highly-regarded modern novelists' plays would approach their other material - c'est la vie...

10tygerlilli
Redigeret: sep 20, 2006, 7:52 am

in no particular order:

Tony Kushner
David Mamet
Sam Shepard
Tom Stoppard
Harold Pinter
Anna Deavere Smith

and so many others that i can't think of at the moment

11sycoraxpine
sep 20, 2006, 9:57 am

It is true, bookishbunny, that Sam Shepard is not only brilliant, but also seriously hot. And aging really pretty well to boot.

I am intrigued by your comment about modern novelist's less worthy dramatic attempts, abductee. I would love to hear some examples - I am always interested in ways in which writing for the stage differs from writing for the page or screen.

12justifiedsinner Første besked:
sep 23, 2006, 4:37 pm

For me it's a toss up between Pinter and Beckett as the greatest playwrights of the 20th C. And since Pinter hasn't yet shuffled of the old mortal coil he would be number one.
Americans ? Albee by a length.
Irish ( who are turning out the most exciting new work at present): McPherson.
Women? Caryl Churchill - head and shoulders above the rest.

13lriley
okt 16, 2006, 12:12 pm

1. Martin McDonagh
2. Dario Fo

I like David Mamet and Conor McPherson too. I haven't read a lot of their work but Brian Friel and Michael Frayn's 'Copenhagen' are very good.

As for those deceased 20th century playwrights--Samuel Beckett and Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz are my favorites.

14Precipitation
okt 16, 2006, 7:19 pm

There aren't enough people writing Absurdism anymore. Why does everything have to be so normal? Absurdism freaks people out, and that's good. Good art should unnerve people.

15Sackler
nov 10, 2006, 11:52 pm

I saw and was wowed by "Pillowman." It left me in a quandary, however. The rest of his plays sound too...too bleugh! Would I find them as fascinating as "Pillowman" if I saw them?
I love Tom Stoppard--why do I forget the names of his plays?
I saw Noises Off in London, and then Copenhagen in NYC (then saw both again here in Dallas). OK, not one of the greatest living, but Noises is as fine a farce as A Flea in Her Ear (anyone else see the wonderful production by Marge and Gower Champion?).
I've only seen Tony Kushner's Angels in America, and not read his other plays, but on the basis of the single play, I would put him among the greatest living.
I've followed Edward Albee for many years, and I think he's among the top.
Are you trying to say that Beckett's DEAD? OK, but I nominate him for the best just barely dead playwrite.
Speaking of the just-barely-dead, August Wilson was terrific (that's one of those lit-crit technical terms).
Two questions for group members:
Where are you finding plays to read?
Is Mary Zimmerman the person behind Metamorphoses a few years ago?

16lriley
nov 11, 2006, 8:33 am

Sackler--on the subject of Martin McDonagh--Pillowman may be his most serious work up to date. In any case check out Beauty Queen of Leenane or the Cripple of Inishmore. They are very dark but also very funny. I'm a big fan of Martin McDonagh.

17justifiedsinner
Redigeret: nov 14, 2006, 5:14 pm

Sackler - McDonagh's works up to Pillowman are very funny but somewhat cartoonish and immature. Pillowman is his most mature work to date, It reminded me of vintage Pinter, stuff like The New World Order.
We should start a just-barely-dead thread but what would the cut off date be. If Beckett's in (d.1989) then what about Ionesco?

Yes, Zimmerman is the author Metamorphoses. I worked with 'Zeus' in a play in NYC a few years ago, both hailed from Northwestern U.

18lriley
nov 15, 2006, 2:24 am

It's a fair critique justifiedsinner though I think Beauty Queen while also very funny is more serious in intent (than say the Lonesome west or The cripple of Inishmaan) and never really verges on the preposterous. What do you think of Dario Fo? I more or less see him as hit and miss--favorites of his are Accidental death and Comic mystery. Kind of like Marx brothers comedy with a very left political intent.

19justifiedsinner
nov 18, 2006, 9:59 pm

I saw Beauty Queen at the Atlantic Theatre in NYC when it first came over from Dublin. I must admit the ending with the mother in the chair with her head smashed in struck me as pretty Grand Guignol. Fo is very funny, but I think his plays are better seen than read. He's from the commedia del arte tradition where there are certain long standing comic routine or lazzi that are improvised on, he probably never does one of his plays the same way twice so the written play is more like a blueprint than an unalterable text.

20manders Første besked:
dec 23, 2006, 6:05 pm

This is so hard.

1. Edward Albee
2. Tony Kushner
3. Sam Shepard
4. Sarah Ruehl
5. John Patrick Shanley
6. Richard Greenberg
7. David Mamet
8. David Hare
9. Tom Stoppard
10. Martin McDonagh

21sycoraxpine
dec 23, 2006, 7:43 pm

Great list, manders! David Hare is another playwright I greatly admire who didn't make my list.

22Ecliptic_hellflower Første besked:
jan 17, 2007, 12:32 am

Oh, but there are so many!

1. Christopher Durang
2. Peter Shaffer
3. Edward Albee
4. martin mcdonagh
5. David Mamet
6. A. R. Gurney
7. Migdalia Cruz
8. David Ives
9. Richard Greenberg
10. Paula Vogel

23j.allen Første besked:
feb 10, 2007, 6:36 pm

Hm... nobody mentions Suzan-Lori Parks. For me she's gotta be near the top, especially because so much of her work is so consumately theatrical (i.e. inseperable from the physicality of staging and physical presence). Stoppard, Albee, Durang, Vogel, Shepard, Mamet, Greenberg - all are great writers, and I love so many of their plays, but so much of their work is realistic, character driven stuff that's just a touch too smart or too literate or too something else to have made it onto t.v. Suzan-Lori, and Kushner when he's really on top of his game, and people like Zimmerman who get involved in staging are doing something that gets me excited, not just about characters and literature and plays, but about being in a theatre and seeing something uniquely and intensely theatrical.

24justifiedsinner
feb 22, 2007, 10:31 am

It's hard to see the writer of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Arcadia, The Real Inspector Hound, After Magritte, The Invention of Love being classified as realistic and non-theatrical. I'm not sure I see it for the writer of Three Tall Women, Counting the Ways and The Play About the Baby either.

25j.allen
Redigeret: mar 8, 2007, 5:59 pm

Fair points - although I guess I'd say my favorite of Albee's work is the early stuff, like "The Sand Box", which is at least in part very much about being an audience member having the experience of being in a room with sand. So I guess I'm saying Suzan-Lori is my fav because she manages to create so many moments like that (although Topdog/Underdog heads back toward naturalism). Not that they don't exist in all sorts of theatre, and in plays by some of the people I'd consider more "literary," but then I guess that's the danger of being categorical...

26Precipitation
feb 22, 2007, 6:59 pm

I thought Topdog/Underdog was brilliant. Her work is kind of Absurdist but not as much as, say, Albee or Pinter.

27dramateach
mar 4, 2007, 7:27 am

This is a hard topic indeed. In no particular order, if the following had written a play I would definitely go and see it:
((David Eldridge)) (Festen) is such a great play- I saw it last year, ((Steven Berkoff)) challenging and uncomfortable but a powerful writer, ((David Mamet)) (The Cryptogram) has recently been revived in the UK- I saw it when I was at Drama school with Eddie Izzard in the lead!
((John Mortimer)) A voyage round my father) - brilliant!
There are lots more too that I just can't think of at the moment!

28Unreachableshelf
jul 10, 2007, 9:29 pm

In no particular order, since some of them have produced many plays that I like a lot, and some have produced one or two plays that I absolutely love:

Richard Greenberg (particularly Take Me Out, which I have seen six times and would see again any time a chance comes up)
Aaron Sorkin
Tom Stoppard
Neil Simon
Doug Wright

29prepboy6689 Første besked:
sep 3, 2007, 6:24 pm

I got the chance to meet Nilo Cruz, the playwright of Anna in the Tropics and he was a really interesting person to talk with. I also really like Durang, Bennett, I don't know, I guess all the big names haha. And Sondheim.

30sollocks
Redigeret: sep 3, 2007, 7:05 pm

My List

Tom Stoppard
Nilo Cruz
Sarah Ruhl (# 20 I think she's great and want so badly to get my hands on a copy of her Passion Play cycle)
Peter Shaffer
Martin Mcdonagh
Harold Pinter
Ellen McLaughlin (recently did Iphigenia and Other Daughters - devastating piece)
Rober Schenkkan
David Lindsay-Abaire (recent Pulitzer winner)
Mary Zimmerman - I would kill to see or be in anything that she writes/creates.

honorable mention: In a few years these people will be big names in contemporary theatre.

Lynn Nottage - saw Intimate Apparel last year at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival - one of the best shows of the season.

Enda Walsh (doing some cool stuff at the Edinburgh Fringe)

Adam Bock - Swimming In The Shallows - fantastic stuff.

Luis Alfaro - Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.

Bridget Carpenter - UP

31lilithcat
sep 3, 2007, 7:25 pm

> 29

A friend of mine was in that when it was produced in Chicago. Great play! I actually saw it twice, once at a small venue, and then when it moved to one of the Goodman Theatre's larger stages. It was interesting to see how my response to the play changed as a result of the different sized spaces.

32lilithcat
sep 3, 2007, 7:27 pm

>> 30

Mary Zimmerman - I would kill to see or be in anything that she writes/creates.

I can relate to that! I'm going to New York in October for the Met production of Lucia di Lammermoor: because Natalie Dessay is singing, and because Zimmerman designed the production. I am really excited by this!

One of the best things about living in Chicago is getting to see a Zimmerman production at least once a season.

33Unreachableshelf
sep 16, 2007, 1:30 pm

After seeing Amadeus last night, I've got to add Peter Shaffer to my list. That's the best thing I've seen in a theater in a long time that wasn't Take Me Out. I knew from the movie that it was good, but I didn't know it was that good.

34paulacs
nov 8, 2007, 3:09 pm

My 2 cents: Love Stoppard. Love Pinter.

Enjoyed Sarah Ruel's Passion Play and am curious to see what comes from her next.

Enjoyed Kate Fordor's Hannah and Martin and am waiting for her next play as well.

I'm back-and-forth with Edward Albee. I really liked The Goat.

But -- I think Mary Zimmerman is a one-note-wonder. After a while, you gotta wonder what's up with all the fabric -- yes we get it -- and where's the story? To me, it's all colorful candy and no nutritional value.

I also think Martin McDonagh can be a bit pretentious in his apparent (to me, anyway) desire to shock.

So, it goes to show, to each her own... Unfortunately, I think this is why so many people are so hesitant to take a chance on a theatre ticket. If they hate the movie they go to, at least it only cost them $10, maybe. If only there was an amazon-like data bas for theatre. :)

35paulacs
nov 8, 2007, 3:22 pm

...And recently passed, Arthur Miller is at the top of my list.

36nmelcher
nov 8, 2007, 3:25 pm

MAAAAAAAMET!!!

37lriley
nov 8, 2007, 4:52 pm

On McDonagh. He is a bit over the top at times. So is Dario Fo. It's a matter of taste more than anything else. I happen to like McDonagh a lot and he seems to have the Irish sensibility and patois down pretty well. A macabre sense of humor for sure. Really liked Beauty queen of Leenane and the Cripple of Inishmore. Pillowman ditched ditched everything Irish though and was still pretty good.

38paulacs
nov 8, 2007, 5:04 pm

Denne meddelelse er blevet slettet af dens forfatter.

39paulacs
nov 8, 2007, 5:08 pm

...definitely a matter of taste. I had friends who loved Pillowman, or if they didn't like it, wasn't bothered by it. I hated it... Of course, I haven't read it, (don't think I will), but that can make a difference as well....

40lriley
nov 9, 2007, 2:23 am

Actually McDonagh is London born and bred. If I remember right his parents were both Irish born and bred and would return with the family to Ireland off and on. I have only read Friel a couple times but liked both. He had a play running in NYC a year or so ago but the timing for us was wrong or something. It closed a week or so before we made our yearly visit. I would have been interested.

41paulacs
nov 9, 2007, 12:05 pm

Denne meddelelse er blevet slettet af dens forfatter.

42shirakeller
maj 2, 2008, 4:51 am

Botho Strauss !!
Franz Xaver Kroetz
Harold Pinter
Roland Schimmelpfennig
Anja Hilling
Dea Loher