Drama and Theatre discussion
How Many Prize-Winning Plays Have You Read?
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Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Now post fancy links to all those plays so I can add any I haven't read to my "To Read" list.Thanks, le bri. Yer the bizzomb.
:)
(you know I'm kidding, right???)
Yeesh! I'm disappointed in myself: haven't read nearly as many of these as I should have! :( The ones I've read are:Pulitzer Prize:
2005: John Patrick Shanley, Doubt: A Parable
2001: David Auburn, Proof
2000: Donald Margulies, Dinner With Friends
1999: Margaret Edson, Wit
1996: Jonathan Larson, Rent (insofar as you can read Rent)
1991: Neil Simon, Lost in Yonkers
1987: August Wilson, Fences
1983: Marsha Norman, 'Night, Mother
1981: Beth Henley, Crimes of the Heart
1978: Donald L. Coburn, The Gin Game (don't rember it though)
1971: Paul Zindel, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (exerpts only)
1956: Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, Diary of Anne Frank (Have I read the play? The diary itself, of course)
1955: Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
1953: William Inge, Picnic
1949: Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
1948: Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
1945: Mary Coyle Chase, Harvey (again, I know I read it, but I can't rember it)
1943: Thornton Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth
1938: Thornton Wilder, Our Town
1937: Moss Hart, George S. Kaufman, You Can't Take It With You
Tony Awards:
2003Take Me Out
2001 Proof
1998 'Art'
1995 Love! Valour! Compassion! (doesn't count--saw the movie)
1992 Dancing at Lughnasa
1991 Lost in Yonkers
1990 The Grapes of Wrath
1988 M. Butterfly
1987 Fences
1985 Biloxi Blues (can't remember this one either. It bored me. Ugh. What is wrong w/ me???)
1983 Torch Song Trilogy (movie)
1975 Equus
1963 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1960 The Miracle Worker
1956 The Diary of Anne Frank
1955 The Desperate Hours
1953 The Crucible
1949 Death of a Salesman
New York Critics’ Circle Award:
2004-05: Doubt, John Patrick Shanley
2002-03: Take Me Out, Richard Greenberg
2000-01: Proof, David Auburn
1998-99: Wit, Margaret Edson
1997-98: Art, Yasmina Reza
1991-92: Dancing at Lughnasa, Brian Friel
1990-91: Six Degrees of Separation, John Guare
1986-87: Fences, August Wilson
1984-85: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, August Wilson
1982-83: Brighton Beach Memoirs, Neil Simon
1966-67: The Homecoming, Harold Pinter
1962-63: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Edward Albee
1954-55: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams
1952-53: Picnic, William Inge
1948-49: Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller
1947-48: A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
1946-47: All My Sons, Arthur Miller
1944-45: The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams
1937-38: Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck (book, not play)
Great list, lebri! Thanks again for posting that! Verrrrry interesting. And so 'theatre people' of you. Me likey!
August: Osage County Rabbit Hole
Doubt: A Parable
I Am My Own Wife
Anna in the Tropics
Topdog/Underdog
Proof
Dinner With Friends
Wit
How I Learned to Drive
Three Tall Women
Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
Glengarry Glen Ross
'Night, Mother
Buried Child
Seascape
A Delicate Balance
Long Day's Journey Into Night
Diary of Anne Frank
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Death of a Salesman
A Streetcar Named Desire
Our Town
The Coast of Utopia
The History Boys
The Goat: or, Who Is Sylvia?
Angels in America: Perestroika
The Real Thing
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
The Homecoming
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The Crucible
The Rose Tattoo
Arcadia
Three Tall Women
The Night of the Iguana
Raisin in the Sun
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
The Glass Menagerie
Do any of you have a favorite (or top five maybe) from the list?
While I need more books like I need a hole in the head, I compiled this list so that I, and others, could work through all of the classic American plays.Killer not filler. There's no time for mediocre literature.
And on that note, I have a lot of reading to catch up on.
Of the plays that I've read on those lists, I sincerely liked them all, with the exception of Dinner with Friends. I just couldn't understand why it won the Pulitzer.Does anyone know if Donald Margulies became the writer in residence for Columbia University's MFA program before or after he won the Pulitzer (awarded by Columbia University).
Hmm, while I am not guaranteeing I actually remember what happened in the play, I have read the following: (great now I have to import all these into my list here!)Pulitzer Prize:
2002: Suzan-Lori Parks, Topdog/Underdog
1996: Jonathan Larson, Rent
1994: Edward Albee, Three Tall Women
1993: Tony Kushner, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
1991: Neil Simon, Lost in Yonkers
1990: August Wilson, The Piano Lesson
1988: Alfred Uhry, Driving Miss Daisy
1987: August Wilson, Fences
1984: David Mamet, Glengarry Glen Ross
1983: Marsha Norman, 'Night, Mother
1981: Beth Henley, Crimes of the Heart
1980: Lanford Wilson, Talley's Folly
1979: Sam Shepard, Buried Child
1967: Edward Albee, A Delicate Balance
1957: Eugene O'Neill, Long Day's Journey Into Night
1956: Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, Diary of Anne Frank
1955: Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
1950: Richard Rodgers (music), Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics), Joshua Logan (book), South Pacific
1949: Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
1948: Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
1946: Russel Crouse, Howard Lindsay, State of the Union
1945: Mary Coyle Chase, Harvey
1943: Thornton Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth
1941: Robert E. Sherwood, There Shall Be No Night
1939: Robert E. Sherwood, Abe Lincoln in Illinois
1938: Thornton Wilder, Our Town
1937: Moss Hart, George S. Kaufman, You Can't Take It With You
1936: Robert E. Sherwood, Idiot's Delight
1929: Elmer Rice, Street Scene
1928: Eugene O'Neill, Strange Interlude
1927: Paul Green, In Abraham's Bosom
1925: Sidney Howard, They Knew What They Wanted
1920: Eugene O'Neill, Beyond the Horizon
Tony Awards:
2002 The Goat: or, Who Is Sylvia?
2001 Proof
1998 'Art'
1997 The Last Night of Ballyhoo
1996 Master Class
1994 Angels in America: Perestroika
1993 Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
1992 Dancing at Lughnasa
1991 Lost in Yonkers
1988 M. Butterfly
1987 Fences
1985 Biloxi Blues
1984 The Real Thing
1981 Amadeus
1980 Children of a Lesser God
1979 The Elephant Man
1975 Equus
1968 Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
1967 The Homecoming
1966 Marat/Sade
1963 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1962 A Man for All Seasons
1961 Becket
1960 The Miracle Worker
1957 Long Day's Journey Into Night
1956 The Diary of Anne Frank
1953 The Crucible
1949 Death of a Salesman
New York Critics’ Circle Award:
2001-02: The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?, Edward Albee
1997-98: Art, Yasmina Reza
1996-97: How I Learned To Drive, Paula Vogel
1995-96: Seven Guitars, August Wilson
1994-95: Arcadia, Tom Stoppard
1993-94: Three Tall Women, Edward Albee
1992-93: Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, Tony Kushner
1990-91: Six Degrees of Separation, John Guare
1989-90: The Piano Lesson, August Wilson
1988-89: The Heidi Chronicles, Wendy Wasserstein
1987-88: Joe Turner's Come and Gone, August Wilson
1986-87: Fences, August Wilson
1984-85: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, August Wilson
1983-84: The Real Thing, Tom Stoppard
1982-83: Brighton Beach Memoirs, Neil Simon
1967-68: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard
1966-67: The Homecoming, Harold Pinter
1962-63: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Edward Albee
1961-62: The Night of the Iguana, Tennessee Williams
1958-59: A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
1956-57: Long Day's Journey into Night, Eugene O'Neill
1954-55: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams
1948-49: Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller
1947-48: A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
1946-47: All My Sons, Arthur Miller
1944-45: The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams
From the Pulitzer/Tony/Critic's Circle lists, I have either read, seen, or done:A Chorus Line
A Man for All Seasons
A Soldier's Play
A Streetcar Named Desire
Amadeus
Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
Angels in America: Perestroika
Anna in the Tropics
Arcadia
August Wilson, The Piano Lesson
Brighton Beach Memoirs
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Crimes of the Heart
Death of a Salesman
Dinner With Friends
Doubt: A Parable
Driving Miss Daisy
Equus
Fences
Glengarry Glen Ross
I Am My Own Wife
Long Day's Journey Into Night
Lost in Yonkers
M. Butterfly
Marat/Sade
Our Town
Proof
Rabbit Hole
Rent
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Six Degrees of Separation
South Pacific
Sunday in the Park with George
That Championship Season
The Coast of Utopia
The Crucible
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds
The Elephant Man
The Goat: or, Who Is Sylvia?
The History Boys
The Homecoming
The Miracle Worker
The Night of the Iguana
A Raisin in the Sun
The Real Thing
The Rose Tattoo
Topdog/Underdog
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Wit
You Can't Take It With You
My favorite five: Doubt, That Championship Season, Rabbit Hole (a perfectly constructed opening scene), Glengarry Glen Ross, and Dinner with Friends. (Special WTF mention: The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? -- scratch that -- make this my top six.)
The only play on the list I actively disliked was Night of the Iguana. Much as I like earlier Williams, after a certain point my interest and patience completely drops off.
Tommy, did you alphabetize your list? Nerd.
Le Bri, have you seen Dinner with Friends produced? Just wondering if your perspective changed when you saw it. Occasionally, I find that I don't like something on the page, but the stage adds a life I didn't realize existed. (And on the other hand, some productions can make me want to go all Oedipus and gouge my eyes out with a broach. Or was it a brooch?)
I haven't seen a production of Dinner with Friends but I'd be willing to. Plays are meant to be performed. Similarly, Brecht's theory and aesthetic philosophy are wonderful to read but his playwrighting sucks balls. However, the it's the performance that makes that mediocre writing come alive.Also, Rabbit Hole is one the best plays I've read in years! So is August: Osage County. Everyone must read it!
Rabbit Hole and August--Noted! Thanks. And on Brecht--absolutely. He's one of my absolute favorites. Did a directing project in college using his Fear and Misery short plays. I was supposed to try to re-create his 'theory and aesthetic philosophy' as you said, but my professor didn't think I did such a great job. Oh well... Blah. So, where did I get off track in this comment??? Oh, I was going to say that I'd love to see a production of Galileo.
I'm a big fan of Lindsay-Abaire, although I haven't seen "Rabbit' yet!"Proof" was great, and 'Wit" I'd describe as "powerful.
Finally read August: Osage County today! Dear god, it was FANTASTIC!!!
Is the thread only for actual reading of the script/dialogue - or would having seen the play performed "count"?
Drama and Theatre
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With apologies to our friends across the pond, I’ve exclusively chosen American prizes for best (new) play: The Pulitzer, the Tony Awards and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award.
If the Drama Desk Awards had organized their website a little better, I would have included their picks, too.
Pulitzer Prize:
2008: Tracy Letts, August: Osage County
2007: David Lindsay-Abaire, Rabbit Hole
2006: no award given
2005: John Patrick Shanley, Doubt: A Parable
2004: Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife
2003: Nilo Cruz, Anna in the Tropics
2002: Suzan-Lori Parks, Topdog/Underdog
2001: David Auburn, Proof
2000: Donald Margulies, Dinner With Friends
1999: Margaret Edson, Wit
1998: Paula Vogel, How I Learned to Drive
1997: no award given
1996: Jonathan Larson, Rent
1995: Horton Foote, The Young Man From Atlanta
1994: Edward Albee, Three Tall Women
1993: Tony Kushner, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
1992: Robert Schenkkan, The Kentucky Cycle
1991: Neil Simon, Lost in Yonkers
1990: August Wilson, The Piano Lesson
1989: Wendy Wasserstein, The Heidi Chronicles
1988: Alfred Uhry, Driving Miss Daisy
1987: August Wilson, Fences
1986: no award given
1985: James Lapine (book) Sunday in the Park with George
1984: David Mamet, Glengarry Glen Ross
1983: Marsha Norman, 'Night, Mother
1982: Charles Fuller, A Soldier's Play
1981: Beth Henley, Crimes of the Heart
1980: Lanford Wilson, Talley's Folly
1979: Sam Shepard, Buried Child
1978: Donald L. Coburn, The Gin Game
1977: Michael Cristofer, The Shadow Box
1976: Michael Bennett A Chorus Line
1975: Edward Albee, Seascape
1974: no award given
1973: Jason Miller, That Championship Season
1972: no award given
1971: Paul Zindel, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds
1970: Charles Gordone, No Place To Be Somebody
1969: Howard Sackler, The Great White Hope
1968: no award given
1967: Edward Albee, A Delicate Balance
1966: no award given
1965: Frank D. Gilroy, The Subject Was Roses
1964: no award given
1963: no award given
1962: Frank Loesser How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying
1961: Tad Mosel, All the Way Home
1960: Fiorello!
1959: Archibald MacLeish, J.B.
1958: Ketti Frings, Look Homeward, Angel
1957: Eugene O'Neill, Long Day's Journey Into Night
1956: Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, Diary of Anne Frank
1955: Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
1954: John Patrick, The Teahouse of the August Moon
1953: William Inge, Picnic
1952: Joseph Kramm, The Shrike
1951: no award given
1950: Richard Rodgers (music), Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics), Joshua Logan (book), South Pacific
1949: Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
1948: Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
1947: no award given
1946: Russel Crouse, Howard Lindsay, State of the Union
1945: Mary Coyle Chase, Harvey
1944: no award given
1943: Thornton Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth
1942: no award given
1941: Robert E. Sherwood, There Shall Be No Night
1940: William Saroyan, The Time of Your Life
1939: Robert E. Sherwood, Abe Lincoln in Illinois
1938: Thornton Wilder, Our Town
1937: Moss Hart, George S. Kaufman, You Can't Take It With You
1936: Robert E. Sherwood, Idiot's Delight
1935: Zoe Akins, The Old Maid
1934: Sidney Kingsley, Men in White
1933: Maxwell Anderson, Both Your Houses
1932: George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, Ira Gershwin, Of Thee I Sing
1931: Susan Glaspell, Alison's House
1930: Marc Connelly, The Green Pastures
1929: Elmer Rice, Street Scene
1928: Eugene O'Neill, Strange Interlude
1927: Paul Green, In Abraham's Bosom
1926: George Kelly, Craig's Wife
1925: Sidney Howard, They Knew What They Wanted
1924: Hatcher Hughes, Hell-Bent Fer Heaven
1923: Owen Davis, Icebound
1922: Eugene O'Neill, Anna Christie
1921: Zona Gale, Miss Lulu Bett
1920: Eugene O'Neill, Beyond the Horizon
1919: no award given
1918: Jesse Lynch Williams, Why Marry?
Tony Awards:
2008 Unannounced As of Yet
2007 The Coast of Utopia
2006 The History Boys
2005Doubt: A Parable
2004 I Am My Own Wife
2003Take Me Out
2002 The Goat: or, Who Is Sylvia?
2001 Proof
2000 Copenhagen
1999 Sideman
1998 'Art'
1997 The Last Night of Ballyhoo
1996 Master Class
1995 Love! Valour! Compassion!
1994 Angels in America: Perestroika
1993 Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
1992 Dancing at Lughnasa
1991 Lost in Yonkers
1990 The Grapes of Wrath
1989 The Heidi Chronicles
1988 M. Butterfly
1987 Fences
1986 I'm Not Rappaport
1985 Biloxi Blues
1984 The Real Thing
1983 Torch Song Trilogy
1982 The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
1981 Amadeus
1980 Children of a Lesser God
1979 The Elephant Man
1978 Da
1977 The Shadow Box
1976 Travesties
1975 Equus
1974 The River Niger
1973 That Championship Season
1972 Sticks and Bones
1971 Sleuth
1970 Borstal Boy
1969 The Great White Hope
1968 Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
1967 The Homecoming
1966 Marat/Sade
1965 The Subject Was Roses
1964 Luther
1963 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1962 A Man for All Seasons
1961 Becket
1960 The Miracle Worker
1959 J.B.
1958 Sunrise at Campobello
1957 Long Day's Journey Into Night
1956 The Diary of Anne Frank
1955 The Desperate Hours
1954 The Teahouse of the August Moon
1953 The Crucible
1952 The Fourposter
1951 The Rose Tattoo
1950 The Cocktail Party
1949 Death of a Salesman
1948 Mister Roberts
New York Critics’ Circle Award:
2007-08: August: Osage County, Tracy Letts
2006-07: The Coast of Utopia, Tom Stoppard
2005-06: The History Boys, Alan Bennett
2004-05: Doubt, John Patrick Shanley
2003-04: Intimate Apparel, Lynn Nottage
2002-03: Take Me Out, Richard Greenberg
2001-02: The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?, Edward Albee
2000-01: Proof, David Auburn
1999-00: Jitney, August Wilson
1998-99: Wit, Margaret Edson
1997-98: Art, Yasmina Reza
1996-97: How I Learned To Drive, Paula Vogel
1995-96: Seven Guitars, August Wilson
1994-95: Arcadia, Tom Stoppard
1993-94: Three Tall Women, Edward Albee
1992-93: Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, Tony Kushner
1991-92: Dancing at Lughnasa, Brian Friel
1990-91: Six Degrees of Separation, John Guare
1989-90: The Piano Lesson, August Wilson
1988-89: The Heidi Chronicles, Wendy Wasserstein
1987-88: Joe Turner's Come and Gone, August Wilson
1986-87: Fences, August Wilson
1985-86: A Lie of the Mind, Sam Shepard
1984-85: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, August Wilson
1983-84: The Real Thing, Tom Stoppard
1982-83: Brighton Beach Memoirs, Neil Simon
1977-78: Da, Hugh Leonard
1972-73: The Changing Room, David Storey
1967-68: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard
1966-67: The Homecoming, Harold Pinter
1962-63: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Edward Albee
1961-62: The Night of the Iguana, Tennessee Williams
1958-59: A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
1956-57: Long Day's Journey into Night, Eugene O'Neill
1954-55: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams
1952-53: Picnic, William Inge
1948-49: Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller
1947-48: A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
1946-47: All My Sons, Arthur Miller
1944-45: The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams
1938-39: The Time of Your Life, William Saroyan
1937-38: Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck