Simon Dunmore's Suggested
List of Playwrights & Websites Worth Exploring for Audition
Material
Playwrights
Contemporaries of Shakespeare
Francis Beaumont
George Chapman
Thomas Dekker
John Fletcher
John Ford
Ben Jonson
Thomas Kyd
Christopher Marlowe
Phillip Massinger
Thomas Middleton
William Rowley
John Webster
Restoration
Aphra Behn
William Congreve
John Dryden
Sir George Etherege
George Farquhar
Oliver Goldsmith
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Sir John Vanbrugh
William Wycherley
Mid 19th-Early 20th
Century
Harley Granville Barker
J. M. Barrie
Dion Boucicault
St. John Ervine
John Galsworthy
W. Somerset Maugham
Arthur Wing Pinero
T. W. Robertson
Carl Sternheim
Tom Taylor
Frank Wedekind
1920s-1960s
Maxwell Anderson
James Bridie
John van Druten
Susan Glaspell
Moss Hart
Lillian Hellman
Ödön von Horváth
William Inge
Garson Kanin
George S. Kaufman
Sean O'Casey
Clifford Odets
Luigi Pirandello
J. B. Priestley
Terence Rattigan
Elmer Rice
J. M. Synge
Thornton Wilder
Recent
Jean Anouilh
Alexei Arbusov
John Arden
Brendan Behan
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Max Frisch
Jean Genet
Eugene Ionesco
Henry Livings
David Mercer
Cecil P. Taylor
Michael Wall
Peter Weiss
Contemporary
April de Angelis
Howard Barker
Peter Barnes
Edward Bond
Howard Brenton
Richard Cameron
Caryl Churchill
Martin Crimp
Sarah Daniels
Nick Dear
David Edgar
Brian Friel
Alexander Gelman
Trevor Griffiths
John Guare
Alexander Guayan
A. R. Gurney
Christopher Hampton
Robert Holman
Israel Horovitz
Terry Johnson
Arthur Kopit
Bryony Lavery
Stephen Lowe
Doug Lucie
Rona Munro
Richard Nelson
Peter Nichols
Louise Page
Joe Penhall
David Pownall
Theresa Rebeck
Christina Reid
James Saunders
David Storey
Don Taylor
Ed Thomas
Michel Tremblay
Timberlake Wertenbaker
Lanford Wilson
NOTES:
1) I have not included the most well-known playwrights.
2) The time divisions I have used are somewhat 'flexible'.
Those listed above are
particular favourites of mine - there are plenty more good playwrights
out there...
Any suggestions for other playwrights whom you feel should be
added will be gratefully received.
Websites:
I have also come across
the following sites which contain scripts and suggested audition
speeches ("monologues") - I have no idea of the quality
of the material therein:
http://www.script-o-rama.com
http://www.playscripts.com
http://www.simplyscripts.com
http://www.whysanity.net/monos
http://www.singlelane.com
http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/hum/dra/audition.htm
The following are quite useful if
you are searching for particular plays:
http://www.playdatabase.com
http://www.doollee.com
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