Author Topic: Favorite Playwright  (Read 3296 times)

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megan.s.lehr

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Favorite Playwright
« on: Jan 26, 2012, 10:57 pm »
So I was just wondering who your favorite playwright(s) is/are and why.

So far (though I haven't been introduced to too many writers works yet) I LOVE Walter Wykes. I have only read one of his plays, but I have seen tons of monologues from him and I find them to be fantastic! This my favorite monologue.

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Kelasaurus

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Re: Favorite Playwright
« Reply #1 on: Mar 06, 2012, 03:27 pm »
I love Martin McDonagh.  I am a huge fan of his pitch black humor and the great characters he creates. 
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missliz

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Re: Favorite Playwright
« Reply #2 on: Mar 06, 2012, 10:31 pm »
I was lucky enough to work on two productions of Lanford Wilson plays (Fifth of July and Balm in Gilead) and work closely with him before he passed away. I love the way he writes and the theatricality of it all (even if having all characters rotate the set 90 degrees 4 times was a giant challenge).
I personally would like to bring a tortoise onto the stage, turn it into a racehorse, then into a hat, a song, a dragon and a fountain of water. One can dare anything in the theatre and it is the place where one dares the least. -Ionesco

nick_tochelli

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Re: Favorite Playwright
« Reply #3 on: Mar 07, 2012, 06:19 am »
I agree with missliz. Lanford Wilson really was an amazing man. I got to meet him back in 2000 during the NYSSSA theater school. We went to his house in Sag Harbor  and he gave us a private reading of one of his new short plays. Very funny, down to earth guy. One of the most amazing experiences of my life.

bex

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Re: Favorite Playwright
« Reply #4 on: Mar 07, 2012, 06:46 pm »
I'm a fan of Tom Stoppard (Arcadia is my absolute favorite play ever) and also David Ives- his absurd sense of humor lines up with mine pretty nicely.
You will have to sing for your supper & your mortgage, your dental coverage & your children's shoes, over & over again while people in desk jobs roll their eyes the minute you start to complain. So it's a good thing you like to sing.

catalinacisne

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Re: Favorite Playwright
« Reply #5 on: Mar 08, 2012, 03:55 pm »
I have a love/hate relationship with Shakespeare. Well-directed productions of his works are my favorite plays, bar none. But I get very little out of reading the plays myself, and even less out of poorly done productions. I'm a big fan of Pinter, Beckett, Brecht, Ibsen, Miller and O'Neill, for mastering the "wrought"ing of plays - so well structured.

Christopher Durang is probably my favorite comedic playwright, followed closely by Ives. Favorite more contemporary authors include Ruhl, LaBute, McDonagh, Shanley... I'm not a huge fan of absurdity of absurdity's sake, and I also feel that a lot of new playwrights never learned the rules properly before trying to break them, resulting in some out-there-in-a-bad-way new works.

 

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