Theatre & Dance
Recommended script reading list
Theatre students are encouraged to broaden their script knowledge outside the classroom by reading different genres, styles and authors. Below is a recommended script list. Many of these scripts are available for check out through the Department of Theatre Arts.
If you want to work in American theatre, you should know the plays and playwrights listed below. Luckily, you will read a number of these plays in your classes at UW-La Crosse! In particular, note the contemporary playwrights listed at the bottom Read more of their work than just the plays listed. These are the playwrights working in American theatre today, and you will be more than likely to encounter their work as an actor, designer, stage manager, and/or director. Also note: This is an extremely partial list of plays and playwrights that you will encounter in American theatre. Let this be a starting point!
| Script Title | Author |
|---|---|
| Oedipus the King | Sophocles |
| The Bacchae | Euripides |
| Lysisstrata | Aristophanes |
| Everyman | Anonymous |
| 'Tis Pity She's a Whore | John Ford |
| Hamlet | William Shakespeare |
| As You Like It | William Shakespeare |
| Tartuffe | Moliere |
| The Rover | Aphra Behn |
| Life is a Dream | Pedro Calderon de la Barca |
| Faust | Goethe |
| A Doll's House | Henrik Ibsen |
| A Dream Play | August Strindberg |
| Ubu Roi | Alfred Jarry |
| The Importance of Being Earnest | Oscar Wilde |
| The Seagull | Anton Chekhov |
| Rachel | Angelina Weld Grimke |
| Out Town | Thornton Wilder |
| Six Characters in Search of An Author | Luigi Pirandello |
| Mother Courage | Bertolt Brecht |
| A Streetcar Named Desire | Tennessee Williams |
| Death of a Salesman | Arthur Miller |
| Waiting for Godot | Samuel Beckett |
| The Maids | Jean Genet |
| The Children's Hour | Lillian Hellman |
| Long Day's Journey Into Night | Eugene O'Neill |
| Funnyhouse of a Nero | Adrienne Kennedy |
| The Birthday Party | Harold Pinter |
| A Tempest | Aime Cesaire |
| A Raisin in the Sun | Lorraine Hansberry |
| Buried Child | Sam Shepard |
| Fefu and Her Friends | Maria Irene Fornes |
| Fences | August Wilson |
| Contemporary Playwrights: | |
| M. Butterfly | David Henry Hwang |
| Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead | Tom Stoppard |
| Cloud 9 | Caryl Churchill |
| Fires in the Mirror | Anna Deavere Smith |
| Angels in America: Millennium Approaches | Tony Kushner |
| The American Play | Suzan-Lori Parks |
| How I Learned to Drive | Paula Vogel |
| The Greek Plays (collection) | Ellen McLaughlin |
| Ruined | Lynn Nottage |