Recommended Reading

Recommended Reading! In No Particular Order

*** Means highly recommended.

Last updated: 1.30.2024

shelbyrseeley.com

Place to find plays:

Expand the Canon: https://www.hedgepigensemble.org/expand-the-canon

New Play Exchange: https://newplayexchange.org/

The Kilroys: https://thekilroys.org/

Published Plays:

***Emilia Morgan Lloyd-Malcolm

The Last Wife Kate Hennig

Alabaster Audrey Cefaly

The Gulf Audrey Cefaly

A Doll’s House Henrik Ibsen

Cloud Nine Carol Churchill

Eurydice Sarah Ruhl

The Clean House Sarah Ruhl

Late: A Cowboy Song Sarah Ruhl

***An Octoroon Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

***The Wolves Sarah Delappe

Hurricane Diane Madeline George

Fin and Euba Audrey Cefaly

Clean Audrey Cefaly

Angels in America Parts 1 & 2 by Tony Kushner

Mac Beth by Erica Schmidt

***Anatomy of a Suicide by Alice Birch

Top Girls by Carol Churchill

***Athena by Gracie Gardner

Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind translated by Johnathan Franzen

Constellations by Nick Payne

Dance Nation by Claire Barron

North Star Gloria Bond Clunie

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Dale Wasserman

Happy Days Samuel Beckett

The Laramie Project Moises Kaufman and Tectonic Theatre Project

Silent Sky, Lauren Gunderson

Lungs, Duncan Macmillan

Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Will Aubrey

Fairview, Jackie Sibblies Drury

Antigone, Sophocles

Intimate Apparel, Lynn Nottage

The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams

Les Blancs, Lorraine Hansberry

Klytemnestra, Dane Figueroa Edidi

***cullud wattah, erika dickerson desponza

Indecent, Paula Vogel

Mud, Maria Irene Fornes

***Slave Play, Jeremy 'O Harris

The Revolutionists, Lauren Gunderson

Pass Over, Antoinette Nwandu

Paradise Blue, Dominique Morisseau

Skeleton Crew, Dominique Morisseau

***White Noise, Suzan Lori-Parks

Maytag Virgin, Audrey Cefaly

Mum, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm

Do You Feel Anger? Mara Nelson-Greenberg

When the Long Trick’s Over, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm

The Wasp, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm

Hot Wing King, Katori Hall

Kayak Jordan Hall

The Moors, Jen Silverman

The Roommate, Jen Silverman

Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties, Jen Silverman

The Unplugging, Yvette Nolan

In The Next Room (or, The Vibrator Play), Sarah Ruhl

Horse Girls, Jenny Rachel Weiner

***John Proctor is the Villain, Kimberly Bellflower

Dry Land. Ruby Rae Spiegel

All the Natalie Portmans CA Johnson

Seven methods of killing kylie jenner, Jasmine Lee-Jones

You Got Older, Clare Barron

Stop Kiss, Diana Son

How to Defend Yourself, Liliana Padilla

Dontrell Who Kissed the Sea, Nathan Allen Davis

Camp Seigfried, Bess Wohl

Mlima’s Tale, Lynn Nottage

***What the Constitution Means to Me, Heidi Schreck

Guards at the Taj Rajiv Joseph

the ripple, or the wave that carried me home Christina Anderson

Natural Shocks Lauren Gunderson

***Fat Ham James Ijames

Pussy Sludge Gracie Garder

New Play Exchange:

Peabrain Jacob Marx Rice

This is How You Got Me Naked, Catherine Weingarten

Monica: This Play is Not About Monica Lewinsky, Dianne Nora

***A Play About David Mamet Writing a Play About Harvey Weinstein, Mathilde Dratwa

***Funny, Like HAHA (Or A Play About a Rape Joke), Katherine Gwynn

Wrong River, Josh Wilder

The Future is Female, Nandita Shenoy

Rage Play, Nandita Shenoy

***Washer/Dryer Nandita Shenoy

In Search of the Mothman Amber Palmer

Egress Sarah Saltwick

The Tragic Ecstasy of Girlhood, Kira Rockwell

Form of a Girl Unknown, Charly Evon Simpson

Lipstick Lobotomy, Krista Knight

Sad girl hours, Libby Carr

A Driving Beat Jordan Ramirez Puckett

Our Dear Dead Drug Lord Alexis Scheer

Death of a Driver Will Snider

Space Laser, In Space! Jillian Blevins

18 Darius M. Buckley

Will and Way Dinah Berkeley

This One Is Set in a Spa Gracie Gardner

Books:

Women of Will Tina Packer

Tales from Shakespeare Tina Packer

Play Stuart Brown

Audition by Michael Shurtleff (outdated, but some good stuff)

How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell (not a “theatre” book but amazing all the same)

100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write by Sarah Ruhl

Articles:

Towards a Process for Critical Response, Liz Lerman

Brecht, the “Fable”, and the Teaching of Directing Craig Kinzer

Visit to a Small Planet, Elinor Fuchs