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
Comments