Favourite play(s)?

Scott_Younger

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Hello again, all!
Seeing as my last post wasn't strictly allowed, I'd thought I'd start on a different aspect of plays: our favourites!

This can range from your favourite genre of plays: tragedy, naturalistic, physical theatre etc... ...To individual playwrights and specific plays. We love plays for different reasons also: we feel attached to some because we empathise with the characters and situations within, others we like because we've been involved in a production and the plot brings back good memories. Or maybe simply because it makes you laugh until your throat is hoarse, I don't know, its for you to tell.

So, to set the ball rolling... I still have a lot more plays to read before my opinion can be considered informed but here it goes! My all time favourite is a brilliant black comedy called 'The Pillowman' by a chap called Martin McDonagh. I played Katurian in a production of it at my school and I just fell in love with it. Incidentally that was the same role David Tennant played in the London premiere production (not that I'm comparing myself to Tennant or anything.) Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot runs a close second though.

In terms of playwrights I'll get the obvious one out of the way and go for William Shakespeare. Cliched, but I think the praise he gets is deserved- if not only for the stage direction "exit, pursued by a bear." For me: Hamlet, Othello, MacBeth and Midsummer night's dream are his highlights. I love Henrik Ibsen and George Bernard Shaw, the works of both I have taken to devouring. Towards the more pinteresque end of the spectrum I'm also a big fan of Harold Pinter, I saw a stunning production of 'The Homecoming' at the RSC's Swan theatre and never looked back.

(To my knowledge there isn't a thread like this elsewhere, please direct me to it if there is. If not please share your favourites. :) )
 
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Doug B

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I've directed over 70 plays and produced about 100. There are five that have always been on my favorite list: Enchanted April. We did this play at a theater large enough for us to have a magnificent set including a fully functioning fountain. The set got an ovation every night at the start of Act II. I saw the play twice before I directed it and both times I felt that they told the wrong story - a sentiment echoed by several audience members who had seen the play at a nearby professional theater a year before our production.

Seattle playwright Jeff Berryman is in the process of writing a seven play series retelling the story of King Arthur. We did the first in the series in 2010. At the time it was the best attended production we ever did. From first read-through to closing night, I knew it was special. We are now doing the second play in the series and it is even better - brings the audience to tears and laughter. Standing ovations every night.

In 2009 we did Cindy Johnson's "Brilliant Traces". A two person play that runs for 90 minutes without intermission. It was so good that, the following year, we rented a theater in Seattle and did it there. The big change was in the age of the actors. The play calls for two people in their 20's. Since we live in a retirement community, I used actors in their mid 60's. The life experiences they were able to bring to the roles amazed me. I have seen two other productions since, both with young actors, and both seemed shallow by comparison.

The last two on my favorites list are "Wait Until Dark". Every night the audiences screamed and screamed. Even those who had seen the movie screamed. "Lend Me A Tenor" is the final play of the five. Very funny. It was so funny that, in half of the performances, one of the cast members was reduced to a giggling fit (different cast member each time). Another play that was a dream to direct form start to finish.

On my to do list is Shakespeare's King Lear. Been looking for an actor to play Lear for several years. Still looking.

Doug
 

storygirl99

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Even though I have 30 years of experience doing theatre, I still have a hard time knowing what plays I like. I know what productions I like and that is very different. With that said, there are some old chestnuts that we keep on trotting out because the writing is just so good--I love The Glass Menagerie and anything else by Tennessee Williams. The Importance of Being Earnest is as funny today as it was 100 years ago. I cry at every production of Ah, Wilderness. I think Stephen Aldy Gurgis writes wonderful plays for ensembles. The Kentucky Cycle is so well-written that even a 3 hour college production managed to be riveting.

As for my favorite productions--I think The Brother/Sister plays directed by Tina Landau were the best best plays I have seen in my life, but they read very different on the page that they do onstage. I saw a production of The Price that knocked my socks off. Light Up the Sky. The Time of Your Life is a strange little play but I saw a heart-breakingly beautiful production (Tina Landau again). And watching Jack Lemmon in The Iceman Cometh was a highlight of my life--so was seeing the original London stage production of The Real Thing.
 

KerriFF

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I used to work as a theatre critic and so I've seen some great ones and some really, truly awful ones.

Check out "Or," by Liz Duffy Adams - It's a period piece written in amazingly tight and hysterical rhyming meter. It has inspired me more than any production I've seen over the past several years.
 

Doug B

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It's true that the quality of the production makes a big difference in our perceived quality of a play. I read about 50 or 60 scripts to find one that I will even consider producing. Maybe 1 in 200 actually gets to the stage. That gets me to the point: It is each person's filter that makes them believe that a play is good or not so good.

There have been several plays that I didn't like when I first read them but now, several years later, I see something in the that I didn't originally see.

I can also point to several plays that I really did not like (hated is probably too strong a word) but which affected me enough to give the script to someone I thought might like to read them. We have produced some of them with directors who loved them and they were smash hits. Different person's vision.

In addition, my idea of what is good has changed significantly over the years. Now I look for plays that will challenge me as a director and challenge the audience. I'm tired of Neil Simon. I still do stupid, thoughtless comedies because we have to pay the bills and they are popular.

Last year we did the second production of the dark drama "TORSO" - a play about what drives a brother and sister to murder their other brother. The play had heavy language and nudity as the brother comes back covered with blood and is stripped naked and has the blood washed off by his sister and girlfriend as he gruesomely describes the murder. Not a single comment about the nudity (not frontal). Audiences were small but those who attended loved the show. It was a great challenge to make the audience look deeply into themselves and understand that we all harbor dark thoughts in the deepest, darkest parts of our psyche and the difference between acting on those thoughts or not acting on them is as thin as a hair.

Thanks for the heads up about "Or". Looks interesting.

Doug
 

Poisoned_Apple

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I like mostly dark dramas or edgy comedies. Faith Healer by Brian Friel is definitely one of my top five favorite plays. I was psyched to see it playing at The Shaw Festival this season, and with my favorite actors as well!

The Pillowman is next on my to-read-list, right after I finish Equus. It's always highly recommended so I'm hoping it's as good as people say it is.

I'd also put Compleat Female Stage Beauty, Angels in America, The History Boys, and Deathtrap high up on my favorite list. Doubt's also a good one, but I have yet to see a decent production of it.
 

D-N-K

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I like the The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter.

I have limited experience with plays.
 

Maryn

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It's hard to choose. Some plays I've enjoyed enormously (a few of them seen in different productions) are

On Golden Pond
Amadeus
The Price
Proof
Our Town
Having Our Say
Of Mice and Men
The Miracle Worker

Of course, how good the production you saw impacts what you think of the play. A truly brilliant play can survive mediocre actors, but in looking at the list of the plays I've seen, there are quite a few I cannot remember at all. It's interesting to me that while I've seen a lot of comedies, and enjoyed them, I don't think of a single one as great theatre.

I did see one play which was so inventive and creative it's worth mention: Corleone, in which The Godfather is told in iambic pentameter. It was so terrific I can't believe nobody's staged it where I live. (I saw it at a Fringe Festival.)

Maryn, wondering if we'll get to New York this year
 

Wizera

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I realize this thread hasn't been active in a little while, but I couldn't resist chiming in with my personal favorite:

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

:)
 

ZachJPayne

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I've only acted in a handful of plays, but I absolutely loved YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU by Kaufman and Hart. Lovely script, awesome characters, and just a good solid message.

And it's technically a musical, but I have a deep, abiding love for Kitt and Yorkey's NEXT TO NORMAL.
 

Bloo

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I'm a fan of Neil Simon and love THE ODD COUPLE (having been in it twice as Oscar)

musicals wise, it's THE FANTASTICKS, that's the show that changed my outlook on what theater can and can't do.

I read THE LARAMIE PROJECT and DOG SEES GOD about once a year.
 

Scott_Younger

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Some great and interesting suggestions guys! Its wonderful to hear about such a broad range of theatrical material.

In reference to a few of the replies, don't worry musicals are absolutely fine to mention (I consider them of equal value with 'normal' plays in virtually every aspect.)

'Performance Power' is of course an important aspect when judging plays, but don't feel you can't mention it if you've read an awesome play that you've never seen performed.
 

Koulentis

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This thread should be renamed, "Favorite scene(s) from Auntie Mame." It is everyone's favorite play (some folks won't admit it). If you've never watched it, find out where it's playing and buy tickets right now. You're missing out on a stage classic.
 
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Scott_Younger

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This thread should be renamed, "Favorite scene(s) from Auntie Mame." It is everyone's favorite play (some folks won't admit it). If you've never watched it, find out where it's playing and buy tickets right now. You're missing out on a stage classic.

I can't say I've ever heard of that play (though with research I've found the stage-play was written by the good folks who wrote Inherit the Wind, another one of my favourites- so I'll see if I can see it at some point.) Although sorry, I won't change the thread name I'm afraid. :)
 

ToonForever

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At the risk of following the crowd, I lovelovelove August: Osage County. I love to see the blood and emotional guts spilled for all to see. First saw it with Estelle Parsons in SF, but the small, intimate production I saw at Paper Wing in Monterey was a stunner. The woman who played Violet was absolutely bonkers brilliant.

A few plays I've read and loved but not seen:

The Lyons by Nicky Silver - a raw family reckoning.
The Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire - such brutally honest writing with very subtle subtext.
Red by John Logan - this was a stunner - I want to play Rothko sooooo bad.

Anyway, fun thread :)
 

ericalynn

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I don't read a ton of plays, but I do enjoy them. Being a YA author and enthusiast, I really like plays that center around youth or issues of adolescence. My two favorites are
Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind (And I, unlike Jonathan Franzen, also enjoy the script for the musical)
and
History Boys by Alan Bennett

and it doesn't make my list of favorites, but I was really intrigued by Nocturne by Adam Rapp when I read it--I like experimental stuff.
 

talking to myself

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Misterman, Galway 2011 production & NYC 2011 production. Hope to see Enda Walsh's new one at GAF (Galway Arts Fest) this July. (I haven't had much theater-going experience since high school -- many years ago.)

I love dark, disturbing plays.
 

K.B. Parker

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The Seagull
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof
And Then There Were None
A Midsummers Nights Dream
The Glass Menagerie
Madea
Rent

I've acted in fourteen shows. I've only done one of the above, And Then There Were None, but it was my favorite stage experience by far.
 

ZachJPayne

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I don't read a ton of plays, but I do enjoy them. Being a YA author and enthusiast, I really like plays that center around youth or issues of adolescence. My two favorites are
Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind (And I, unlike Jonathan Franzen, also enjoy the script for the musical)

*snip*

One of the most deeply awkward experiences of my life was sitting next to my H.S. German teacher on a 13 hour flight while reading Frühlings Erwachen. Though I did appreciate her exasperated "Oh, God, you can just ask me," after I pulled out my German-English dictionary for the fifth time. :D

I also got to see the musical at OCPAC. I remember that one of the lads from the TV show Degrassi was playing Melchior. Not bad, though I would've loved an on-stage seat.
 

Meg02

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Jumping on this bandwagon late, but I saw the thread title and was all excited, then I read halfway through your post Scott and got all sad when I saw you'd already mentioned Waiting for Godot!

So lets just rewind and pretend no one ever mentioned that.

*drumroll please*

WAITING FOR GODOT!

When's he coming?

Dunno.... etc etc

Wish I could have gone to see Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in it... God that would have been amazing.
 

Scott_Younger

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Jumping on this bandwagon late, but I saw the thread title and was all excited, then I read halfway through your post Scott and got all sad when I saw you'd already mentioned Waiting for Godot!

So lets just rewind and pretend no one ever mentioned that.

*drumroll please*

WAITING FOR GODOT!

When's he coming?

Dunno.... etc etc

Wish I could have gone to see Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in it... God that would have been amazing.

Haha, sorry for stealing your thunder there! :) To be honest one of the reasons I love Godot so much is because I managed to see Mckellan and Stewart in it a few years ago. Not that I'm smug or anything...
 

Wilde_at_heart

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Wilde, of course, is my favourite, followed by Moliere. Especially Misanthrope and Tartuffe. As a teen I got really into surrrealism for a while, including Antonin Artaud, though a lot of that probably went over my head at the time.

For newer plays I'd someday like to see Tracy Lett's Bug. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bug_(play)
 

SKara

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I love Wilde too! His plays are witty and entertaining, and after reading them, I can't helping watching their movie adaptations. I especially liked the humor in The Importance of Being Earnest.
 

is_shawty_there

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I have some experience in theater: nine years of youth theater and two of college theater as an actor. I am writing my first play (and have a ton of questions; I shall promptly make a post about them).

I have read maybe three dozen in the past year. I have seen at least a dozen since I started acting--I often did/do not have the money to see theater.

Juvie by Jerome McDonough is my favorite. I was dying to see it performed, but I don't think it's been performed in Seattle.