THEATRE READER CHALLENGE: A Year of Plays - Part II

Based on the unending popularity of the first list for the Theatre Reader Challenge, we bring you part II! (New here? Start with Part I of the Theatre Reader Challenge — then come back for these.)

As always, being a good actor, director, theatre-person means reading as many plays as can, here’s a list to help guide your year of reading!

1. Circle, Mirror, Transformation, Annie Baker

2. Little Women, Peter Clapham & Louisa M. Alcott

3. Rabbit Hole, David Lindsay-Abaire

4. The Diary of Anne Frank, Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett

5. Arsenic & Old Lace, Joseph Kesselring

6. Harvey, Mary Chase

7. You Can’t Take It With You, Moss Hart & George S. Kaufman

8. The Curious Savage, John Patrick

9. Steel Magnolias, Robert Harling

10. Crimes of the Heart, Beth Henley

11. Almost, Maine, John Cariani

12. Deathtrap, Ira Levin

13. Brighton Beach Memoirs, Neil Simon

14. The Play That Goes Wrong, Henry Lewis

15. Red, John Logan

16. Dinner with Friends, David Margulies

17. When We Were Young and Unafraid, Sarah Treem

18. The Great Gatsby, Adapted by Simon Levy

19. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Dale Wasserman & Ken Kesey

20. A View From the Bridge, Arthur Miller

21. Blithe Spirit, Noel Coward

22. Cyrano de Bergerac, Adapted by Glyn Maxwell

23. The Wolves, Sarah DeLappe

24. Tribes, Nina Raine

25. Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, Bert V. Royal

26. The Heidi Chronicles, Wendy Wasserstein

27. Moon Over Buffalo, Ken Ludwig

28. The Women, Clare Booth Luce

29. God of Carnage, Yasmina Reza

30. American Son, Christopher Demos-Brown

31. Peter and the Starcatcher, Rick Elice

32. Radium Girls, D.W. Gregory

33. These Shining Lives, Melanie Marnich

34. Blackbird, David Harrower

35. Waiting for Lefty, Clifford Odets

36. Stop Kiss, Diana Son

37. Clybourne Park, Bruce Norris

38. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Simon Stephens

39. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Christopher Durang

40. Venus in Fur, David Ives

41. War Horse, Nick Stafford

42. In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play) Sarah Ruhl

43. Much Ado About Nothing, William Shakespeare

44. The 39 Steps, Patrick Barlow

45. The Goat, or Who is Slyvia? Edward Albee

46. Amadeus, Peter Shaffer

47. Butterflies Are Free, Leonard Gershe

48. The Matchmaker, Thornton Wilder

49. Bus Stop, William Inge

50. Lysistrata, Aristophanes

51. reasons to be pretty, Neil LaBute

52. She Kills Monsters, Qui Nguyen

Directing one of these next? Our theatre production templates take you from first read-through to closing night.

Year of Plays Part II list

Get the free Year of Plays: Part II reading list

Send it to me