Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon discussion

Read a play published after 1950.

Most of us are familiar with Shakespeare, but there are some very readable plays published on our own century too. If you have a hard time reading plays silently, try reading them out loud, to your pets or stuffed animals. Or find someone else, divvy up parts with them, and read the play with them. I also like to cast plays when I read them, picking actors to play each character so I can easily imagine how they look and sound.
What are some of your favorite more recent plays/playwrights? Which play are you reading for this challenge?

I've now put in an order for Waiting for Godot and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
While they are not the most recent plays in existence, they were at least first published/performed after 1950 and I've been wanting to read them for years.

I loved watching and reading both these plays Leni. I watched both on YouTube--in case you are interested.

I have on my tbr for 2021 two more plays by Wendy Wasserstein:

Isn't it Romantic
The Heidi Chronicles.

My annual nod to my Jewish ancestory.

Cynda wrote: "I loved watching and reading both these plays Leni. I watched both on YouTube--in case you are interested."

Nice. I'll definitely see if they are still available.

I love this promt and will find something but can I suggest Annie Baker plays? She is just the bee knees and her dialogue is just so vivid. She wrote one about a movie theater thats popular (I think she won a prize for it`) but her Vermont plays are really worth finding. Can the prompt apply to a movie script?

Newly wrote: "I love this promt and will find something but can I suggest Annie Baker plays? She is just the bee knees and her dialogue is just so vivid. She wrote one about a movie theater thats popular (I thin..."

It's up to you, but I enjoy reading well written film scripts, and they are very similar to theater scripts when it comes to reading them for pleasure. I'd say sure.

Perhaps Newly you mean The Flick by Annie Baker?

YES! That's the one. Cynda you are a rockstar. I was going to look for a movie script but someone suggested a play called House of the Blue Leaves. I've never heard of it nor its author, so I'm excited to find it. Originally I had planned to FINALLY read The Iceman Cometh but of course its from 1946. C'est la vie.

Newly, always glad to help. . . .While we are speaking in this thread about plays post 1950, we are free to read plays of any time period during the Readathon. One Dewey's I read an 18th-century play, another time The Theban Cycle/Oedipus trilogy, the ancient plays.

What a fab notion! I think I might follow that cab in a sense. I'll pick a Wendy Wasserstein. I checked her out because of you were reading it and apparently she writes about female identity which intrigues me. I gotta read some Eugene O'Neill, for serious. This is why I love the prompts. Seriously. So helpful

1950 and after plays so far
Glass Harp Truman Capote
Dont Drink the Water Woody Allen
The House of Blue Leaves

I read Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for this (published in 1954)

It occurred to me that a screen play or play could also be an audio drama. Audible has a lot of content that are recordings of plays or original dramas. So... if you ask me, that is technically a screenplay. They have to have something to work from, like a script. :-) So... I am listening to:

I also have:
and

in my audible library
And:
which was the original script for movie 3 but never used. so this one is a legit screen play. LOL

Read a play published after 1950. - COMPLETED - audible original audio drama

Hey, this is the best prompt ever! i AM SO SERIOUS! It looks like most of the GREATs tried their hand at playwriting. What surprising is how being able to write a novel doesnt necessarily equate to playwriting. Why am I just now discovering this?

I am reading Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard, for this one. It was published in 1993, and my brother recommended it to me a while ago.

I loved this prompt! For reals. I had no idea how badly I needed to read contemporary plays. I found this weird freedom in playwriting that seems absent in other forms. I dont know if I'm imagining it but it seems like when something is written with the objective of performance, conformity is challenged. When conformity is challenged, it can lead to exploration (progress) or ignorance (negligence) and the stage has provided fertile hunting ground for both.

Julie wrote: "I read Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for this (published in 1954)"

What did you think? Tennessee Williams tho? Just whoa!

Jamie wrote: "I am reading Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard, for this one. It was published in 1993, and my brother recommended it to me a while ago."

I read that a long time ago and remember really liking it. I chose it because of how much I'd loved Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and wanted to read some more Tom Stoppard. I should pick up something else by him sometime.

I also really appreciate this prompt. I didn't have any time to get to it during the pre-readathon, but when I have an opening in my reading, I'll definitely try to fit in a contemporary or more recent play. I'd love to hear more about what people have been enjoying in this category!