Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2 - M28 - DRAMA (S5P1) Pr. Chaouch
2 - M28 - DRAMA (S5P1) Pr. Chaouch
2 - M28 - DRAMA (S5P1) Pr. Chaouch
This is an overview on the main figures, forms and movements of modern and
contemporary American drama and theatre. As you can see, the 20th century
is more or less divided according to decades, each being neatly characterized
by a certain form of theatre. The beginning of the 21st century has been
equally witnessing a more multi-cultural form of theatre, especially as
regards themes and issues.
playwrights; the other appealing characteristic of this new American theatre is the
emergence of cultural voices which find themselves being torn between their American
belonging and their original cultural heritage. The hyphenated identities of some
playwrights attest to the emergence of multicultural stage that is in the process of
becoming an American fact more than ever.
Amiri Baraka (1934-2014), Most Dangerous Man in America (W. E. B. Du Bois) (2015)
August Wilson (1945-2005), How I Learned What I Learned (2002) and the remaining
‘Pittsburgh Cycle’ plays (aka the ‘Century Cycle’): Gem of the Ocean (2003), and
Radio Golf (2005)
Anna Deavere Smith (born 1950, Afro-American origin), House Arrest (2000) and Let
Me Down Easy (2008)
Bruce Norris (born 1960), Clybourne Park (2010), The Low Road (2013), and The
Qualms (2014)
Stephen Adly Guirgis (born 1965, of Egyptian father and Irish American mother), In
Arabia We'd All Be Kings (1999), The Little Flower of East Orange (2008), and
Between Riverside and Crazy (2014),
David Auburn (born 1969), Proof (2000), The Columnist (2012), and Lost Lake (2014)
Ayad Akhtar (born 1970, of Pakistani origin), Disgraced (2013) and The Who & The
What (2014) and The Invisible Hand (2014)
Heidi Schreck (born 1971), What the Constitution Means to Me (2018-2019)
Quiara Alegría Hudes (born 1977), Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue (2006) and Miss You Like
Hell (2016) (with singer/songwriter Erin McKeown)
J.T. Rogers (born 1968), Blood and Gifts (2016) and Oslo (2016)
Martyna Majok (born 1985, Polish American playwright), Sanctuary City (2020) and
Ironbound (2015)
For more information on the American theatre in the 20th century, you can consult
my paper entitled “The Cult of Newness in 20th-Century American Theatre.”1