Memorize these and recognize 45.2% of all Playwrights clues.
| # | Answer | Count | Sample Clue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Henrik Ibsen | 26 | This playwright spent many years living in Italy & Germany before returning home to Norway a literary hero in 1891 |
| 2 | George Bernard Shaw | 24 | "I think you ought to know, Doolittle, that Mr. Higgins's intentions are entirely honorable" |
| 3 | Neil Simon | 22 | "WEAF presents Dinner at Brighton Beach starring the Jacob Jerome family..." |
| 4 | Arthur Miller | 21 | "I don't say he's a great man. Willy Loman never made a lot of money" |
| 5 | Eugene O'Neill | 20 | "Gimme a whiskey—ginger ale on the side. And don't be stingy, baby" |
| 6 | Tennessee Williams | 18 | "Whoever you are—I have always depended on the kindness of strangers" |
| 7 | Harold Pinter | 12 | He acted in England under the name David Baron before writing plays like "The Birthday Party" |
| 8 | August Wilson | 11 | This playwright of "Fences" & "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" founded Pittsburgh's Black Horizon Theatre Company |
| 9 | David Mamet | 11 | "The Glengarry Highland's leads, you're sending Roma out, fine. He's a good man" |
| 10 | Sam Shepard | 10 | 1 of 2 Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights who've also received Oscar nominations for acting |
| 11 | August Strindberg | 10 | Playwright who wrote the historical dramas "Erik XIV", "Gustav Adolf" & "Gustav Vasa" |
| 12 | Samuel Beckett | 10 | No Richie or Fonzie in his 1961 play "Happy Days"; who will rid me of this meddlesome playwright? |
| 13 | Noel Coward | 9 | This "Blithe Spirit" played a character known as the Witch of Capri in the Taylor-&-Burton film "Boom!" |
| 14 | Lillian Hellman | 9 | Her "Another Part of the Forest" tells the earlier history of the family featured in her "Little Foxes" |
| 15 | Edward Albee | 8 | In 1963 the Pulitzer Advisory Board vetoed his controversial play & gave no award; he would go on to win 3 Pulitzers |
| 16 | William Inge | 8 | ( Famous playwright Edward Albee delivers the clue.) My play "Fam and Yam" was inspired by a meeting I once had with this playwright for whom life was... |
| 17 | Anton Chekhov | 8 | A piece of writing advice from this man who died in 1904 concludes, "Otherwise don't put it there" |
| 18 | Clifford Odets | 6 | A 1934 NYC taxi drivers' strike led him to write "Waiting for Lefty", the first of his plays to be produced |
| 19 | Athol Fugard | 6 | This playwright grew up in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, & he often sets his plays there |
| 20 | Shakespeare | 6 | 2 of his fellow actors compiled the 1st folio of his works, published in 1623, 7 years after his death |
| 21 | Tom Stoppard | 5 | "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" |
| 22 | The Glass Menagerie | 5 | Tennessee Williams modeled the character of Laura Wingfield in this play after his own sister |
| 23 | Bertolt Brecht | 5 | The Berliner Ensemble founded by this man in the 1940s finally made its U.S. debut in '99 with a staging of his "Arturo Ui" |
| 24 | Oscar Wilde | 5 | His most famous play was first produced in 1895, the year he was sent to jail, & he never wrote another |
| 25 | Vaclav Havel | 4 | He worked as a stagehand in Prague before writing plays such as "Temptation" & before becoming a president |
| 26 | Moliere | 4 | When he starred in his own play "Le Misanthrope" in 1666, his wife Armande Bejart was his leading lady |
| 27 | Ben Jonson | 4 | This author of "Every Man in His Humour" was apparently out of humor when he stabbed a man to death in 1598 |
| 28 | Thornton Wilder | 4 | "Good-by, good-by world. Good-by Grover's Corners... Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking..." |
| 29 | George S. Kaufman | 4 | He wrote "To the Ladies" with Marc Connelly & "The Man Who Came to Dinner" with Moss Hart |
| 30 | Eugene Ionesco | 4 | "Rhinoceros" |
| 31 | (Christopher) Marlowe | 4 | His first play, "Tamburlaine the Great", opened in 1587, just 6 years before he was killed |
| 32 | Wendy Wasserstein | 3 | "An American Daughter", "The Heidi Chronicles" |
| 33 | The Heidi Chronicles | 3 | This 1988 play by Wendy Wasserstein records the life of a woman from her high school years into middle adulthood |
| 34 | T.S. Eliot | 3 | "Murder In The Cathedral" |
| 35 | Sean O'Casey | 3 | His "Juno and the Paycock" was set during the Irish Civil War |
| 36 | Our Town | 3 | Performed on a bare stage, this Thornton Wilder play features a stage manager who serves as the narrator |
| 37 | Harvey Fierstein | 3 | "Torch Song Trilogy" |
| 38 | Death of a Salesman | 3 | The 2012 Tony for Best Revival of a Play went to this Arthur Miller classic |
| 39 | Blithe Spirit | 3 | In this Noel Coward play, a man's life is upended by the jealous ghost of his first wife |
| 40 | Sophocles | 3 | "Show to all in Thebes his father's murderer" |
| 41 | John Osborne | 3 | In the 1950s he was the first of the British playwrights known as "Angry Young Men" |
| 42 | Edmond Rostand | 3 | His 1st produced play was "Les Romanesques", not "Cyrano de Bergerac" |
| 43 | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | 2 | It was Edward Albee's first full-length play, & his most famous |
| 44 | Waiting for Godot | 2 | Both acts of this Beckett play have the same simple setting: "A country road. A tree" |
| 45 | The Odd Couple | 2 | As Act 1 of this Neil Simon play begins, we're told, "it is a warm summer night in Oscar Madison's apartment" |
| 46 | the August Moon | 2 | "The Teahouse of..." |
| 47 | Steve Martin | 2 | ( Hi. I'm Paula Cale of Providence.) I originated the role of Suzanne in the play "Picasso at the Lapin Agile", written by this "wild & crazy guy" |
| 48 | Spain | 2 | Lope de Rueda & Lope de Vega were 2 of this country's most famous playwrights |
| 49 | Six Characters in Search of an Author | 2 | Pirandello's "Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore", known as this in English, invented "theater within the theater" |
These appear 8+ times. Memorize these first.
Jump to: Other | Poetry | American Literature | Shakespeare | Children's Literature | British Literature