My Favorite Plays/Playwrights

My top playwrights:

1. Brian Michael Doyle
2. Tennessee Williams
3. Arthur Miller
4. Edward Albee
5. David Mamet/Neil LaBute
6. Lillian Hellman

Brian's top playwrights:

1. Edward Albee
2. Tennessee Williams
3. David Mamet
4. Arthur Miller/Eugene O'Neill
5. Tom Stoppard/David Lindsay-Abaire

Similar, but not quite the same. That's why we're such a good match. :)

For me, Tennessee Williams has always just had this gripping style and unique ability to catapult me right back to the era, to the South, to the life that the characters lead. A Streetcar Named Desire is my favorite play of all time, even before I went to college in New Orleans. It is closely followed by Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Summer & Smoke. He writes about families, and heartbreak, madness and betrayal. And it's hot. I want to be all of his heroines and more.

Arthur Miller is poetic and convicted all at once. The Crucible is never dated to me. It's as relevant to anything today as it was when it was written to represent McCarthyism...and still rings true for the Salem Witch Trials way back when. His male characters are his best, but he still manages to make them all count. There are no throwaway roles in Death of a Salesman or All My Sons. They have to be done well to be good, but I never tire of seeing them performed.

Albee sure can turn a phrase. His plays are so unusual in content and format...I mean, he goes from wealthy characters with a spiteful daughter in A Delicate Balance...to three major time periods in one woman's life in Three Tall Women...and then he has a middle aged couple chatting with a couple of sea monsters in Seascape! That's some versatility. And don't even get me started on The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? That play covers a fairly typical ailing relationship...except that instead of another woman, the husband falls for a goat. There's homosexuality, bestiality, and betrayal. Albee has a lot of balls, and a lot of heart. His plays are beautifully constructed. I think that's why Brian loves him especially.

Ah, David Mamet. You fucking genius, you. ;) I know my hubby with his potty mouth worships Mamet for the right reasons, but I know that he especially admires his limitless use of profanity. Gratuitous, yes, but also apt. I first saw Speed the Plow when I was about 16 and after that I knew that I wanted to play Karen, and that I didn't want to be in Hollywood. :) He has an uncanny knack for getting to the nitty gritty, and exploring and exploiting the complexities of relationships. Like Miller, he also focuses his best attentions on men, but unlike Miller, his female characters often fall short. His best attempt at a great female role is definitely Carol in Oleanna. I also love American Buffalo, and of course, Glengarry Glen Ross.

And the other playwright who often makes me want to take a shower to take off the layer of grime after reading/seeing one of his works...LaBute. My absolute favorite-The Shape of Things-is reptilian in its coldness and shocking twist...Fat Pig delves so deeply below the surface of modern society and is hysterically funny and blatantly sad. Even his raw one acts, like Coax, are mind blowing. They are simple, and yet extremely deep. LaBute says what people think but never say. He uses his "out loud" voice. And it is something fierce and something real.

The masterful works of top female playwright, Lillian Hellman...are wonderful. The first play I ever stepped onstage with was The Children's Hour. It was one of the few times in my acting career that I got to play someone mean and twisted (Mary)...The Autumn Garden is another marvelous play that give such life to seemingly ordinary people. I loved the taboo buttons that Hellman pushed, especially for the times, and the thought-provoking characters she created.

Did I mention how much I love Ibsen & Chekov, too? Feminist works and Russian "comedies" (very closely resembling Russian tragedies) were ground breaking and so well done.

I also have a great fondness for Irish playwrights...Conor McPherson & Brian Friel write beautifully. McPherson can write a chilling little ghost story (The Weir, Shining City) with amazing clarity...Friel tugs at the heartstrings of poor and hard Irish family life (The Lovers, Dancing at the Lughnasa)...what can I say? I'm Irish. I love the country, the customs, and their blunt sentiment.

I do have a playwright who puts everyone else to shame. My husband, Brian Michael Doyle. And guess what? It ain't just because I love him. Love him I do, but I am even more critical of his works that I am of others. Brian has only been a playwright for two short years, but he has already created an impressive body of work. His one act plays are creative, quirky, hilarious, and inspired. His full length plays are nothing short of awe inspiring. Brian's plays to me are like a Tori Amos cd. No other artist makes me feel the way she does...fully of joy and sorrow all at once...feeling like I can fly one minute and drown the next...she makes me feel everything. Brian's plays make me feel... everything. I have had the biggest honor of originating roles in two of his full length plays, The Inconceivable and Buried in the Attic. And this summer, the most amazing excitement of playing a role he wrote just for me, in The Duet. Come see it at the NVTA Festival on 6/27/09! He writes such versatile and dazzling plays...high comedy and slapstick stuff, family dramas, and deeply moving and sensitive works of art that string all those styles together. He has 5 full length plays under his belt, and at least 8 one acts...writing comes so naturally to him, and I cannot wait to see all of these works performed worldwide someday. And as always, I can't wait to read what comes next. It's a little intimidating to be married to someone with this great a gift...just another of my many blessings. Keep writing, my love...the world will know your works someday in the not too distant future. :)

The point of all this? I love theatre. I love reading it, seeing it, discussing it, and most of all, being a part of it. Onstage and offstage, it's in my blood. Life's circumstances took me from the ragtag gypsy life I always thought I'd lead...but the fire and passion of it all has never stopped consuming me. I am grateful for every play I get to read, and every show I get to see (even when they aren't so fabulous), and most of all, I am grateful every time I have the honor and joy of setting foot on a stage, speaking lines elegant and brilliant to a rapt audience, who wait in breathless anticipation.