Playwrights
Every major playwright from the Greeks to the present day, grouped by period. Names in darker type have monologues and scenes in the library — the number beside each one says how many.
97 of 210 playwrights covered · 1,226 scenes
Greek & Roman
The oldest surviving dramatic writing, and still the backbone of classical audition speeches.
5/8 covered
- Sophocles12
- Euripides6
- Aeschylus1
- Aristophanes1
- Seneca1
- Menander
- Plautus
- Terence
Elizabethan & Jacobean
Shakespeare and his contemporaries — the verse repertoire most drama schools ask for.
6/11 covered
- William Shakespeare653
- John Webster11
- Christopher Marlowe3
- Ben Jonson1
- Thomas Middleton1
- Thomas Kyd1
- John Ford
- Thomas Dekker
- Francis Beaumont
- John Fletcher
- Philip Massinger
Restoration & 18th Century
Comedy of manners: sharp, spoken, and a common second classical choice.
6/9 covered
- John Gay22
- Oliver Goldsmith13
- George Farquhar12
- Richard Brinsley Sheridan2
- William Congreve1
- Aphra Behn1
- William Wycherley
- George Etherege
- John Vanbrugh
19th Century
The birth of modern naturalism, from Ibsen and Chekhov to Wilde and Shaw.
10/16 covered
- Oscar Wilde45
- Anton Chekhov41
- George Bernard Shaw25
- Henrik Ibsen16
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe5
- Friedrich Schiller4
- August Strindberg2
- Edmond Rostand2
- Alexander Ostrovsky2
- Nikolai Gogol1
- Georg Buchner
- Heinrich von Kleist
- Victor Hugo
- Georges Feydeau
- Arthur Wing Pinero
- Dion Boucicault
Early 20th Century
Between the wars — Irish revival, European modernism and the well-made play.
9/18 covered
- Eugene O'Neill19
- Bertolt Brecht13
- John Galsworthy8
- Maxim Gorky3
- Thornton Wilder3
- Lillian Hellman2
- Sean O'Casey1
- Luigi Pirandello1
- J M Barrie1
- John Millington Synge
- W B Yeats
- Federico Garcia Lorca
- Noel Coward
- Terence Rattigan
- Clifford Odets
- Somerset Maugham
- J B Priestley
- Jean Cocteau
Mid 20th Century
Post-war drama: the Angry Young Men, absurdism and the American giants.
13/28 covered
- Tom Stoppard28
- Arthur Miller14
- Tennessee Williams14
- Samuel Beckett10
- Edward Albee6
- Harold Pinter6
- Peter Shaffer5
- Jean-Paul Sartre3
- Jean Genet2
- Alan Bennett2
- Neil Simon1
- Edward Bond1
- Michael Frayn1
- Eugene Ionesco
- Albert Camus
- Jean Anouilh
- John Osborne
- Arnold Wesker
- Shelagh Delaney
- Robert Bolt
- William Inge
- Lorraine Hansberry
- Joe Orton
- Alan Ayckbourn
- Peter Nichols
- David Storey
- Trevor Griffiths
- Dario Fo
Contemporary British & Irish
The living repertoire most often set for contemporary audition speeches.
21/54 covered
- Phoebe Waller-Bridge22
- Martin McDonagh14
- Dennis Kelly10
- Brian Friel8
- Jack Thorne6
- Alice Birch5
- Simon Stephens4
- Lucy Kirkwood4
- Jez Butterworth3
- Enda Walsh2
- Patrick Marber2
- David Hare2
- Ella Hickson2
- Caryl Churchill1
- Mark Ravenhill1
- Joe Penhall1
- Mike Bartlett1
- Duncan Macmillan1
- Inua Ellams1
- Polly Stenham1
- David Greig1
- Tom Murphy
- Frank McGuinness
- Sebastian Barry
- Conor McPherson
- Marina Carr
- Sarah Kane
- Richard Bean
- Lucy Prebble
- Laura Wade
- Nina Raine
- debbie tucker green
- Tanika Gupta
- Ayub Khan-Din
- Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti
- Bola Agbaje
- Howard Brenton
- April De Angelis
- Charlotte Jones
- James Graham
- Rory Mullarkey
- Vicky Jones
- Roy Williams
- Kwame Kwei-Armah
- Arinze Kene
- Natasha Gordon
- Beth Steel
- Anna Jordan
- Katherine Soper
- Barney Norris
- Nick Payne
- Zinnie Harris
- Gary Owen
- Alan Bissett
Contemporary American
Pulitzer-era American writing, widely used for contemporary monologues.
22/44 covered
- David Mamet19
- Tony Kushner11
- John Patrick Shanley10
- Sam Shepard8
- Tracy Letts7
- August Wilson4
- Donald Margulies4
- Marsha Norman3
- David Lindsay-Abaire3
- Alfred Uhry3
- Terrence McNally2
- Christopher Durang2
- Neil LaBute2
- Lynn Nottage1
- Sarah Ruhl1
- Adam Rapp1
- Richard Greenberg1
- Branden Jacobs-Jenkins1
- Jeremy O Harris1
- Jackie Sibblies Drury1
- David Henry Hwang1
- A R Gurney1
- Beth Henley
- Wendy Wasserstein
- John Guare
- David Rabe
- Paula Vogel
- Suzan-Lori Parks
- Gina Gionfriddo
- Annie Baker
- Lucas Hnath
- Quiara Alegria Hudes
- Stephen Adly Guirgis
- Martyna Majok
- Will Arbery
- Dominique Morisseau
- Pearl Cleage
- Dael Orlandersmith
- Katori Hall
- Ayad Akhtar
- Amy Herzog
- Halley Feiffer
- Clare Barron
- Aleshea Harris
International
African, Australian, Canadian and European writers in translation and in English.
5/22 covered
- Joanna Murray-Smith9
- Florian Zeller4
- Louis Nowra2
- Yasmina Reza2
- Hannie Rayson1
- Athol Fugard
- Wole Soyinka
- Derek Walcott
- David Williamson
- Michel Tremblay
- Daniel MacIvor
- Ann-Marie MacDonald
- Judith Thompson
- Bernard-Marie Koltes
- Thomas Bernhard
- Elfriede Jelinek
- Roland Schimmelpfennig
- Marius von Mayenburg
- Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
- Jon Fosse
- Peter Handke
- Nassim Soleimanpour
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