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.
103 of 210 playwrights covered · 1,544 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 Shakespeare638
- Christopher Marlowe15
- John Webster15
- Ben Jonson9
- Thomas Middleton4
- 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.
7/9 covered
19th Century
The birth of modern naturalism, from Ibsen and Chekhov to Wilde and Shaw.
11/16 covered
- Anton Chekhov62
- Oscar Wilde47
- Henrik Ibsen45
- George Bernard Shaw35
- August Strindberg18
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe12
- Arthur Wing Pinero10
- Nikolai Gogol5
- Friedrich Schiller4
- Edmond Rostand2
- Alexander Ostrovsky2
- Georg Buchner
- Heinrich von Kleist
- Victor Hugo
- Georges Feydeau
- Dion Boucicault
Early 20th Century
Between the wars — Irish revival, European modernism and the well-made play.
11/18 covered
- Bertolt Brecht20
- Eugene O'Neill18
- John Galsworthy8
- Federico Garcia Lorca5
- J M Barrie4
- Maxim Gorky3
- Thornton Wilder2
- Sean O'Casey1
- Luigi Pirandello1
- Noel Coward1
- Lillian Hellman1
- John Millington Synge
- W B Yeats
- 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
- Harold Pinter59
- Tennessee Williams52
- Arthur Miller36
- Tom Stoppard32
- Samuel Beckett23
- Edward Albee8
- Peter Shaffer5
- Jean-Paul Sartre3
- Jean Genet2
- Neil Simon2
- Alan Bennett2
- Eugene Ionesco1
- Michael Frayn1
- Albert Camus
- Jean Anouilh
- John Osborne
- Arnold Wesker
- Shelagh Delaney
- Robert Bolt
- William Inge
- Lorraine Hansberry
- Joe Orton
- Alan Ayckbourn
- Edward Bond
- Peter Nichols
- David Storey
- Trevor Griffiths
- Dario Fo
Contemporary British & Irish
The living repertoire most often set for contemporary audition speeches.
22/54 covered
- Phoebe Waller-Bridge20
- Martin McDonagh18
- Jez Butterworth9
- Jack Thorne9
- Dennis Kelly9
- Brian Friel7
- Joe Penhall7
- Alice Birch6
- David Hare5
- Caryl Churchill4
- Lucy Kirkwood4
- Enda Walsh3
- Simon Stephens3
- Patrick Marber2
- Inua Ellams2
- Ella Hickson2
- Sarah Kane1
- Mark Ravenhill1
- Laura Wade1
- Mike Bartlett1
- Polly Stenham1
- David Greig1
- Tom Murphy
- Frank McGuinness
- Sebastian Barry
- Conor McPherson
- Marina Carr
- Richard Bean
- Lucy Prebble
- Nina Raine
- Duncan Macmillan
- 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.
23/44 covered
- David Mamet21
- Tony Kushner14
- Tracy Letts12
- Sam Shepard10
- August Wilson10
- John Patrick Shanley10
- David Lindsay-Abaire4
- Donald Margulies4
- Annie Baker4
- Marsha Norman3
- Branden Jacobs-Jenkins3
- Alfred Uhry3
- Terrence McNally2
- Christopher Durang2
- Sarah Ruhl2
- Neil LaBute2
- Lynn Nottage1
- Adam Rapp1
- Richard Greenberg1
- 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
- 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
- Florian Zeller4
- Joanna Murray-Smith3
- Yasmina Reza2
- Louis Nowra1
- 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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