Playwrights Study Guide

Literature 578 clues | 66 recurring answers

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17 Must-Know

18 Should-Know

31 Worth Knowing

Quick Reference: Must-Know Answers

These appear 8+ times. Memorize these first.

Henrik Ibsen 25 George Bernard Shaw 23 Neil Simon 21 Eugene O'Neill 20 Arthur Miller 19 Tennessee Williams 17 David Mamet 12 Harold Pinter 12 August Wilson 10 Sam Shepard 10 Lillian Hellman 10 August Strindberg 10 Noel Coward 9 Edward Albee 9 Samuel Beckett 9 William Inge 8 Anton Chekhov 8

Answers by Category

Other

41 answers | 226 clues

Must-Know (10)

Neil Simon 21x 10.0% stumper $965 avg J:3 DJ:17 FJ:1

J $100 2001 He's the popular multiple Tony Award-winning playwright seen here

DJ $600 1997 His comedy "The Star-Spangled Girl" is set in a duplex apartment overlooking San Francisco Bay

DJ $1,200 2008 His autobiographical play "Chapter Two" dealt with the death of his first wife, Joan

Eugene O'Neill 20x 22.2% stumper $761 avg J:2 DJ:16 FJ:2

J $100 2000 As a youth, this "Iceman Cometh" dramatist prospected for gold in Honduras

J $600 2007 You might desire the rings & garters worn by this "Desire Under the Elms" author; they're in the Yale library

DJ $1,000 DD 1997 This American won a 1928 Pulitzer Prize for his very long, 9-act drama "Strange Interlude"

Arthur Miller 19x 11.1% stumper $656 avg J:2 DJ:16 FJ:1

DJ $200 2000 After the screenplay for "The Misfits", he wrote "After The Fall"

J $600 2012 His "The Crucible" was produced in 1953; in 1956 he was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee

DJ $4,000 DD 2020 He's the playwright seen here with his famous secondwife

Tennessee Williams 17x 6.7% stumper $513 avg J:2 DJ:13 FJ:2

DJ $200 1995 Of all his plays, "A Streetcar Named Desire" had the longest run on Broadway

DJ $800 1994 "Eight Mortal Ladies Possessed" is a book of short stories by this "Summer and Smoke" author

DJ $1,000 DD 2016 "Time just outran me, Big Daddy--got there first"

David Mamet 12x $833 avg J:1 DJ:11

DJ $400 2007 "Speed-the-Plow","Glengarry Glen Ross"

DJ $800 2014 "The Glengarry Highland's leads, you're sending Roma out, fine. He's a good man"

DJ $1,200 2003 "Sexual Perversity in Chicago"

August Wilson 10x 37.5% stumper $1,050 avg J:1 DJ:7 FJ:2

DJ $200 1998 Lanford Wilson won a Pulitzer for "Talley's Folly" in 1980 & this Wilson won for "The Piano Lesson" in 1990

DJ $800 2020 Frederick August Kittel was the given name of this "Fences" playwright

J $1,000 2007 Pittsburgh's African American Cultural Center was renamed for this "Piano Lesson" author who was born in Pittsburgh

Noel Coward 9x 11.1% stumper $822 avg J:1 DJ:8

DJ $400 1998 It took him only 5 days in 1941 to write "Blithe Spirit"

DJ $600 1997 This "Blithe Spirit" played a character known as the Witch of Capri in the Taylor-&-Burton film "Boom!"

J $1,000 DD 1989 Urbane Englishman heard here singing a song he wrote for one of his musicals:I believe that since my life began, the most I've had is just a talent to amuse

Samuel Beckett 9x 12.5% stumper $1,288 avg J:1 DJ:7 FJ:1

DJ $400 1987 It's said he wrote a 30-second play on the back of a postcard, perhaps while "Waiting for Godot"

DJ $800 1990 This "Endgame" author was a friend of James Joyce but, contrary to rumor, was not his secretary

DJ $2,000 DD 2016 After World War II he began writing mostly in French instead of his native tongue

William Inge 8x $900 avg J:1 DJ:7

DJ $600 1993 His first play, "Farther Off from Heaven", debuted in a Dallas theatre, not at a "Bus Stop"

DJ $1,000 1987 He won an Oscar for writing "Splendor in the Grass", was he's better known for "Bus Stop"

J $800 2007 (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 no "Picnic"

Anton Chekhov 8x 33.3% stumper $733 avg DJ:6 FJ:2

DJ $200 1988 "The Wedding", "The Bear", "Uncle Vanya"

DJ $800 2016 "If there is one thing interesting--remarkable indeed--in the whole province, it's just our cherry orchard"

DJ $1,600 2013 His 1889 play "The Wood Demon" was a failure; he reworked it as the successful "Uncle Vanya"

Should-Know (9)

Athol Fugard 6x 80.0% stumper $1,320 avg DJ:5 FJ:1

DJ $800 1998 Since 1995 this South African in his 60s has acted in his own 2-person play "Valley Song"

DJ $1,000 DD 1995 He set his play "The Road to Mecca" in New Bethesda, a small Karoo village in South Africa

FJ 2004 (Jimmy of the Clue Crew reports from the Yale Repertory Theatre) During apartheid, this man chose to premiere several of his plays, including "A Place with the Pigs", here at Yale

Clifford Odets 5x 20.0% stumper $1,600 avg DJ:5

DJ $1,000 1990 His 1st produced play, 1935's "Waiting for Lefty", was inspired by a taxi drivers' strike in New York City

DJ $1,000 1988 This "Golden Boy" author grew up in the Bronx & used it as his setting for "Awake & Sing"

DJ $2,000 2008 A 1934 NYC taxi drivers' strike led him to write "Waiting for Lefty", the first of his plays to be produced

Bertolt Brecht 5x $1,700 avg DJ:4 FJ:1

DJ $1,600 2009 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"

FJ 1997 In 1948 he returned to Europe & soon co-founded the Berliner Ensemble to stage his works

DJ $1,600 2006 During most of WWII, this German playwright resided in the U.S.; he left in 1947 & formed the Berliner Ensemble in 1949

= 5x 20.0% stumper $600 avg DJ:5

DJ $200 1987 =

DJ $600 1987 =

DJ $1,000 1987 =

Vaclav Havel 4x 25.0% stumper $1,075 avg DJ:4

DJ $200 1997 "Protest" is a semi-autobiographical play by this president of the Czech Republic

DJ $600 1996 After this Czech denounced the Soviet invasion of his country in 1968, his plays were banned

DJ $2,700 DD 2004 His "Zahradni Slavnost" or "The Garden Party" was first produced in Prague in 1963

Moliere 4x $500 avg DJ:4

DJ $200 1996 Voltaire called this comic playwright "The painter of France"

DJ $1,000 1994 In the 1640s this comic playwright made his professional acting debut with the Illustre-Theatre

DJ $400 2004 Dominique Labbe says he's proved Pierre Corneille wrote the satires like "Tartuffe", attributed to this man

Wendy Wasserstein 4x $950 avg DJ:4

DJ $400 1998 "Tender Offer" is a one-act play by this author of "The Heidi Chronicles"

DJ $800 2007 "An American Daughter","The Heidi Chronicles"

DJ $1,600 2017 This alliteratively named playwright followed up her 1989 Pulitzer win with "The Sisters Rosensweig"

George S. Kaufman 4x 75.0% stumper $1,000 avg DJ:4

DJ $800 2001 He wrote "To the Ladies" with Marc Connelly & "The Man Who Came to Dinner" with Moss Hart

DJ $1,000 1998 He collaborated on his hit comedy "Beggar On Horseback" with Marc Connelly, not Moss Hart

DJ $1,600 2008 Novelist Edna Ferber collaborated with this playwright on 6 plays, including "Dinner at Eight" & "Stage Door"

Eugene Ionesco 4x $800 avg DJ:4

DJ $600 1996 Jean-Louis Barrault directed the first production of this playwright's "Rhinoceros"

DJ $1,000 1995 Best known for "Rhinoceros", this "Godfather of the Theater of the Absurd" died in 1994 at age 81

DJ $800 1997 "La Cantatrice Chauve", or "The Bald Soprano", is an Absurdist play by this author of "Rhinoceros"

Worth Knowing (22)

The Heidi Chronicles 3 Harvey Fierstein 3 Death of a Salesman 3 Blithe Spirit 3 Sophocles 3 Edmond Rostand 3 Peter Shaffer 3 John Osborne 3 Waiting for Godot 2 The Odd Couple 2 Steve Martin 2 Spain 2 Six Characters in Search of an Author 2 Mississippi 2 M. Butterfly 2 Jonathan Larson 2 James Joyce 2 France 2 David Rabe 2 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 2 Anne Meara 2 (Tony) Kushner 2

Children's Literature

5 answers | 52 clues

Must-Know (3)

Henrik Ibsen 25x 4.3% stumper $670 avg J:1 DJ:22 FJ:2

J $400 2016 Thisplaywright spent many years living in Italy & Germany before returning home to Norway a literary hero in 1891

DJ $600 1994 This Norwegian dramatist served as stage manager for the National Theatre in Bergen 1851-57

DJ $1,000 1991 Some say he wrote "An Enemy of the People" in response to the negative criticism of his play "Ghosts"

Sam Shepard 10x 20.0% stumper $960 avg J:1 DJ:9

DJ $200 1986 He created "True West", "Fool for Love" & a daughter with Jessica Lange

DJ $600 1986 This playwright & actor portrayed Colonel Chuck Yeager, not Alan Shepard, in "The Right Stuff"

J $1,000 2005 In 2004 this author of "True West" returned to the stage, acting in "A Number", a play about human cloning

Lillian Hellman 10x 10.0% stumper $950 avg J:1 DJ:9

J $300 2000 In 1941 her "Watch on the Rhine" was named best American play by the New York Drama Critics' Circle

DJ $600 1998 Stockard Channing starred on Broadway in a 1957 revival of this woman's "Little Foxes"

DJ $2,000 2019 In 1981 Elizabeth Taylor made her Broadway debut in a revival of this playwright's "The Little Foxes"

Should-Know (1)

The Glass Menagerie 5x 20.0% stumper $600 avg J:1 DJ:4

DJ $400 2023 Delicate & rare like herself, a unicorn is among Laura Wingfield's prized collection in this Tennessee Williams play

DJ $800 2014 (Ben Brantley of The New York Timesdelivers the clue.) Zachary Quinto gave a benchmark performance as Tom Wingfield in such a thorough rejuvenation of this Tennessee Williams play that I hesitate to call it a revival

J $1,000 2016 Abandoned by her husband, Amanda Wingfield has raised 2 children by herself in this drama by Tennessee Williams

Worth Knowing (1)

James M. Barrie 2

Shakespeare

9 answers | 51 clues

Must-Know (1)

George Bernard Shaw 23x 4.8% stumper $681 avg J:3 DJ:18 FJ:2

J $400 2001 Called the most significant British dramatist since Shakespeare, this Irish-born author wrote 50 stage plays

DJ $800 1995 He set his 1894 play "Arms and the Man" in Bulgaria

DJ $1,000 1997 This co-star of "Jaws" & "The Sting" adapted the play "The Man in the Glass Booth" from his own novel

Should-Know (4)

Tom Stoppard 6x 25.0% stumper $1,200 avg DJ:4 FJ:2

DJ $1,000 1998 Born in Zlin, Czechoslovakia in 1937, his original surname was Straussler, not Rosencrantz or Guildenstern

FJ 2021 "The Murder of Gonzago" is used as a play within a 1966 play by this man who was inspired by Shakespeare

FJ 2011 This Brit won Tonys for Best Play in 1968, 1976, 1984 & 2007; in the '90s he settled for the 1998 Best Screenplay Oscar

Shakespeare 6x 16.7% stumper $383 avg J:2 DJ:4

J $100 1989 2 of his fellow actors compiled the 1st folio of his works, published in 1623, 7 years after his death

J $800 2003 Now best remembered as a playwright, in his day he was famous for playing the ghost of Hamlet's father

DJ $200 1996 Most of this playwright's "As You Like It" is a dramatization of Thomas Lodge's novel "Rosalynde"

Ben Jonson 4x 50.0% stumper $1,000 avg DJ:4

DJ $400 1986 His "Volpone" played at Shakespeare's Globe Theater in 1605

DJ $600 1986 His epitaph calls him "rare", but his "Volpone" was well-done

DJ $1,000 1994 This author of "Every Man in His Humour" must have been out of humor when he killed a man in a duel in 1598

(Christopher) Marlowe 4x $1,350 avg DJ:4

DJ $400 2017 From a 1585 will, the only extant copy of the handwriting of this playwright shows he spelled his name M-A-R-L-E-Y

DJ $2,000 2023 In "Shakespeare in Love", Rupert Everett has an uncredited role as this contemporary of Shakespeare

DJ $1,000 1994 The surviving version of his 16th C. play "The Jew of Malta" was probably revised by Thomas Heywood

Worth Knowing (4)

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead 2 Peter Ustinov 2 Lynn Redgrave 2 Alexander Pushkin 2

Poetry

6 answers | 35 clues

Must-Know (2)

Harold Pinter 12x 16.7% stumper $800 avg J:1 DJ:11

DJ $400 2006 This 2005 Nobel Laureate's 1st wife, Vivien Merchant, appeared in many of his plays, including "The Homecoming"

DJ $800 1994 In 1967 this author of "The Homecoming" directed Robert Shaw's play "The Man in the Glass Booth"

DJ $1,000 1993 His play "The Dumb Waiter" ends with a long silence & 2 characters staring at each other

August Strindberg 10x 44.4% stumper $1,244 avg DJ:9 FJ:1

DJ $800 1997 This Swede satirized Stockholm society in his first novel, "The Red Room", published in 1879

DJ $2,000 2024 Also a poet, painter & photographer, this Swede was best known for writing plays like "Miss Julie"

FJ 2000 Playwright who wrote the historical dramas "Erik XIV", "Gustav Adolf" & "Gustav Vasa"

Should-Know (1)

Oscar Wilde 6x $700 avg J:1 DJ:3 FJ:2

J $200 2001 This scandalous wit & playwright seenheredied in Paris in 1900

DJ $800 2007 The troubled life of this Irish-born playwright has inspired several plays including The Judas Kissand Gross Indecency

DJ $1,600 2023 In a 1997 film Stephen Fry played this Irish poet & dramatist, while Jude Law played Lord Alfred Douglas

Worth Knowing (3)

T.S. Eliot 3 Lorraine Hansberry 2 Mourning Becomes Electra 2

British Literature

4 answers | 20 clues

Must-Know (1)

Edward Albee 9x 57.1% stumper $1,057 avg DJ:7 FJ:2

DJ $400 1996 This "Virginia Woolf" playwright's one-act "The Zoo Story" is set on a Central Park bench

DJ $800 1996 Although his 1975 play "Seascape" had only a brief Broadway run, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama

DJ $1,600 2023 "Three Tall Women" earned this playwright his third Pulitzer Prize

Should-Know (2)

Thornton Wilder 5x $600 avg DJ:5

DJ $400 2001 "Our Teeth" & "Our Town" have been subjects for this Wisconsin-born playwright

DJ $600 1995 James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake" may have inspired this playwright's "The Skin of Our Teeth"

DJ $400 1991 His play, "The Matchmaker", was first produced under the title "The Merchant of Yonkers"

Our Town 4x $650 avg DJ:4

DJ $200 1998 Thornton Wilder called Act I of this play "Daily Life"

DJ $800 2008 Thornton Wilder, on more than one occasion, played the stage manager in this play of his

DJ $1,200 DD 1991 1 of the 2 plays for which Thornton Wilder won a Pulitzer Prize

Worth Knowing (1)

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 2

American Literature

1 answers | 4 clues

Should-Know (1)

Sean O'Casey 4x 50.0% stumper $1,150 avg DJ:4

DJ $800 1998 This Irishman's 1926 play "The Plough and the Stars" was so controversial it provoked riots

DJ $2,000 2016 His "Juno and the Paycock" was set during the Irish Civil War

DJ $800 1993 The Abbey Theatre rejected 3 of his plays before producing "Shadow of a Gunman" in 1923

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