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Thanks, Marina, for the very quick decision on December shelf ;)

Which of these plays have you read / seen performed? Which would you recommend?

Also, I think, Amanda is looking for some suggestion of plays written by women!! She's only going to be reading women writers for the next 3 months *gasps*
There are abut 5 plays by women on page 2 of shelf and 2 on page 3... the question is whether you can fit them in your other challenges & get them from the libraries

William Shakespeare is, of course, on the top my head (and most people's, I think) when it comes to plays but I've also loved the 3 plays by Oscar Wilde: Lady Windermere's Fan, An Ideal Husband & The Importance of being Earnest AND one by Richard Brinsley Sheridan: The School for Scandal.

Hmm, I've just realised that they are all comedies and employed a lot of misunderstandings etc... still, they were great fun! & I did Earnest & Scandal at school! I think I'll be looking at Sheridan's other plays as I don't think I've explored him yet.

I think I might look for these:

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
The Cherry Orchard
Mrs. Warren's Profession

i'm going to see what my library has in the way of plays in audio - because i'm a huge believer in they need to be listened to and not just read and go from there

Dee wrote: "i'm going to see what my library has in the way of plays in audio - because i'm a huge believer in they need to be listened to and not just read and go from there"

Oh, good idea! Although I love plays, I usually don't enjoy reading them. They're better as an auditory/visual experience.

Hmmm. I have found that I really enjoy reading plays. I think it is the stage directions that adds to the enjoyment as I picture the action on the stage.

I agree with you all, plays do need to be listened to (and watched), but I also think, as Bea said, that the stage directions help picture the action on stage.

I'm a huge lover of plays and I love to see them on stage whenever I can, although it's been a long time since I have gone to the theater, unfortunately.

Some of my favorite books are actually plays, for example Comedy of Vanity & Life-Terms, Macbeth and Last Days of Mankind. I also love Oscar Wilde (the plays Tien mentioned), William Shakespeare (of course!) and G.B. Shaw.

I think for this shelf I might read:

As for plays by women writers, I would suggest:

'Art' by Yasmina Reza
The Clean House and Other Plays by Sarah Ruhl
The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler (one of my favorite books ever!)
The Mammary Plays : How I Learned to Drive / The Mineola Twins by Paula Vogel

Then of course there are also Elfriede Jelinek and Sarah Kane, although I don't really like them.

Amanda was looking for plays by women authors. Lillian Hellman is a fascinating character, and her The Children's Hour is on p. 2 of the list. I gave it 4 stars.

I did theater in college so I'm fond of reading plays. It takes me back to those days.

Not sure what I'll read. I've had Waiting for Godot in my TBR for ages!

I'm looking at Chapel Perilous and Susannah's dreaming ; The golden oldies both by Dorothy Hewett.

D.G. wrote: "I did theater in college so I'm fond of reading plays. It takes me back to those days.

Not sure what I'll read. I've had Waiting for Godot in my TBR for ages!"

Oooh, D.G., Waiting for Godot is wonderful! You definitely have to give it a try!

Tien wrote: "Thanks, Marina, for the very quick decision on December shelf ;)

Which of these plays have you read / seen performed? Which would you recommend?

Also, I think, Amanda is looking for some suggesti..."

Thanks Tien! I did see a few there when I looked, but none were names I knew, so suggestions of good ones are very welcome!

Dee wrote: "i'm going to see what my library has in the way of plays in audio - because i'm a huge believer in they need to be listened to and not just read and go from there"

Agreed, a great idea. Not sure if my library will have anything, particularly not on download. Sadly, Librivox doesn't work on my very, very crappy new phone :( Not sure what other choices I might have...

Marina wrote: "As for plays by women writers, I would suggest:

'Art' by Yasmina Reza
The Clean House and Other Plays by Sarah Ruhl
The Vagina Monol..."</i>

Agreed re Jelinek, I tried to read [book:The Piano Teacher but had to give up.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, going off to have a look at them and availability now!

Just checked my library for my planned plays:

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - available
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - available on loan (another library in system)
The Cherry Orchard - available only on DVD in a Judi Dench collection
Mrs. Warren's Profession - available as one of four plays in a George Bernard Shaw book Plays: Mrs Warren's Profession/Man and Superman/Major Barbara/Pygmalion

So much as I like Judi Dench, I will be eliminating The Cherry Orchard from my list and adding three more of Shaw's plays.

I think I'll go for:

Vagina Monologues
Chekov's The Three Sisters

And Hold Me Closer, which is on the shelf, even though I don't think it's actually a play,

Susan, I love your choices! (Though I don't know Hold Me Closer, but the first two are beautiful!!)

Vagina Monologues is one of my favorite books ever, I hope you'll enjoy it.

I have read and seen performed on stage The Three Sisters, really great.

Enjoy your reads!

I think I'll also try Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood.

But I have a question. I've discovered that it was written as a "radio play," and was first produced in 1953, with Thomas himself reading. I haven't found an audiobook of that. In 1954, there was a version produced with Richard Burton as First Narrator. I can check that out from my local library. But it's also available on YouTube read by Dylan Thomas himself. I can't tell whether that's from the 1953 version, but I think it must be, since Thomas died soon after that was recorded. Somehow, while I'm used to listening to audiobooks, I'm not sure whether listening to something on YouTube should count, but the idea of listening to the author read it is appealing. What do people suggest?

What I love about this month's selection is that things are short enough that I can listen to something and also read the same thing.

Susan, my opinion is that it should count even though you listen to it on YouTube -- it's still the original play, so why not? I'm very intrigued to know how you will like the play read by Dylan Thomas himself, I find that plays read by the authors themselves are always fascinating.

Very glad you like this month's selection :-)

Marina wrote: "Susan, my opinion is that it should count even though you listen to it on YouTube -- it's still the original play, so why not? I'm very intrigued to know how you will like the play read by Dylan Th..."

Great! I'll have a lot of sitting-aound-waiting-time on Dec. 1 & 2, but in a wifi zone. I'll plan to take my headphones along with me and block out all the stuff around me.

I got The Oresteia from the library today. I'll also try to get my hands on a complete edition of Shakespeare's plays in order to read as much of those that I don't know yet as I can :)

Booktube definitely counts :)

Enjoy, Susan!

I have always struggled with Shakespeare, so in light of this I shall endevour to read both "A Midsummers Night Dream " and "Orthello" both of which on my TBR shelf.

Sharon wrote: "I have always struggled with Shakespeare, so in light of this I shall endevour to read both "A Midsummers Night Dream " and "Orthello" both of which on my TBR shelf."

I hope you'll like them, Sharon! A Midsummer Night's Dream is not one of my favorites, but I know that many people love it, so I hope you'll enjoy reading it. Othello, on the other hand, is one of his best plays in my opinion.

I just completed The Importance of Being Earnest. It was a funny quippy play and I really enjoyed it!

It's a beautiful one, Charity! I simply love Oscar Wilde's plays :-)

Sharon wrote: "I have always struggled with Shakespeare, so in light of this I shall endevour to read both "A Midsummers Night Dream " and "Orthello" both of which on my TBR shelf."

I struggle with Shakespeare too. I find that if I reading AND listening to the play at the same time works the best for me.

This genre is something I don't think I'll ever read. Most books are so old. Do you think they are still fun to read even though they are old? I have read a few books and so far the old fashioned language put me off.

Well, Lusie, not all plays are old, I dare say. There are very good modern or even contemporary playwrights, such as Sarah Ruhl, Paula Vogel, Tennessee Williams, Ariel Dorfman, just to mention a few.

At the same time, I think old plays are still interesting to read despite the old-fashioned language. I think plays by William Shakespeare are immortal and timeless, for instance. And what would I ever do without such plays as those by Oscar Wilde or G.B. Shaw?

Thank you for pointing those more modern plays out for me. I will look them up to see if one of them is something I'd like to read.

Marina wrote: "Well, Lusie, not all plays are old, I dare say. There are very good modern or even contemporary playwrights, such as Sarah Ruhl, Paula Vogel, Tennessee Williams..."

And, to add to the ones Marina listed, there's The Vagina Monologues.

Just a reminder, Lusie, this is last month's shelf, so you could skip it with no issues. The current month's shelf is Debut.

Thanks bea, but since i never read any plays it might be fun to try :)

Lusie wrote: "Thanks bea, but since i never read any plays it might be fun to try :)"

Well, I enjoy reading plays, although I have not enjoyed every play I have read. So, give it a try.