Born in New York's Harlem in 1915, Arthur Miller was not a good student. After a lackluster high school career, he was ready to join his father's clothing business when he read Dostoyevsky's "Brothers Karamazov." Suddenly, the world changed -- Miller decided to dedicate his life to reading and writin

Empty, Political, Post-war theater, Tragic

Dramatist Lorraine Hansberry broke social conventions by depicting black experiences of white prejudice. She also broke Broadway records by being both the youngest person and the first African American to win the Best Play award from the New York Drama Critics' Circle. Before that moment, black playw

African american fiction, African american theater, Political, Queer literature, Social protest, Tense

Spalding Gray splashed into the national consciousness with the epic monologue-cum-performance piece "Swimming to Cambodia" (1985), a distinctive solo show that has been on the road in some incarnation for well-nigh 20 years. He cut his teeth on Postmodern performance theory with SoHo's experimental

Agitated, Epic, Neurotic, Solo performance

Italian playwright, performer, and 1997 Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo is known for his subversive political savvy and ludicrous farces. Fo has often been called the true heir of Aristophanes for his gift of outrageous political satire and slander. Fo's humble beginnings as a mime inform his comedies wi

Cartoonish, Commedia dell'arte, Feminist, Political, Political theater, Wise assy