If American drama was to recognize one fictional clan as first family, the Tyrones would win the title. (Granted, it would be a neck-and-neck race with the Lomans of "Death of a Salesman.") Eugene O'Neill's 1956 masterpiece, "Long Day's Journey into Night," established them as the dark alter ego of t

Dark, Depressive, Domestic, Gritty, Intense, Intimate, Realist theater

"In the work of every American playwright at the end of the twentieth century, there are only two stages: before she or he has read Maria Irene Fornes -- and after." Though Paula Vogel's words are a fitting tribute to this dramatist's sensitive works, it's not surprising if Fornes' name draws a b

Contemporary plays, Dark, Enigmatic, Event, Feminist theater, Ironic, Kinetic, Surreal

Enigmatic, magnetic, elusive, and mysterious -- these words and others like them have been employed over the decades to describe actor/playwright Sam Shepard's cryptic persona and plays. After leaving a dead-end town in the middle of a California wasteland, a young Shepard moved to America's biggest

Dystopic, Melancholy, Off-broadway, Primal, Tense, Visceral

According to some, "the voice of a generation" echoes through the pen of playwright Wendy Wasserstein. More specifically, her plume speaks for the generation of women who were first caught up in the women's liberation movement. Too educated and too driven to be satisfied as housewives and mothers, th

Contemporary plays, Feminist, Feminist theater, Ironic, Jewish theater, Neurotic, Witty