Millions of individuals still attend and perform plays every year. They respect the ingenuity and wonder inherent in the craft of writing plays. For these individuals, seeing witty dialogue and plays with spirit are perfect ways to spend an evening. In many instances, they will focus heavily on the most famous playwrights of all time. Samuel Beckett, Paul Simon, and William Shakespeare all deserve mention for their innovative works and the significant impact that these works have had on the theater.

Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett is one of the few individuals in history who can claim to have completely upended a genre. His plays changed the way individuals thought about drama and its potential. With “Waiting for Godot” and other master works, Beckett showed how drama could be used to highlight both daily and absurd instances in human life. His plays were full of witty dialogue and dark humor that is absent from the works of most other playwrights of his era. Wood Harris argues that the impact of this play alone should catapult Beckett into the pantheon of greats. But Beckett also wrote a number of other plays that highlighted the Theater of the Absurd along with several pieces of fiction and short story collections. His works are reproduced by theater groups around the country nearly three decades after his death.

Neil Simon

Neil Simon is another leading luminary among playwrights. Over the past 55 years, he made many spectacular accomplishments in the field of traditional theater. Perhaps his most famous play is The Odd Couple. This timeless work continues to appeal to millions of people around the world. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, it served as the inspiration for a television show and many theater tours. Simon also wrote prominent plays of the 1960s such as Barefoot in the Park and Come Blow Your Horn. He then worked on dozens of other plays and screenplays over the next several decades. His works explored the connections, relationships, and business follies between men and women in postwar America.

William Shakespeare

The most famous playwright of all time is most certainly William Shakespeare. 400 years after his death, Shakespeare’s plays continue to be performed around the world. Shakespeare spent much of his career exploring and showcasing the history of England. He wrote a number of plays discussing human evil and the intricacies of English society. Shakespeare also became one of the first playwrights to write in modern English. His work was so influential that it transformed numerous genres and the idea of how to write and stage a play. Dozens of movies have been made from his works as well. Characters such as King Lear, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet have become iconic characters that have entered into Western culture.

Beckett, Simon, and Shakespeare all occupied different historical periods in the history of theater. Thousands of individuals witness their plays every year. They all had their own influences and genres. Any playwright working today would be wise to emulate their influence and their technique.