List of notable playwrights.

See also Literature, Drama, List of Irish dramatists

A

Ab-Al

• George Abbott
• Kjeld Abell
• Herbert Achternbusch
• Arthur Adamov, (1908-1970)
• Joseph Addison
• George Ade
• Aeschylus, (525-456)
• Aleksandr Nikolaevich Afinogenov
• Demetrio Aguiilera-Malta
• José Agustín
• Ilse Aichinger
• Ama Ata Aidoo
• Étienne Aignan
• George L. Aiken
• Zoë Akins
• Vasily Pavlovich Aksyonov
• Juan Ruiz de Alarcón y Mendoza
• Edward Albee, (born 1928)
• James Albery
• Alonso Alegría
• Vittorio Alfieri
• Álvarez Quintero Brothers
• Andrei Alekseevich Amalrik

An-As

• Jane Anderson
• Maxwell Anderson
• Robert W. Anderson
• Jorge Andrade
• Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev
• Lucius Livius Andronicus
• Jean Anouilh
• Ludwig Anzengruber
• Aleksei Nikolaevich Arbuzov
• Manuel José Arce
• John Arden
• Pietro Aretino
• Ludovico Ariosto
• Aristophanes, (446-385)
• Roberto Arlt
• Fernando Arrabal
• Francisco Arriví
• Antón Arrufat
• Antonin Artaud
• Sholom Asche

Au-Ay

• François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac
• David Auburn, (born 1969)
• W. H. Auden
• Jacques Audiberti
• Emile Augier
• Arkady Timofeevich Averchenko
• Máximo Avilés-Blonda
• Lilly Axster , (1896-1948)
• Mulat Ayalneh
• Alan Ayckbourn
• Jacob Ayrer

B

Ba-Bl

• Ingeborg Bachmann
• Howard Barker
• Ernst Barlach
• Peter Barnes
• J. M. Barrie
• Philip Barry
• Gabriel Barylli
• Wolfgang Bauer
• Terry Baum
• Pierre Beaumarchais
• Francis Beaumont
• Ulrich Becher
• Jürgen Becker
• Jurek Becker
• Samuel Beckett
• Max Beckmann
• Brendan Behan
• Gottfried Benn
• August Blanche

Bo-By

• Augusto Boal
• Eric Bogosian
• Robert Bolt
• Wolfgang Borchert
• Dion Boucicault
• John Bowen
• Thomas Brasch
• Volker Braun
• Bertolt Brecht
• Gerbrand Adriaensz. Bredero (1585-1618), Dutch playwright and poet
• Hermann Broch
• Ferdinand Bruckner
• Christine Brückner
• Nathan Bruhn
• Alfred Brust
• Georg Büchner
• Oliver Bukowski
• Henry James Byron

C

• Daniel Call
• Bartley Campbell
• Elias Canetti
• Veza Canetti
• Cao Yu
• Karel Čapek
• Ion Luca Caragiale
• Paul Vincent Carroll
• George Chapman
• Klaus Chatten
• Anton Chekhov
• Andrew Cherry (1762 - 1812)
• Agatha Christie
• Caryl Churchill
• Jean Cocteau
• Pierre Corneille
• Georges Courteline
• Noel Coward
• Nilo Cruz

D

• Thomas Dekker
• Sugathapala de Silva
• Ariel Dorfman
• Tankred Dorst
• Alexandre Dumas fils
• Nell Dunn
• Christopher Durang
• Friedrich Dürrenmatt

E

• David Edgar
• Günter Eich
• T. S. Eliot
• Gundi Ellert
• Hans Magnus Enzensberger
• Euripides

F

• Michael Fackelmann
• Rainer Werner Fassbinder
• Jules Feiffer
• Gustave Flaubert
• Ludwig Fels
• Leandro Fernández de Moratín
• Nathaniel Field
• Marieluise Fleisser
• John Fletcher
• Dario Fo
• Horton Foote
• Michael Frayn
• David French
• Gustav Freytag
• Erich Fried
• Brian Friel
• Max Frisch
• Franz Fuehmann
• Athol Fugard

G

• Jeremy Gable
• Christoph Gahl
• John Galsworthy
• Jean Genet
• Katharina Gericke
• David Gieselmann
• William S. Gilbert
• Jean Giraudoux
• John Godber
• Kermi Goell
• Reinhard Goering
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Carlo Goldoni
• Ivan Goll
• Olympe de Gouges
• Christian Dietrich Grabbe
• Harley Granville Barker
• Jörg Graser
• Günter Grass
• Simon Gray
• Lady Gregory
• Trevor Griffiths
• Franz Grillparzer
• Jim Grover
• Andreas Gryphius
• Sacha Guitry
• A.R. Gurney
• Karl Ferdinand Gutzkow

H

• Peter Hacks
• Max Halbe
• Peter Handke
• Lorraine Hansberry
• Ernst Hardt
• David Hare
• Walter Hasenclever
• Carl Hauptmann
• Gerhart Hauptmann
• Václav Havel
• Horst Hawemann
• Friedrich Hebbel
• Christoph Hein
• Lillian Hellman
• Heinrich Henkel
• Günter Herburger
• Rudolf Herfurtner
• Dorothy Hewett
• Wolfgang Hildesheimer
• Prince Hoare
• Rolf Hochhuth
• Fritz Hochwaelder
• Hugo von Hofmannsthal
• Ludvig Holberg
• Ödön von Horváth
• Sidney Howard
• Hroswitha of Gandersheim
• Dusty Hughes

I

• Henrik Ibsen
• William Inge
• Eugène Ionesco
• David Ives

J

• Günter Jankowiak
• Alfred Jarry
• Elfriede Jelinek
• Douglas William Jerrold
• Denis Johnston
• Thomas Jonigk
• Ben Jonson

K

• Georg Kaiser
• Kalidasa
• Sarah Kane
• Manfred Karge
• Girish Karnad
• George S. Kaufman
• John B. Keane
• Bernhard Kellermann
• Joseph Kesselring
• Thomas Kilroy
• Heinar Kipphardt
• Harald Kislinger
• Heinrich von Kleist
• Friedrich Maximilian Klinger
• Václav Kliment Klicpera
• Alexander Kluge
• Gerd Knappe
• Werner R. Koefler
• Karl König
• Oskar Kokoschka
• August von Kotzebue
• Karl Kraus
• Helmut Krausser
• Margret Kreidl
• Franz Xaver Kroetz
• Tony Kushner
• Fitzgerald Kusz
• Thomas Kyd

L

• Neil LaBute
• Anna Langhoff
• Else Lasker-Schüler
• Carl Laszlo
• Rolf Lauckner
• Kristen Lazarian
• Johann Anton Leisewitz
• Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz
• Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
• Reinhard Lettau
• Nell Leyshon
• Henry Livings
• Daniel C. Lohenstein
• Dea Loher
• Federico Garcia Lorca
• Craig Lucas
• Charles Ludlam
• Otto Ludwig

M

• Michael MacLennan
• David Mamet, (born 1947)
• Klaus Mann
• Andreas Marber
• Pierre de Marivaux
• Christopher Marlowe, (1564-1593)
• Christian Martin
• William Somerset Maugham
• Vladimir Mayakovsky
• Marius von Mayenburg
• Martin McDonagh, (born 1970)
• Frank McGuinness
• Terrence McNally, (born 1939)
• Charles L. Mee
• Menander
• David Mercer
• Thomas Middleton
• Arthur Miller, (1915-2005)
• Willy Millowitsch
• Felix Mitterer
• Molière, (1622-1673)
• M. J. Molloy
• Jose Zorrilla y Moral
• John Mortimer
• Karl O. Mühl
• Sean Muir
• Elfriede Müller
• Harald Müller
• Heiner Müller
• Kaj Munk
• Robert Musil

N

• Johann Nestroy
• Peter Nichols
• Marsha Norman

O

• Sean O'Casey
• Eugene O'Neill
• Gerlinde Obermeier
• Clifford Odets
• Joe Orton
• John Osborne
• Albert Ostermaier

P

• Suzan-Lori Parks
• Angelo Parra
• Helmut Peschina
• Carlo Pietzner
• Arthur Wing Pinero
• Winsome Pinnock
• Harold Pinter
• Luigi Pirandello
• Plautus
• Ulrich Plenzdorf
• Klaus Pohl
• Alf Poss
• Peter Preses
• J. B. Priestley

Q

• (none listed)

R

• Jean Racine
• Ferdinand Raimund
• Lutz Rathenow
• Terence Rattigan
• Paul Rebhun
• Gerlind Reinshagen
• Erwin Riess
• Rainer Maria Rilke
• Moritz Rinke
• Lennox Robinson
• Michaela Ronzoni
• Jack Rosenthal
• Friederike Roth
• Eugen Ruge
• Willy Russell

S

Sa-Se

• Hans Sachs
• Nelly Sachs
• William Saroyan
• Jean-Paul Sartre
• Peter Sattmann
• Friedrich Schiller
• Roland Schimmelpfennig
• Einar Schleef
• Johannes E. Schlegel
• Horst Schloetelburg
• Arno Schmidt
• Simone Schneider
• Arthur Schnitzler
• Manuel Schöbel
• Karl Schoenherr
• Lothar Schreyer
• Stefan Schütz
• Werner Schwab
• Brigitte Schwaiger
• Robert Schenkkan
• Georg Seidel
• Seneca the Younger

Sh-Sp

• Anthony Shaffer
• Peter Shaffer, (born 1926)
• William Shakespeare, (1564-1616)
• John Patrick Shanley
• George Bernard Shaw, (1856-1950)
• Rob Shearman
• Sam Shepard, (born 1943)
• R. C. Sherriff
• Richard Brinsley Sheridan
• Robert E. Sherwood
• George Shiels
• Larry Shue
• Neil Simon
• Geoffrey Skelton
• Anna Deavere Smith
• Sophocles
• Reinhard Sorge
• Wole Soyinka
• Kerstin Specht
• Martin Sperr
• Arthur Symington (1931-1995)

St-Sz

• Ginka Steinwachs
• Carl Sternheim
• Tom Stoppard
• David Storey
• August Stramm
• Botho Strauß
• Marlene Streeruwitz
• August Strindberg
• Thomas Strittmatter
• Preston Sturges
• Patrick Süskind
• Alfred Sutro
• Erwin Sylvanus
• John Millington Synge
• Gerarld Szyszkowitz

T

• George Tabori
• Jean Tardieu
• Henry Taylor
• Vijay Tendulkar
• Terence
• Tian Han
• Ludwig Tieck
• Ernst Toller
• Colorado Tolston
• Kurt Tucholsky
• Peter Turrini

U

• Nicholas Udall
• Rodolfo Usigli

V

• John Vanbrugh
• Gil Vicente
• Paula Vogel

W

• Friedrich K. Waechter
• Heinrich Leopold Wagner
• Naomi Wallace
• Martin Walser
• Robert Walser
• Theresia Walser
• Wendy Wasserstein
• Keith Waterhouse
• John Webster
• Frank Wedekind
• Peter Weiss
• Theodor Weissenborn
• Franz Werfel
• Timberlake Wertenbaker
• Arnold Wesker

• Urs Widmer
• Hubert Wiedfeld
• Adolf von Wilbrandt
• Oscar Wilde
• Thornton Wilder
• Emlyn Williams
• Tennessee Williams
• August Wilson
• Lanford Wilson
• William Wycherley

X

• (none listed)

Y

• William Butler Yeats, (1865-1939)

Z

• Ingeborg von Zadow
• Matthias Zschokke
• Carl Zuckmayer
• Stefan Zweig, (1881-1942)

See also

• Lists of authors
• List of American playwrights
• List of British playwrights
• List of British playwrights since 1950
• List of Canadian playwrights
• List of French playwrights
• List of German playwrights
• List of Irish playwrights