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Considered to be one of the fathers of European modernism, the Russian country doctor, short story writer, and playwright Anton Chekhov, born in 1860, revolutionized literature and theater in many ways. Chekhov considered himself a writer of literature first and a playwright second, and of his 200-plus written works, only 14 of them were written for the stage, but he nevertheless had an everlasting effect on how drama was written for theater.

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His most notable piece is perhaps his seminal play from 1947, ‘A Streetcar Named Desire.’ Other critically acclaimed works include his first commercial success, ‘The Glass Menagerie,’ and ‘A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.’

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One of the most renowned writers to come out of Ireland, Samuel Beckett was an accomplished poet, essayist, and novelist, in addition to being a wildly influential playwright. Born in Dublin in 1906, Beckett attended Trinity College with close friend and iconic novelist James Joyce, but quickly relocated to Paris, where he resided for most of his life.

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Even though many of his plays were plagued with failed premieres and poor initial receptions, which frequently caused the genius writer to swear off drama altogether before inevitably being pulled back, he is now considered one of the most important figures in the history of theater.

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The most famous dramatist of ancient Greece is without a doubt Sophocles. Born just outside of Athens in around 497 BCE, he is one of the three great tragedians of ancient Greece whose work has survived the ages, along with the slightly elder Aeschylus and the slightly junior Euripides.

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Tennessee Williams, born in 1911 as Thomas Lanier Williams III in Columbus, Mississippi, is considered by many to be the greatest playwright to come out of the United States. His plays reflected the realities—sometimes harsh, sometimes beautiful, but usually both—of life in the southern United States.

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Ibsen wrote 25 plays during his lifetime, and he is one of the most frequently performed playwrights in history, second only to Shakespeare. Some of his most notable works include ‘A Doll’s House,’ ‘Peer Gynt,’ and ‘The Wild Duck.’

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Along with Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen was one of the leading figures of European modernism. The Norwegian playwright, born in 1828, was considered something of a renegade in his time for fearlessly exploring the darker sides of family and society in his plays.

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Within the general public, however, he was wildly popular. Many of his plays received widespread acclaim during his lifetime and are still performed today. Some of his most enduring comedies include ‘Tartuffe,’ ‘The Misanthrope,’ and ‘The Imaginary Invalid.’

Sources: (StageMilk) (Nobel Prize) (Britannica)

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Sophocles’ most famous works are the Theban plays, all of which feature to some degree the characters Oedipus and Antigone. These works would have lasting effects on theater, philosophy, and society at large for centuries upon centuries to come.

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Shaw wrote more than 60 plays in his lifetime, and many are included in the canon of the greatest dramatic works ever written. Some of his most famous works include ‘Pygmalion,’ ‘Saint Joan,’ and ‘Caesar and Cleopatra.’

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Pinter won numerous prestigious awards during his lifetime, including the Tony for Best Play in 1967 for ‘The Homecoming.’ In 2005, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Pinter, “who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms."

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Considered one of the greatest writers in the history of the French language, Molière breathed new life into the tradition of comedy on the stage. Active in the 17th century, Molière and his plays were often the target of criticism from the religious community of Europe, and he was frequently accused of blasphemy.

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Another of the three great Greek tragedians was Euripides, born in 480 BCE, making him a contemporary of Sophocles. Of the 90-odd plays attributed to Euripides, only 18 have survived in their complete form.

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He is most well known for his magnum opus, 'Faust,' a play that was not written in acts but in many connected scenes, based on the character of German legend by the same name. It is arguably the greatest work of German literature.

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Behn’s plays were known for their scathing social criticism and sharp cleverness. Notable works of Behn’s include ‘The Rover,’ ‘The Dutch Lover,’ and ‘The Emperor of the Moon.’

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Another of the many great playwrights to come out of Ireland was George Bernard Shaw, born in Dublin in 1856. While his personal views and politics were controversial, including his promotion of eugenics, it was hard for his contemporaries to deny his prowess with a pen, and he was eventually awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925.

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, born in Frankfurt in 1749, is widely thought of as the greatest writer in the German language. His influence can be felt across a range of subjects and professions, including poetry, drama, philosophy, botany, and anatomy.

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Known primarily as a poet and a leading figure of the Generation of ‘27, a literary movement that pushed the boundaries and challenged the conventions of modern poetry, Spanish writer Federico García Lorca was also an accomplished playwright, and penned over a dozen plays in his tragically short lifetime.

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Lorraine Hansberry made history on March 11, 1959, when her masterpiece ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ premiered on Broadway at the Barrymore Theater. This was the first play penned by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway, and was also the first to be headed by a Black director.

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Born in Canterbury in 1640, Aphra Behn was one of the strongest voices of 17th century theater and was indispensable in turning the climate of theater and literature in general to one less hostile towards female writers. Virginia Woolf, in her landmark work ‘A Room of One’s Own,’ claimed, "All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn… for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.”

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Born on February 3, 1971, Sarah Kane was a fiery figure in English theater during the mid and late '90s. The five plays she wrote in her short life and their bold, violent, and sometimes horrifying contents shook the theater world and caused widespread scandal.

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The disturbing subjects of many of her plays prohibited her from producing her plays on a large scale within the United Kingdom, but other European directors and producers welcomed her with open arms, especially Germany. After she took her own life at the age of 28, German radio stations observed a moment of silence for the playwright, and it is alleged that theaters across the country dimmed their lights in a show of respect.

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Harold Pinter was born in Hackney on October 10, 1930, and would go on to become one of the most celebrated English playwrights of the 20th century. Apart from the 29 plays he wrote in his lifetime, he was also responsible for adapting many of his own plays for the silver screen, and accumulated 27 screenwriting credits during his career.

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Bertolt Brecht, born Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht, was a German playwright born at the turn of the 20th century. His plays were steeped in realism learned from the greats of the generation before him, such as Chekhov, but politically charged in a way that had rarely been seen before.

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As a young playwright, Lorca’s plays like ‘Blood Wedding’ shook Spanish society to the core. It is commonly said that his tragedies revitalized the tired Spanish theater, and ushered in a new golden age of drama. He was tragically assassinated by Spanish Nationalists at the start of the Spanish Civil War.

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Brecht wrote numerous plays in his lifetime and developed the concept of the ‘epic play,’ the purpose of which was not to encourage the audience to suspend their disbelief, as was the case with most entertainment of all mediums at the time, but to force each member of the audience to respond to the characters and events of the play in their own conscious and individual way. Some of his most famous works are ‘Mother Courage and Her Children’ and ‘The Life of Galileo.’

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All of Hansberry’s plays were warmly received during her lifetime, including her final work, ‘Les Blancs,’ which Hansberry considered her most important. Most of her plays explored with great intimacy the Black experience in America before and after the age of slavery, on scales both societal and personal.

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Writing in English and French, Beckett’s plays were cutting edge and frequently broke from common stage traditions. His works were often minimalist and experimental, with heavy philosophical undertones. His most famous piece, a play in two acts called ‘Waiting for Godot’ is considered by many to be the most important play of the 20th century.

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After two tragic marriages, Euripides withdrew from public life and became a hermit on the island of Salamis, living and writing out of a cave. It was from this cave that he wrote some of his greatest works, including ‘Medea,’ ‘Helen,’ and ‘The Bacchae.’

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Before the advent of film, theater was arguably the most immersive form of entertainment there was. A synthesis of literature, sound, and movement, stage productions have continued to dazzle and entertain audiences the world over, ever since the advent of theater in Greece in the 5th century BCE.

Stage productions have never been put on solely for entertainment value, though. In ancient times, they were used as a vessel for philosophical debate, a way to materialize ideas and analyze them outside the abstract of one's mind. As history went on, the stage was home to subversive acts of political rebellion, constant critiques of societal cues, and at once the bastion and battleground for civil and social rights and emancipation. Not enough can be said about the brilliant minds behind these works, but we can try!

Read on to learn about some of the most influential, fearless, and genius figures who wrote for the stage.