IB Theatre - Director's Notebook (last assessment 2023): French & Russian Plays

Find Drama for Students articles and WSA Library books with plays from the
French  and Russian  playwrights listed below.  Also see:

Digital Theatre Plus - films of leading theatre productions
Drama Online - films of National Theatre productions

Writers with plays in the WSA library are marked with: 

Jean Anouilh  ( 1910 - 1987 )   
Antonin Artaud  ( 1896 - 1948 ) 
Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais  ( 1732 - 1799 ) 
Anton Chekhov  ( 1860 - 1904 )  
Jean Cocteau  ( 1889 - 1963 ) 
Pierre Corneille  ( 1606 - 1684 ) 
Marguerite Duras  ( 1914 - 1996 )  
Jean Genet  ( 1910 - 1986 ) 
Jean Giraudoux  ( 1882 - 1944 ) 
Nikolai Gogol  ( 1809 - 1852 )  
Maxim Gorki  ( 1868 - 1936 )  
Eugène Ionesco  ( 1912 - 1994 )   
Alfred Jarry  ( 1873 - 1907 )  
Molière  ( 1622 - 1673 )   
Jean Racine  ( 1639 - 1699 )   
Yasmina Reza  ( 1959 - ) 
Edmond Rostand  ( 1868 - 1918 )   
Jean-Paul Sartre  ( 1905 - 1980 )  
Ivan Turgenev  ( 1818 - 1883 )  

Includes 'The Bald Soprano' by Eugène Ionesco:  In this archetypical absurdist tale Ionesco throws together a cast of characters including the quintessential British middle-class family the Smiths, their guests the Martins, their maid Mary, and a fire chief determined to extinguish all fires — including their hearths. 

Includes 'The Imaginary Invalid' by Molière:  Hypochondriac Argan relies on the family's faithful servant, Toinette, to solve problems in his house after his daughter falls in love with a man who is not suitable for her and his doctors become more concerned with making money off of him than curing his illnesses.