Steven Levingston, editor for the Washington Post, wrote an article explaining why he thinks readers should add plays to their summer reading lists. Recalling his recent experience of rereading William Gibson’s The Miracle Worker, the 1960 Tony Award-winning play about Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan, Levingston writes, “I started reading and couldn’t stop. As a play-reading experience, it is near-perfect. The dialogue gives vivid shape to Annie and each member of Helen’s tortured family. You won’t find any thriller more gripping, more packed with a daisy chain of dramatic crises.”

Despite agreeing with renowned playwrights such as Tennessee Williams and Donald Margulies that plays are intended for audiences to hear and see them, Levingston adds, “for me, reading a play is a literary pleasure as intense as any I know. “

He goes on to say that he has been reading plays since high school, reminiscing on classics such as Talley’s Folly and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. “This summer, my reading plans are no different than they’ve ever been. Instead of whipping through the latest thriller by Vince Flynn or James Patterson, I’ll catch up with recent plays by Yasmina Reza and Caryl Churchill, and I’ll dip back into old favorites by Arthur Miller and Neil Simon.”

Read Levingston’s article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...story.html.