Mamet is ranked among the major American playwrights of the twentieth century, alongside Eugene O'Neill, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Amiri Baraka, Ntozake Shange, Lanford Wilson, and August Wilson. Learn more about one of these playwrights and his or her major works. What makes this author's style unique? What major themes does this author address in her or his works? Perform one scene from a play by this author with other students and discuss the author's use of dialogue in the scene.

Mamet is best known for his use of colloquial spoken American English in dramatic dialogue. To get a better sense of how Mamet's dialogue works in spoken form, perform one scene from Reunion. Does the dialogue of the characters sound natural to you? What does this style of dialogue convey when spoken aloud that you may not have noticed...