New York Times List of the 25 Best American Plays Since Angels in America [Broadway 1993]

1. Topdog/Underdog 2001 [Suzan-Lori Parks]
2. An Octoroon 2014 [Branden Jacobs-Jenkins]
3. The Flick 2013 [Annie Baker]
4. Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play 2013 [Anne Washburn]
5. Clybourne Park 2010 [Bruce Norris]
6. Ruined 2008 [Lynn Nottage]
7. How I Learned to Drive 1997 [Paula Vogel]
8. Seven Guitars 1996 [August Wilson]
9. Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 1994 [Anna Deavere Smith]
10. The Designated Mourner 2000 [Wallace Shawn]
11. The Humans 2015 [Stephen Karam]
12. This Is Our Youth 1996 [Kenneth Lonergan]
13. Three Tall Women 1994 [Edward Albee]
14. Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train 2000 [Stephen Adly Guirgis]
15. Eurydice 2006 [Sarah Ruhl]
16. House/Lights 1999 [Wooster Group]
17. The Laramie Project 2000 [Moisés Kaufman and the members of Tectonic Theater Project]
18. Yellow Face 2007 [David Henry Hwang]
19. August: Osage County 2007 [Tracy Letts]
20. The Vagina Monologues 1996 [Eve Ensler]
21. Underground Railroad Game 2016 [Jennifer Kidwell and Scott R. Sheppard, with Lightning Rod Special]
22. The Wolves 2016 [Sarah DeLappe]
23. The Realistic Joneses 2012 [Will Eno]
24. The Apple Family Plays 2010-13 [Richard Nelson/ “That Hopey Changey Thing,” “Sweet and Sad,” “Sorry” and “Regular Singing”]
25. The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity 2010 [Kristoffer Diaz]

And see NYT readers' responses to the list, with disagreements over inclusions and omissions.

[SF: Also see David Lindsay-Abair's Good People (2011), Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics (2003), David Hare’s Skylight (1995) David Auburn’s Proof (2000), Conor McPherson’s The Weir (1997), Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House (2004)]

And see the recent Guardian critic's list of the 25 Best British Plays Since Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem

and Ten Contemporary British Playwrights You Should Know

and an opinion piece in response to NYT list above "British Plays Are Better ..."

Contents of Several Prominent Anthologies of Drama

The Longman Anthology of modern and contemporary drama : a global perspective
Author: Michael L. Greenwald, 1945-
Creation Date: ©2004
Publisher: New York : Pearson Longman
Description: Woyzeck (Georg Buchner) -- A Doll's House (Henrik Ibsen) -- The Cherry Orchard (Anton Chekov) -- Riders to the Sea (John Millington Synge) -- The Ghost Sonata (August Strindberg) -- Heartbreak House (Bernard Shaw) -- Machinal (Sophie Treadwell) -- Blood Wedding (Federico Garcia Lorca) -- The Good Woman of Setzuan (Bertolt Brecht) -- A Moon for the Misbegotten (Eugene O'Neill) -- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Tennessee Williams) -- The Birthday Party (Harold Pinter) -- Krapp's Last Tape (Samuel Beckett) -- The American Dream (Edward Albee) -- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Tom Stoppard) -- Paper Flowers (Egon Wolff) -- Death and the King's Horseman (Wole Soyinka) -- Hamletmachine (Heiner Muller) -- Fefu and Her Friends (Maria Irene Fornes) -- Zoot Suit (Luis Valdez) -- Pantomine (Derek Walcott) -- True West (Sam Shepard) -- MASTER HAROLD...and the boys (Athol Fugard) -- The Dance and the Railroad (David Henry Hwang) -- Top Girls (Caryl Churchill) -- The Bus Stop (Gao Xingjian) -- Fences (August Wilson) -- Personal Effects (Griselda Gambaro) -- Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches (Tony Kushner) -- The Woman Who Was a Red Deer Dressed for the Deer Dance (Diane Glancy) -- Topdog/Underdog (Suzan-Lori Parks)
Format: xiii, 1008 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

The Routledge drama anthology : from modernism to contemporary performance
Author: Maggie B. (Maggie Barbara) Gale, 1963- editor.; John F. Deeney, editor.; Dan Rebellato, 1968- editor.; Carl Lavery, 1969- editor.
Creation Date: 2016
Publisher: London ; New York : Routledge
Edition: Second edition.
Description: -- Introduction / Maggie B. Gale. -- Part 1: Naturalism and symbolism : early modernist practice: Time line -- Introduction / Dan Rebellato -- Plays and performance texts 1.1 Thérèse Raquin (1873) / Émile Zola ; translated by Pip Broughton -- 1.2. Miss Julie (1888) / August Strindberg ; in a new version by Frank McGuinness, from a literal translation by Charlotte Barslund -- 1.3. Three Sisters (1900) / Anton Chekhov ; translated by Elisaveta Fen -- 1.4. When we dead awaken (1899) / Henrik Ibsen ; translated by William Archer -- 1.5. Interior (1894) / Maurice Maeterlinck ; translated by Dan Rebellato. -- Critical texts: 1.6. Naturalism in the theatre (1881) / Émile Zola ; translated by Albert Bernel -- 1.7. Preface to Miss Julie (1888) / August Strindberg ; translated by Michael Robinson -- 1.8. A new art of the stage / Arthur Symons -- 1.9. The modern drama (1904) / Maurice Maeterlinck ; translated by Alfred Sutro -- 1.10. Tragedy in everyday life (1896) / Maurice Maeterlinck 1.11. On the complete pointlessness of accurate staging (1891) / Pierre Quillard ; translated by Dan Rebellato.
Part 2: The historical avant-garde : performance and innovation: Timeline -- Introduction / Maggie B. Gale -- Plays: 2.1. King Ubu (1896) / Alfred Jarry ; translated by Kenneth McLeish -- 2.2. The breasts of Tiresias (1917) / Guillaume Apollinaire ; translated by Louis Simpson -- 2.3. The spurt of blood (1925) / Antonin Artaud ; translated by Victor Corti -- 2.4. Murderer the women hope (1907) / Oskar Kokoschka ; translated by Michael Hamburger -- 2.5. Genius and culture and bachelor apartment (c. 1909-16) / Umberto Boccioni ; translated by Victoria Nes Kirby -- 2.6. Feet (1919) / Filippo Tommaso Marinetti ; translated by Victoria Nes Kirby -- 2.7. Genius in a jiffy or a dadalogy (1920) / Raoul Hausmann ; translated by Laurence Senelick -- 2.8. R.U.R. = Rossum's Universal Robots (1920) / Karel Čapek ; translated from the Czech by P. Selver and adapted for the English stage by Nigel Playfair in 1923 -- 2.9. Six characters in search of an author (1921) / Luigi Pirandello ; translated by Eric Bentley -- 2.10. Dr Faustus lights the lights (1938) / Gertrude Stein. -- Critical texts: 2.11. The meaning of the music hall (1913) / Filippo Tommaso Marinetti -- 2.12. Theatre of cruelty : first manifesto (1938) / Antonin Artaud ; translated by Victor Corti -- 2.13. First Surrealist manifesto (1924) and Second surrealist manifesto (1929) / André Breton ; translated by Patrick Waldberg -- 2.14. Futurist scenography (Manifesto) (1915) / Enrico Prampolini ; translated by Diana Clemmons -- 15. Theater, circus, variety (1924) / László Moholy-Nagy ; translated by Arthur S. Wensinger.
Part 3: Political theatres: Ttimeline -- Introduction / John F. Deeney and Maggie B. Gale -- Plays: 3.1. How the vote was won (1909) / Cicely Hamilton and Christopher St John -- 3.2. Hoppla, we e alive! : a prologue and five acts (1927) / Ernst Toller ; translated and edited by Alan Raphael Pearlman -- 3.3. The exception and the rule = Lehrstück (1930) / Bertolt Brecht ; translated by Ralph Manheim -- 3.4. Meerut and how to produce Meerut (1933) / Worker Theatre Movement -- 3.5. Love on the dole (1934) / Ronald Gow and Walter Greenwood -- 3.6. Blues for Mister Charlie (1964) / James Baldwin. -- Critical texts 3.7. Suffrage theatre : community activism and political commitment (2006) / Susan Carlson -- 3.8. Rehabilitating realism (1992) / Sheila Stowell -- 3.9. The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction (1935-6) / Walter Benjamin ; translated by Harry Zorn -- 3.10. The street scene : a basic model for an epic theatre (1938) / Bertolt Brecht ; translated by John Willett -- 3.11. Theatre for pleasure or theatre for instruction (c. 1936) / Bertolt Brecht ; translated by John Willett -- 3.12. On political theatre (1975) / Michael Kirby -- 3.13. The politics beyond the politics (1988) / Howard Barker.
Part 4: Late modernism: Timeline -- Introduction / Carl Lavery -- Plays: 4.1. The bald soprano (1950) / Eugène Ionesco ; translated by Donald M. Allen -- 4.2. Endgame (1957) / Samuel Beckett -- 4.3. The balcony (1956) / Jean Genet ; translated by Bernard Frechtman -- 4.4. The dumb waiter (1960) / Harold Pinter. -- Critical texts: 4.5. The Absurdity of the absurd : introduction to the Theatre of the Absurd (1961) / Martin Esslin -- 4.6. The London controversy (1958/1964) / Eugène Ionesco and Kenneth Tyanan -- 4.7. Trying to understand Endgame (1961) / Theodor W. Adorno -- 4.8. The theatre of Jean Genet : a sociological study (1968) / Lucien Goldman ; translated by Pat Dreyfus ; edited by Richard Schechner.
Part 5: Contemporary theatre and performance: Timeline -- Introduction / John F. Deeney and Maggie B. Gale -- Plays: 5.1. Quartet (1981) / Heiner Müller ; translated by Carl Weber -- 5.2. 'Confess to everything : a note on Speak Bitterness' (2008) and Speak bitterness (1994- ) / Tim Etchells -- 5.3. Belle reprieve (1991) / Split Britches (Better Bourne, Paul Shaw, Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver) -- 5.4. The story of M (1995) / SuAndi -- 5.5. Supernintendo Ranchero : excerpt from BORDERscape 2000 / Guillermo Gòmez Peña -- 5.6. Far away (2000) / Caryl Churchill -- 5.7. Product (2005) / Mark Ravenhill. -- Critical texts: 5.8. The death of the author (1977) / Roland Barthes ; translated by Stephen Heath -- 5.9. Dramaturgy and Montage : actions at work (1991) / Eugenio Barba ; translated by Ruchard Fowler -- 5.10. The precession of the simulacra : extracts (1981) / Jean Baudrillard ; translated by Sheila Faria Glaser -- 5.11. The emancipated spectator (2008) / Jacques Rancière ; translated by Gregory Elliott -- 5.12. Epilogue from postdramatic theatre (2006) / Hans Thies Lehmann ; translated by Karen Jürs-Munby -- 5.13. Away from the surveillance cameras of the art world : strategies for collaboration and community activism : a conversation between / Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Robert Sifuentes, and Lisa Wolford -- 5.14. Me, my iBook and writing in America (2006) / Mark Ravenhill. Format: xxii, 879 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

The Norton anthology of drama
Author: J. Ellen Gainor, editor.; Stanton B. Garner, 1955- editor.; Martin Puchner, 1969- editor.
Creation Date: 2014
Publisher: New York : W.W. Norton & Company
Edition: Second edition.
Description: Volume 1. Antiquity through the eighteenth century -- volume 2. The nineteenth century to the present.
v. 1. Introduction. Drama and theater ; A short history of theater ; Greek theater ; Roman theater ; Classical Indian theater ; Classical Chinese theater ; Classical Japanese theater ; Medieval European theater ; Theater in early modern Europe, 1500-1700 ; English theater, 1576-1642 ; Spanish theater, 1580-1700 ; French theater, 1630-1700 ; English theater, 1660-1700 ; Eighteenth-century theater ; Romanticism and melodrama, 1800-1880 ; Modern theater, 1880-1945 ; Postwar theater, 1945-1970 ; Contemporary theater ; Reading drama, imagining theater -- Agamemnon (458 B.C.E.) / Aeschylus -- Oedipus the King (ca. 430-425 B.C.E.) ; Antigone (ca. 442 B.C.E.) / Sophocles -- Medea (431 B.C.E.) ; The Bacchae (406 B.C.E.) / Euripides -- Lysistrata (411 B.C.E.) / Aristophanes -- Pseudolus (191 B.C.E.) / Titus Maccius Plautus -- Thyestes (ca. 60 C.E.) / Lucius Annaeus Seneca -- The little clay cart (ca. 100-300) / Shudraka -- The martyrdom of the holy virgins Agape, Chionia, and Hirena (Dulcitius) (ca. 975) / Hrotsvit of Gandersheim -- Snow in midsummer (13th century) / Guan Hanqing -- Atsumori (ca. 1400) / Zeami Motokiyo -- The second shepherd's play (ca. 1475) / The Wakefield Master -- Everyman (ca. 1510) / Anonymous -- The Spanish tragedy (1587) / Thomas Kyd -- The tragical history of Doctor Faustus (ca. 1588) / Christopher Marlowe -- Hamlet (1600-1601) ; Twelfth Night, or, What you will (1600-1601) / William Shakespeare -- Volpone (1606) / Ben Jonson -- The Duchess of Malfi (1631-14) / John Webster -- Fuenteovejuna (ca. 1614) / Lope de Vega Carpio -- Life is a dream (1636) / Pedro Calderón de la Barca -- Tartuffe (1664-69) / Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) -- The country wife (1675) / William Wycherley -- The Rover (1677) / Aphra Behn -- Phèdre (1677) / Jean Racine -- Loa for The auto sacramental of the divine Narcissus: an allegory (ca. 1690) / Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz -- The London merchant (1731) / George Lillo -- The school for scandal (1777) / Richard Brinsley Sheridan -- Faust, Part 1 (1808) / Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
v. 2. Introduction Drama and theater ; A short history of theater ; Greek theater ; Roman theater ; Classical Indian theater ; Classical Chinese theater ; Classical Japanese theater ; Medieval European theater ; Theater in early modern Europe, 1500-1700 ; English theater, 1576-1642 ; Spanish theater, 1580-1700 ; French theater, 1630-1700 ; English theater, 1660-1700 ; Eighteenth-century theater ; Romanticism and melodrama, 1800-1880 ; Modern theater, 1880-1945 ; Postwar theater, 1945-1970 ; Contemporary theater ; Reading drama, imagining theater -- Woyzeck (1836) / Georg Buchner -- Escape, or, a leap for freedom (1858) / William Wells Brown -- Miss Julie (1888) / August Strindberg -- A doll house (1879) ; Hedda Gabler (1891) / Henrik Ibsen -- Importance of being Earnest (1895) / Oscar Wilde -- Ubu the King (1896) / Alfred Jarry -- Cherry orchard (1904) / Anton Chekhov -- Riders to the sea (1904) / John Millington Synge -- Pygmalion (1913) / George Bernard Shaw -- Trifles (1916) / Susan Glaspell -- Six characters in search of an author (1921) / Luigi Pirandello -- Machinal (1928) / Sophie Treadwell -- Soul gone home (1936) / Langston Hughes -- House of Bernarda Alba (1936) / Federico García Lorca -- Good woman of Setzuan (1938-40) / Bertolt Brecht -- Long day's journey into night (1941) / Eugene O'Neill -- Maids (1947) / Jean Genet -- Streetcar named desire (1947) / Tennessee Williams -- Death of a salesman (1949) / Arthur Miller -- Song of death (1950) / Tawfiq Al-Hakim -- Waiting for Godot (1953) / Samuel Beckett -- Sea at Dauphin (1954) / Derek Walcott -- Homecoming (1964) / Harold Pinter -- Death and the king's horseman (1975) / Wole Soyinka -- Buried child (1978) / Sam Shepard -- Cloud nine (1979) / Caryl Churchill -- "Master Harold" ... and the boys (1982) / Athol Fugard -- Mud (1983) / Maria Irene Fornes -- Glengarry Glen Ross (1983) / David Mamet -- Fences (1985) / August Wilson -- M. Butterfly (1988) / David Henry Hwang -- Angels in America, Part I, Millennium approaches (1991) / Tony Kushner -- Almighty voice and his wife (1991) / Daniel David Moses -- America play (1994) / Suzan-Lori Parks -- Goat (2002) / Edward Albee.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Format: 2 volumes ; 24 cm

Modern and contemporary drama
Author: Miriam Gilbert; Carl H. Klaus; Bradford S. Field
Creation Date: ©1994
Publisher: New York : St. Martinʼs Press
Description: Woyzeck / Georg Büchner -- A doll's house / Henrik Ibsen -- Miss Julie / August Strindberg -- The cherry orchard / Anton Chekhov -- Major Barbara / George Bernard Shaw -- Six characters in search of an author / Luigi Pirandello -- Juno and the paycock / Sean O'Casey -- The house of Bernarda Alba -- Federico Garcia Lorca -- Galileo / Bertolt Brecht -- A moon for the misbegotten / Eugene O'Neill -- Death of a salesman / Arthur Miller -- Cat on a hot tin roof / Tennessee Williams -- The lesson / Eugène Ionesco.
Endgame / Samuel Beckett -- The zoo story / Edward Albee -- Dutchman / Imamu Amiri Baraka -- The homecoming / Harold Pinter -- Professional foul / Tom Stoppard -- Fefu and her friends / Maria Irene Fornes -- Spell #7 / Ntozake Shange -- "Master Harold"-- and the boys / Athol Fugard -- Top girls / Caryl Churchill -- Fool for love / Sam Shepard -- 'night, Mother / Marsha Norman -- Ma Rainey's black bottom / August Wilson -- Temptation / Václav Havel -- M. Butterfly / David Henry Hwang -- Our country's good / Timberlake Wertenbaker.
Format: viii, 888 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Stages of drama : classical to contemporary theater
Author: Carl H. Klaus
Carl H. Klaus; Miriam Gilbert; Bradford S. Field
Creation Date: ©2003
Publisher: Boston : Bedford/St. Martin's
Edition: 5th ed.
Description: Reading and witnessing a play -- Classical theater -- Medieval theater -- Renaissance English theater -- Neoclassical theater -- Modern theater -- Contemporary theater -- Ideas of drama : classical to contemporary.
The plays: Agamemnon / Aeschylus -- Oedipus Rex / Sophocles -- The Bacchae / Euripides -- Lysistrata / Aristophanes -- A funny thing happened on the way to the wedding (casina) / Plautus -- The second shepherds' play / The Wakefield Master -- Everyman / Anonymous -- The tragical history of the life and death of Doctor Faustus / Christopher Marlowe -- Much ado about nothing ; The tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice / William Shakespeare -- Volpone, or The foxe / Ben Jonson -- The misanthrope / Molière -- The rover / Aphra Behn -- The school for scandal / Richard Brinsley Sheridan -- Woyzeck / Georg Büchner -- A doll's house / Henrik Ibsen -- Miss Julie / August Strindberg -- The importance of being Earnest / Oscar Wilde -- In the shadow of the glen / John Millington Synge -- The cherry orchard / Anton Chekhov -- Pygmalion / Bernard Shaw -- Six characters in search of an author / Luigi Pirandello -- Homecoming / Eugene O'Neill.
The house of Bernarda Alba / Federico García Lorca -- Galileo / Bertolt Brecht -- Death of a salesman / Arthur Miller -- Cat on a hot tin roof / Tennessee Williams -- The lesson / Eugène Ionesco -- Endgame / Samuel Beckett -- The zoo story / Edward Albee -- A raisin in the sun / Lorraine Hansberry -- Dutchman / Amiri Baraka -- Landscape / Harold Pinter -- Absurd person singular / Alan Ayckbourn -- Death and the King's horseman / Wole Soyinka -- Pantomime / Derek Walcott -- Translations / Brian Friel -- "Master Harold"-- and the boys / Athol Fugard -- Top girls / Caryl Churchill -- 'night mother / Marsha Norman -- Fences / August Wilson -- M. Butterfly / David Henry Hwang -- Shadow of a man / Cherríe Moraga -- Oleanna / David Mamet -- Angels in America : millennium approaches / Tony Kushner -- Arcadia / Tom Stoppard -- "Art" / Yasmina Reza -- How I learned to drive / Paula Vogel -- In the blood / Suzan-Lori Parks.

Contents of the Broadview anthology (likely plays to be studied marked by asterisk*; plays in Concise edition noted by ^)
The Broadview Anthology of Restoration and Early Eighteenth-Century Drama, Edited by: J. Douglas Canfield & Maja-Lisa von Sneidern (Assistant to the Editor) 
Paperback (2001) SBN: 9781551112701 / 1551112701

Heroic Romance

• The History of Henry the Fifth (1664)
  Roger Boyle, First Earl of Orrery

  • Tamerlane (1703)
    Nicholas Rowe

    Lucius, The First Christian King of Britain (1717)
    Delarivier Manley

  Political Tragedy

  • The Unhappy Favorite (1681)
    John Banks

    Lucius Junius Brutus (1680)
    Nathaniel Lee

    Cato (1713)
    Joseph Addison

  Personal Tragedy

  • All for Love; or, The World Well Lost (1677)^
    John Dryden

    The Fair Penitent (1703)^
    Nicholas Rowe

    The London Merchant; or, The History of George Barnwell (1731)^*
    George Lillo

  Tragicomic Romance

  • Marriage a la Mode (1671)^
    John Dryden

    Oroonoko (1695)^
    Thomas Southerne

    The Conscious Lovers (1722)^*
    Richard Steele

  Social Comedy

  • The Committee (1662)
    Sir Robert Howard

    The Man of Mode; or, Sir Fopling Flutter (1676)^*
    George Etherege

    The Rover; or, The Banished Cavaliers (1677)^*
    Aphra Behn

    City Politics (1683)
    John Crowne

    Love’s Last Shift; or, The Fool in Fashion (1696)
    Colley Cibber

    The Way of the World (1700)^*
    William Congreve

    The Beau Defeated; or, The Lucky Younger Brother (1700)
    Mary Pix

    Love at a Loss; or, Most Votes Carry It (1700)^*
    Catharine Trotter

    A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1718)^*
    Susanna Centlivre

  Subversive Comedy

  • The Old Troop; or Monsieur Raggou (1664)^
    John Lacy

    The Careless Lovers (1773)
    Edward Ravenscroft

    The Country Wife (1675)^*
    William Wycherley

    Friendship in Fashion (1678)
    Thomas Otway

    A True Widow(1678)^
    Thomas Shadwell

    Sir Anthony Love; or, The Rambling Lady (1690)
    Thomas Southerne

    The Beaux’ Stratagem(1707)^*
    George Farquhar

    The Beggar’s Opera(1728)^*
    John Gay

  Corrective Satire

  • The Princess of Cleves (1682)
    Nathaniel Lee

    The Lucky Chance; or, An Alderman's Bargain (1686)
    Aphra Behn

    The Relapse; or, Virtue in Danger; Being the Sequel of The Fool in Fashion (1696)^*
    John Vanbrugh

    Polly: An Opera (1728)
    John Gay

  Menippean Satire

  • The Rump; or, The Mirror of the Late Times (1660)
    John Tatham

    A Fond Husband; or, The Plotting Sisters (1677)
    Thomas Durfey

    Venice Preserved; or, A Plot Discovered (1682)^*
    Thomas Otway

    Amphitryon; or, The Two Sosias (1690)
    John Dryden

    The Author's Farce (1730)
    Henry Fielding

  Laughing Comedy

  • The Belle’s Stratagem(1780)^
    Hannah Cowley

    She Stoops to Conquer; or, The Mistakes of a Night (1773)^
    Oliver Goldsmith

    The School for Scandal (1777)^
    Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Also check out: Lindsay-Abair, David. Good People (2011). Received New York Drama Critics Circle award for Best Play (2011), with Frances McDormand and Tate Donovan.

Utah Shakespeare Festival Website for Lists of Their Study Guides to Plays