1953 Samuel Beckett "En Attendant Godot" ("Waiting For Godot") is first performed in Paris. Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" is first produced on Broadway. The play, set in the town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, where nineteen adults were hanged for witchcraft, was inspired by the events of the McCarthy era.

1954 Joseph Papp founds the New York Shakespeare Festival.

1955 Joan Littlewood, director and founder of the Theatre Union, later named the Theatre Workshop, directs and plays in Bertolt Brecht's "Mother Courage."

1956 John Osborne's "Look Back In Anger" is first performed at the Royal Court Theatre./ George Devine starts the English Stage Company at the Royal Court in London./ Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night" produced in New York./ Bertolt Brecht dies.

1957 "West Side Story" appears on Broadway. Laurence Olivier appears in John Osborne's "The Entertainer."

1958 Caffe Cino opens. Recognized as the first "Off-Off Broadway" venue, Joseph Cino turned his one-room coffee house into a theatre space, which gave writers such as Lanford Wilson, Sam Shepard and Terrence McNally a platform.

1959 Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin In The Sun" is performed on Broadway.