LANFORD WILSON
Name: Lanford Wilson
Born: 13 April 1937
Lanford Wilson (born on April 13, 1937 in Lebanon, Missouri) is an American
playwright. As an openly gay man, his work has featured many gay themes and
characters.
He was raised in the Ozarks until, as a teenager, he moved to California to live
with his father, from whom his mother had been long divorced. He began his
career as a playwright in the early 1960s at the Caffe Cino in Greenwich Village
with one-act plays such as Ludlow Fair, Home Free, and The Madness of Lady
Bright. He soon moved to off-Broadway with Balm in Gilead in 1965 and The Rimers
of Eldritch in 1965. Wilson was a founding member of the Circle Repertory
Company, (better known as Circle Rep) which began in 1969. Many of his plays
were first presented there, with long standing directorial collaborative partner
Marshall W. Mason, including Hot L Baltimore, which won the New York Drama
Critics' Circle Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, and the Obie Award, and
Fifth of July, which later had a successful production on Broadway. Wilson's
1979 play, Talley's Folly won the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
Fifth of July, Talley's Folly, and Talley and Son are all part of the Talley
trilogy cycle of plays, revolving around the Talley family of Lebanon, Missouri.
In addition to writing plays, Wilson has written the texts for several twentieth
century operas, including at least two collaborations with composer Lee Hoiby:
Summer and Smoke (1971) and This is the Rill Speaking (1992).
Name: Lanford Wilson
Born: 13 April 1937
Lanford Wilson (born on April 13, 1937 in Lebanon, Missouri) is an American
playwright. As an openly gay man, his work has featured many gay themes and
characters.
He was raised in the Ozarks until, as a teenager, he moved to California to live
with his father, from whom his mother had been long divorced. He began his
career as a playwright in the early 1960s at the Caffe Cino in Greenwich Village
with one-act plays such as Ludlow Fair, Home Free, and The Madness of Lady
Bright. He soon moved to off-Broadway with Balm in Gilead in 1965 and The Rimers
of Eldritch in 1965. Wilson was a founding member of the Circle Repertory
Company, (better known as Circle Rep) which began in 1969. Many of his plays
were first presented there, with long standing directorial collaborative partner
Marshall W. Mason, including Hot L Baltimore, which won the New York Drama
Critics' Circle Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, and the Obie Award, and
Fifth of July, which later had a successful production on Broadway. Wilson's
1979 play, Talley's Folly won the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
Fifth of July, Talley's Folly, and Talley and Son are all part of the Talley
trilogy cycle of plays, revolving around the Talley family of Lebanon, Missouri.
In addition to writing plays, Wilson has written the texts for several twentieth
century operas, including at least two collaborations with composer Lee Hoiby:
Summer and Smoke (1971) and This is the Rill Speaking (1992).