Richard Greenberg

Richard Greenberg (born February 22, 1958) is an American playwright and television writer known for his subversively humorous depictions of middle-class American life. He has had more than 25 plays premiere on and off-broadway in New York City and eight at the South Coast Repertory Theatre (Costa Mesa, California), including The Violet Hour, Everett Beekin, and Hurrah at Last.[1][2]

For other people named Richard Greenberg, see Richard Greenberg (disambiguation).

Richard Greenberg
Born	(1958-02-22) February 22, 1958 East Meadow, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Playwright, television writer
Education	Princeton University (BA) Harvard University Yale University (MFA)
Notable works	Eastern Standard (1988) Three Days of Rain (1998) Take Me Out (2003)
Notable awards	Tony Award for Best Play New York Drama Critics Circle Award Drama Desk Award Finalist, Pulitzer Prize for Drama Oppenheimer Award

Greenberg is perhaps best known for his 2003 Tony Award winning play, Take Me Out about the conflicts that arise after a Major League Baseball player nonchalantly announces to the media that he is gay. The play premiered in London and ran in New York as the first collaboration between England's Donmar Warehouse and New York's Public Theater.[3] After its Broadway transfer in early 2003, Take Me Out won widespread critical acclaim for Greenberg and numerous prestigious awards.

Background and education

Greenberg grew up in East Meadow, New York, a middle-class Long Island town in Nassau County, east of New York City. His father, Leon Greenberg, was an executive for New York's Century Theaters movie chain and his mother Shirley was a homemaker.[4] Greenberg graduated from East Meadow High School in 1976 and later went on to attend Princeton University, where he graduated magna cum laude with an A.B. in English.[5] As part of his degree, Greenberg completed a 438-page long senior thesis titled "A Romantic Career - A Novel."[6] At Princeton, Greenberg studied creative writing under Joyce Carol Oates and roomed with future Harvard economics professor Greg Mankiw. He later attended Harvard for graduate work in English and American Literature, but later dropped out of the program when he was accepted to the Yale School of Drama's playwriting program in 1985.[5]

Career

Along with Take Me Out, Greenberg's plays include The Dazzle, The American Plan, Life Under Water, and The Author’s Voice. His adaptation of August Strindberg’s Dance of Death ran on Broadway in 2002, starring Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren and David Strathairn.

He received the George Oppenheimer Award, presented by Newsday in 1985 for The Bloodletters, produced Off-Off Broadway while he was at Yale.[7][8][9] He is the first winner of the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award for a playwright in mid-career in 1998.[10][11]

In 2013, Greenberg worked on three shows: on Broadway, an adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany's [12] and The Assembled Parties and the book for the musical Far From Heaven which opened in June 2013 at Playwrights Horizons.[13]

His play Our Mother's Brief Affair premiered at the South Coast Repertory Theatre, Costa Mesa, California in April 2009. Directed by Pam MacKinnon, the cast featured Jenny O'Hara, Matthew Arkin, Arye Gross and Marin Hinkle. This was a commission from South Coast.[14][15] The play opened on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club, on December 28, 2015 (previews), officially on January 20, 2016, starring Linda Lavin.[16][17]

His play The Babylon Line premiered Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater on November 10, 2016 in previews, officially on December 5.[18] Directed by Terry Kinney, the cast features Josh Radnor as a writing teacher and Elizabeth Reaser as his student.[19] The play was first performed at New York Stage and Film & Vassar College's Powerhouse Theater in June to July 2014, starring Josh Radnor.[20]

Style

According to The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary American Playwrights, Greenberg's "most prominent" interest is in history "and the past". "He has a pronounced tendency to draw on historical characters or events——the Lost Generation, the Collyer Brothers, the New York Yankees." He also has an intellectual and "witty use of language."[21]

Awards and nominations

Tony Award, Best Play The Assembled Parties, 2013 - nominee Take Me Out, 2003 - winner New York Drama Critics Circle Award, Best American Play Take Me Out, 2003 Three Days of Rain, 1998 - Runner up Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Play The Assembled Parties, 2013 - nominee Take Me Out, 2003 - winner Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Play Take Me Out, 2003 - winner The Dazzle, 2002 - nominee

Drama League Award, Best Play, Take Me Out, 2003 Outer Critics Circle Award[22] The Dazzle, 2002 Outstanding Off-Broadway Play - winner John Gassner Award, The Dazzle, 2002 - nominee Oppenheimer Award, Best New Playwright (The Bloodletters, 1985) Molly Kazan Playwriting Award PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award for an American Playwright in Mid-Career (1998)[23] Pulitzer Prize for Drama Three Days of Rain, 1998 - Finalist Take Me Out, 2003 - Finalist

Works

Theatre

1984: The Bloodletters, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York, NY, 1984. 1985: Life Under Water, Marathon '85 Series. Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York, NY, 1985. 1986: Vanishing Act, Marathon '86 Series. Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York, NY, 1986. 1987: The Author's Voice & Imagining Brad, Greenwich House, New York, NY, 1999. 1987: The Hunger Artist (based on stories and letters by Franz Kafka), St. Clement's, New York, NY[24] 1987: The Maderati, Playwrights Horizons, February 19, 1987.[25] 1987: Eastern Standard, John Golden Theatre, Broadway, January 5, 1989. 1988: Neptune's Hips, Marathon '88 Series. Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York, NY, 1988.[26] 1990: The American Plan, Manhattan Theatre Club. New York City Center-Stage I. December 4, 1990. 1992: The Extra Man, Manhattan Theatre Club. New York City Center-Stage II. April 28, 1992.[27] 1992: Jenny Keeps Talking, Manhattan Theatre Club. New York City Center-Stage II, New York, NY. March 22, 1993. 1992: Pal Joey (based on the musical by John O'Hara, revised book), Huntington Theatre Company, Boston, MA, 1992-1993. 1994: Night And Her Stars, Manhattan Theatre Club. New York City Center-Stage II, March 29, 1995; South Coast Repertory, March 1994[28][29] 1998: Three Days of Rain, Manhattan Theatre Club. New York City Center-Stage II, November 12, 1997. 1998: Hurrah at Last, Roundabout Theatre Company. Gramercy Theater, New York, NY, June 3, 1999.

2000: Everett Beekin, Lincoln Center, Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, November 14, 2001[30] South Coast Repertory, September 2000[31] 2001: The Dance of Death, Broadway[32][33] 2002: The Dazzle, Gramercy Theater, New York, NY, March 5, 2002.[34] 2002: Take Me Out, Joseph Papp Public Theater, New York, NY, September 5, 2002. 2003: The Violet Hour, Steppenwolf Theater Company, Chicago, IL, 2003; Manhattan Theatre Club. Biltmore Theatre, New York, NY, 2003. 2005: A Naked Girl on the Appian Way 2006: Bal Masque, Theatre J, Washington, D.C.[35] 2006: The Well-Appointed Room, Steppenwolf Theater Company, Chicago[36][37] 2006: The House in Town, Lincoln Center, Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater[38] 2008: The Injured Party, South Coast Repertory Theater, Costa Mesa, CA.[2] 2009: The American Plan, revival, Broadway 2009: Our Mother's Brief Affair, South Coast Repertory Theater, Costa Mesa, CA. 2013: Breakfast at Tiffany's, Broadway, Cort Theatre[39] 2013: The Assembled Parties, Broadway, Manhattan Theatre Club 2015: Our Mother's Brief Affair, Broadway, Manhattan Theatre Club 2016: The Babylon Line, Off-Broadway, Lincoln Center

Television

• 1989: "Ask Me Again" (based on "An Old-Fashioned Story" by Laurie Colwin), American Playhouse, PBS.
• 1989: "Life under Water" (based on his one-act play), PBS.
• 1989: "The Sad Professor," Trying Times, PBS.
• 1990: "The Sacrifice," Tales from the Crypt.
• 1991: "Georgie through the Looking Glass," Sisters, NBC.
• 1999: "The Time the Millennium Approached," Time of Your Life, Fox.

See also

• LGBT culture in New York City
• List of self-identified LGBTQ New Yorkers

References

1. "Richard Greenberg (1958-)". Doollee's Complete Guide to the Playwright, Plays, Theatres, and Agents. 2003. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
2. Hernandez, Ernio. "South Coast Rep Nabs Another Greenberg World-Premiere Comedy, 'The Injured Party'" playbill.com, December 5, 2007
3. Brantley, Ben (February 28, 2003). "Theatre Review: Love Affair With Baseball And a Lot of Big Ideas". New York Times. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
4. "Richard Greenberg". Contemporary Authors Online. Gale Biography In Context. Detroit: Gale. 2006. Retrieved May 5, 2012.
5. Witchel, Alex (March 26, 2006). "A Dramatic Shut-In". New York Times Magazine. p. 47. Retrieved May 5, 2012.
6. Greenberg, Richard. Princeton University. Department of English (ed.). "A Romantic Career - A Novel". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
7. Bryer, Jackson R. and Hartig, Mary C. "Richard Greenberg" The Facts on File Companion to American Drama, Infobase Publishing, 2010, ISBN 1438129661, p.207
8. Rich, Frank. "Stage: 'The Bloodletters,' a Comedy" The New York Times, December 7, 1984
9. Guernsey, Otis L. and Sweet, Jeffrey. "Eastern Standard" The Best Plays of 1988-1989: The Complete Broadway and Off-Broadway Sourcebook Hal Leonard Corporation, 1989, ISBN 1557830568, p. 172
10. "Richard Greenberg". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. 2012. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
11. Lawrence Van Gelder (May 9, 1998). "Arthur Miller Gets Award From PEN". New York Times. Retrieved March 6, 2016.
12. Gans, Andrew. "Broadway's Breakfast at Tiffany's Sets Closing Date" Archived November 2, 2013, at the Wayback Machine Playbill.com, April 15, 2013
13. McNulty, Charles. "A rich season for playwright Richard Greenberg" Los Angeles Times, April 27, 2013
14. Jones, Kenneth. "Richard Greenberg's Our Mother's Brief Affair Opens April 10 at South Coast Rep" Playbill.com, April 10, 2009
15. McNulty, Charles. "Review. 'Our Mother's Brief Affair'" Los Angeles Times, April 12, 2009
16. Clement, Olivia. "'Our Mother's Brief Affair', with Linda Lavin, Begins Previews On Broadway Tonight" Playbill.com, December 28, 2015
17. Viagas, Robert. "Verdict: How Were the Reviews for 'Our Mother's Brief Affair'? Playbill.com, January 20, 2016
18. The Babylon Line lct.org, accessed November 21, 2016
19. Gordon, David. "Josh Radnor and Elizabeth Reaser to Lead Richard Greenberg's 'The Babylon Line'" TheaterMania, July 21, 2016.
20. "Powerhouse Season attracts theater, TV stars" poughkeepsiejournal.com, May 23, 2014
21. Innes, Christopher (and others) editor, "Richard Greenberg" The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary American Playwrights (no page number), A&C Black, 2013, ISBN 1408134810
22. Portantiere, Michael. "The 2001-2002 Outer Critics Circle Award Winners" theatermania.com, April 29, 2002
23. "1998 Literary Award Winners" pen.org, accessed March 6, 2016
24. Rich, Frank. "Theater Review. 'Hunger Artist, Kafka in Life and Work" New York Times, February 27, 1987
25. Rich, Frank. "Theater review. 'The maderati' by Richard Greenberg" New York Times, February 20, 1987
26. Goodman, Walter. "Theater Review. Of Baseball, the Infinite and Various Kinds of Curves" New York Times, June 16, 1988
27. Rich, Frank. "Review/Theater; Stylish and Affluent Extra Man With Dark Views and Dark Plot" New York Times, May 20, 1992
28. Brantley, Ben. "Theater Review. 'Night and Her Stars', A Different Take On Quiz Scandals" New York Times, April 27, 1995
29. Richards, David. "Review/Theater; White Knights and Villains In the Quiz-Show Scandals" New York Times, March 16, 1994
30. Everett Beekin lct.org, accessed December 28, 2015
31. Oxman, Steve. "Review. Everett Beekin Variety, September 20, 2000
32. The Dance of Death ibdb.com, accessed January 21, 2016
33. Simonson, Robert. Death, Where Is Thy Closing? Jan. 13, McKellen and Mirren Dance Away" playbill.com, January 13, 2002
34. Brantley, Ben. "Theater Review. At Home With the Collyer Brothers" New York Times, March 6, 2002
35. Jones, Kenneth. "Richard Greenberg Crashes Capote's Ball in World Premiere, 'Bal Masque', in Busy Season for D.C.'s Theater J" playbill.com, July 13, 2005
36. Abarbanel, Jonathan. "Review: 'The Well-Appointed Room' backstage.com, February 8, 2006
37. Columbus,Curt; Murray, Thomas; Nedved, William. "Richard Greenberg: The Mind Lighting 'The Well-Appointed Room'" steppenwolf.org, 2005-2006, Vol. 2
38. The House in Town lct.org, accessed December 30, 2015
39. Breakfast at Tiffany's ibdb.com, accessed December 15, 2016

External links

• Richard Greenberg - Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing
• Everett Beekin at South Coast Repertory
• Playbill.com on The Violet Hour
• The Old Globe, San Diego
• Culturevulture.net, review of Take Me Out
• Richard Greenberg at the Internet Broadway Database
• Richard Greenberg at the Internet Off-Broadway Database