Christopher Durang (1941–2024)
Autor de Christopher Durang explains it all for you : six plays
Sobre El Autor
Reared in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, Christopher Durang spent his childhood acting out plays that he based on television and movie characters. His 12 years in repressive Roman Catholic schools as well as traumatic elements in his home life became the basis for the dark humor of his later plays. mostrar más Known as one of America's angry young playwrights, Durang has focused his satirical wit on Hollywood's myth-making cinemas, the Catholic church, contemporary psychoanalytic practices, and the problems of individual and family identity. Although he has enjoyed only limited success on Broadway, he has become a major voice off-Broadway and in America's burgeoning regional and university theaters. Durang developed as a playwright during the early 1970s while working under Robert Brustein at the Yale Repertory Theatre. Much of his work during this period brought him little critical attention. However, in 1976 his satirical play, A History of the American Film, was read at the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. The following year the play was premiered at the Hartford Stage Company, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, and the Arena Stage in Washington. By the close of the decade, the play had become a regional theatre favorite. Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You opened in 1979 at the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York as a companion piece to works by David Mamet, Marsha Norman, and Tennessee Williams. The play begins with a simple catechism delivered by a seven-year-old student but soon turns into a deadly confrontation between the nun, Sister Mary Ignatius, and a number of her former students. The play, which is concerned with censorship, won the coveted Obie in 1980. The wildly humorous The Actor's Nightmare served as a curtain raiser for the controversial Sister Mary Ignatius when these two plays were presented in 1981 at off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons. Beyond Therapy opened off-Broadway in 1981 and enjoyed a less successful run the following year on Broadway. This screwball comedy concerns two people who are seeking meaningful relationships but who are hampered by the efforts of their respective therapists. The story shows the patients sorting it out and learning to live beyond beyond therapy. As with other Durang plays, it has enjoyed strong regional support. The Marriage of Bette and Boo, first produced in 1973, was rewritten to open at the Public Theatre in 1985. A brilliant and satirical dissection of the modern American family, the play is Durang's most autobiographical work. Durang himself played the role of Matt, Bette and Boo's son, in the New York production. The play, which earned an Obie, enjoyed critical and popular success and has been viewed as an important breakthrough in Durang's career. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos
Series
Obras de Christopher Durang
The nature and purpose of the universe ; Death comes to us all, Mary Agnes ; Dentity crisis: Three short plays (1979) 22 copias
Naomi in the Living Room 3 copias
Six Plays 1 copia
A History of the American Film 1 copia
Trotz aller Therapie 1 copia
Phyllis & Xenobia 1 copia
DMV Tyrant 1 copia
Mrs. Sorken 1 copia
A Stye of the Eye 1 copia
Nina in the Morning 1 copia
Wanda's Visit 1 copia
The Book Of Leviticus Show 1 copia
Woman Stand-up 1 copia
Funeral Parlor 1 copia
Diversions 1 copia
1-900-Desperate 1 copia
Women in the Playground 1 copia
Desire, Desire, Desire 1 copia
Medea 1 copia
One Minute Play 1 copia
John and Mary Doe 1 copia
Identity Crisis 1 copia
Obras relacionadas
The Actor's Book of Contemporary Stage Monologues: More Than 150 Monologues from More Than 70 Playwrights (1987) — Contribuidor — 177 copias
The Actor's Book of Scenes from New Plays: 70 Scenes for Two Actors, from Today's Hottest Playwrights (1988) — Contribuidor — 80 copias
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
- Fecha de nacimiento
- 1941-01-02
- Fecha de fallecimiento
- 2024-04-02
- Género
- male
- Nacionalidad
- USA
- Lugar de nacimiento
- Montclair, New Jersey, USA
- Educación
- Harvard University (BA)
Yale University (MFA - Playwriting) - Premios y honores
- American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award (Literature, 2002)
Miembros
Reseñas
Laughing Wild and Baby with the Bathwater: Two Plays por Christopher Durang
Baby with the Bathwater is still funny and irreverent. I am not sure I really understood Laughing Wild as it felt dated or perhaps very personal to Durang. While I enjoyed it's comedy, it felt to far out of my field of experience. I was however, very fascinated by Durang's afterword and his philosophy.
Not being an avid reader or attender of stage plays, I had never heard of Christopher Durang until five or six years ago, when I stumbled upon a cable-produced adaptation of his play "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You." Irreverent humor lampooning religious belief systems is a favorite genre of mine, along with gun-wielding nuns, so I wasted no time in picking up this collection of short plays.
While Durang is basically a humorist, many of his plays involve the lampooning of other plays. This can be a detriment to a reader who, like me, is unable to pick out the subtle stabs at the set design and dialog patterns of other well known playwrites. But it is a minor stumbling block, and not a mjor obstacle to enjoy Durang's offbeat sense of humor.
If you aren't hip to the stage scene, but still enjoy humor with an edge, do what I did. Pick up this collection for "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You", then peruse the rest with an open mind.… (más)
While Durang is basically a humorist, many of his plays involve the lampooning of other plays. This can be a detriment to a reader who, like me, is unable to pick out the subtle stabs at the set design and dialog patterns of other well known playwrites. But it is a minor stumbling block, and not a mjor obstacle to enjoy Durang's offbeat sense of humor.
If you aren't hip to the stage scene, but still enjoy humor with an edge, do what I did. Pick up this collection for "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You", then peruse the rest with an open mind.… (más)
Not a rewrite of the original Chekhov; instead, Durang takes names and ideas and applies them to modern day characters who are in some ways eerily similar to their Chekhovian namesakes. In a world that is moving ever faster, Vanya and Sonia are going nowhere, and are feeling the strain of a life passed by, while Masha lives life to the fullest. Their lives all come back together when Masha decides to drop in for a visit - and some bad news. Hilarious at times, but missing the boat at other key moments, it is still an interesting, well written play. In spite of that, I find myself taking it through the process of play development, and seeing all the things that would never pass muster in a script if Durang was not a "name". I suspect as a playwriting teacher, he would not let his students get away with some of the excess verbiage and exposition that makes this piece a bit too laden down to get a full four stars. Having seen it before I read it, I found that the voices in the play tended to mingle with the voices of the performers who had created the roles onstage. Is that good? Bad? I don't know. I think it can never be a bad thing in reading fiction to have the characters come to life for you.… (más)
A skillfully written, funny-as-hell play about the post 9/11 tendency to assign terroristic tendencies where they may not belong. A young woman wakes up married to someone named Zamir who may or may not have slipped her a roofie and may or may not be a criminal, terrorist, and general ne'er-do-well. She takes Zamir to meet her not-grounded-in-reality mother and extremely conservative conspiracy-minded father. Layers upon layers of twisted humor occur.
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Estadísticas
- Obras
- 57
- También por
- 11
- Miembros
- 1,766
- Popularidad
- #14,576
- Valoración
- 3.7
- Reseñas
- 28
- ISBNs
- 51
- Idiomas
- 1
- Favorito
- 3