Meet Terrence McNally at La Mama's 'Coffeehouse Chronicles' 10/4

Coffeehouse Chronicles, a series at La Mama, will present Plays by Terrence McNally on October 4, 2008 at 3:00pm

Born in 1939, Terrence McNally would have his first play produced in 1964 at the age of 25. Although several early comedies such as Next (1969) and The Ritz (1975) won McNally quite a bit of praise, it was not until later in his career that he would become truly successful with works such as Frankie and Johnny at the Claire de Lune (1987) for which he wrote the screen adaptation which starred Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer.

In 1990, McNally won an Emmy Award for Best Writing in a Miniseries or Special for Andre's Mother. A year later, he returned to the stage with Lips Together, Teeth Apart (1991), a study of the irrational fears that many people harbor towards homosexuals and victims of AIDS. In the play, two married couples spend the Fourth of July weekend at a summer house on Fire Island. The house has been willed to Sally Truman by her brother who has just died of AIDS, and it soon becomes evident that both couples are afraid to get in the pool, afraid that they will somehow contract AIDS by swimming in the same pool that Sally's brother used to swim in.

With Kiss of the Spider Woman (1992), McNally turned his attentions to the musical stage, collaborating with John Kander (composer) and Fred Ebb (lyricist) on a script which explores the complex relationship between two men caged together in a Latin American prison. Kiss of the Spider Woman won the 1993 Tony Award for "Best Book of a Musical." McNally also collaborated with Kander and Ebb on The Rink. He collaborated with Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens on Ragtime (1997), a musical adaptation of the novel by E.L. Doctorow, which tells the story of Coalhouse Walker Jr., a fiery black piano man who demands retribution when his Model T is destroyed by a mob of white troublemakers. The play also features such historical figures as Harry Houdini, Booker T. Washington, J.P. Morgan and Henry Ford.

McNally's other plays include Love! Valour! Compassion! (1994) which examines the relationships of eight gay men and Master Class (1995), a character study of legendary opera soprano Maria Callas which won the 1996 Tony Award for "Best Play." McNally also dealt with Callas in The Lisbon Traviata (1989).

In addition to four Tony Awards, McNally has received two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Hull-Warriner Award, and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has been a member of the Dramatists Guild Council since 1970 and has served as vice-president since 1981. He is considered one of the leading American dramatists still writing today.

For more informatoin please visit www.lamama.org

Photo Credit Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

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