A. R. Gurney
Houghton Mifflin Chronology of US Literature:
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Works by A. R. Gurney Jr
(b. 1930)
| 1982 | The Dining Room. Gurney covers the decline in the WASP governing class. Several generations of privileged people bemoan their waning authority over a changing culture in a dining room that is itself a relic of that world--an emblem of the characters' irrelevance and nostalgia for the good old days. Born in Buffalo, New York, Gurney has been a professor of humanities and literature at MIT. His earlier plays include The Middle Ages (1977) and The Golden Age (1981). |
| 1986 | The Perfect Party. This witty farce concerns a middle-aged college professor's futile efforts to host the perfect party. Critics see a parable about the theater itself, which tries to force a degree of spontaneity out of an artificial setting and is subject to the same kind of carping that the poor professor invites. |
| 1989 | Love Letters. The format of the play is simple: two characters recite from their years of correspondence, beginning with the childhood valentines they wrote to each other. In a New York production, the two characters are played by different well-known actors each week. Gurney's play The Cocktail Hour is also produced. In it a playwright returns home to confront his past--a hectoring mother and an aging father. Gurney earns praise for his fluent dialogue--in this case, concerning the family's conflict over the son's script, entitled The Cocktail Hour, and obviously based on the son's relatives. |
| 1991 | The Old Boy. Gurney's drama dealing with the impact of AIDS focuses on an aspiring politician slated to deliver the commencement address at his prep school, who learns that a former schoolmate has committed suicide after being diagnosed with AIDS. The news prompts the man's reassessment of his past behavior and assumptions about sexuality. |
| 1998 | Labor Day. In a sequel to The Cocktail Hour (1989), Gurney shows his playwright protagonist composing a play about his wife and children, reflecting on his personal and professional life, and conducting lengthy discussions on the dramatic arts and American theater. |
| 1999 | Ancestral Voices. Returning to the concept of a play to be read rather than fully staged, which he had employed in Love Letters (1988), Gurney's autobiographical drama considers the decline of his grandparents and his native Buffalo, New York. |
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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A. R. Gurney
A. R. Gurney (Albert Ramsdell Gurney, Jr.) (born November 1, 1930) is an American playwright and novelist.[1] He is known for works including Love Letters, The Cocktail Hour, and The Dining Room. Gurney currently lives in both New York and Connecticut.
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Contents
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Biography
Born in Buffalo, New York, Gurney, a graduate of St. Paul's School (Concord, New Hampshire), attended Williams College and the Yale School of Drama, after which he began teaching Humanities at MIT. He began writing plays such as Scenes from American Life, Children, and The Middle Ages while at MIT, but it was his great success with The Dining Room that allowed him to write full-time. Since The Dining Room, Gurney has written a number of plays, most of them concerning WASPs of the American northeast. While at Yale, Gurney also wrote the musical: Love in Buffalo. This was the first musical ever produced at the Yale School of Drama.
Gurney's latest play is "The Grand Manner," a play about his real life encounter with famed actress Katharine Cornell in her production of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. The play was produced and performed by Lincoln Center for the summer of 2010.[2] It was also produced in Buffalo by the Kavinoky Theatre.
Gurney has also written several novels, including:
- The Snow Ball
- The Gospel According to Joe
- Entertaining Strangers ISBN 978-0-385-12551-2
Gurney has also appeared in several of his plays including The Dining Room and most notably Love Letters.
In 2006, Gurney was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Plays
- Ancestral Voices
- Another Antigone
- Big Bill
- Black Tie
- Buffalo Gal
- A Cheever Evening (based on stories by John Cheever)
- Children
- The Cocktail Hour
- The Comeback
- Crazy Mary
- Darlene
- The David Show
- The Dining Room
- Far East
- The Fourth Wall
- The Golden Age
- The Golden Fleece
The Grand Manner
- The Guest Lecturer
- Human Events
- Indian Blood
- Labor Day
- Later Life
- The Perfect Party
- The Love Course
- Love Letters
- The Middle Ages
- Mrs. Farnsworth
- Office Hours
- O Jerusalem
- The Old Boy
- The Old One-Two
- The Open Meeting
- Overtime
- Post Mortem
- The Problem
- Richard Cory
- Scenes from American Life
- Screen Play
- Sylvia
- Sweet Sue
- The Snow Ball (based on his novel) ISBN 978-0-88184-214-2
- The Wayside Motor Inn
- What I Did Last Summer
Many of these plays are published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc. and Smith & Kraus Publishing.
Notes
External links
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Copyrights:
Houghton Mifflin Chronology of US Literature
The Chronology of American Literature, edited by Daniel S. Burt. Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Mentioned in
The Dining Room
(American Theater)
John Tillinger
(American theater)
The Merchant of Venice
(American Theater)
Off Broadway
(American Theater)
The Middle Ages
(play)
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