Durang, Christopher [Ferdinand] (b. 1949), playwright and actor. Born in Montclair, New Jersey, the son of an architect and a secretary, Durang was educated at Harvard and Yale, his first scripts produced when he was a student at the latter. His New York playwriting debut was the one‐act Titanic (1976) Off Broadway, where all of his subsequent plays would be seen. Durang is known for his broad and irreverent satire with an intellectual bent, and his plays often target church, family, and other bastions of conservatism. His first major success was Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You (1981), followed by such notable works as Beyond Therapy (1981), Baby with the Bath Water (1983), The Marriage of Bette and Boo (1985), Betty's Summer Vacation (1999), and several popular one‐acts. He has appeared in his own works and in plays and musicals by others. Autobiography: Christopher Durang Explains It All for You, 1983.
Christopher Durang
| American Theater Guide: Christopher [Ferdinand] Durang |
| Works: Works by Christopher Durang |
| 1978 | A History of the American Film. Durang's first major success of the decade presents a parody of numerous films, illustrating the evolution of movie stereotypes in American culture. Durang was born in New Jersey and educated at Harvard and Yale. |
| 1979 | Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You. Durang gains a popular success in this witty satire on the hypocrisies of the Catholic Church as an elderly nun offers her peculiar interpretation of church dogma. |
| 1985 | The Marriage of Bette and Boo. This black comic play, first produced in a shorter version at Yale in 1973, treats a dysfunctional American family. The narrator (originally played by the author) examines his life and guides the audience through a series of tragicomic family disasters. |
| Actor: Christopher Durang |
- Born: Jan 02, 1949
- Occupation: Actor, Writer
- Active: '80s-'90s
- Major Genres: Comedy
- Career Highlights: The Secret of My Success, Simply Irresistible, Beyond Therapy
- First Major Screen Credit: Beyond Therapy (1986)
Biography
Christopher Durang first studied theater at Harvard before moving on to the Yale School of Drama and working under Robert Brustein. He began his career as a parodist, penning The Idiots Karamazov and The Vietnamization Of New Jersey before finding his trademark blend of satire and black comedy. Influenced by Eugene Ionesco and Tom Stoppard, among others, Durang uses wit and absurdity to take on issues of religion and family. His best known works are the domestic comedies The Marriage of Bette and Boo and Baby With the Bathwater and the religious satire Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You. Though Durang has written several screenplays, only Beyond Therapy, first staged as a play, has been filmed (under the direction of Robert Altman). As an actor, Durang has contributed spirited cameos to quite a few films, including a turn as Santa in Life With Mikey and as a magical sprite in Simply Irresistible. He has also collaborated on stage projects with Sigourney Weaver. ~ Keith Phipps, All Movie Guide| Filmography: Christopher Durang |
| Wikipedia: Christopher Durang |
| Christopher Durang | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 2, 1949 Montclair, New Jersey |
Christopher Ferdinand Durang (born January 2, 1949) is an American playwright known for works of outrageous and often absurd comedy. His work was especially popular in the 1980s.
Contents |
Life
Durang was born in Montclair, New Jersey, the son of Patricia Elizabeth, a secretary, and architect Francis Ferdinand Durang, Jr.[1] He grew up in Berkeley Heights. He attended Catholic schools as a child, including the Our Lady of Peace School in New Providence, New Jersey and the Delbarton School in Morristown, NJ. He received a B.A. in English from Harvard and an M.F.A. in playwriting from Yale School of Drama. He lives in Bucks County with his partner, John Augustine; they have been together for 20 years.[2]
Work
His work often deals critically with issues of child abuse, Roman Catholic dogma and culture, and homosexuality.
His plays have been performed nationwide, including on Broadway and Off-Broadway.[3] His works include Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You, Beyond Therapy, Baby With the Bathwater, The Nature and Purpose of the Universe, Titanic, A History of the American Film, The Idiots Karamazov, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Laughing Wild, 'Dentity Crisis, The Actor's Nightmare, The Vietnamization of New Jersey, Betty's Summer Vacation, Adrift in Macao, Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge, Miss Witherspoon, Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them, and a collection of one-act parodies meant to be performed in one evening entitled Durang/Durang that includes "Mrs. Sorken", "For Whom The Southern Belle Tolls" (a parody of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams), "A Stye Of the Eye", "Nina in the Morning", "Wanda's Visit", and "Business Lunch at the Russian Tea Room".
Durang has performed as an actor for both stage and screen. He first came to prominence in his Off-Broadway satirical review Das Lusitania Songspiel, which he performed with friend and fellow Yale alumna Sigourney Weaver. Later he co-starred in one of his own plays as Matt in The Marriage of Bette and Boo.
In film
Durang has denounced the Robert Altman 1987 film adaptation of Beyond Therapy, calling it "horrific" and accusing Altman of totally rewriting the script "so that all psychology is thrown out the window, and the characters dash around acting crazy but with literally no behavioral logic underneath."[citation needed]
Durang has appeared as an actor in the 1987 comedy The Secret of My Succe$s and 1989's Penn & Teller Get Killed
He has also written a number of unproduced screenplays, including The Nun Who Shot Liberty Valence, The House of Husbands (which he co-authored with Wendy Wasserstein), and The Adventures of Lola.
Awards and honors
He received Obie Awards for Sister Mary Ignatius, The Marriage of Bette and Boo and Betty's Summer Vacation. He received a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for A History of the American Film.
Durang has been awarded numerous fellowships and high profile grants including a Guggenheim, a Rockefeller, the CBS Playwriting Fellowship, the Lecomte du Nouy Foundation grant, and the Kenyon Festival Theatre Playwriting Prize.
He is a member of the Dramatists Guild Council, and is co-chair of the playwriting program at Juilliard. He was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 2006 for Miss Witherspoon.
References
- ^ Biography at FilmReference.com
- ^ Smith, Dinithia (2005-11-26). "Christopher Durang Explores the Afterlife, Including His Own". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/26/theater/newsandfeatures/26dura.html. Retrieved 2007-05-11.
- ^ http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?id=4832 "Internet Broadway Database: Christopher Durang Credits on Broadway" on IBDB
External links
- Official site
- Christopher Durang at the Internet Movie Database
- Christopher Durang at the Internet Broadway Database
- tv.com
- Christopher Durang - Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
 | Edith Oliver (American Theater) |
| Sister Mary Explains It All (2001 Comedy Film) |
| Playwrights Horizons (American Theater) |
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Copyrights:
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 | American Theater Guide. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Works. The Chronology of American Literature, edited by Daniel S. Burt. Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Christopher Durang". Read more |
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Mentioned in
- Edith Oliver (American Theater)
- Sister Mary Explains It All (2001 Comedy Film)
- Playwrights Horizons (American Theater)
- Beyond Therapy (1986 Comedy Film)
- Feeding the Moonfish (Further Reading) (play)
- Bill McCutcheon (Actor, Comedy/Crime)
- Simply Irresistible (1999 Romance Film)
- The Frogs [Yale Univ. Cast] (1974 Album by Original Yale University Cast)
- Adrift in Macao (2008 Album by Original Off-Broadway Cast)
- Catalina Sandino Moreno (Actor, Drama)
- Lloyd Richards (Director, Actor, Drama/Adventure)
- Doubt (Criticism) (play)
- Streamers (Criticism) (play)
- Edward F. Albee Foundation, Inc.
