Richard Greenberg

Richard Greenberg (born 22 February 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 Los Angeles' South Coast Repertory Theatre, including The Violet Hour, Everett Beekin, and Hurrah at Last.^[1]

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 first in London and then traveled to New York as the first collaboration between England's Donmar Warehouse and New York's Public Theater.^[2] After its Broadway transfer in early 2003, Take Me Out won widespread critical acclaim for Greenberg and numerous prestigious awards.

Life and Work

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.^[3] Greenberg graduated from East Meadow High School in 1976 and later went on to attend Princeton University, where he graduated magna cum laude.^[4] 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.^[4]

Greenberg's other plays include The Dazzle, The American Plan, Life Under Water, and The Author’s Voice. Recently, his adaptation of August Strindberg’s Dance of Death could be seen on Broadway, starring Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren and David Strathairn. He is a winner of the Oppenheimer Award and the first winner of the PEN/Laura Pels Award for a playwright in mid-career.^[5]

Awards

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)
• 1987: The Maderati. Playwrights Horizons, New York, NY. 19 Feb 1987.
• 1988: Eastern Standard. John Golden Theatre, New York, NY, Jan 5, 1989.
• 1988: Neptune's Hips. Marathon '88 Series. Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York, NY, 1988.
• 1990: The American Plan. Manhattan Theatre Club. New York City Center-Stage I, New York, NY. 4 Dec 1990.
• 1991: The Extra Man Manhattan Theatre Club. New York City Center-Stage II, New York, NY. 28 Apr 1992.
• 1992: Jenny Keeps Talking Manhattan Theatre Club. New York City Center-Stage II, New York, NY. 22 Mar 1993.
• 1992: Pal Joey ((based on the musical by John O'Hara, revised book). Huntington Theatre Company, Boston, MA, 1992-1993.
• 1997: Night And Her Stars Manhattan Theatre Club. New York City Center-Stage II, New York, NY. 29 Mar 1995.
• 1998: Three Days of Rain. Manhattan Theatre Club. New York City Center-Stage II, New York, NY. 12 Nov 1997.
• 1998: Hurrah at Last Roundabout Theatre Company. Gramercy Theater, New York, NY, 3 Jun 1999.
• 2000: The Dazzle. Gramercy Theater, New York, NY, 5 March 2002.
• 2000: Everett Beekin. Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, New York, NY, 14 Nov 2001
• 2002: Take Me Out. Joseph Papp Public Theater, New York, NY, September 5, 2002.
• 2003: The Dance of Death
• 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
• 2006: The Well-Appointed Room. Steppenwolf Theater Company, New York, NY, 2006.
• 2006: The House in Town Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, New York, NY, June 19, 2006.
• 2008: The Injured Party
• 2009: The American Plan
• 2009: Our Mother's Brief Affair

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.

References

External links

• Richard Greenberg - Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing
• Playwright, Director, and Choreographer - Working in the Theatre televised seminar at the American Theatre Wing
• Everett Beekin at South Coast Repertory
• Our Mother's Brief Affair - review
• Playbill.com on The Violet Hour
• The Old Globe, San Diego
• Culturevulture.net, review of Take Me Out