George Birimisa
Encyclopedia
George Birimisa is an American playwright
, actor
, and director who contributed to the explosion of gay theater in the mid-1960s
during the early years of Off-Off-Broadway
. His works feature sexually explicit, emotionally charged depictions of working-class
homosexual men, often closeted
, in the years before the Stonewall riots
(1969) triggered a national and international gay rights movement. Contemporary Authors
stated that "Birmisa's plays feature themes of human isolation, frustrated idealism, and rage against needless suffering, usually centered around homosexual characters.“ According to critic
and playwright Michael Smith
, Birimisa's writing “links the pain of human isolation to economic and social roots.” Birimisa remains an active playwright, author
, editor
, and teacher
.
, one of five children of Yugoslavian immigrants. While George was still a child, his father died as the result of injuries and imprisonment while under arrest after speaking on behalf of the Communist Party
at a labor rally. Birimisa’s mother remarried but his stepfather rejected him and his two older brothers.
George spent most of his childhood in a Catholic orphanage
, then in a series of foster homes. His education ended with the ninth grade
.
After serving in the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II
, Birimisa supported himself with a series of jobs, including factory worker, bartender
, disc jockey
, health studio
manager, television network
page, prostitute, and Howard Johnson's
counterman. In the latter position, he once refused service to Walter Winchell
, who arrived after closing time. In retaliation, the powerful columnist ran an item alluding to the restaurant, on Sixth Avenue
in Greenwich Village
, as a hangout for "vag-lewd" (i.e., homosexual) types. Winchell's punishment backfired: the publicity turned that branch of Howard Johnson's into a magnet for gays.
The incident convinced Birimisa, who had begun writing fictional accounts of his life, to start writing honestly about his sexuality. He became determined to write plays at age 41, while studying acting
with Uta Hagen
at the Herbert Berghof Studio in New York City
.
. At the time, gay plays usually received no serious artistic or critical attention. “For years,” the playwright recalls, “even gay people would ask me, ‘When are you going to write your first real play?’” Degrees included autobiographical elements, which became stronger and more explicit in Birimisa's later works. Above all, he writes out of a need to tell the truth about his own life. "I don't agree that there are ‘shades of truth,’” he says. “We all know the truth, deep inside ourselves. As artists, we have a responsibility to reveal who we truly are, not to work in shades of gray. This truth includes our sexual beings.”
Birimisa directed and acted in his best-known Off-Off-Broadway play, Daddy Violet (1967), a semi-improvised indictment of the Vietnam War
. Daddy Violet premièred in June 1967 at the Caffe Cino, Joe Cino
's famous coffeehouse in Greenwich Village that is generally acknowledged as the birthplace of Off-Off-Broadway. The play subsequently toured colleges in the United States and Canada and appeared at the 1968 International Theater Festival in Vancouver
. Today, the playwright acknowledges that he wrote Daddy Violet as a parody of the abstract, improvisational theater then in vogue Off-Off-Broadway, an attempt to “out avant-garde
everyone else.” For a revival at the Boston Conservatory
in 2006, Birimisa revised the script to refer to the war in Iraq.
In 1969, Birimisa became the first openly gay playwright to receive a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation
. This enabled him to attend rehearsals for the London
production of his first two-act play, Mr. Jello (1968), an arrangement of realistic vignettes that intersect to form a surrealistic social statement, with characters that include a female impersonator, a gay married man, and a hustler.
Georgie Porgie (1968), another play of vignettes, illustrates the destructive force of self-hatred in gay men. The Village Voice wrote: “Birimisa’s dialogue is graceful and pointed, his characterization swift and penetrating, and astonishingly, his most agonizing scenes are often his most hilarious, as if he’s able to reach greater heights of pain and laughter by having the two lean on each other. … Birimisa’s considerable talent [is] as fluid as it is raw, as passionate as it is brutal.” The Best Plays of 1968–1969 listed Georgie Porgie as a highlight of the Off-Off-Broadway season. Contemporary Authors quotes a review in Variety
calling Georgie Porgie “‘an advance in its field, and unlike many of its stage predecessors (Boys in the Band and Foreplay, to pick two), Birimisa's play minces few images or words in describing the plight of its characters. The coarse language and nudity are used for psychological effect as the characters face melodramatic situations,’ continued Variety, ‘while Birimisa permits the action to develop to logically and sometimes surprising conclusions.’” However, the play's male nudity and simulated sex killed a planned transfer to Off-Broadway
, although a 1971 Off-Broadway revival of Georgie Porgie ran 107 performances.
At the same time, the revival highlighted mainstream
critics' continued resistance to gay-themed subject matter, even after the Off-Broadway success of playwright Mart Crowley
's The Boys in the Band
(1968). One radio review stated, “Georgie Porgie at Greenwich Village’s Fortune Theatre is a play written by a homosexual, about a homosexual, with a special interest for homosexuals. This is not to say that it isn’t a serious effort. Indeed, it’s a well performed attempt to accurately portray the totality of the homosexual experience. … [C]hildhood ridicule, repulsion by parental heterosexual relations, brutality and beatings directed against homosexuals, falsified testimony by police vice squads, male prostitution, black and white homosexual attraction, biceps worship, marriage between homosexuals and women are all touched upon. … Georgie Porgie, then, is a limited appeal show since so many find the entire subject unpopular and distasteful.”
, California. He dismisses the three plays he wrote there, A Dress Made of Diamonds (1976), Pogey Bait (1976), and A Rainbow in the Night (1978) as inferior to his earlier works. However, A Rainbow in the Night, an autobiographical portrait of two gay men living in New York City’s Bowery
in 1953, won a 1978 Drama-Logue Award
, and Pogey Bait, a comedy based on Birimisa’s wartime experiences as a gay Apprentice seaman, received subsequent productions in Minneapolis, San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.
.
A one-man play, Looking for Mr. America (1995), debuted at Josie’s Cabaret and Juice Joint and subsequently played in New York at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club
. Birimisa himself performed the show at age 71, in the role of a man recounting his lifelong sexual addiction
. Dean Goodman's review noted that the play offers “an eloquent and touching portrait of a particular gay man’s journey through the last half of the 20th century.”
Viagra Falls (2005) received a concert performance at La MaMa E.T.C. on September 17, 2007, under the direction of Daniel Haben Clark. The play chronicles a young gay man's long-term sadomasochistic relationship with a closeted ophthalmologist.
With Steve Susoyev, Birimisa edited Return to Caffe Cino (2007), an anthology
of essays and plays by writers associated with the Cino. The book won a 2007 Lambda Literary Award
for theatre and drama.
Birimisa: Portraits, Plays, Perversions (2009), an anthology of collected works and essays about Birimisa's personal life and career, includes an unproduced screenplay
, The Kewpie-Doll Kiss, which chronicles Birimisa's childhood loss of his father, abandonment by his mother, and discovery of his sexuality, subjects explored earlier onstage in A Dress Made of Diamonds.
George Birmisa has been teaching Creative Writing since 1983, sponsored by New Leaf Services. He received the 2004 Harry Hay
Award in recognition of his writing and community service. He is currently writing an autobiography. His unpublished manuscripts are in the Joe Cino Memorial Library at Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts in New York.
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
, actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, and director who contributed to the explosion of gay theater in the mid-1960s
1960s
The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...
during the early years of Off-Off-Broadway
Off-Off-Broadway
Off-Off-Broadway theatrical productions in New York City are those in theatres that are smaller than Broadway and Off-Broadway theatres. Off-Off-Broadway theaters are often defined as theaters that have fewer than 100 seats, though the term can be used for any show in the New York City area that...
. His works feature sexually explicit, emotionally charged depictions of working-class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
homosexual men, often closeted
Closeted
Closeted and in the closet are metaphors used to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior.-Background:In late 20th...
, in the years before the Stonewall riots
Stonewall riots
The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City...
(1969) triggered a national and international gay rights movement. Contemporary Authors
Contemporary Authors
Contemporary Authors is an annually updated reference work published by Gale Cengage. It provides biographical details on over 120,000 writers in all genres whose works have been published in the English language...
stated that "Birmisa's plays feature themes of human isolation, frustrated idealism, and rage against needless suffering, usually centered around homosexual characters.“ According to critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
and playwright Michael Smith
Michael Townsend Smith
Michael Townsend Smith is an American playwright. He was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and educated in Kansas City and at Hotchkiss and Yale...
, Birimisa's writing “links the pain of human isolation to economic and social roots.” Birimisa remains an active playwright, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, editor
Editor
The term editor may refer to:As a person who does editing:* Editor in chief, having final responsibility for a publication's operations and policies* Copy editing, making formatting changes and other improvements to text...
, and teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
.
Early Life and Career
George Birimisa was born in Santa Cruz, CaliforniaSanta Cruz, California
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...
, one of five children of Yugoslavian immigrants. While George was still a child, his father died as the result of injuries and imprisonment while under arrest after speaking on behalf of the Communist Party
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
at a labor rally. Birimisa’s mother remarried but his stepfather rejected him and his two older brothers.
George spent most of his childhood in a Catholic orphanage
Orphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
, then in a series of foster homes. His education ended with the ninth grade
Ninth grade
Ninth grade is the ninth post-kindergarten year of school education in some school systems. The students are 13 to 15 years of age, depending on when their birthday occurs. Depending on the school district, ninth grade is usually the first year of high school....
.
After serving in the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Birimisa supported himself with a series of jobs, including factory worker, bartender
Bartender
A bartender is a person who serves beverages behind a counter in a bar, pub, tavern, or similar establishment. A bartender, in short, "tends the bar". The term barkeeper may carry a connotation of being the bar's owner...
, disc jockey
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
, health studio
Health club
A health club is a place which houses exercise equipment for the purpose of physical exercise.-Main workout area:...
manager, television network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
page, prostitute, and Howard Johnson's
Howard Johnson's
Howard Johnson's is a chain of hotels and restaurants, located primarily throughout the United States and Canada. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Howard Johnson's was the largest restaurant chain in the United States, with over 1,000 restaurants...
counterman. In the latter position, he once refused service to Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell was an American newspaper and radio gossip commentator.-Professional career:Born Walter Weinschel in New York City, he left school in the sixth grade and started performing in a vaudeville troupe known as Gus Edwards' "Newsboys Sextet."His career in journalism was begun by posting...
, who arrived after closing time. In retaliation, the powerful columnist ran an item alluding to the restaurant, on Sixth Avenue
Sixth Avenue (Manhattan)
Sixth Avenue – officially Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown"...
in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
, as a hangout for "vag-lewd" (i.e., homosexual) types. Winchell's punishment backfired: the publicity turned that branch of Howard Johnson's into a magnet for gays.
The incident convinced Birimisa, who had begun writing fictional accounts of his life, to start writing honestly about his sexuality. He became determined to write plays at age 41, while studying acting
Acting
Acting is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play....
with Uta Hagen
Uta Hagen
Uta Thyra Hagen was a German-born American actress and drama teacher. She originated the role of Martha in the 1963 Broadway premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee...
at the Herbert Berghof Studio in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
New York
Birimisa’s first produced play, Degrees (1966), a portrait of a gay relationship, premiered at Theater Genesis in the East Village, ManhattanEast Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
. At the time, gay plays usually received no serious artistic or critical attention. “For years,” the playwright recalls, “even gay people would ask me, ‘When are you going to write your first real play?’” Degrees included autobiographical elements, which became stronger and more explicit in Birimisa's later works. Above all, he writes out of a need to tell the truth about his own life. "I don't agree that there are ‘shades of truth,’” he says. “We all know the truth, deep inside ourselves. As artists, we have a responsibility to reveal who we truly are, not to work in shades of gray. This truth includes our sexual beings.”
Birimisa directed and acted in his best-known Off-Off-Broadway play, Daddy Violet (1967), a semi-improvised indictment of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. Daddy Violet premièred in June 1967 at the Caffe Cino, Joe Cino
Joe Cino
Joseph Cino , was an Italian-American theatrical producer and café-owner. The beginning of the Off-Off-Broadway theatre movement is generally credited to have begun at Cino’s Caffe Cino...
's famous coffeehouse in Greenwich Village that is generally acknowledged as the birthplace of Off-Off-Broadway. The play subsequently toured colleges in the United States and Canada and appeared at the 1968 International Theater Festival in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
. Today, the playwright acknowledges that he wrote Daddy Violet as a parody of the abstract, improvisational theater then in vogue Off-Off-Broadway, an attempt to “out avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
everyone else.” For a revival at the Boston Conservatory
Boston Conservatory
The Boston Conservatory is a performing arts conservatory located in the Fenway-Kenmore region of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in music, dance and musical theater...
in 2006, Birimisa revised the script to refer to the war in Iraq.
In 1969, Birimisa became the first openly gay playwright to receive a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
. This enabled him to attend rehearsals for the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
production of his first two-act play, Mr. Jello (1968), an arrangement of realistic vignettes that intersect to form a surrealistic social statement, with characters that include a female impersonator, a gay married man, and a hustler.
Georgie Porgie (1968), another play of vignettes, illustrates the destructive force of self-hatred in gay men. The Village Voice wrote: “Birimisa’s dialogue is graceful and pointed, his characterization swift and penetrating, and astonishingly, his most agonizing scenes are often his most hilarious, as if he’s able to reach greater heights of pain and laughter by having the two lean on each other. … Birimisa’s considerable talent [is] as fluid as it is raw, as passionate as it is brutal.” The Best Plays of 1968–1969 listed Georgie Porgie as a highlight of the Off-Off-Broadway season. Contemporary Authors quotes a review in Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
calling Georgie Porgie “‘an advance in its field, and unlike many of its stage predecessors (Boys in the Band and Foreplay, to pick two), Birimisa's play minces few images or words in describing the plight of its characters. The coarse language and nudity are used for psychological effect as the characters face melodramatic situations,’ continued Variety, ‘while Birimisa permits the action to develop to logically and sometimes surprising conclusions.’” However, the play's male nudity and simulated sex killed a planned transfer to Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
, although a 1971 Off-Broadway revival of Georgie Porgie ran 107 performances.
At the same time, the revival highlighted mainstream
Mainstream
Mainstream is, generally, the common current thought of the majority. However, the mainstream is far from cohesive; rather the concept is often considered a cultural construct....
critics' continued resistance to gay-themed subject matter, even after the Off-Broadway success of playwright Mart Crowley
Mart Crowley
Mart Crowley is an American playwright.Crowley was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi. After graduating from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. in 1957, Crowley headed west to Hollywood, where he worked for a number of television production companies before meeting Natalie Wood on...
's The Boys in the Band
The Boys in the Band
The Boys in the Band is a 1970 American drama film directed by William Friedkin. The screenplay by Mart Crowley is based on his Off Broadway play of the same title, Crowley penned a sequel to the play years later entitled The Men From The Boys...
(1968). One radio review stated, “Georgie Porgie at Greenwich Village’s Fortune Theatre is a play written by a homosexual, about a homosexual, with a special interest for homosexuals. This is not to say that it isn’t a serious effort. Indeed, it’s a well performed attempt to accurately portray the totality of the homosexual experience. … [C]hildhood ridicule, repulsion by parental heterosexual relations, brutality and beatings directed against homosexuals, falsified testimony by police vice squads, male prostitution, black and white homosexual attraction, biceps worship, marriage between homosexuals and women are all touched upon. … Georgie Porgie, then, is a limited appeal show since so many find the entire subject unpopular and distasteful.”
Los Angeles
In 1976, Birimisa moved to Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California. He dismisses the three plays he wrote there, A Dress Made of Diamonds (1976), Pogey Bait (1976), and A Rainbow in the Night (1978) as inferior to his earlier works. However, A Rainbow in the Night, an autobiographical portrait of two gay men living in New York City’s Bowery
Bowery
Bowery may refer to:Streets:* The Bowery, a thoroughfare in Manhattan, New York City* Bowery Street is a street on Coney Island in Brooklyn, N.Y.In popular culture:* Bowery Amphitheatre, a building on the Bowery in New York City...
in 1953, won a 1978 Drama-Logue Award
Drama-Logue Award
The Drama-Logue Award was a theater award established in 1977, given by the publishers of Drama-Logue newspaper, a weekly west-coast theater trade publication. Winners were selected by the publication's theater critics, and would receive a certificate at an annual awards ceremony...
, and Pogey Bait, a comedy based on Birimisa’s wartime experiences as a gay Apprentice seaman, received subsequent productions in Minneapolis, San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.
San Francisco
Birimisa moved to San Francisco in 1980 and did not write another play for almost 10 years. Then he began a revised version of A Rainbow in the Night titled The Man With Straight Hair (1994), which premiered at the Studio at Theatre RhinocerosTheatre Rhinoceros
Theatre Rhinoceros or Theatre Rhino is a gay and lesbian theatre based in San Francisco. It was founded in the spring of 1977 by Lanny Baugniet and his partner Allan B. Estes, Jr....
.
A one-man play, Looking for Mr. America (1995), debuted at Josie’s Cabaret and Juice Joint and subsequently played in New York at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club is an off-off Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, and named in reference to her. Located on Manhattan's Lower East Side, the theatre grew out of Stewart's tiny basement boutique for her fashion designs; the boutique's space acted as a theatre for...
. Birimisa himself performed the show at age 71, in the role of a man recounting his lifelong sexual addiction
Sexual addiction
Sexual addiction is a popular model to explain hypersexuality—sexual urges, behaviors, or thoughts that appear extreme in frequency or feel out of one's control...
. Dean Goodman's review noted that the play offers “an eloquent and touching portrait of a particular gay man’s journey through the last half of the 20th century.”
Viagra Falls (2005) received a concert performance at La MaMa E.T.C. on September 17, 2007, under the direction of Daniel Haben Clark. The play chronicles a young gay man's long-term sadomasochistic relationship with a closeted ophthalmologist.
With Steve Susoyev, Birimisa edited Return to Caffe Cino (2007), an anthology
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
of essays and plays by writers associated with the Cino. The book won a 2007 Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Awards are awarded yearly by the US-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works which celebrate or explore LGBT themes. Categories include Humor, Romance and Biography. To qualify, a book must have been published in the United States in the year current to the award...
for theatre and drama.
Birimisa: Portraits, Plays, Perversions (2009), an anthology of collected works and essays about Birimisa's personal life and career, includes an unproduced screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
, The Kewpie-Doll Kiss, which chronicles Birimisa's childhood loss of his father, abandonment by his mother, and discovery of his sexuality, subjects explored earlier onstage in A Dress Made of Diamonds.
George Birmisa has been teaching Creative Writing since 1983, sponsored by New Leaf Services. He received the 2004 Harry Hay
Harry Hay
Henry "Harry" Hay, Jr. was a labor advocate, teacher and early leader in the American LGBT rights movement. He is known for his roles in helping to found several gay organizations, including the Mattachine Society, the first sustained gay rights group in the United States.Hay was exposed early in...
Award in recognition of his writing and community service. He is currently writing an autobiography. His unpublished manuscripts are in the Joe Cino Memorial Library at Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts in New York.
External links
- George Birimisa's blog & photo archives
- Photo of Birimisa's play Daddy Violet at Caffe Cino, 1967
- Another photo from "Daddy Violet" at the Caffe Cino, 1967
- Photo from Birimisa's "George Porgie" at the Village Arena, 1960s.
- Photo of Birimisa in his play, "George Porgie" at the Cooper Square Theatre, 1968