Rebecca Gilman
Encyclopedia
Rebecca Gilman is an American
playwright
. She attended Middlebury College
, graduated from Birmingham-Southern College
, and earned a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop at the University of Iowa
. She lives in Chicago and serves on the board of the Dramatists Guild of America
.
Gilman was the first American playwright to win an Evening Standard Award. She serves on the advisory board for Chicago Dramatists. She was received the 2008 Harper Lee Award.
Her most widely known works are Spinning Into Butter
, a play that addresses political correctness
and racial identity, and Boy Gets Girl
, which was included in Time Magazines List of the Best Plays and Musicals of the Decade.
A production of her adaptation of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was the occasion of a protest by actors who felt only a deaf person should play a deaf person on stage. She is an assistant professor in Northwestern University
's Department of Radio-TV-Film and core faculty in Northwestern's MFA in Writing for the Screen+Stage program.
When asked about her influences, she remarked that "I'm a big fan of Wallace Shawn
. He's incredibly smart and the only writer who writes about intellectuals in a complicated and even contradictory way. He's really funny, too. I also like Donald Margulies
, Kenneth Lonergan
, and Conor McPherson
...Caryl Churchill
, Kia Corthron
, and a Chicago playwright, Jamie Pachino."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
playwright
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...
. She attended Middlebury College
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...
, graduated from Birmingham-Southern College
Birmingham-Southern College
Birmingham–Southern College is a 4-year, private liberal arts college located three miles northwest of downtown Birmingham. Founded in 1856, it is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Approximately 1400 students from 30 states and 23 foreign countries attend the college...
, and earned a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop at the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
. She lives in Chicago and serves on the board of the Dramatists Guild of America
Dramatists Guild of America
The Dramatists Guild of America is a professional organization for playwrights, composers, and lyricists working in the U.S. theatre market.Membership as an Associate Member is open to any person having written at least one stage play. Active Members are playwrights who have had at least one play...
.
Gilman was the first American playwright to win an Evening Standard Award. She serves on the advisory board for Chicago Dramatists. She was received the 2008 Harper Lee Award.
Her most widely known works are Spinning Into Butter
Spinning Into Butter
Spinning Into Butter is a play by American playwright Rebecca Gilman. The play debuted at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in 1999. It was later produced at the Lincoln Center and the Royal Court Theatre, was named one of the best plays of 1999 by Time, and eventually became the third-most-produced...
, a play that addresses political correctness
Political correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
and racial identity, and Boy Gets Girl
Boy Gets Girl
Boy Gets Girl is a 2000 play by Rebecca Gilman. The play received its first production at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.Boy Gets Girl uses the story of what happens when a blind date turns into a living nightmare to examine stalking, sexism and the nature of the idea of romantic pursuit...
, which was included in Time Magazines List of the Best Plays and Musicals of the Decade.
A production of her adaptation of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was the occasion of a protest by actors who felt only a deaf person should play a deaf person on stage. She is an assistant professor in Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
's Department of Radio-TV-Film and core faculty in Northwestern's MFA in Writing for the Screen+Stage program.
When asked about her influences, she remarked that "I'm a big fan of Wallace Shawn
Wallace Shawn
Wallace Michael Shawn , sometimes credited as Wally Shawn, is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, author, voice artist, and intellectual. His best-known film roles include Wally Shawn in My Dinner with Andre , Vizzini in The Princess Bride , and debate teacher Mr...
. He's incredibly smart and the only writer who writes about intellectuals in a complicated and even contradictory way. He's really funny, too. I also like Donald Margulies
Donald Margulies
Donald Margulies is an American playwright and a professor of English and Theater Studies at Yale University...
, Kenneth Lonergan
Kenneth Lonergan
Kenneth Lonergan is an American playwright, screenwriter, and director.-Background and education:Born in the Bronx, New York City, New York, Lonergan began writing in high school at the Walden School .His first play, The Rennings Children, was chosen for the Young Playwright's Festival in...
, and Conor McPherson
Conor McPherson
Conor McPherson is an Irish playwright and director.-Life and career:McPherson was born in Dublin, . He was educated at University College Dublin, McPherson began writing his first plays there as a member of UCD Dramsoc, the college's dramatic society, and went on to found Fly By Night Theatre...
...Caryl Churchill
Caryl Churchill
Caryl Churchill is an English dramatist known for her use of non-naturalistic techniques and feminist themes, the abuses of power, and sexual politics. She is acknowledged as a major playwright in the English language and a leading female writer...
, Kia Corthron
Kia Corthron
Kia Corthron is an American playwright, activist, and television writer. She wrote an episode of The Wire entitled, "Know Your Place", as well as an episode of The Jury called, "Lamentation on the Reservation".-Biography:...
, and a Chicago playwright, Jamie Pachino."
Plays
- The American in Me
- Dollhouse, adapted from Henrik IbsenHenrik IbsenHenrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
's play - My Sin and Nothing More
- The Crime of the Century
- The Crowd You're In With
- The Land of Little Horses
- The Sweetest Swing in Baseball
- Spinning Into ButterSpinning Into ButterSpinning Into Butter is a play by American playwright Rebecca Gilman. The play debuted at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in 1999. It was later produced at the Lincoln Center and the Royal Court Theatre, was named one of the best plays of 1999 by Time, and eventually became the third-most-produced...
(2000), which won the Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays and a Jeff Award - Boy Gets GirlBoy Gets GirlBoy Gets Girl is a 2000 play by Rebecca Gilman. The play received its first production at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.Boy Gets Girl uses the story of what happens when a blind date turns into a living nightmare to examine stalking, sexism and the nature of the idea of romantic pursuit...
(2000) - The Glory of LivingThe Glory of LivingThe Glory of Living is a 1998 play by Rebecca Gilman. The play received its first production at the Circle Theater in Forest Park, Illinois. The play has won many awards and was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.-Plot:...
(2001), a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
and won an Osborn Award, an After Dark Award, a Jeff Citation, the George Devine Award, and the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright - Blue Surge (2001)
- The Heart Is a Lonely HunterThe Heart Is a Lonely HunterThe Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is the debut 1940 novel by American author Carson McCullers. Written in Charlotte, North Carolina, in houses on Central Avenue and East Boulevard, it is about a deaf man named John Singer and the people he encounters in a 1930s mill town in the US state of Georgia...
(2005), adapted from the novel by Carson McCullersCarson McCullersCarson McCullers was an American writer. She wrote novels, short stories, and two plays, as well as essays and some poetry. Her first novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts of the South... - The Boys are Coming HomeThe Boys Are Coming HomeThe Boys Are Coming Home was the second new musical to emerge from AMTP at Northwestern University. Written in 2005 and based on Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing, this musical is set in the year 1945, when American servicemen returned home from World War II...
(book by Gilman, music and lyrics by Leslie Arden) - Lord Butterscotch and the Curse of the Darkwater Phantom (co-written with Lisa Dillman and Brett Neveu; world premiere, Fall 2007)