Christopher Durang, Renowned American Playwright, in Conversation at Holy Cros

WORCESTER, Mass. – Christopher Durang, the award-winning playwright known for his theatrical spoofs, satires and parodies, will visit the College of the Holy Cross on Friday, Sept. 28, at 6 p.m. in Fenwick Theatre on the campus.  He will discuss his work with Steve Vineberg, professor of theatre at Holy Cross.  The event is free and open to the public.

Durang’s plays include A History of the American Film (Tony nomination, Best Book of a Musical, 1978); The Actor’s Nightmare, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You (Obie award; off-Broadway run 1981-83); Beyond Therapy (on Broadway in 1982, with Dianne Wiest and John Lithgow); Baby with the Bathwater (Playwrights Horizons, 1983); The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Public Theatre, 1985; Obie award, Dramatists Guild Hall Warriner Award); Laughing Wild (Playwrights Horizons, 1987); Durang/Durang (an evening of six plays at Manhattan Theatre Club, 1994, including the Tennessee Williams’ parody, For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls); Sex and Longing (Lincoln Center Theatre production at the Cort Theatre, 1996, starring Sigourney Weaver); and Betty’s Summer Vacation (Playwrights Horizons, 1999; Obie award).

His most recent works are Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge, which premiered at City Theatre in Pittsburgh in 2002, and the recent off-Broadway musical comedy Adrift in Macao, with music by Peter Melnick and book and lyrics by Durang.

Durang is also a performer, and acted with E. Katherine Kerr in the New York premiere of Laughing Wild, and with Jean Smart in the Los Angeles production. He shared in an acting ensemble Obie for The Marriage of Bette and Boo; and has performed his crackpot cabaret Chris Durang and Dawne with John Augustine and Sherry Anderson at the Criterion Center, Caroline’s Comedy Club, Williamstown Summer Cabaret, and the Triad, winning a 1996 Bistro Award. In the early ’80s, he and Sigourney Weaver co-wrote and performed in their acclaimed Brecht-Weill parody, Das Lusitania Songspiel, and were both nominated for Drama Desk awards for Best Performer in a Musical.

In 1993, he sang in the five person off-Broadway Sondheim revue, Putting It Together, with Julie Andrews at the Manhattan Theatre Club. He also played a singing Congressman in the Encores presentation of Call Me Madam with Tyne Daly at City Center. In movies, he has appeared in The Secret of My Success, Mr. North, The Butcher’s Wife, Housesitter, and The Cowboy Way, among others.

Durang has a B.A. from Harvard College, and an M.F.A. in playwriting from Yale School of Drama.  Since 1994 he has been co-chair with Marsha Norman of the Playwriting Program at the Juilliard School in Manhattan.

The event is sponsored by the theatre department.