Media contact: Bruce Peterson (800) 842-6063 ext. 5492

 

Christopher Durang, one of the most influential playwrights of contemporary American theater, will be the Honoree of the 27th William Inge Theatre Festival, April 23-26, 2008, in Independence, Kansas.

 

Durang will receive the William Inge Theatre Festival Distinguished Achievement in the American Theatre Award on Sat. April 26, 2008 during the Tribute festival finale, at the William Inge Theatre on the campus of Independence Community College.  Previous Honorees at the Inge Festival include such great playwrights as Arthur Miller, August Wilson, Neil Simon, Edward Albee, and Stephen Sondheim, among others.The festival is named for the late Pulitzer Prize and Oscar-winning writer William Inge, who was a native of Independence.

 

“We are excited to honor one of modern theater’s funniest and most topical playwrights, whose noteworthy achievements include inspiring a new generation of young playwrights,” said Peter Ellenstein, Inge Center Artistic Director.

 

Christopher Durang, an actor as well as a playwright, has seen his plays produced on and off-Broadway, around the country and abroad.  From the start, his hilarious no-holds-barred work has attracted serious actors. His first professional production was of “The Idiots Karamozov,” co-authored with Albert Innaurato, at the Yale Repertory, starring then student Meryl Streep.  As a student, Durang also collaborated with fellow student and previous Inge Festival Honoree Wendy Wasserstein.

 

Durang’s work “Titanic” starred his Yale classmate Sigourney Weaver and he co-authored with her a satiric cabaret, “Das Lusitania Songpsiel” Later, both Durang and Weaver were nominated for Drama Desk Awards for Best Performer in a Musical. Also in 1976, his play “A History of the American Film” received an unusual “triple premiere” with back-to-back productions at professional resident theaters across the nation.  The following year, it hit Broadway, earning Durang a Tony nomination for Best Book of a Musical.

 

In the early 1980s, Durang penned some of his most famous work.  “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All for You” received rave reviews.  Elizabeth Franz originated the lead role, with actresses Nancy Marchand, Kathleen Chalfont, Lynn Redgrave, Cloris Leachman, and Valerie Curtin among those headlining subsequent productions.  “Sister” was paired with his popular curtain raiser “The Actor’s Nightmare.”

 

“Beyond Therapy” likewise attracted the attention of many noted actors.  Initially Off-Broadway starring Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Collins, it later transferred to Broadway starring Dianne Wiest and John Lithgow.  David Hyde Pierce, getting his Equity card in his first professional production, played a small but funny role of the waiter. 

 

The subsequent play “Baby with the Bathwater” was directed by Mark Linn-Baker and featured Cherry Jones and Tony Shalhoub.  In 1985 New York’s Public Theatre presented Durang’s “The Marriage of Bette and Boo.”  It featured a remarkable cast including Joan Allen and Graham Beckle, along with Olympia Dukakis and Mercedes Ruehl.

 

His newer stage work includes books and lyrics for “Adrift in Macao” with music by Peter Melnick.  His crackpot Christmas play “Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge” was a big success, about an out-of-control Mrs. Cratchit. In 2004, he wrote a commission for the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, N.J., which became “Miss Witherspoon.”  It was named on the Ten Best Plays of the year by Time magazine and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

 

Durang has also received acclaim for his writing in non-stage venues as well.  He wrote a teleplay for the PBS series “Trying Times,” co-authored with Wendy Wasserstein “House of Husbands” and became a staff writer for the ABC special “Carol and Robin and Whoopi and Carl.” In 2001 he appeared in six episodes of the NBC sitcom “Kristin,” starring Kristin Chenoweth.

 

Additional acting credits include opposite Jean Smart in “Laughing Wild,” (which he wrote) and the films “Housesitter,” “The Secret of My Success” and “Mr. North,” among others.  In 1993 Durang was thrilled to be cast in “Putting it Together,” a compilation of Stephen Sondheim songs. The cast included Julie Andrews, Rachel York and Michael Rupert.

 

Durang is currently co-director of the playwriting program at the Juilliard School of Drama.  His awards include the Harvard Arts Medal and the prestigious three-year Lila Wallace Readers Digest Writers Award; and the Sidney Kingsley Playwriting Award.  Early in his career, he won a Guggenheim, a Rockefeller, the CBS Playwriting Fellowship, and many other grants and fellowships.

 

During the Inge Festival, each evening will feature numerous special guest artists in the fields of performance, playwriting, and directing.  Many will be on stage to help salute Durang at the Tribute festival finale.

 

During the daytime of the festival April 24-26, festival patrons can meet the guests during workshops and panels about the performing arts.

 

Also part of the Festival is “Scenes at the Inge House.”  The Inge Center will select winning scenes by college actors from competitions held at regional Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival conferences.  The scenes are then performed in the living room of the William Inge Boyhood home in Independence, which is now used as residency for professional guest playwrights-in-residence.

 

A further presentation during the Festival is the Otis Guernsey New Voices in the American theater Award, to be bestowed to an outstanding emerging playwright.

 

For more information on the Inge Festival and year-round events at the William Inge Theatre Festival, visit www.ingefestival.org.

 

Major supporters of the William Inge Center for the Arts include the Kansas Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, Hallmark Corporation, the William T. Kemper Foundation/Commerce Bancshares, the Dramatists Guild, the Dana Foundation, and many corporate and private foundations and hundreds of individuals across the country.

 

For more information on the Inge Festival and other Inge Center activities, contact (800) 842-6063 ext. 5835 or visit www.ingecenter.org.

 

Media Advisory:

 

Below are:

        --Complete list of previous William Inge Theatre Festival “Distinguished Achievement in the American Theatre” Honorees.

        --Complete list of previous “Otis Guernsey New Voices in the American Theatre Award” winners.

 

William Inge Theatre Festival Distinguished Achievement

in the American Theatre Award Honorees--

presented in person in Independence, Kansas

 

1982: William Inge Celebration

1983:  Jerome Lawrence

1984:  William Gibson

1985:  Robert Anderson

1986:  John Patrick

1987:  Garson Kanin

1988:  Sidney Kingsley (in Independence)

 Robert E. Lee (on the road)

1989:  Horton Foote

1990:  Betty Comden & Adolph Green

1991:  Edward Albee

1992:  Peter Shaffer

1993:  Wendy Wasserstein

1994:  Terrence McNally

1995:  Arthur Miller

1996:  August Wilson

1997:  Neil Simon

1998:  Stephen Sondheim

1999:  John Guare

2000:  A.R. Gurney

2001:  Lanford Wilson

2002:  John Kander & Fred Ebb

2003:  Romulus Linney

2004:  Arthur Laurents

2005: Tina Howe

2006: 25^th Anniversary retrospective

2007: Jerry Bock & Sheldon Harnick

 

 

Otis Guernsey New Voices in Playwriting Award Winners

 

1993: Jason Milligan

1994: Catherine Butterfield

1995: Mary Hanes

1996: Brian Burgess Cross

1997: Joe DiPietro

1998: David Ives

1999: David Hirson

2000: James Still

2001: Mark St. Germain

2002: Dana Yeaton

2003: Theresa Rebeck

2004: Mary Portser

2005: Lynne Kaufman

2006: Melanie Marnich

2007: JT Rogers