Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Today's best 4th of July blog

CHRISTOPHER DURANG (read his 2006 4th of July blog ) is a playwright and sometime actor. His plays include A History of the American Film (Tony nomination), Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You (Obie award), Beyond Therapy, Baby with the Bathwater, The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Obie award), Laughing Wild, Betty’s Summer Vacation (1999 Obie award) and Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge (2002). His newest play, Miss Witherspoon, premiered at McCarter Theatre in Princeton, and then transferred to Playwrights Horizons in New York City. Last October, a musical Adrift in Macao, with book and lyrics by Durang and music by Peter Melnick’s premiered at Philadelphia Theatre Company. It will reappear at Primary Stages in NYC in January 2007.

As an actor Durang has acted in movies such as Secret of My Success, The Butcher’s Wife, Housesitter, and Mr. North. He acted in some of his own plays. He and Sigourney Weaver co-authored and appeared in the Brecht-Weill satire Das Lusitania Songspiel (Drama Desk nominations for both of them), and with Julie Andrews he sang and tried to dance in the Stephen Sondheim revue Putting It Together at Manhattan Theatre Club. With John Augustine and Sherry Anderson he performed his crackpot cabaret Chris Durang and Dawne, winning them a 1996 Bistro Award. With Marsha Norman, he’s co-chair of the Playwriting Program at Juilliard. He’s a member of the Dramatists Guild Council. Go to his web site.