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Date of Birth
Lanford Wilson born to Ralph Eugene and Violetta Tate Wilson in Lebanon, Missouri, April 13,1937. His parents ended up divorcing when he was 5 years old and him and his mother relocated to Springfield, Missouri. But they moved to another part of Missouri after his mother remarried a famer when he was 11. -
Education
He attended Ozark High School and develop love for film and art. After graduating from High School in 1955, he attended Southwest Missouri State College but in 1956 he moved to San Diego, where his father relocated after the divorce. He attended San Diego State College and studied art and art history. -
Reunion
His reunion with his father was difficult but the relationship improved years later, and Wilson based his play "Lemon Sky" on their relationship.
(Lanford Wilson with director Marshall Mason (left) -
Not accepted
He was openly gay but was not accepted by his community in southwest Missouri. He was also rejected after he came out to father. He did not end up marrying anyone. -
Moved
In 1957 he moved to Chicago where he worked as a graphic artist for an advertising firm. This is were he realized that the short stories he was writing would be more effective as plays, and began to study playwriting at the University of Chicago. Then left Chicago after he graduated to move to New York. -
How he got started
Wilson first encountered the Caffe Cino when he went to see Eugène Ionesco's The Lesson. The experience left him thinking that theatre "could be both dangerous and funny in the same way". After the show he introduced himself to Cino co-founder and producer Joe Cino and Joe was the one who ended up encouraging Wilson to submit a play. -
So Long at the Fair
Wilson's first play to premiere at Cino was So Long at the Fair, in August 1963. But he continued working odd jobs to support himself during these early years. -
Home Free
Home Free was a one-act play by Wilson, and was first produced off-off-Broadway at the Caffe Cino in 1964. The play was about a pair of siblings, who had a love affair going on. -
The Madness of Lady Bright
This is a short play by Wilson and was on among the earliest of the gay theatre movement. The play was performed at Caffe Cino in May 1964. The play is about the mental breakdown of Lesley Bright, an aging homosexual whose past returns to haunt him with the emptiness of the choices he made. -
Circle Repertory Company
While Wilson was happy producing plays for other companies, he longed for something he could call his own. As a result, he and four colleagues established the Circle Repertory Company in 1969. Wilson authored the 1973 play Hot L Baltimore, which became their first great success. -
Lemon Skys
Lemon Sky is autobiographical about about a teenager who just graduated from high school, moved from the Midwest to San Diego, California, to live with his father and his new family. Attempting to overcome the past, Alan is confronted with problems in his new family. Which was inspired from the relationship with his father. -
The Hot I Baltimore
In 1973 the play The Hot l Baltimore was the company's first major success with both audiences and critics. The Off-Broadway production exceeded 1,000 performances. The play also won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and an Obie Award. -
Fifth of July
Wilson was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play "Fifth of July" and has won a Drama Desk Award. The play was about a set in rural Missouri in 1977, it revolves around the Talley family and their friends, and focuses on the disillusionment in the wake of the Vietnam War -
Talley’s Folly
Wilson is best known for Talley's Folly, which won him the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1980. It's a romantic comedy that follows a couple working out how they feel about each other. But this play is unlike Wilson's earlier works taking place in one act with no break and is 97 minutes of real time with no set change. -
Angle Fall
Angels Fall opened on Broadway in 1983, earning Wilson his third nomination for the Tony Award for Best Play. The New York Times review said, "Mr. Wilson is one of the few artists in our theater who can truly make America sing." -
Awards
He was elected in 2001 to the Theater Hall of Fame.
In 2004, Wilson was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Wilson was also nominated for the Tony Award and five Obie Awards for his outstanding work. -
Artistic Achievement Award
In 2010, Debra Monk presented Wilson with the Artistic Achievement Award from the New York Innovative Theatre Awards. This honor was awarded by the Off-Off-Broadway community "in recognition of his brave and unique works that helped establish the Off-Off-Broadway community and propel the independent theatre voice as an important contributor to the American stage". -
Health Issues
Wilson died of complication from Pneumonia at the age of 73 March 24, 2011, Wayne, NJ. -
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Facts
-Lanford Wilson plays was drawn from his own life.
-He was a major figure in gay theatre in the United States.
-Some of his plays became seminal works of LGBTQ theatre, including early plays The Madness of Lady Bright, Home Free, and No Trespassing, which made his career skyrocketed quickly.