Neil Labute

Birth of Neil Labute

Mar 19, 1963

Neil N. Labute was born in Detroit Michigan to Marian and Richard LaBute. Marians was a hospital receptionist and Richard was a long haul truck driver. He was the oldest of two children.

The Soft Skin [La Peau Douce]

Apr 20, 1964

The subject of La Peau douce is adultery and its difficulties: for the husband who deceives his wife; for the wife who is, at first, unknowingly deceived; and for the other woman who is attracted to the married man but only as long as he remains married (3). Pierre Lachenay is a celebrated man of letters, with a loving wife and daughter. https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2018/cteq/la-peau-douce/

Family relocates

1966

Labute and his family move to Spokane Washington were he is raised.

Rough Childhood

Period: 1966 to 1975

LaBute says, “He would occasionally be violent to myself, or my older brother, or even my mother.” LaBute remembers that he always was scared of his father’s return from the road because he would not “know...what mood he’d come back in” and he would have to closely watch his father to be certain he would not miss any warning signs of violence.
his difficult childhood led LaBute to analyze the world around him in great detail, especially the wrongdoings people commit that hurt others

Central Valley High school

Period: 1975 to 1979

Neil LaBute and his friends acted in their high school's productions of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Arsenic and Old Lace.

Labute Starts Working

1979

Partly out of boredom and frustration, and also fueled by a steady diet of films from being an usher at a cinema, LaBute began writing plays that would "speak" to him and his pals.

Birmingham Young University [BYU]

1980

He studied theater at (BYU), where he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At BYU he also met actor Aaron Eckhart who would later play leading roles in several of his films. He produced a number of plays that pushed the envelope of what was acceptable at the conservative religious university, some of which were shut down after their premieres. However, he also was honored as one of the “most promising undergraduate playwrights” at the BYU theater department’s annual awards.

Neil Labute converts to mormonism while at BYU

Period: 1980 to 1985

Labutes Idol

1981

LaBute’s style is very language-oriented. His work is terse, rhythmic, and highly colloquial. His style bears similarity to one of his favorite playwrights, David Mamet. LaBute even shares some similar themes with Mamet including gender relations, political correctness, and masculinity

Labute gets married

1985

LaBute married Lisa Gore, “a devout Mormon” and eventually the woman with whom he would have two children.

KU

Period: 1986 to 1989

LaBute attended the University of Kansas for his master’s degree.

New York

1991

LaBute went to New York University, where he graduated in 1991 with an MFA in Dramatic Writing. His MFA experience included a semester abroad at the Royal Court Theatre in London, a theatre known for producing provoking plays.

Early Work

1992

Men and women who should be emotionally and sexually satisfied and connected are not. What connects them is that they share the same place and language. Both sexes speak crudely in order to illustrate their ideas. There is a message nonetheless about the need of both men and women to examine themselves and their roles in romantic and sexual relationships, lest they become one of the unhappy and lonely men or women at the topless bar.

LaBute returned to BYU to start a Ph.D., but he never completed his coursework

Period: 1993 to 1995

In the company of men

1997

Chad (Aaron Eckhart) and Howard (Matt Malloy) are junior executives working in the Midwest who are sent on a six-week business trip, with Howard in charge of the project. Both are suffering from recent breakups with their girlfriends, and, in a twisted game of male domination, they vengefully plot to both romance a deaf secretary (Stacy Edwards) with the intention of simultaneously breaking up with her and thus destroying her fragile self-esteem.

CEO of Apple

1997

Jobs returned to Apple as CEO after the company's acquisition of NeXT. He was largely responsible for reviving Apple, which was on the verge of bankruptcy. [lots of male power going on during this time]

Presidency

Jan 20, 1997

President Bill Clinton and Vice President AI Gore began their second term in office.

Brief Marriage Separation

2000

LaBute’s dark writing later caused a separation between him and his wife and a brief estrangement from his children.

Drama Desk Award

2001

Labute wins Outstanding Play for The Shape of Things

World Trade Center Attacks

Sep 11, 2001

The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by the militant Islamist extremist network al-Qaeda against the United States.

The shape of Things

Nov 15, 2001

After a chance meeting at a museum, Evelyn and Adam embark on an intense relationship that causes shy and principled Adam to go to extraordinary lengths, including cosmetic surgery, and a betrayal of his best friend, to improve his appearance and character.

The Mercy Seat

2002

The Mercy Seat is a 2002 play by Neil LaBute that was among the first major theatrical responses to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Set on September 12, it concerns Ben, a man who worked at the World Trade Center but was away from the office during the attack, with his mistress, Abby, who is also his boss. Expecting that his family believes that he was killed in the towers' collapse, Ben contemplates using the tragedy to run away and start a new life with his lover.

Fat Pig

2004

Fat Pig tells the story of Tom, a stereotypical professional businessman in a large city, who falls for a very plus-size librarian named Helen. They meet in a crowded restaurant at lunchtime and begin speaking to each other. Tom is taken with her brash acceptance of the way people see her and her in-your-face honesty.

Some Girls

2005

Some Girl(s) is about a man only identified as "Guy" who is about to get married. Before his wedding, he decides to visit his ex-girlfriends, all of whom he mistreated. His exes include: Sam, his former high school sweetheart; Lindsay, a college professor from Boston; Tyler, his Chicago fling; and Bobbi, a woman from Los Angeles whom he actually could have ended up with.

Reasons to Be Pretty

Jun 2, 2008

The plot centers on four young working class friends and lovers who become increasingly dissatisfied with their dead-end lives and each other. Following The Shape of Things and Fat Pig, it is the final installment of a trilogy that focuses on modern-day obsession with physical appearance.

Olivier Awards

2009

Labute wins Best new comedy for Fat Pig

Tony award nominee

2009

The play Reasons to Be Prettywas nominated for three 2009 Tony Awards, including Best Play, Best Leading Actor in a Play (Thomas Sadoski), and Best Featured Actress in a Play (Marin Ireland), but did not win in any category

More Events

Period: 2010 to 2013

The Unimaginable, a short play, premiered as part of the Terror 2010 season at Southwark Playhouse in London, UK from October 12 – 31, 2010. He also took part in the Bush Theatre’s 2011 project Sixty Six Books, for which he wrote a piece based upon a book of the King James Bible. In 2012 he joined Chicago-based store front theatre company Profiles Theatre as a Resident Artist. In 2013, he was named winner of the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Arts and Letters Awards in Literature.

Present

2023

Neil Labute is still alive! Labute focuses more on making films these days. As of now Labute has 27 plays. It is said that he is now working on a new film and the revival of "The Shape of Things" that is set to be played at Park theater

Works Cited

2023

http://www.filmreference.com/film/30/Neil-LaBute.html
https://www.theatregold.com/content/neil-labute/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_LaBute
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1115&context=scripps_theses
https://networthpost.org/neil-labute-net-worth/#tab-content-5
https://www.tribute.ca/people/biography/neil-labute/1800/
https://dramatica.com/articles/in-the-company-of-men
https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2018/cteq/la-peau-douce/