John Guare (pronounced gwâr, born 5 February 1938) is an American playwright. He is best known as the author of The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation. His style, which mixes comic invention with an acute sense of the failure of human relations and aspirations, is at once cruel and deeply compassionate. Template:Unsourced A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is someone who writes dramatic literature or drama. ... Six Degrees of Separation is a 1993 film based on the John Guare play, starring Stockard Channing, Donald Sutherland and Will Smith. ...

In the foreword to a collection of Guare's plays, film director Louis Malle writes: Louis Malle (October 30, 1932 – November 23, 1995) was a French film director. ...

Guare practices a humor that is synonymous with lucidity, exploding genre and clichés, taking us to the core of human suffering: the awareness of corruption in our own bodies, death circling in. We try to fight it all by creating various mythologies, and it is Guare's peculiar aptitude for exposing these grandiose lies of ours that makes his work so magical.

Life

Guare was born in New York City and raised in Queens. He was raised a Roman Catholic, but now seems to be lapsed [1]. He was educated at Georgetown University, (BA, 1960) and Yale School of Drama, (MFA, 1963). His early plays, mostly comic one-acts exhibiting a flair for the absurd, include To Wally Pantoni, We Leave a Credenza (1964), Muzeeka (1968), and Cop-Out (1968). The House of Blue Leaves (1971), a domestic drama by turns wildly comic and despairingly desperate, moved Guare into the front ranks of American dramatists. Chaucer in Rome, a sequel to The House of Blue Leaves, received its world premiere at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in July 1999 and later enjoyed a production in New York by Lincoln Center Theater. The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... The term lapsed Catholic describes a person raised as a Roman Catholic who no longer practices the religion. ... Georgetown University, formally the The President and Directors of the College of Georgetown, is a private university in the United States, located in Georgetown, a historic neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded on January 23, 1789 by Archbishop John Carroll, it is both the oldest Roman Catholic and oldest Jesuit... Yale School of Drama traces its roots to the Yale Dramatic Association, the second oldest college theatre association in the country, founded in 1900. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...

Later plays include Marco Polo Sings a Solo, Moon Over Miami, Six Degrees of Separation, and Four Baboons Adoring the Sun. Lake Hollywood and A Few Stout Individuals (2002) both received their world premieres at Signature Theatre. Six Degrees of Separation (1990), an intricately plotted comedy of manners about an African-American confidence man who poses as the son of film star Sidney Poitier, has been the most highly praised and widely produced of Guare's full-length plays. It was made into a film in 1993. The song Moon Over Miami was written in 1935 by a couple of non-performers named Joe Burke & Edgar Leslie. ... Six Degrees of Separation is a 1993 film based on the John Guare play, starring Stockard Channing, Donald Sutherland and Will Smith. ... Six Degrees of Separation is a 1993 film based on the John Guare play, starring Stockard Channing, Donald Sutherland and Will Smith. ... Sidney Poitier (left) on the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C., with Harry Belafonte and Charlton Heston Sidney Poitier KBE (pronounced PWA-tee-AY) (born February 20, 1927), is a Bahamian American Academy Award-winning actor (film and stage), film director, and activist. ...

Guare’s cycle of plays on nineteenth-century America, Gardenia, Lydie Breeze and Women and Water, has been performed in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington D.C., London and Australia. A Few Stout Individuals returns to nineteenth century America, with a cast that includes Ulysses S. Grant, Mark Twain, soprano Jenny Lind and the Emperor and Empress of Japan. These historic dramas investigate the violence at the root of American identity and the failure of utopian aspirations. Species See text. ... Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant, April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was an American general and politician who was elected as the 18th President of the United States (1869–1877). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, the lead section of this article may need to be expanded. ... Jenny Lind in La Sonnambula. ...

Guare has also been involved with musical theatre. His libretto with Mel Shapiro for the musical Two Gentleman of Verona was a success when it premiered in 1972, and was revived in 2005 at the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park. He wrote the songs for Landscape of the Body. Guare wrote narration for '"Psyche,"' a tone poem by César Franck, which premiered at Avery Fisher Hall in October of 1997, conducted by Kurt Masur with the New York Philharmonic. In 1999, he revised the book of the Cole Porter musical comedy, Kiss Me, Kate for its Broadway revival. He also wrote the book for the Broadway musical Sweet Smell of Success. César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck (December 10, 1822 – November 8, 1890), a composer, organist and music teacher of Belgian origin, was one of the great figures in classical music in France (and the world) in the second half of the 19th century. ... Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter from Indiana. ... Kiss Me, Kate is a stage musical by Samuel and Bella Spewack (book) and Cole Porter (music and lyrics) that ran for 1,077 performances and was first performed in New York on December 30, 1948. ... Sweet Smell of Success is a 1957 film which tells the story of a powerful newspaper columnist who uses his connections to ruin his sisters relationship with a man he deems inappropriate. ...

Guare wrote the screenplay for Louis Malle's film Atlantic City (1980). Louis Malle (October 30, 1932 – November 23, 1995) was a French film director. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ...

He was a founding member in 1965 of the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center in Waterford, Connecticut and Resident Playwright at the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1976. He is a council member of the Dramatists Guild, co-editor of the Lincoln Center Theater Review and co-produces the New Plays Reading Room Series at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts. 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... New York Shakespeare Festival is the traditional name of a sequence of shows organized by the Public Theater, most often being held at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... The Dramatists Guild of America is a professional organization for playwrights, composers, and lyricists working in the U.S. theatre market. ...

Works

• (1971) The House of Blue Leaves
• (1971) Two Gentlemen of Verona
• (1974) Rich and Famous
• (1977) Landscape of the Body
• (1979) Bosoms and Neglect
• (1982) Lydie Breeze
• (1982) Gardenia
• (1990) Six Degrees of Separation
• (1990) Women and Water
• (1999) Lake Hollywood
• (2002) A Few Stout Individuals

Six Degrees of Separation is a 1993 film based on the John Guare play, starring Stockard Channing, Donald Sutherland and Will Smith. ...

Awards and honors

• Muzeeka won an Obie in 1968.
• The House of Blue Leaves won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play in 1971 and four Tony Awards for its 1986 revival at Lincoln Center Theater.
• Two Gentlemen of Verona won both the Tony Award the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical in 1972.
• Six Degrees of Separation won an Obie Award, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and London’s Olivier Award for Best Play.
• Mr. Guare received the Award of Merit from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for his plays The House of Blue Leaves, Rich and Famous, Marco Polo Sings a Solo, Landscape of the Body and Bosoms and Neglect.
• In 1989, the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters elected him a member.
• In 1993 he was elected to the Theatre Hall of Fame.
• In 1996 he received the New York State Governor’s Arts Award.
• Signature Theatre honored him with a season 1998 - 1999.
• In 1999 he was honored at the William Inge Festival.
• In 2003 he won The PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Awards for Drama.

What is popularly called the Tony Award (formally, the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre) is an annual award celebrating achievements in live American theater, including musical theater, primarily honoring productions on Broadway in New York. ... The Two Gentlemen of Verona is a comedy by Shakespeare from early in his career. ... What is popularly called the Tony Award (formally, the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre) is an annual award celebrating achievements in live American theater, including musical theater, primarily honoring productions on Broadway in New York. ... // 1940s 1949 Kiss Me, Kate - Music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Bella and Samuel Spewack. ... Six Degrees of Separation is a 1993 film based on the John Guare play, starring Stockard Channing, Donald Sutherland and Will Smith. ... The American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters was formed in 1976 from the merger of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, which was founded in 1898, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which was founded in 1904. ...

External links

• John Guare at the Internet Movie Database
• Biography at theatredatabase.com