Richard Greenberg (born February 22, 1958) is an American playwright and television writer known for his subversively humorous depictions of middle-class American life. He has had more than 25 plays premiere on and Off-Broadway in New York City and eight at the South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa, California, including The Violet Hour, Everett Beekin, and Hurrah at Last.[1][2]
Greenberg is perhaps best known for his 2003 Tony Award winning play, Take Me Out, about the conflicts that arise after a Major League Baseball player nonchalantly announces to the media that he is gay. The play premiered in London and ran in New York as the first collaboration between England's Donmar Warehouse and New York's Public Theater.[3] After it transferred to Broadway in early 2003, Take Me Out won widespread critical acclaim for Greenberg and many prestigious awards.
Background and education
Greenberg grew up in East Meadow, New York, a middle-class Long Island town in Nassau County, east of New York City. His father, Leon Greenberg, was an executive for New York's Century Theaters movie chain, and his mother Shirley was a homemaker.[4] Greenberg graduated from East Meadow High School in 1976 and went on to attend Princeton University, where he graduated magna cum laude with an A.B. in English.[5] As part of his degree, Greenberg completed a 438-page senior thesis titled "A Romantic Career - A Novel".[6] At Princeton, Greenberg studied creative writing under Joyce Carol Oates and roomed with future Harvardeconomics professor Greg Mankiw. Later he attended Harvard for graduate work in English and American literature, but dropped out of the program when he was accepted to the Yale School of Drama's playwriting program in 1985.[5]
His play The Babylon Line premiered Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater on November 10, 2016, in previews, and officially on December 5.[18] Directed by Terry Kinney, the cast features Josh Radnor as a writing teacher and Elizabeth Reaser as his student.[19] The play was first performed at New York Stage and Film & Vassar College's Powerhouse Theater in June and July 2014, starring Radnor.[20]
Style
The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary American Playwrights describes Greenberg's "most prominent" interest as history "and (also) the past". He has a strong "tendency to draw on historical characters or events——the Lost Generation, the Collyer Brothers, the New York Yankees" as sources for his material. He is said to have a "witty use of language."[21]
^Bryer, Jackson R. and Hartig, Mary C. "Richard Greenberg"The Facts on File Companion to American Drama, Infobase Publishing, 2010, ISBN1438129661, p.207
^Guernsey, Otis L. and Sweet, Jeffrey. "Eastern Standard"The Best Plays of 1988-1989: The Complete Broadway and Off-Broadway Sourcebook Hal Leonard Corporation, 1989, ISBN1557830568, p. 172
^"Richard Greenberg". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. 2012. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
^Innes, Christopher (and others) editor, "Richard Greenberg"The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary American Playwrights (no page number), A&C Black, 2013, ISBN1408134810
