A.R. Gurney

November 1, 1930 - June 13, 2017

Playwright, Novelist, Professor

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2016, May | Obie Awards - Lifetime Achievement

During his lifetime, A.R. Gurney wrote over 50 plays, musicals and Novels. Published versions of his work are available on Dramatist Listed Play Service (DPS), Broadway Play Publishing (BPP), or Samuel French Inc. (SF).

For the convenience of those who are interested in staging them, the works are presented here on five pages: Small Casts, Larger Casts, Shorter Plays, and Musicals, and Novels. On each page, the works are listed alphabetically. Each production is accompanied by the date of its first professional performance, its casting requirements, the nature of its set, where to obtain a script, and a short commentary focused primarily on the play’s initial production.

The novels are described under their own category. All three are currently out of print but presumably can be found through Amazon.com. Each individual play, musical, or novels are listed below, in alphabetical order,  linked to it’s appropriate page

Ancestral Voices • Another Antigone • Big Bill • Black Tie • Buffalo Gal • Central Park West (opera libretto) • A Cheever Evening • Children • The Cocktail Hour • The Comeback • Darlene • Crazy Mary • The Dining Room • Entertaining Strangers (novel) • Family Furniture • Far East • The Fourth Wall • The Golden Age • The Golden Fleece • The Gospel According to Joe (novel) • The Grand Manner • The Guest Lecturer • Heresy • Human Events • Indian Blood • Labor Day • Later Life • Let’s Do It (musical) • A Light Lunch • The Love Course • Love Letters • Love and Money • The Middle Ages • Mrs. Farnsworth • O Jerusalem • Office Hours • The Old One-Two • The Open Meeting • Overtime • The Old Boy • The Perfect Party • The Problem • Post Mortem • The Rape of Bunny Stuntz • Richard Cory • Richard Cory (musical) • Scenes from American Life • Screen Play • The Snow Ball • The Snow Ball (novel) • Strawberry Fields (opera libretto) • Sweet Sue • Sylvia • Two Class Acts • The Wayside Motor Inn (1977) • The Wayside Motor Inn (2015) • What I Did Last Summer (1982) • What I Did Last Summer (2015)
Education

1948 – 1952 | BA Williams College

1955 – 1958 | MFA Yale School of Drama

Honorary Degrees

1984 | Williams College

1992 | Buffalo State University

Awards and Recognitions

1971, 1982, 1989, 1996 | Drama Desk Award Most Outstanding Play

1977 | Rockefeller Foundation

1981 | National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship for Playwrights Award

1985, 1990 | Pulitzer Prize Nominee

1987 | New England Theatre Conference

1989 | Lucille Lortel The Cocktail Hour Outstanding Play

1994 | MIT McDermott Award

1996 | American Association of Community Theatre

2004 | Inductee Theater Hall of Fame

2006 | American Academy of Arts and Letters

2007 | American Dramatist PEL/Laura International Theater Award

2016 | Obie Lifetime Achievement Award