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Lee Blessing is a prolific writer whose plays have been performed on London’s West End, on Broadway, in major regional theaters across the United States and all over the world. $$PLAIN_TEXT_PREVIEW$$
Celebrating the birth & legacy of
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“Of course I don’t think of myself as a writer of historical pieces. But current events have that pesky habit of turning into history over time, don’t they? My only ambition is to write plays that people are still going to want to see 20 years from now.” — Lee Blessing, Timeline Theatre Interview
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Lee Blessing is a prolific writer whose plays have been performed on London’s West End, on Broadway, in major regional theaters across the United States and all over the world. Time Magazine called him, “America’s most imaginative playwright on public issues” and critical writer Philip Zwerling wrote, “It would be simply impossible to imagine contemporary American theater without Lee Blessing.”
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Mr. Blessing’s work has been recognized with Tony, Drama Desk, Obie and Olivier Award nominations, as well as a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize. He is the recipient of the Humanitas Award (Cooperstown) and Outer Critics Award (Going to St. Ives) among many other honors and fellowships. Three of his nearly fifty plays have been produced by Actors Co-op: Going to St. Ives (2014), A Walk in the Woods (2018) and A Body of Water (2020, world premiere new ending).
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He was born on October 4, 1949 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He attended Reed College in Oregon where he earned a BA in English. (The story goes, after earning his degree, his parents offered him the choice between a used car or a trip to Russia. Blessing chose Russia where he found inspiration to write his best-known work, A Walk in the Woods). He also earned two MFAs from the University of Iowa in the Graduate Playwriting Program and poetry program of the Graduate Writers Workshop.
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“Art, I think, is a kind of breathing. It develops in us aesthetic and spiritual ‘lungs,’ as it were. It keeps us from suffocating in this world’s atmosphere of inevitable tragedy, misfortune, and horror.” — Lee Blessing
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His first play, The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid (1980) received the National Playwriting Award of the American College Theater Festival. His career quickly took flight as recipient of the Jerome Foundation Playwriting Grant and as a participant in the O’Neill Playwrights Conference. His play Independence (1984) won the Great American Play Award of Actors Theatre of Louisville. Eleemosynary (1985) one of his most acclaimed works, received four L.A. Drama Critics Awards including Best Play. Three years later, A Walk in the Woods premiered on Broadway at the Booth Theatre starring Sam Waterston and Robert Prosky. The play was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play and was also nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play later played on the West End starring Sir Alec Guinness and Edward Herrmann. It was also adapted into a 1989 television movie written by Blessing.
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Additional plays include Two Rooms (1988), Down the Road (1989), Cobb (1989), Fortinbras (1991), Patient A (1993), Chesapeake (1999), Whores (2002), The Scottish Play (2005; commissioned by the Guthrie Theater in 2002), Great Falls (2008) and many, many more. Blessing’s recent play, Tea With the Boss, was set to premiere at New Jersey Repertory theatre in July, 2020, but was postponed due to the pandemic. |
As an educator, Blessing has taught at the Playwright’s Center in Minneapolis, Actors Studio at the New School, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, headed the graduate playwriting program at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University and is currently a mentor to emerging playwrights at the Skylight Theatre in Los Angeles. A playwright whose range and emotional depth are far-reaching, Lee Blessing is one of America’s great playwright’s whose work continues to be celebrated around the world. |
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“Lee Blessing’s plays constitute an unrivaled body of work that has helped enliven American theater in both the second half of the 20th century and first half of the 21st century.” — Philip Zwerling, Author, The Theatre of Lee Blessing
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Learn more about LEE BLESSING:
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We will celebrate the birth of Lee Blessing with a performance from one of his plays by Actors Co-op company member, Joseph Barone!
This performance will be delivered to you for safe viewing at home, via email. |
In case you missed it . . .
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Actors Co-op joins TOGETHER LA: A Virtual Stage Festival
34 intimate theatre companies have collaborated to showcase new 10-minute works created specifically for a digital platform. Together LA Festival celebrates the vibrant and diverse intimate theatre of Los Angeles. Actors Co-op’s entry streams October 17th! Click below to RSVP! |
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Actors Co-op joins TOGETHER LA: A Virtual Stage Festival
34 intimate theatre companies have collaborated to showcase new 10-minute works created specifically for a digital platform. Together LA Festival celebrates the vibrant and diverse intimate theatre of Los Angeles. Actors Co-op’s entry streams October 17th! Click below to RSVP! |
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