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Tracy S. Letts is an American playwright, screenwriter and actor. $$PLAIN_TEXT_PREVIEW$$
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Celebrating the birth & legacy of
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“There is something intrinsic about where we come from that shows up in our work. Oklahoma has its own story, and if you grow up there, then you grow up as part of that story. You inherit that story. It becomes a part of who you are. I think that’s really true about us as American artists.” — Tracy Letts
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Tracy S. Letts is an American playwright, screenwriter and actor. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play for his production, August: Osage County (2007), and the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his portrayal of George in the revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2013).
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He was born on July 4, 1965 in Tulsa, Oklahoma to author Billie Letts and college professor and actor Dennis Letts. His first story, which he wrote when he was six years old, was called The Psychopath, about a man who hung himself while shooting himself in the head. Instead of suggesting the young Letts see a psychiatrist, his first-grade teacher gave him an A-plus.
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Inspired by his father’s work in community theatre, Letts moved to Dallas after high school where he waited tables while building his acting resume. At age 20, he moved to Chicago and began his long relationship with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, first as an actor in productions such as The Glass Menagerie and Picasso At the Lapin Agile and later as a playwright. His first play, Killer Joe (1993), premiered at a small theatre outside of Chicago and was eventually accepted by the fringe festival in Edinburgh, Scotland (with Steve Martin putting up the bulk of the money to send it overseas). His next play, Bug, premiered in 1996 and after a lengthy run in London, made its American debut in Ithaca, New York and eventually ran off-Broadway in 1998 for nine months.
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“Artists have been telling stories of love and compassion, of responsibility and reconciliation since humans acquired language. Right now, from where I stand, it doesn’t seem to have done us much good. What happened? How have we failed? And then I splash some water on my face and pour a cup of coffee and head back to the typewriter. I don’t know what else to do.” — Tracy Letts
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Killer Joe, set in a trailer park and Bug, set in a seedy motel are both dark, edgy comedies which were eventually made into films directed by William Friedkin, with Letts writing the screenplays.
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After a brief stint in Los Angeles where he appeared in a handful of television shows, he returned to Chicago in 2002 joining the Steppenwolf ensemble. His play, The Man from Nebraska premiered there in 2003. The story of an insurance agent’s loss of religious faith, it represented a departure from his blood-and-guts material and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. |
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His next play, August: Osage County premiered at Steppenwolf in 2007 and opened on Broadway that same year. Described by The New York Times as a “fiercely funny and bitingly sad, turbo-charged tragicomedy,” it was the recipient of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and received five Tony Awards including Best Play. A film adaptation for which Letts penned the screenplay premiered in 2013 and featured Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts and Chris Cooper.
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Other plays include Superior Donuts (2008) centering on a doughnut shop owner who struggles to deal with his altered surroundings, Linda Vista (2017), a comedy about a mid-life crisis and The Minutes (2017), which was set to open on Broadway in 2020, but was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2009, Letts made his Broadway debut as an actor in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? for which he earned the Tony Award for Best Actor. He has also appeared on Homeland, HBO’s Divorce and a number of feature films including Lady Bird (2017) and Little Women (2019). In his review of August: Osage County, Charles Isherwood of The New York Times wrote: It’s theater that continually keeps you hooked with shocks, surprises and delights, although it has a moving, heart-sore core. Watching it is like sitting at home on a rainy night, greedily devouring two, three, four episodes of your favorite series in a row on DVR or DVD. You will leave the theater emotionally wrung out and exhausted from laughing, but you may still find yourself hungry for more.” — Charles Isherwood, The New York Times
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“One of the things we’re supposed to be able to do as playwrights is write from a place of empathy, get into another character’s shoes and experience things both mundane and tragic. And people aren’t necessarily the most eloquent when trying to express their emotions. I guess I feel as a playwright that those people deserve a voice, too . . . If somebody can get up and express themselves in a beautifully phrased poetic monologue, I sometimes think that leaves the little guy out. Sometimes it leaves me out.”— Tracy Letts
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Learn More About
TRACY LETTS:
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We will celebrate the birth of Tracy Letts with a performance from one of his plays by Actors Co-op company member, Nan McNamara!
This performance will be delivered to you for safe viewing at home, via email. |
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An announcement on dates of our return will be coming soon! |
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Give a gift!As we look to the future with hope,
we are so grateful to our community!
Your generosity helps us
keep the lights on while our stages are dark.
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