Rebecca Gilman (born 1965 in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

) is an American playwright.

Education

She attended Middlebury College, graduated from Birmingham-Southern College, and earned a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...

Career

Gilman was the first American playwright to win an ''Evening Standard'' Award. She serves on the advisory board for Chicago Dramatists. She has received the 2008

Harper Lee Award The Harper Lee Award for Alabama's Distinguished Writer of the Year is an annual award recognizing a writer who was born in Alabama or has spent their formative years there. It is named after Harper Lee, whose ''To Kill A Mockingbird'' has sold ove ...

. Her most widely known works are '' Spinning Into Butter'', a play that addresses political correctness and racial identity, and '' Boy Gets Girl'', which was included in ''Time Magazines List of the Best Plays and Musicals of the Decade. A production of her adaptation of ''The Heart is a Lonely Hunter'' was the occasion of a protest by actors who felt only a deaf person should play a deaf person on stage. She currently teaches at

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sy ...

's School of Theatre and Dance as Head of Playwriting. When asked about her influences, she remarked that "I'm a big fan of

Wallace Shawn Wallace Michael Shawn (born November 12, 1943) is an American actor, playwright, and essayist. His film roles include Wally Shawn (a fictionalized version of himself) in '' My Dinner with Andre'' (1981), Vizzini in ''The Princess Bride'' (1987), ...

. He's incredibly smart and the only writer who writes about intellectuals in a complicated and even contradictory way. He's really funny, too. I also like

Donald Margulies Donald Margulies (born September 2, 1954) is an American playwright and academic. In 2000, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play ''Dinner with Friends''. Background and education Margulies attended John Dewey High School in Broo ...

Kenneth Lonergan Kenneth Lonergan (born October 16, 1962) is an American film director, playwright, and screenwriter. He is the co-writer of the film ''Gangs of New York'' (2002), and wrote and directed '' You Can Count on Me'' (2000), ''Margaret'' (2011), and ' ...

, and

Conor McPherson Conor McPherson (born 6 August 1971) is an Irish playwright, screenwriter and director of stage and film. In recognition of his contribution to world theatre, McPherson was awarded a doctorate of Literature, Honoris Causa, in June 2013 by the Un ...

... Caryl Churchill,

Kia Corthron Kia Corthron (born May 13, 1961) is an American playwright, activist, television writer, and novelist. Early life and education Kia Corthron was born on May 13, 1961, in Cumberland, Maryland. Corthron's father worked at a paper mill in the ar ...

, and a Chicago playwright, Jamie Pachino."

Plays

* Swing State (2022) *''Twilight Bowl'' (2019) * ''Luna Gale'' (2014) *''Dollhouse'', adapted from Henrik Ibsen's play (2010) *''The Crowd You're In With'' (2009) *''Lord Butterscotch and the Curse of the Darkwater Phantom'' (co-written with Lisa Dillman and Brett Neveu, 2007) *''

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter ''The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter'' (1940) is the debut novel by the American author Carson McCullers; she was 23 at the time of publication. It is about a deaf man named John Singer and the people he encounters in a 1930s mill town in the US state ...

'' (2005), adapted from the novel by

Carson McCullers Carson McCullers (February 19, 1917 – September 29, 1967) was an American novelist, short-story writer, playwright, essayist, and poet. Her first novel, '' The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter'' (1940), explores the spiritual isolation of misfits ...

*'' The Boys are Coming Home'' (book by Gilman, music and lyrics by Leslie Arden, 2005) *''The Sweetest Swing in Baseball'' (2004) *''The American in Me'' (2001) *''

The Glory of Living ''The Glory of Living'' is a 1996 Play (theatre), play by Rebecca Gilman. The play received its first production at the Circle Theatre Chicago in Forest Park, Illinois. The play has won several awards and was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Priz ...

'' (2001) *''Blue Surge'' (2001) *'' Spinning Into Butter'' (2000) *'' Boy Gets Girl'' (2000) *''The Crime of the Century'' (1999) *''My Sin and Nothing More'' (1997) *''The Land of Little Horses'' (1997)

Personal life and awards

Rebecca Gilman was born in 1965 in Trussville, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham. She currently resides in Chicago. Her plays deal with contemporary societal issues.Stacks, Geoffrey. "Simon wasn't there: the Sambo strategy, consumable theater, and Rebecca Gilman's Spinning into Butter." ''African American Review'', 40.2 (2006): 285-298. Gilman received the Scott McPherson Award for her play ''The Glory of Living''. This award is a commission given by the Goodman Theatre in memory of the late playwright Scott McPherson. ''

'' (2001) also earned her an M. Elizabeth Osborn Award, an After Dark Award, a Jeff Citation, the George Devine Award, and the ''Evening Standard'' Award for Most Promising Playwright . ''The Glory of Living'' earned her a finalist nomination for the Pulitzer Prize. Gilman received the Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays as well as a Jeff Award for ''Spinning into Butter''.See Gilman, Rebecca. ''Spinning into Butter''. 2nd edn. New York: Faber and Faber, Inc., 2000. According to Chris Jones, this play made her "One of America's most talked-about and sought-after playwrights."Jones, Chris. "Spotlighting Racism Brings Anxiety as Well as Success." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', July 23, 2000, II.5 sec. She has also been awarded Illinois Arts Council playwriting fellowship. Rebecca Gilman was an associate professor of playwriting and screenwriting at Northwestern University from 2006 to 2019 and is now a professor and head of playwriting at Texas Tech University. She is an artistic associate at the Goodman Theatre and also serves on the board of the

Dramatists Guild of America The Dramatists Guild of America is a professional organization for playwrights, composers, and lyricists working in the U.S. theatre market. Membership as an Associate Member is open to any person having written at least one stage play. Active M ...

.
dramatistsguild.com

References

External links

Rebecca Gilman's alumna page at the Birmingham Southern College website

Rebecca Gilman - Eclipse Theatre Company's 2006 featured playwright
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilman, Rebecca 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights Middlebury College alumni University of Iowa alumni 1964 births Living people Birmingham–Southern College alumni 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers American women dramatists and playwrights People from Trussville, Alabama Writers from Alabama