Keith Curran (February 29, 1956 – September 18, 2024) was an American playwright and actor.

Life and career

Curran grew up in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. He had nightmares as a child and used that experience, as well as his desire to have a child, as a basis for his 1989 stage play ''Dalton's Back''. The play juxtaposes scenes about a boy's relationship with his mother with scenes of the boy as an adult who thinks he wants to have a child. ''

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'' said that while Curran's approach is earnest, it is not "particularly revelatory or theatrical to draw straight lines between related events from childhood and adulthood". Critic John Simon called the play boring. ''Dalton's Back'' ran from February 9 to March 5, 1989, at the

Circle Rep The Circle Repertory Company, originally named the Circle Theater Company, was a theatre company in New York City that ran from 1969 to 1996. It was founded on July 14, 1969, in Manhattan, in a second floor loft at Broadway and 83rd Street by di ...

. Curran's next play, ''Walking the Dead'', follows a lesbian who has a sex change to become a man and is murdered by homophobes. Simon commented that the purpose of the play, also performed by the Circle Rep, was to "irritate the hell" out of the audience, and that it spewed bile equally at heterosexuals and bisexuals. Two selections from ''Walking the Dead'' were included in ''The Best Men's Stage Monologues of 1991''. His play ''The Stand In'' was included in ''The Actor's Book of Gay and Lesbian Plays''. ''

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'' said the play "epitomizes the best in small theater: A sharp, funny script ...

hich Ij () is a village in Golabar Rural District of the Central District in Ijrud County, Zanjan province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq ...

skewers nearly anything that moves, including filmmakers, publicists, talkshows, award shows, religions, gay activists, journalists and musician Yanni". Curran's on-stage work included the musicals ''

Just So ''Just So Stories for Little Children'' is a 1902 collection of Pourquoi story, origin stories by the British author Rudyard Kipling. Considered a classic of children's literature, the book is among Kipling's best known works. Kipling began ...

'' (as the Giraffe) and ''

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''. While Simon panned the production of ''Just So'', calling it insipid, he singled out Curran and Teresa Burrell stating that their performances were "flavorous" and overcame the poor material. Curren was gay."States of Schlock". ''

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'', May 27, 1991. He died on September 18, 2024, at the age of 68.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curran, Keith 1956 births 2024 deaths American dramatists and playwrights American gay actors American gay writers American LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights American male dramatists and playwrights American male stage actors LGBTQ people from Massachusetts Writers from Boston