Robert Chesley (March 22, 1943,

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, second-most populous

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) was a playwright, theater critic and musical composer.

Biography

Chesley earned his B.A. in music from

Reed College Reed College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland, Portland, Oregon, E ...

in 1965. Between 1965 and 1975 he composed the music to over five dozen songs and choral works, chiefly to texts by poets such as

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James Agee James Rufus Agee ( ; November 27, 1909 – May 16, 1955) was an American novelist, journalist, poet, screenwriter and film critic. In the 1940s, writing for ''Time'', he was one of the most influential film critics in the United States. His autob ...

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and

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incor ...

. His instrumental works include the score to a 1972 film by Erich Kollmar. In 1976 he moved to San Francisco and became theater critic at the

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, during its golden period when composer-actor Robert DiMatteo was also on the staff as film critic. In 1980 Theatre Rhinoceros produced Chesley's first one-act, ''Hell, I Love You''; in 1984 his ''Night Sweat'' became one of the first produced full-length plays to deal with AIDS. In December 1981, he wrote a series of letters challenging gay writer and activist

Larry Kramer Laurence David Kramer (June 25, 1935May 27, 2020) was an American playwright, author, film producer, public health advocate, and gay rights activist. He began his career rewriting scripts while working for Columbia Pictures, which led him to Lo ...

in the ''

New York Native The ''New York Native'' was a biweekly gay newspaper published by Charles Ortleb in New York City from December 1980 until January 13, 1997. It was the only gay paper in New York City during the early part of the AIDS epidemic, and pioneered repo ...

''. Among his concerns were Kramer's role as an alarmist and his claims that the sexual habits of gay men in New York were connected to

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. In Chesley's letters, he asserted that Kramer's works had an ulterior motive, to associate gay promiscuity with death and stating that Kramer's warnings represented "homophobia and anti-eroticism." On August 31, 1986, his two-character play, '' Jerker'', aired on the

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station

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's IMRU Program. Its frank sexual language immediately stirred controversy; later that year the FCC rewrote its rules governing the broadcast of "questionable" works, citing ''Jerker'' as the test case. He was also co-founder of the Three-Dollar Bill Theater in New York City. In total, Chesley wrote 10 full-length and 21 one-act plays. Several works were premiered posthumously and several of his major plays have been published. Chesley died of AIDS in San Francisco at the age of 47. The Robert Chesley Award for Lesbian and Gay Playwriting, given annually by

Publishing Triangle The Publishing Triangle, founded in 1988 by Robin Hardy, is an American association of gay men and lesbians in the publishing industry. They sponsor an annual National Lesbian and Gay Book Month, and have sponsored the annual Triangle Awards prog ...

, is named in his honor. The Robert Chesley/Victor Bumbalo Foundation was established in 1993 to support playwrights of LGBT theatre, and has been in partnership with the

Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico is an artist residency program in the artists' colony of Taos, New Mexico. The Foundation, which offers prize fellowships to painters, poets, sculptors, writers, playwrights, composers, photographers an ...

in Taos, New Mexico, since 2009 to annually award a residency at the Foundation and a stipend to a selected playwright.

Plays

*''Beatitudes'' (1984) *''Come Again: An Entertainment During The Siege'' (1987) *''Dog Plays'' (1989) *''Wild (Person, Tense) Dog'' *''The Deploration of Rover'' *''Hold'' *''Happy V.D.'' *''April First'' *''Arbor Day'' *''Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts'' *''The Scream'' *''A Christmas Card'' *''Hell, I Love You and Breaking Up: Fragments'' (1981) *''Madeleine de Lucien'' (1985) *'' Jerker, or The Helping Hand: A Pornographic Elegy with Redeeming Social Value and a Hymn to the Queer Men of San Francisco in Twenty Telephone Calls, Many of Them Dirty'' (1986) *''A Dog's Life'' *''Maggie's Play'' *''Somebody's Little Boy'' *''The Lost Doll'' *''Laughter and Tears'' *''Et Tu, Lesbo'' *''Nocturnes'' (1983) *''Night Sweat'' (1983) *''Pigman: A Comedy in Three Acts'' (1985-6) *''Private Theatricals: Morning, Noon & Night'' (1990) *''Stray Dog Story : An Adventure In Ten Scenes'' (1981)

References

External links

*
Robert Chesley papers, 1978-2005
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, is located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, in the Lincoln Center complex on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, New York City. Situated between the Metropolitan O ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chesley, Robert 1943 births 1990 deaths Writers from Jersey City, New Jersey American male composers 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights AIDS-related deaths in California American gay musicians American gay writers American LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights American LGBTQ composers 20th-century American composers American male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American male musicians Gay dramatists and playwrights Gay composers Reed College alumni 20th-century American LGBTQ people