Wilson, Lanford (Vol. 7) - Wilson, Lanford 1937–

Wilson, Lanford 1937–

Wilson is an award-winning American playwright associated with off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway theatre, especially as director, actor, and set designer for Caffe Cino and La Mama Experimental Theater Club. (See Also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 17-20, rev. ed.)

A number of talented young playwrights either worked or started at La Mama, among them Lanford Wilson, whose This Is the Rill Speaking used sound patterns, movement, intertwining time and song to paint a picture of a hillbilly town, its people and its rhythm. A sugar-free Our Town, it found loved life in a dramatic collage of back porches, cars—everywhere. Moreover, it was an early example of a movement away from the intelligibility of dialogue. This sounds silly, but if you listen carefully there is an overlap to daily conversation that turns meaningful words into the beat and music of existence itself. Wilson grasped the feel and rhythm of...

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