Wilson, Lanford
Wilson, Lanford( 1937– ),Missouri-born playwright, reared by his mother in the Ozarks and then in the Midwest until, as a teenager, he went to southern California to be with his long-divorced father. Wilson's dramatic career began at Caffe Cino, a small off-off-Broadway coffeehouse in Greenwich Village. His one-act plays produced there include So Long at the Fair (1963); Home Free (1964), about the incestuous love of a brother and sister; and The Madness of Lady Bright (1964), presenting a pathetic, aging, flamboyant homosexual. These were followed by a move to off-Broadway with the full-length plays Balm in Gilead (1964), a view of life in an all-night New York diner; and The Rimers of Eldritch (1965), depicting blighted lives in a Midwestern ghost town. This Is the Rill Speaking (1965) is a happier nostalgic view of life in an Ozarks village. Wilson's plays moved to Broadway and other major...
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