Compare John Guare’s visual imagery in two plays.

Compare Guare’s musical imagery in two plays.

What are the thematic similarities of The House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation, and Four Baboons Adoring the Sun?

Compare Guare’s treatment of dysfunctional families in two plays.

What is Guare saying about Roman Catholicism in The House of Blue Leaves?

How is show business a metaphor in The House of Blue Leaves?

Is the theory of six degrees of separation merely a plot device, or is it central to the themes of Six Degrees of Separation?

How is the 1980 film Atlantic City similar to Guare’s plays?

John Guare’s short teleplay Kissing Sweet, a satirical pastiche about pollution, appeared as part of New York’s WNED-TV program Foul! on November 25, 1969. His 1971 screenplay for director Milo Forman’s Taking Off was actually a revision of a script by Forman and Jean-Claude Carrière. His screenplay Atlantic City (1981) was Guare’s original work. The 1986 revival of The House of Blue Leaves resulted in a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) televised version on the Great Performances series; similarly, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) broadcast on radio a version of Women and Water in October of 1988. In 1993 Guare wrote his own screenplay for the MGM film version of Six Degrees of Separation.

Although John Guare has been recognized from early in his career as one of the United States’ best playwrights Off-Broadway, the distinction of success on Broadway was late in coming. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, among the early ones Off-Broadway’s Obie Award in 1968 honoring Muzeeka as the Best Distinguished Play of the Year. The following year, Variety magazine named Guare the Most Promising Playwright of 1969. The House of Blue Leaves won for him another Obie Award, in 1971, as well as the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, also in 1971, for Best American Play of the Year and an Outer Critics Circle Award. In 1972, Guare was honored with Broadway’s Tony Award for his triumphant musical version of Two Gentlemen of Verona, for which he wrote the lyrics and which was produced by Joseph Papp at the New York Shakespeare Festival. Two Gentlemen of Verona also earned for him a New York Drama Critics Circle Award in 1972 for Best Musical. Guare was playwright-in-residence at the New York City Shakespeare Festival in 1976 and 1977. In 1981, he received the American Academy Award of Merit Medal, and in 1987, a New York Institute for the Humanities Fellowship. Twelve years later, Guare was the 1999 honoree of the William Inge Theatre Festival.