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New York - Lanford Wilson, the Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright who championed outsiders, the forgotten and overlooked in such plays as The Hot L Baltimore, Burn This, Fifth of July and Talley's Folly, has died. He was 73.
The Steppenwolf Theatre said on Thursday that Wilson died on Wednesday at a long term acute care facility in New Jersey. The playwright, who had been a resident of New York's Sag Harbour, died on the eve of the Chicago company's first preview production of a new staging of his Hot L Baltimore.
"His tremendous spirit is with us in the theatre and tonight's show will be in his memory and honour," Tina Landau, the director of the production, said on Thursday.
Singular voice
Wilson was one of four founders of The Circle Repertory Company in New York, an incubator of important off-Broadway works. He was nominated for Tony Awards for Angels Fall, Talley's Folly and Fifth of July.
He won the Pulitzer for drama in 1980 for Talley's Folly, the second in a trilogy of plays that follows the Talley family of Lebanon, Missouri, over several generations. Wilson himself was born in Lebanon, Mo, and frequently collaborated with director Marshall Mason, whom he met at a cafe in New York's Greenwich Village.
He wrote some 17 full-length plays and more than 30 one-acts, creating gently lyrical works that look back at a lost past. His settings were both rural and urban - his first full-length play, Balm in Gilead, was a free-wheeling look at New York City lowlife.
"Lanford was a singular voice in the American theatre- an important artist, a gentle soul and a good friend," said Steppenwolf co-Founder Terry Kinney. "We will miss him sorely."
The Steppenwolf Theatre said on Thursday that Wilson died on Wednesday at a long term acute care facility in New Jersey. The playwright, who had been a resident of New York's Sag Harbour, died on the eve of the Chicago company's first preview production of a new staging of his Hot L Baltimore.
"His tremendous spirit is with us in the theatre and tonight's show will be in his memory and honour," Tina Landau, the director of the production, said on Thursday.
Singular voice
Wilson was one of four founders of The Circle Repertory Company in New York, an incubator of important off-Broadway works. He was nominated for Tony Awards for Angels Fall, Talley's Folly and Fifth of July.
He won the Pulitzer for drama in 1980 for Talley's Folly, the second in a trilogy of plays that follows the Talley family of Lebanon, Missouri, over several generations. Wilson himself was born in Lebanon, Mo, and frequently collaborated with director Marshall Mason, whom he met at a cafe in New York's Greenwich Village.
He wrote some 17 full-length plays and more than 30 one-acts, creating gently lyrical works that look back at a lost past. His settings were both rural and urban - his first full-length play, Balm in Gilead, was a free-wheeling look at New York City lowlife.
"Lanford was a singular voice in the American theatre- an important artist, a gentle soul and a good friend," said Steppenwolf co-Founder Terry Kinney. "We will miss him sorely."
