Durang on Durang: Harvard Arts Medal Recipient Christopher Durang Explains Himself for You
Playwright Christopher Durang ‘71 has been chosen as this year’s recipient of the Harvard Arts Medal. Established in 1995 to honor a Harvard alumnus/a or faculty member who has achieved distinction in the arts, the Arts Medal will be awarded to Durang at a ceremony on Friday, May 5, during ARTS FIRST weekend, May 4-7.
Durang’s work as a playwright includes, among others, A History of the American Film (Tony Award nomination, Best Book of a Musical, 1978), the controversial Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You (Obie Award, 1981), Beyond Therapy (on Broadway in 1982 with Dianne Wiest and John Lithgow ’67), The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Public Theatre, 1985; Obie Award and Dramatists Guild Hull Warriner Award), and Betty’s Summer Vacation (Playwrights Horizons, 1999; Obie Award). His most recent works include Adrift in Macao, a musical composed by Peter Melnick with book and lyrics by Durang, presented last fall at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, and the play Miss Witherspoon, which recently enjoyed a successful limited engagement at Playwrights Horizons in New York.
Durang is also a performer who has appeared in his own work, including Laughing Wild (productions in New York, Los Angeles and Boston); The Marriage of Bette and Boo; and his acclaimed Brecht-Weill parody, Das Lusitania Songspiel, co-starring Sigourney Weaver (both Durang and Weaver were nominated for 1980 Drama Desk Awards for Best Performer in a Musical). In 1993 he co-starred with Julie Andrews in the Stephen Sondheim revue Putting It Together at the Manhattan Theatre Club, and he has appeared in the movies The Secret of My Success (1987), Mr. North (1988), The Butcher’s Wife (1991), Housesitter (1992), and The Cowboy Way (1994), among others. Durang has a B.A. from Harvard College and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Yale School of Drama, and since 1994 he has been co-chair with Marsha Norman of the Playwriting Program at the Juilliard School in Manhattan.
Recently, over freshly squeezed orange juice, Christopher Durang sat down with Christopher Durang on the latter’s (former’s?) sun-drenched patio overlooking Central Park for a freewheeling, candid conversation about what, exactly, it’s like to be Christopher Durang.
