Wolfe, George C. 1954–

views updated May 14 2018

George C. Wolfe 1954

Playwright, stage director, producer

Found Love of Theater Early

Made a Name as Playwright and Director

On the A-List

Selected works

Sources

In the spring of 1993 George C. Wolfe was named the new head of the New York Shakespeare Festival, one of Manhattans most influential theater projects. At the time he took over the New York Shakespeare Festival, Wolfe was still a young man, but he had nevertheless compiled a body of work that lifted him to national prominence. He was the author of The Colored Museum, a satirical comedy, and Jellys Last Jam, a production that began a long Broadway run in the early 1990s. Wolfe also forged a reputation as a premier director, working with the Shakespeare Festival and at other venues on such pieces as German playwright Bertolt Brechts Caucasian Chalk Circle and Tony Kushners epic drama Angels in America: Millennium Approaches. These and other plays bearing Wolfes influence have established him as one of the leaders of a new generation in the American theaterone whose work raises provocative questions about racial culture, history, and identity, to quote Los Angeles Times contributor Hilary De Vries.

The New York theatrical community reserves its greatest respect for those people who can merge the sometimes conflicting considerations of art and commercethose who can craft a hit play that also pleases the critics. Wolfes Jellys Last Jam was one such play, selling out on Broadway while garnering eleven Tony Award nominations and winning three. Observers expected Wolfe to bring this concept of heightened commercialism without artistic sacrifice to the Shakespeare Festival. Wolfe himself told the Los Angeles Times: I dont think you have to compromise edge for entertainment; in my life, theyve gone hand in hand. When you go to the theater, you can experience somebody trying to deal with his own vulnerability, and its affirming to see the struggle and the attempt to survive. I think thats what good theater does.

Found Love of Theater Early

Wolfe was born on September 23, 1954, the third of four children in a middle-class Frankfort, Kentucky, family. His mother was a teacher who rose to be principal of an elementary school. His father worked for the Kentucky state government. In his early youth, Wolfe lived in a very insular world that included little contact with those outside his race. There were white

At a Glance

Born on September 23, 1954, in Frankfort, KY; son of a government worker and a school principal. Education: Pomona College, BA, 1976; New York University, MA in musical theater arts, 1983.

Career: Playwright and director, 1978; New York Shakespeare Festival, head director and operator, 1993.

Selected awards: Obie Award, 1990; Drama Desk Award, 1992; Dorothy Chandler Award, 1992; Tony Award for best director, 1992, for Jellys Last Jam; HBO/USA Playwrights Award; New York University Distinguished Alumni Award.

Addresses: Office New York Shakespeare Festival, 425 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10003.

people, but I didnt feel they had any severe impact on me, he told the Los Angeles Times. The church was all black, the grade school was all black. I knew I couldnt go down to the local movie theater and see 101 Dalmatians, but it was a nice and polite little world.

Wolfes parents and teachers groomed him to move beyond the polite little world, and in his teen years he discovered his lifes passion. At the age of thirteen he traveled to New York City and saw the Broadway staging of Hello, Dolly!. Afterward he was determined to become an actor. Part of Wolfes drive came from his parents, who instilled in him a need to succeed in a white dominated field. Wolfe told the New York Times: I was 13 or 14 before I was thrust into the white world. And ever since then its become clearer and clearer to me that I was part of a generation of black children who were raised like integration soldiers, who were groomed to invade white America. I dont know how conscious it was, but with my parents it was definitely: They think youre less than; youve got to be better than.

Wolfe joined theater workshops in Frankfort and continued to pursue acting in college, first at Kentucky State University and later at Pomona College in California. After earning a Bachelors degree in theater arts, he settled in Los Angeles, where he wrote, directed, and acted in plays. For a time in the 1970s he was associated with the Inner City Cultural Center in Los Angeles as a playwright and director, but he gradually became disenchanted with California. The goal of success in L.A. was not theater, but movies and TV, and I knew that wasnt right for me then, he told the Los Angeles Times.

Made a Name as Playwright and Director

In 1979 Wolfe moved to New York City. He enrolled in the Masters degree program in musical theater at New York University and continued to write, act, and direct. I struggled for six or seven years, he admitted in the New York Times. Amidst the years of struggle he saw his first play produced, a work called Paradise that was presented Off-Off Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 1985. The Los Angeles Times noted that the play, a musical about a family that escapes to an island, was largely savaged by area critics. A better reception awaited Wolfes next production.

Wolfe told the Los Angeles Times that he wrote The Colored Museum as a personal exorcism of black cultural myths. The work was an outrageous, satirical look at black people that dared to challenge some of black Americans most cherished icons, including Lorraine Hansberrys play A Raisin in the Sun and political activist Eldridge Cleavers Soul on Ice. The piece, modeled on a revue, includes skits in which a young black woman must choose between two hairpieces, one an Afro, one a Euro; a segment in which a hefty black woman reminiscent of Aunt Jemima stirs a cauldron of unidentified stew; a monologue from a black transvestite; and a sketch in which a flight attendant takes her passengers through three centuries of African-American history. New York magazine columnist John Simon called the work young in spirit, gifted in most aspects a sophisticated, satirical, seriously funny show that spoofs white and black America alike. It is remarkably unafraid of lampooning black foibles, which is a sign of artistic maturity. We come of ageall of us, black or whitewhen we can laugh at ourselves.

The Colored Museum had its premier at the Crossroads Theater in New Jersey in 1986. The shows New Jersey producers hailed Wolfe in the Los Angeles Times as a courageous and fresh voice, a new voice. Within a year the play moved to New Yorks Public Theaterhome of the Shakespeare Festivaland later it was broadcast on public television as part of the Great Performances series. Thats when my career started to feed me, Wolfe told the New York Times.

Not everyone greeted The Colored Museum with enthusiasm, however. The plays content and mordant satire drew charges of reverse racism from some critics. Wolfe told the Los Angeles Times: When [the play] opened, the self-appointed black crowd said, This is horrifying. This is horrifying. I cant believe he is actually saying that. And that was painful. Because that was exactly the place where I was coming from. All the whites went into programmed guilt and the black people went into programmed rage and the play kept saying, You cant do that. It was really a play about self-empowerment. About how I am now going to define myself the way that I am capable of. In a sense, The Colored Museum prefigured other popular black satires such as In Living Color that dared to explode black cultural myths.

The success of The Colored Museum brought Wolfe other opportunities under the aegis of the Shakespeare Festival. He became a resident director at the Public Theater and worked on a number of projects there. Most notable among these was Spunk, a series of three vignettes he adapted from short stories by renowned author Zora Neale Hurston, and The Caucasian Chalk Circle, an adaptation of a Brecht play done by Thulani Davis. Both works premiered at the Public Theater in 1990 and received good reviews. New Yorker critic Mimi Kramer wrote of The Caucasian Chalk Circle: The production is uplifting and exhilarating in a way that New York Shakespeare Festival theater hardly ever is: through simply showing a work to its best advantage and giving the audience a good time. Likewise, New Yorker columnist Edith Oliver praised Spunk for its powerful injection of irony and wit, and concluded that the piece was a beautiful show.

Wolfe directed other plays and performance art pieces at the Shakespeare Festival, but in the early 1990s he sought to produce a musical for Broadway. This was a risky undertaking because musicals are expensive to mount and require extensive preparation and rehearsal. Wolfes musical, for which he wrote the book and helped to write the lyrics, was based on the life of Ferdinand Joseph LeMenthe Jelly Roll Morton, a 1920s New Orleans jazz musician. In the play, Jelly Roll is given a supernatural opportunitylike the one afforded Ebenezer Scroogeto review the important and formative moments of his life. The show features songs and tap dancing as well as a portrait of a man uncomfortable with his racial origins. Wolfe not only wrote the play but directed it as well.

Jellys Last Jam had its premiere in Los Angeles in 1991 and moved to Broadway in 1992 with Gregory Hines in the leading role. Edith Oliver called the play an ironic, tough evocation of the complex, embittered, and anything but heroic man who wrote and played [jazz], adding that The book, strong enough to justify the narrative and the characters, the music and the emotions, is Mr. Wolfes accomplishment. There has never been anything like it, on or off Broadway. And E. R. Shipp commented in Emerge that the depth and boldness of Jellys Last Jam made Wolfe the hope for the future of American theater. He [shows] theatergoers that so much that is referred to as black culture is really about being human.

On the A-List

A New York Times reporter claimed that the success of Jellys Last Jam propelled [Wolfe] onto producers A-lists and garnered him the choicest of this [1993] seasons assignments on Broadway. That choice assignment was Pulitzer Prize-winner Tony Kushners epic drama Angels in America, a sweeping look at gay America, AIDS, and politics for which a sequel was almost immediately planned. Wolfe directed Angels in America, which opened on Broadway in May of 1993. In a review of the three-and-a-half-hour play, Newsweek correspondent Jack Kroll called the work the most intelligent, most passionate American play in recent memory, adding that Wolfe was the perfect director for the plays ricochet rhythm between realism and fantasy. Of his success Wolfe told American Theatre When I did Jelly on Broadway, I said to myself, Okay its going to be three or four years before I come back to this arena. All of a sudden I was back the next year with Angels. All of a sudden, the next season I was back with Part 2. Its fun and exciting and dangerous to work on Broadway, but its also extraordinarily exhausting because of the warrior energy you have to have.

Just before Angels in America opened, the board of directors of the New York Shakespeare Festival announced that Wolfe would be the new head of the Festival. Wolfe took the reins of the institution from JoAnne Akalaitis, a producer-director who had run it for eighteen months. In making the change in leadership, the Festivals board of directors cited declining revenues and waning corporate support for the program and its Public Theater. American Theatre magazine said that part of the decision to make Wolfe the new head had to have been the fact that Wolfe had become one of the most sought-after directors in the country by making the cultural leap from Jellys Last Jam to Angels. Wolfe, who had for years half-jokingly called himself the Negro at the Public, enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to revive the flagging fortunes of the Shakespeare Festival. He planned to accent diversity in programming and casting, to invite more participation from minority playwrights, and to produce a theater that looks, feels, and smells like America, to quote Wolfe in the New York Times.

Asked about his vision for the Shakespeare Festival, Wolfe told Newsweek: I see a brilliant, dangerous new musical on one of the main stages [at the Public Theater]. Upstairs, a workshop of a play by a writer who failed last season but has come back with a marvelous play. On the top floor, a young director is staging his first Shakespeare. On the other large stage, Im directing a Restoration comedy because by now the endowment is so large I can relax. And downstairs, theres a series of solo artists, white, Asian, and Hispanic. Wolfe hoped to attract new sponsors for the Festival and revive former sources of revenue, all the while maintaining artistic control over the institutions offerings. One big concern was that the theatre had been supported by its sale of A Chorus Line years before and that money had started running out. He began with a 1994 budget of roughly four million dollars.

He started out, much as his dream, with the play Blade to the Heat in rehearsal on one floor, on another floor the Young Playwrights Festival was going on, Hal Prince was planning a new musical by Michael John LaChiusa called The Wild Party in which Toni Collette played the lead Queenie, a jazz-age hostess, and Barry Edelstein was doing Merchant of Venice. Wolfe won a Tony Award nomination for directing The Wild Party. Wolfe also put on the famous show Bring In Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk. He started his reign with a bang and never looked back.

Topdog/Underdog came out in 2001 with Wolfe directing the play about a duo of brothers who were abandoned by their parents when they were teenagers. Variety said of the show, With director George C. Wolfe displaying his typical showmanship and style, they bring a sort of vaudevillian energy and style to some of the livelier physical set pieces. Among these are Cheadles dance of disrobement, as he takes off two complete layers of clothes hes boosted from a store, and a sort of impromptu Southern song routine celebrating Lincolns payday. In 2002 Wolfe wrote and directed a permanent production for the Apollo TheaterHarlem Song. The show dealt with significant historical moments in Harlems history and had original music written by the same team that did the music for Bring In Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk, Daryl Waters and Zane Mark.

In 2003 Wolfe put on the play Radiant Baby, a story that centered around graffiti artist Keith Haring who became amazingly popular and then at age 30 was diagnosed with AIDS and at age 31 died. Wolfe said of the play, Working on this show was like reactivating a decadehow people looked and how people walked and what crowds were like. Doing theater and doing art, its always so hard. And doing it in New York, it feels especially hard. The work takes something from you, but it also gives something to you. For me, it rekindled certain memoriesvery sad ones but at the same time very joyful and foolish ones. He also directed and produced the musical On the Town. The play was met with mixed reviews and seemed rather controversial because Wolfe changed the original dance scenes and some purists didnt approve. Among the long list of other productions Wolfe has been involved with, Wolfe has been responsible for bringing Julius Ceasar, and The Taming of the Shrew to Broadway. He also directed the Tony Kushner musical Not Just Pocket Change.

Rich of the New York Times hailed Wolfe as a producer-director-playwright who crossed over from the American to the African, from drama to satire to musical theater, from verbal elegance to visual dash. He is one to try anything rather than take no for an answer. Assessing his own capacity to create new directions for American theater, Wolfe told the Los Angeles Times: Im a warrior. I know the right conditions under which good work happens. And there are a number of artists who may not be as good at being warriors as I am, but theyre good artists. If I can use my connections and the force of my personality to create structures for other artists, great, because other people did that for me.

Selected works

Plays

Paradise, produced Off-Off Broadway at the Playwrights Horizons, 1985.

The Colored Museum, first produced at the Crossroads Theater, New Jersey, 1986; produced at Public Theater, New York, 1986; broadcast on PBS-TV as part of Great Performances series, 1991.

(Adapter) Spunk (three one-act plays based on stories by Zora Neale Hurston), produced at Public Theater, 1990.

(Director) The Caucasian Chalk Circle, 1990.

(Director) Fires in the Mirror, 1991.

Jellys Last Jam (musical), first produced in Los Angeles, 1991; produced on Broadway at the Virginia Theater, 1992.

Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, 1993.

Other

Also author of Queenie Pie, Hunger Chic, and Minimum Wage.

Sources

Books

Contemporary Dramatists, Sixth edition, St. James Press, 1999.

Periodicals

Advocate, April 15, 2003, p. 52.

American Theatre, May-June, 1993, p. 43; December, 1994, p. 14; December, 2003, p. 32.

Emerge, November 1993, pp. 63-66.

Entertainment Weekly, December 4, 1998, p. 87; August 24, 2001, p. 127.

Essence, February, 1991, p. 35.

Jet, May 29, 2000, p. 54; May 27, 2002, p. 52.

Los Angeles Times, March 3, 1991, p. Calendar-6; November 24, 1992, p. Calendar-1.

National Review, January 24, 1994, p. 71.

New Criterion, January, 1999, p. 43.

New Leader, May 9, 1994, p. 23; December 14, 1998, p. 30.

New Republic, January 21, 1991, p. 28; May 24, 1993, p. 29.

Newsweek, May 7, 1990, p. 62; March 29, 1993, p. 63; May 17, 1993, p. 70.

New York, November 17, 1986, p. 119; May 18, 1992, p. 61; May 17, 1993, pp. 102-03.

New Yorker, November 10, 1986, p. 120; May 7, 1990, p. 83; December 17, 1990, p. 110; May 11, 1992, p. 78; October 26, 1992, pp. 117-18.

New York Times, March 13, 1993, p. 14; March 21, 1993, p. H-1; March 22, 1993, p. C-1.

Time, December 22, 2003, p. 123.

Variety, November 30, 1998, p. 73; July 12, 1999, p. 46; October 18, 1999 p. 50; August 28, 2000, p. 48; October 30, 2000; August 6, 2001, p. 25; April 15, 2002, p. 36; June 17, 2002, p. 43; March 10, 2003, p. 40; December 8, 2003, p. 63.

Other

Additional information for this profile was provided by the New York Shakespeare Festival.

Anne Janette Johnson and Catherine V. Donaldson

Wolfe, George C. 1954–

views updated Jun 08 2018

George C. Wolfe 1954

Playwright, stage director, producer

At a Glance

An Integration Soldier

Making a Name as Playwright, Director

On the A-List: Heading Up the NY Shakespeare Festival

Selected writings

Sources

In the spring of 1993 George C. Wolfe was named the new head of the New York Shakespeare Festival, one of Manhattans most influential theater projects. Wolfe will preside over the Joseph Papp Public Theater, home of the Shakespeare Festival and numerous other offerings of classical and experimental performance. A playwright and director with several successful Broadway and Off-Broadway plays to his credit, Wolfe is perceived by commentators as an artist who will be able to infuse new energy into the Shakespeare Festival. New York Times theater critic Frank Rich, for one, noted: With George Wolfe, the New York Shakespeare Festival has found, and not a moment too soon, a leader with the real promise to reinvent the role of producer for the new generation now banging at the theaters door.

Wolfe is still a young man, but he has nevertheless compiled a body of work that has lifted him to national prominence. He is the author of The Colored Museum, a satirical comedy, and Jellys Last Jam, a production that began a long Broadway run in the early 1990s. Wolfe has also forged a reputation as a premier director, working with the Shakespeare Festival and at other venues on such pieces as German playwright Bertolt Brechts Caucasian Chalk Circle and Tony Kushners epic drama Angels in America. These and other plays bearing Wolfes influence have established him as one of the leaders of a new generation in the American theaterone whose work raises provocative questions about racial culture, history, and identity, to quote Los Angeles Times contributor Hilary De Vries.

The New York theatrical community reserves its greatest respect for those people who can merge the sometimes conflicting considerations of art and commercethose who can craft a hit play that also pleases the critics. Wolfes Jellys Last Jam was one such play, selling out on Broadway while garnering eleven Tony Award nominations and winning three. Observers expect Wolfe to bring this concept of heightened commercialism without artistic sacrifice to the Shakespeare Festival. Wolfe himself told the Los Angeles Times: I dont think you have to compromise edge for entertainment; in my life, theyve gone hand in hand.When you go to the theater, you can experience somebody trying to deal with his own vulnerability, and its affirming to see the struggle and the attempt to survive. I think thats what good theater does.

Wolfe told the New York Times: I was 13 or 14 before I was thrust into the white world. And ever since then its

At a Glance

Born September 23, 1954, in Frankfort, KY; son of a government worker and a school principal. Education: Pomona College, B.A., 1976; New York University, M.A. In musical theater arts, 1983.

Playwright and director, 1978; head of New York Shakespeare Festival, 1993. Principal works directed include Spunk, 1990; The Caucasian Chalk Circle, 1990; Fires in the Mirror, 1992; Jellys Last Jam, 1992; and Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, 1993.

Selected awards: Obie Award, 1990; Drama Desk Award, 1992; Dorothy Chandler Award, 1992; Tony Award for best director, 1993, for Angels in America: Millennium Approaches; HBO/USA Playwrights Award; New York University Distinguished Alumni Award.

Addresses: Office New York Shakespeare Festival, 425 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10003.

become clearer and clearer to me that I was part of a generation of black children who were raised like integration soldiers, who were groomed to invade white America. I dont know how conscious it was, but with my parents it was definitely: They think youre less than; youve got to be better than.

An Integration Soldier

Wolfe was born in 1954, the third of four children in a middle-class Frankfort, Kentucky family. His mother was a teacher who rose to be principal of an elementary school. His father worked for the Kentucky state government. In his early youth, Wolfe lived in a very insular world that included little contact with those outside his race. There were white people, but I didnt feel they had any severe impact on me, he told the Los Angeles Times. The church was all black, the grade school was all black. I knew I couldnt go down to the local movie theater and see 101 Dalmatians, but it was a nice and polite little world.

Wolfes parents and teachers groomed him to move beyond the polite little world, and in his teen years he discovered his lifes passion. At the age of thirteen he traveled to New York City and saw the Broadway staging of Hello, Dolly! Afterward he was determined to become an actor. He joined theater workshops in Frankfort and continued to pursue acting in college, first at Kentucky State University and later at Pomona College in California. After earning a bachelors degree in theater arts, he settled in Los Angeles, where he wrote, directed, and acted in plays. For a time in the 1970s he was associated with the Inner City Cultural Center in Los Angeles as a playwright and director, but he gradually became disenchanted with California. The goal of success in L.A. was not theater, but movies and TV, and I knew that wasnt right for me then, he told the Los Angeles Times.

Making a Name as Playwright, Director

In 1979 Wolfe moved to New York City. He enrolled in the masters degree program in musical theater at New York University and continued to write, act, and direct. I struggled for six or seven years, he admitted in the New York Times. Amidst the years of struggle he saw his first play produced, a work called Paradise that was presented Off-Off Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 1985. De Vries noted that the play, a musical about a family that escapes to an island, was largely savaged by area critics. A better reception awaited Wolfes next production.

Wolfe told the Los Angeles Times that he wrote The Colored Museum as a personal exorcism of black cultural myths. The work was an outrageous, satirical look at black people that dared to challenge some of black Americas most cherished icons, including Lorraine Hans-berrys play A Raisin in the Sun and political activist Eldridge Cleavers Soul on Ice. The piece, modeled on a revue, includes skits in which a young black woman must choose between two hairpieces, one an Afro, one a Euro; a segment in which a hefty black woman reminiscent of Aunt Jemima stirs a cauldron of unidentified stew; a monologue from a black transvestite; and a sketch in which a flight attendant takes her passengers through three centuries of African American history. New York magazine columnist John Simon called the work young in spirit, gifted in most aspects a sophisticated, satirical, seriously funny show that spoofs white and black America alike. It is remarkably unafraid of lampooning black foibles, which is a sign of artistic maturity. We come of ageall of us, black or whitewhen we can laugh at ourselves.

The Colored Museum had its premiere at the Crossroads Theater in New Jersey in 1986. The shows New Jersey producers hailed Wolfe in the Los Angeles Times as a courageous and fresh voice, a new voice. Within a year the play moved to New Yorks Public Theaterhome of the Shakespeare Festivaland later it was broadcast on public television as part of the Great Performances series. Thats when my career started to feed me, Wolfe told the New York Times.

Not everyone greeted The Colored Museum with enthusiasm, however. The plays content and mordant satire drew charges of reverse racism from some critics. Wolfe told the Los Angeles Times: When [the play] opened, the self-appointed black crowd said, This is horrifying. This is horrifying. I cant believe he is actually saying that.And that was painful. Because that was exactly the place where I was coming from. All the whites went into programmed guilt and the black people went into programmed rage and the play kept saying, You cant do that. It was really a play about self-empowerment. About how I am now going to define myself the way that I am capable of. In a sense, The Colored Museum prefigured other popular black satires such as In Living Color that dare to explode black cultural myths.

The success of The Colored Museum brought Wolfe other opportunities under the aegis of the Shakespeare Festival. He became a resident director at the Public Theater and worked on a number of projects there. Most notable among these was Spunk, a series of three vignettes he adapted from short stories by renowned author Zora Neale Hurston, and The Caucasian Chalk Circle, an adaptation of a Brecht play done by Thulani Davis. Both works premiered at the Public Theater in 1990 and received good reviews. New Yorker critic Mimi Kramer wrote of The Caucasian Chalk Circle: The production is uplifting and exhilarating in a way that New York Shakespeare Festival theater hardly ever is: through simply showing a work to its best advantage and giving the audience a good time. Likewise, New Yorker columnist Edith Oliver praised Spunk for its powerful injection of irony and wit, and concluded that the piece is a beautiful show.

Wolfe directed other plays and performance art pieces at the Shakespeare Festival, but in the early 1990s he sought to produce a musical for Broadway. This is a risky undertakingmusicals are expensive to mount and require extensive preparation and rehearsal. Wolfes musical, for which he wrote the book and helped to write the lyrics, was based on the life of Ferdinand Joseph LeMenthe Jelly Roll Morton, a 1920s New Orleans jazz musician. In the play, Jelly Roll is given a supernatural opportunitylike the one afforded Ebenezer Scroogeto review the important and formative moments of his life. The show features songs and tap dancing as well as a portrait of a man uncomfortable with his racial origins. Wolfe not only wrote the play but directed it as well.

Jellys Last Jam had its premiere in Los Angeles in 1991 and moved to Broadway in 1992 with Gregory Hines in the leading role. Edith Oliver called the play an ironic, tough evocation of the complex, embittered, and anything but heroic man who wrote and played [jazz], adding: The book, strong enough to justify the narrative and the characters, the music and the emotions, is Mr. Wolfes accomplishment. There has never been anything like it, on or off Broadway. And E. R. Shipp commented in Emerge that the depth and boldness of Jellys Last Jam made Wolfe the hope for the future of American theater.He [shows] theatergoers that so much that is referred to as black culture is really about being human.

On the A-List: Heading Up the NY Shakespeare Festival

A New York Times reporter claimed that the success of Jellys Last Jam propelled [Wolfe] onto producers A-lists and garnered him the choicest of this [1993] seasons assignments on Broadway. That choice assignment was Pulitzer Prize-winner Tony Kushners two-part epic drama Angels in America, a sweeping look at gay America, AIDS, and politics. Wolfe earned a Tony Award for directing part one of the drama, Millennium Approaches, which opened on Broadway in May of 1993. In a review of the three-and-a-half-hour play, Newsweek correspondent Jack Kroll called the work the most intelligent, most passionate American play in recent memory, adding that Wolfe is the perfect director for the plays ricochet rhythm between realism and fantasy. Wolfes staging of the second part, Perestroika, opened in December of 1993.

Just before Angels in America: Millennium Approaches opened, the board of directors of the New York Shakespeare Festival announced that Wolfe would be the new head of the Festival. Wolfe took the reins of the institution from JoAnne Akalaitis, a producer-director who had run it for eighteen months. In making the change in leadership, the Festivals board of directors cited declining revenues and waning corporate support for the program and its Public Theater. Wolfe, who had for years half-jokingly called himself the Negro at the Public, enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to revive the flagging fortunes of the Shakespeare Festival. He plans to accent diversity in programming and casting, to invite more participation from minority playwrights, and to produce a theater that looks, feels and smells like America, to quote Wolfe in the New York Times.

Asked about his vision for the Shakespeare Festival in the future, Wolfe told Newsweek: I see a brilliant, dangerous new musical on one of the main stages [at the Public Theater]. Upstairs, a workshop of a play by a writer who failed last season but has come back with a marvelous play. On the top floor, a young director is staging his first Shakespeare. On the other large stage, Im directing a Restoration comedy because by now the endowment is so large I can relax. And downstairs, theres a series of solo artists, white, Asian, and Hispanic. Wolfe hopes to attract new sponsors for the Festival and revive former sources of revenue, all the while maintaining artistic control over the institutions offerings. He begins with a 1994 budget of roughly four million dollars.

Rich of the New York Times hailed Wolfe as a producer-director-playwright who has crossed over from the American to the African, from drama to satire to musical theater, from verbal elegance to visual dash. He is one to try anything rather than take no for an answer. Assessing his own capacity to create new directions for American theater, Wolfe told the Los Angeles Times: Im a warrior. I know the right conditions under which good work happens. And there are a number of artists who may not be as good at being warriors as I am, but theyre good artists. If I can use my connections and the force of my personality to create structures for other artists, great, because other people did that for me.

Selected writings

Paradise, produced Off-Off Broadway at the Playwrights Horizons, 1985.

The Colored Museum, first produced at the Crossroads Theater, New Jersey, 1986; produced at Public Theater, New York, 1986; broadcast on PBS-TV as part of Great Performances series, 1991.

(Adaptor) Spunk (three one-act plays based on stories by Zora Neale Hurston), produced at Public Theater, 1990.

Jellys Last Jam (musical), first produced in Los Angeles, 1991; produced on Broadway at the Virginia Theater, 1992.

Also author of Queenie Pie, Hunger Chic, and Minimum Wage.

Sources

Callaloo, Volume 16, Number 3.

Emerge, November 1993, pp. 63-66.

Essence, February 1991, p. 35.

Los Angeles Times, March 3, 1991, p. Calendar-6; November 24, 1992, p. Calendar-1.

Newsweek, May 7, 1990, p. 62; March 29, 1993, p. 63; May 17, 1993, p. 70.

New York, November 17, 1986, p. 119; May 18, 1992, p. 61; May 17, 1993, pp. 102-03.

New Yorker, November 10, 1986, p. 120; May 7, 1990, p. 83; December 17, 1990, p. 110; May 11, 1992, p. 78; October 26, 1992, pp. 117-18;

New York Times, March 13, 1993, p. 14; March 21, 1993, p. H-l; March 22, 1993, p. C-l.

Additional information for this profile was provided by the New York Shakespeare Festival.

Anne Janette Johnson

Wolfe, George C. 1954–

views updated May 14 2018

Wolfe, George C. 1954–

(George Wolfe)

PERSONAL

Full name, George Costello Wolfe; born September 23, 1954, in Frankfurt, KY; son of Costello (a government clerk) and Anna (an educator; maiden name, Lindsey) Wolfe. Education: Pomona College, B.A., directing, 1976; New York University, M.F.A., dramatic writing and musical theater, 1983; also attended Kentucky State University for one year.

Addresses:

Agent—Creative Artist Agency, 2000 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles, CA 90067.

Career:

Writer, director, and producer. Worked at Inner City Cultural Center, Los Angeles, 1975-78; City College of New York and Richard Allen Center for Cultural Art, teacher, 1979-?; Public Theatre, New York City, resident director, 1990-93, head producer, 1993-2005; curator of Festival of New Voices, 1990 and 1992; also taught acting in Los Angeles.

Member:

Dramatists Guild (member of the executive board), Directors Guild of America, Writers Guild of America, Young Playwrights Festival (member of board of directors), Non-Traditional Casting Project.

Awards, Honors:

American College Theatre Festival Awards (South Pacific Region), c. 1975-76, for Up for Grabs and Block Party; Elizabeth Hull-Kate Warriner Award, Dramatists Guild, 1986, for The Colored Museum; Obie Award for direction, Village Voice, 1990, for Spunk; Dorothy Chandler Award, 1992; Antoinette Perry Award nominations, best book of a musical and best director of a musical, 1992, Drama Desk Award, outstanding book for a musical, Drama Desk Award nomination, outstanding director of a musical, 1992, Joe A. Callaway Award, 1993, all for Jelly's Last Jam; Drama Desk Award, outstanding director of a play, Drama Desk Award, outstanding new play, Antoinette Perry Award nomination, best director of a play, 1993, all for Angels in America: Millennium Approaches; Outer Critics Circle Award, outstanding director for a play, Drama Desk Award, outstanding play, 1994, both for Angels in America: Perestroika; Antoinette Perry Award, best leading actor, 1996, for A Delicate Balance; Drama Desk Award nomination, outstanding director of a play, 1996, for The Tempest; Antoinette Perry Award nomination, best original score, Antoinette Perry Award nomination, best musical, Drama Desk Award nominations, outstanding director of a musical and outstanding musical, Drama League Award, distinguished achievement in musical theater, 1996, all for Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk; honored as a Library Lion, New York Public Library, 1997; Drama Desk Award, outstanding new play, 1997, for The Striker; Antoinette Perry Award nomination, best play, 1998, for Golden Child; Drama Desk Award nomination, outstanding play, Antoinette Perry Award, best play, 2000, for The Ride Down Mt. Morgan; Antoinette Perry Award nominations, best book of a musical and best musical, 2000, both for The Wild Party; Obie Award, best director, 2001-02, Antoinette Perry Award nomination, best play, Outer Critics Circle Award nomination, outstanding director, 2002, all for Topdog/Underdog; Antoinette Perry Award, best play, Drama Desk Award, outstanding new play, 2003, both for Take Me Out; Drama Desk Award nomination, outstanding director of a musical, Lucille Lortel Award, unique theatrical experience, 2002, both for Elaine Stritch at Liberty; Antoinette Perry Award nomination, best direction of a musical, Antoinette Perry Award nomination, best musical, Drama Desk Award nomination, outstanding director of a musical, Outer Critics Circle Award nomination, outstanding director of a musical, 2004, all for Caroline, or Change; Obie Award, special citation, 2004, for his stewardship of the Public Theatre; Emmy Award nomination, outstanding directing for a miniseries, movie or dramatic special, 2005, Directors Guild of America Award (with others), outstanding directorial achievement in movies for television, Christopher Award (with others), television and cable, Black Reel Award, best director—television, Image Award nomination, outstanding directing in a feature film/television movie, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Independent Spirit Award nomination (with others), best first feature, Independent Features Project West, 2006, all for Lackawanna Blues; Lifetime Achievement Award, Hollywood NAACP Theatre Award, 2007; named a living landmark by the New York Landmarks Conservancy; three Audelco Awards; Paul Robeson Award; the George Oppenheimer/Newsday Award; CBS-FDG New Play Award; New York University Distinguished Alumni Award; HBO/USA Playwrights Award; Person of the Year Award, National Theatre Conference; Spirit of the City Award; LAMBDA Liberty Award; Ilka Award, H.O.L.A.; Caring Spirit Award, Asian and Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS (APICHA); and grantee, Rockefeller Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and National Institute of Musical Theatre.

CREDITS

Stage Director:

Summer Suns/Tales of Night, Inner City Cultural Center, Los Angeles, 1978-79.

Spunk (includes "Story in Harlem Slang," "Sweat," and "The Gilded Six Bits"), Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, 1989, then Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, New York City, 1990, later produced in repertory, 1990.

The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 1990-91.

Minimum Wage, 1991.

Jelly's Last Jam, Mark Taper Forum, 1991, then Virginia Theatre, New York City, 1992-93.

Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, Walter Kerr Theatre, New York City, 1993.

Angels in America: Perestroika, Walter Kerr Theatre, 1993-94.

Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, New York City, 1994.

Blade to the Heat, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Anspacher Theatre, New York City, 1994.

(And cocreator, with Savion Glover) Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 1995-96.

The Tempest, Delacorte Theatre, New York City, then Broadhurst Theatre, New York City, 1995.

On the Town, Delacorte Theatre, 1997, then Gershwin Theatre, New York City, 1998.

Amistad, Civic Opera House, Chicago, IL, 1998.

Macbeth, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 1998.

Buzz Cuts, 1998.

The Wild Party, Virginia Theatre, 2000.

Elaine Stritch at Liberty, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 2001-2002.

Topdog/Underdog, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 2001, then Ambassador Theatre, New York City, 2002.

Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk, Cadillac Theatre, Chicago, IL, 2002.

Harlem Song, New York City, 2002.

Radiant Baby, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 2003.

Caroline, or Change, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 2003-2004.

This Is How It Goes, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Anspacher Theatre, 2005.

Mother Courage and Her Children, Delacorte Theatre, 2006.

Stage Producer:

First Lady Suite, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Susan Stein Shiva Theatre, New York City, 1993.

The Swan, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, New York City, 1993.

The Treatment, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, New York City, 1993.

All's Well That Ends Well, Delacorte Theatre, New York City, 1993.

Measure for Measure, Delacorte Theatre, 1994.

Some People, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Susan Stein Shiva Theatre, 1994.

Two Gentleman of Verona, Delacorte Theatre, 1994.

The Merry Wives of Windsor, Delacorte Theatre, 1994.

Big Momma 'N' Em, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Susan Stein Shiva Theatre, 1994.

Airport Music, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, 1994.

All for You, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Susan Stein Shiva Theatre, 1994.

The Tragedy of Richard II, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Anspacher Theatre, 1994.

Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 1994.

The America Play, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 1994.

Irene Worth's Portrait of Edith Wharton, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Susan Stein Shiva Theatre, 1994.

East Texas Hot Links, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Anspacher Theatre, 1994.

Blade to the Heat, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Anspacher Theatre, 1994.

Him, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, LuEsther Hall, New York City, 1994.

Simpatico, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 1994.

The Diva Is Dismissed, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Susan Stein Shiva Theatre, 1994.

The Petrified Prince, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 1994-95.

Wake Up, I'm Fat, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, LuEsther Hall, 1995.

Troilus and Cressida, Delacorte Theatre, 1995.

The Tempest, Delacorte Theatre, then Broadhurst Theatre, New York City, 1995.

Dog Opera, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 1995.

Dancing on Moonlight, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Anspacher Theatre, 1995.

A Language of Their Own, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Susan Stein Shiva Theatre, 1995.

Silence, Cunning, Exile, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 1995.

The Merchant of Venice, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Anspacher Theatre, 1995.

Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 1995-96.

WASPs and Other Plays, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 1995-96.

Insurrection: Holding History, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, LuEsther Hall, 1996.

Golden Child, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 1996.

Timon of Athens, Delacorte Theatre, 1996.

Henry V, Delacorte Theatre, 1996.

The Chang Fragments, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, LuEsther Hall, 1996.

The Striker, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 1996.

Venus, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 1996.

A Line Around the Block, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, 1996.

Nude Nude Totally Nude, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Anspacher Theatre, 1996.

Dancing on Her Knees, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Anspacher Theatre, 1996.

King Lear, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Anspacher Theatre, 1996.

Henry VI Part I: The Edged Sword, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 1996-97.

Henry VI: Part II: Black Storm, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 1996-97.

Henry VIII, Delacorte Theatre, 1997.

The Gypsy and the Yellow Canary, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 1997.

One Flea Spare, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 1997.

Antony and Cleopatra, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Anspacher Theatre, 1997.

A Huey P. Newton Story, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, LuEsther Hall, 1997.

Ballad of Yachiyo, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 1997.

A Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 1997.

On the Town, Delacorte Theatre, 1997.

Cymbeline, Delacorte Theatre, 1998.

The Skin of Our Teeth, Delacorte Theatre, 1998.

The Cripple of Inishmann, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 1998.

Saturn Returns: A Concert, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, LuEsther Hall, 1998.

Macbeth, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 1998.

Pericles, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 1998-99.

The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 1998, then Broadway production, 2000.

Stop Kiss, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Susan Stein Shiva Theatre, 1998.

Everybody's Ruby, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Anspacher Theatre, 1999.

Tongue of a Bird, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 1999.

2.5 Minute Ride, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Susan Stein Shiva Theatre, 1999.

The Taming of the Shrew, Delacorte Theatre, 1999.

Tartuffe, Delacorte Theatre, 1999.

Space, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 1999.

Hamlet, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 1999.

Two Sisters and a Piano, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Susan Stein Shiva Theatre, 2000.

House Arrest, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 2000.

The Winter's Tale, Delacorte Theatre, 2000.

The Wild Party, Virginia Theatre, New York City, 2000.

Kit Marlowe, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 2000.

Book of the Dead (Second Avenue), Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 2000.

Shakespeare's Villains: A Master Class in Evil, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Anspacher Theatre, 2001.

Lackawanna Blues, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, LuEsther Hall, 2001.

Dogeaters, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 2001.

References to Salvador Dali Makes Me Hot, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Susan Stein Shiva Theatre, 2001.

Measure for Measure, Delacorte Theatre, 2001.

The Seagull, Delacorte Theatre, 2001.

Topdog/Underdog, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 2001, then Ambassador Theatre, New York City, 2002.

Elaine Stritch at Liberty, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 2001-2002.

Othello, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Anspacher Theatre, 2001.

36 Views, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 2002.

Helen, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 2002.

Blue Surge, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Anspacher Theatre, 2002.

Twelfth Night, Delacorte Theatre, 2002.

Take Me Out, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Anspacher Theatre, 2002.

Boston Marriage, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 2002.

Radiant Baby, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 2003.

Fuckin A, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Anspacher Theatre, 2003.

As You Like It, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 2003.

Henry V, Delacorte Theatre, 2003.

The Two Noble Kinsmen, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 2003.

Caroline, or Change, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 2003-2004.

The Story, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Anspacher Theatre, 2003.

Embedded, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 2004.

Well, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 2004.

Biro, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, LuEsther Hall, 2004.

Much Ado About Nothing, Delacorte Theatre, 2004.

Dirty Tricks, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Anspacher Theatre, 2004.

Richard III, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 2004.

This Is How It Goes, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Anspacher Theatre, 2005.

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, 2005.

The Controversy of Valladolid, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, 2005.

Stage Appearances:

A Delicate Balance, 1996.

Television Work; Movies:

Director, Lackawanna Blues, HBO, 2005.

Television Work; Specials:

Coproducer, The Supreme Court's Holy Battles, PBS, 1989.

(As George Wolfe) Creator and producer, Marcel Proust: A Writer's Life, PBS, 1993.

Performance director, Jessye Norman Sings for the Healing of AIDS, 2000.

Advisor, Ralph Ellison: An American Journey, 2002.

Director (stage), Elaine Stritch at Liberty, HBO, 2004.

Director, The WIN Awards, PAX, 2005.

Television Director; Episodic:

"The Colored Museum," Great Performances, PBS, 1991.

"Jammin': Jelly Roll Morton on Broadway, Great Performances, PBS, 1992.

"In the Wings: Angels in America on Broadway, Great Performances, PBS, 1993.

"Fires in the Mirror," American Playhouse, PBS, 1993.

Television Appearances; Specials:

Robert Klein on Broadway (also known as On Location: Robert Klein on Broadway), 1986.

Story of a People: Expressions in Black, syndicated, 1991.

The 47th Annual Tony Awards, CBS, 1993.

Signature: George C. Wolfe, PBS, 1997.

I'll Make Me a World: A Century of African-American Arts, PBS, 1999.

Stage on Screen: The Topdog Diaries, 2002.

The 58th Annual Tony Awards (also known as The 2004 Tony Awards), CBS, 2004.

Elaine Stritch at Liberty, HBO, 2004.

2006 Independent Spirit Awards, Independent Film Channel, 2006.

Television Appearances; Episodic:

(Uncredited) Party guest, "The Colored Museum," Great Performances, PBS, 1991.

"Jammin': Jelly Roll Morton on Broadway, Great Performances, PBS, 1992.

In the Life, 1993.

"In the Wings: Angels in America on Broadway," Great Performances, PBS, 1993.

Changing Stages, PBS, 2001.

"Syncopated City: 1919-1933," Broadway: The American Musical, PBS, 2004.

Film Work:

Director, Nights in Rodanthe, Warner Bros., 2008.

Film Appearances:

Himself, Finding Christa, 1991.

Cat lover, Fresh Kill, Strand Releasing, 1993.

Himself, The Papp Project (documentary), 2001.

Restaurant manager, Garden State, Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2004.

Himself, The N-Word (documentary; also known as The N-Word: Divided We Stand), Urban Works Entertainment, 2004.

Paul, The Devil Wears Prada, Twentieth Century-Fox, 2006.

Himself, Wrestling with Angels (documentary), Balcony Releasing, 2006.

Himself, ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway (documentary), Regent Releasing, 2007.

WRITINGS

Stage Plays:

Up for Grabs, 1975.

Block Party, 1976.

Back Alley Tales, Inner City Cultural Center, Los Angeles, 1978.

Book and lyrics, Paradise! (musical), Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cincinnati, OH, then Playwrights Horizons Theatre, New York City, both 1985-86.

Book and lyrics, The Colored Museum (musical), Crossroads Theatre Company, New Brunswick, NJ, 1985-86, then Public Theatre, Susan Stein Shiva Theatre, New York City, 1986-87, later Public Theatre, Newman Theatre, New York City, 1987, produced in repertory, 1987-89.

Libretto, Queenie Pie (musical), Eisenhower Theatre, New York City, 1986-87.

Contributor, Urban Blight, Manhattan Theatre Club Stage I, New York City, 1988.

Spunk (includes "Story in Harlem Slang," "Sweat," and "The Gilded Six Bits"), Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, 1989, then Public Theatre, Martinson Hall, New York City, 1990, later produced in repertory, 1990.

Book, Jelly's Last Jam, Mark Taper Forum, 1991, then Broadway production, 1992.

Blackout, Public Theatre, New York City, 1991.

(With Michael John LaChiusa) Book, The Wild Party (musical), Virginia Theatre, New York City, 2000.

Harlem Song, New York City, 2002.

Television Specials:

"Hunger Chic," Trying Times, PBS, 1989.

Television Episodes:

"The Colored Museum," Great Performances, PBS, 1991.

"Jammin': Jelly Roll Morton on Broadway," Great Performances, PBS, 1992.

OTHER SOURCES

Books:

Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 43, Gale, 2004.

Contemporary Dramatists, 6th ed., St. James Press, 1999.

Notable Black American Men Book II, Thomson Gale, 2006.

Periodicals:

American Theatre, December, 1994, p. 14.

Essence, December, 1997, p. 68.

Jet, March 1, 2004, p. 36.

New Criterion, January, 1999, p. 43.

New York Times, April 15, 1990; April 19, 1992, p. H6.

Variety, November 20, 2000, p. 35; February 16, 2004, p. 62.

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George C. Wolfe

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