the Lanford Wilson project
THE Mound Builders | Sympathetic magic
disunion
coming together
Part 1
part 2
theatre row
Nov 2021
“Of my generation of playwrights, Lanford was the Orpheus who sang the sweetest songs, the poet who found grace and beauty in the humblest circumstances and the only one of us who found his own, unique voice from the very beginning. He didn't become Lanford Wilson, master playwright; he already was. While the rest of us struggled to find our bearings in the bustling (and competitive) theatre scene that was Off-Broadway in the 1960's, Lanford was always the crown prince. From Cafe Cino to La MaMa to eventually his own theatre company, the legendary Circle Rep, the progress of his career and growth as an artist were inevitable.
I wish he had lived longer. I wish there were more plays. As it is there are enough of them to fill many theatres. ... Lanford, you are missed. Your plays live on. So do you."
-Terrence McNally
directed by
Mac McCarty
Presented by
Open Circle
" ... Wilson has never been an insular writer, bound by the world of the theater. The real world always invades his work. Without being ideological, journalistic or preachy about it, Wilson's plays have given constant voice to the dispossessed - the lost or shunned American souls who have been cast out of the mainstream, sometimes by specific cataclysm ... just as often by their refusal to march in step with familial, sexual or capitalist orthodoxy ... You will begin to grasp the extraordinary emotional, historical and theatrical span of a writer who illuminates the deepest dramas of American life with poetry and compassion."
-Frank RicH, NYTimes