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Christopher Durang is a contemporary playwright known for works of outrageous and often absurd comedy. His work was especially popular in the 1980s.

Christopher Durang was born on January 2, 1949, in Montclair, New Jersey and lived in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. After attending Catholic schools as a child, including the Our Lady of Peace school in New Providence, New Jersey, he was educated at Harvard College and the Yale School of Drama.

His work often deals critically with issues of child abuse, Roman Catholic dogma and culture, and homosexuality.

Durang is a particular favorite of college theatre students and fans of alternative and political theatre.

He has had plays performed nationwide, including on Broadway and Off-Broadway, including Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You, Beyond Therapy, Baby With the Bathwater, The Nature and Purpose of the Universe, Titanic, A History of the American Film, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Laughing Wild, 'Dentity Crisis, The Actor's Nightmare, The Vietnamization of New Jersey, Betty's Summer Vacation, Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge, and Miss Witherspoon.

He received Obie Awards for Sister Mary Ignatius, The Marriage of Bette and Boo and Betty's Summer Vacation. He received a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for A History of the American Film.

He has also written a number of unproduced but well-regarded screenplays including The Nun Who Shot Liberty Valence, The House of Husbands (which he co-authored with Wendy Wasserstein), and The Adventures of Lola.

He has, however, totally denounced the Robert Altman movie Beyond Therapy (based on Durang's stage play), calling it "horrific" and accusing Altman of totally rewriting the script "so that all psychology is thrown out the window, and the characters dash around acting crazy but with literally no behavioral logic underneath."

Durang has also performed as an actor for both stage and screen. He first came to prominence in his Off-Broadway satirical review Das Lusitania Songspiel, which he performed with friend and fellow Yalie Sigourney Weaver. Later he co-starred in one of his own plays as Matt in The Marriage of Bette and Boo.

Durang has been awarded numerous fellowships and high profile grants including a Guggenheim, a Rockefeller, the CBS Playwriting Fellowship, the Lecomte du Nouy Foundation grant, and the Kenyon Festival Theatre Playwriting Prize.

He is a member of the influential Dramatists Guild Council, and is co-chair of the playwriting program at Juilliard. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 2006 for Miss Witherspoon. In an unusual decision, the Pulitzer committee decided none of the three finalists was worthy of the award.

External links

• Official site
• Christopher Durang at the Internet Broadway Database
• tv.com
• Christopher Durang Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing

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