Jerome Kilty

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jerome Kilty (born 1922, Pala Indian Reservation, California) is an actor and playwright. He is best known for writing the hit Broadway play Dear Liar: A Comedy of Letters, based on the correspondence of famed playwright George Bernard Shaw and actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell.

His other notable plays include Dear Love, A love story based on the poems and letters of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning; The Ides of March, dealing with the actions and events surrounding the end of the Roman Empire; and The Little Black Book, wherein a lawyer falls in love with girl number 134 from his little black book. His play Look Away, based on the book Mary Todd Lincoln by Justin and Linda Levittwhich, is set in an insane asylum on Mary Todd Lincoln's last night of residence, exploring her bitterness with son, senate and judge.

In the early days of American television, Kilty acted in numerous programs of the day, including The United States Steel Hour, Kraft Television Theatre, The Alcoa Hour, Studio One, and Hallmark Hall of Fame. He worked extensively on the stage, both in the United States and abroad. Kilty and his wife, Cavada Humphrey, toured throughout the world performing his play Dear Liar, beginning in 1964. The duo was also first to internationally tour the hit play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, including performances in South Africa.

At the insistence of playwright Edward Albee, Virginia Woolf was to be presented only before integrated audiences. The play opened in Port Elizabeth and then moved to Durban, receiving strong reviews (favorable and unfavorable) in both cities, with a more negative response in Durban, where one critic called it "dirt-laden debris." In Johannesburg, the press was more positive. But people who may or may not have seen the show expressed their outrage in letters to the government. In response, Jan de Klerk, the South African Minister of the Interior, ordered that performances be suspended in Johannesburg while waiting for a report from the official Board of Censors to insure that the play was "not contrary to public interest or good morals." In effect, the play was banned.