Paul Foster (playwright)
Paul Foster (born October 15, 1931, Penns Grove, New Jersey[1]), is an American playwright, theater director, and producer. He is a founding member and the first president of La MaMa, E.T.C. (Experimental Theatre Club).[2][3]
When Foster was 21 he came to New York City to study law. There he met Ellen Stewart, a fashion designer hoping to open her own boutique. In 1962, Foster agreed to help Stewart with her boutique in return for being allowed to use its basement as a theater, "but Stewart's enthusiasm for the theater project quickly eclipsed her own initial idea for the boutique", and the La Mama theater project was born.[4]
Foster is the author of 18 plays produced around the world, including Elizabeth I and Satyricon, as well as the libretto and lyrics for the musical Silver Queen Saloon.
Foster has won numerous awards, including Rockefeller and Guggenheim Fellowships, National Endowment for the Arts and British Arts Council Award.
Fourteen books of his plays are published, and he is the subject of four books about his plays.
- 1963 Hurrah for the bridge
- 1964 The Recluse
- 1964 Que Viva El Puente
- 1965 The Madonna in the orchard
- 1966 The Hessian Corporal
- 1966 Balls
- 1967 Tom Paine
- 1967 Dead And Buried
- 1968 Heimskringla! or The Stoned Angels (National Educational Television)
- 1970 The Stoned Angels
- 1972 Satyricon
- 1972 Elizabeth I
- 1973 Silver Queen
- 1974 Rags To Riches To Rags
- 1975 Marcus Brutus
- 1980 A Kiss Is Just A Kiss
- 1985 Dark And Mr Stone 1-3
- 1986 Faith, Hope and Charity
- 1995 As Straight as a Corkscrew
- 2010 Kisses, Bites and Scratches
- unknown The Kleenex Planet
References
- ↑ Email from Paul Foster, April 8, 2013
- ↑ Gruen, John (July 22, 1968). "A Pushcart Named La Mama". New York Magazine 1 (16): 42–45. Retrieved March 3, 2012.
- ↑ Contemporary authors. New revision series. Volume 26. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research Co. p. 141.
- ↑ Bottoms, Stephen James (2004). Playing Underground: A Critical History of the 1960 Off-Off-Broadway Movement. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. p. 88. ISBN 0-472-11400-X. Retrieved March 3, 2012.