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Tracy Letts

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Tracy Letts
Occupation(s)Playwright, actor
AwardsPulitzer Prize for Drama
2008 August: Osage County
Website[1]

Tracy Letts (born 4 July 1965) is an American playwright and actor. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2008 for his play, August: Osage County.[1]

Biography

Letts was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma to best-selling author Billie Letts, and the late one-time college professor and actor Dennis Letts.[2] His brother Shawn is a jazz musician and composer. He also has a brother, Dana. Tracy grew up in Durant, Oklahoma and he graduated from Durant High School. After graduating in the early 80s he moved to Dallas. He stayed there for two years, while he waited tables and worked in telemarketing, and he also got the part in a one-man play, Jerry Flemmons' O Dammit!, which was part of a new playwrights series sponsored by Southern Methodist University.

Letts moved to Chicago at the age of 20, and worked for the next 11 years at Steppenwolf and Famous Door. He was also a founding member of Bang Bang Spontaneous Theater, which included at one time or another, Greg Kotis (Tony Award, Urinetown), Michael Shannon (Academy Award Nominee, Revolutionary Road), Paul Dillon, Amy Pietz and a host of other Chicago theater luminaries..[3] In 1991, he wrote the play Killer Joe. Two years later, the play premiered at the Next Lab Theater in Chicago and then at 29th Street Rep in NYC. Since then, Killer Joe has been performed in at least 15 countries in 12 languages.[4] In 2008, he won a Tony for August: Osage County. Letts was Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2008 for August: Osage County.

His mother Billie Letts has said about his writing, "I try to be upbeat and funny. Everybody in Tracy's stories gets naked or dead." [4] Every one of the plays he has written is about people struggling with moral and spiritual questions. He says he has drawn inspiration from the plays of Tennessee Williams and the novels of William Faulkner and Jim Thompson. Letts considers sound to be a very strong storytelling tool for theater.[5]

Work

Writer

Actor

Awards and nominations

Awards
  • 2008 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play - August: Osage County
  • 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama - August: Osage County
  • 2008 Tony Award for Best Play - August: Osage County
Nominations
  • 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama - Man from Nebraska

References

  1. ^ The Pulitzer Prizes http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/Drama
  2. ^ Associated Press (2008-02-25). "Dennis Letts, 73, a Professor Who Became Broadway Actor, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
  3. ^ "Tracy Letts's Productions at Steppenwolf". Steppenwolf Theatre Company. 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
  4. ^ a b Carlton Stowers (27 November 2003). "Sweet Revenge". The Dallas Observer. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
  5. ^ Aifen Wang (2008). "In-your-face Theatre with In Your Face Sound Design". Stage Research. Retrieved 2008-07-03.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tracy_Letts&oldid=316514113"