Tracy Letts
Tracy Letts | |
|---|---|
| Occupation(s) | Playwright, actor |
| Awards | Drama Desk Award Outstanding Play 2008 August: Osage County Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2008 August: Osage County |
Tracy Letts (born July 4, 1965, Tulsa, Oklahoma)[1] is a Pulitzer-Prize winning American playwright and actor. He has been an ensemble member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company since 2002.[2]
Biography
Letts is the son of the best-selling author Billie Letts, and the late one-time college professor, later actor Dennis Letts.[3] 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 the Southern Methodist University.
Letts moved to Chicago at the age of 20, and worked for the next 11 years at Steppenwolf and Famous Door. In 1991, a time when he had an alcohol problem, he wrote the play Killer Joe. (He would later join Alcoholics Anonymous, and has been sober ever since.) 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.
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 three plays he's 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 story telling tool for theater.[5]
Work
Writer
- 1998 Killer Joe
- 2003 Man from Nebraska
- 2004 Bug
- 2007 Bug (screenplay)
- 2007 August: Osage County
- 2008 Superior Donuts
Stage
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Filmography
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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
- ^ "Deutsche Erstaufführung des Off-Bradway-Erfolges von 2004". Theaterszene Köln: Stücke. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
- ^ "Tracy Letts's Productions at Steppenwolf". Steppenwolf Theatre Company. 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
- ^ Associated Press (2008-02-25). "Dennis Letts, 73, a Professor Who Became Broadway Actor, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
- ^ a b Carlton Stowers (27 November 2003). "Sweet Revenge". The Dallas Observer. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
- ^ Aifen Wang (2008). "In-your-face Theatre with In Your Face Sound Design". Stage Research. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
External links
- Please use a more specific IBDB template. See the documentation for available templates.
- Please use a more specific IMDb template. See the documentation for available templates.
- Tracy Letts at People.com
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