George Costello Wolfe (born September 23, 1954) is an American playwright and director of theater and film . He won a Tony Award in 1993 for directing Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and another Tony Award in 1996 for his direction of the musical Bring in 'da Noise/Bring in 'da Funk . He served as Artistic Director of The Public Theater from 1993 until 2004.
22-564: George Wolfe may refer to: George C. Wolfe (born 1954), African-American playwright and director George Wolfe (Irish politician) (1860–1941), Irish Cumann na nGaedhael TD 1923–1932 George Wolfe (CPA) , US government administrator in Iraq George Wolfe (cartoonist) (1911–1993), American cartoonist George Wolfe (footballer) (1878–1958), English footballer See also [ edit ] George Wolf (1777–1840), governor of
44-749: A BA in theater. Wolfe taught for several years in Los Angeles at the Inner City Cultural Center. He moved to the East Coast and taught in New York City. In 1983, he earned an MFA in dramatic writing and musical theater at New York University . In 1977, Wolfe gave C. Bernard Jackson , the executive director of the Inner City Cultural Center in the Los Angeles, the first scene of a play he was working on. Rather than suggest that he finish writing it, Jackson said, "Here's some money, go do it." The name of
66-562: A Musical . Two years later, Wolfe directed Tony Kushner 's Angels in America: Millennium Approaches to great critical acclaim, and won a Tony Award. Wolfe also directed the world premiere of the second part of Angels , entitled Perestroika , the following year. From 1993 to 2004, Wolfe served as artistic director and producer of the New York Shakespeare Festival / Public Theater . In 1996 he created
88-465: A best off-Broadway director for his play Spunk , an adaptation of three stories by Zora Neale Hurston . Wolfe gained a national reputation with his 1991 musical Jelly's Last Jam , a musical about the life of jazz musician Jelly Roll Morton . After a Los Angeles opening, the play moved to Broadway , where it received 11 Tony nominations and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of
110-642: A street intersecting Broadway in Midtown Manhattan 's Theater District , the hub of the American theatre industry. It later became defined by the League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers as a professional venue in Manhattan with a seating capacity of at least 100, but not more than 499, or a production that appears in such a venue and adheres to related trade union and other contracts. Previously, regardless of
132-550: Is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres , but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer than 100. An "off-Broadway production" is a production of a play , musical , or revue that appears in such a venue and adheres to related trade union and other contracts. Some shows that premiere off-Broadway are subsequently produced on Broadway. The term originally referred to any venue, and its productions, on
154-503: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages George C. Wolfe Wolfe was born into an African-American family in Frankfort, Kentucky , the son of Anna (née Lindsey), an educator, and Costello Wolfe, a government clerk. He attended an all-black public school (a Rosenwald school ) where his mother taught. He is interviewed in the documentary film Rosenwald , discussing his time at
176-530: The Lucille Lortel Award (created in 1985 by the League of Off-Broadway Theatres & Producers), and the Drama League Award . Although off-Broadway shows are not eligible for Tony Awards , an exception was made in 1956 (before the rules were changed), when Lotte Lenya won Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for the off-Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera . Capacity
198-1120: The Park with George , Rent , Grey Gardens , Urinetown , Avenue Q , The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee , Rock of Ages , In the Heights , Spring Awakening , Next to Normal , Hedwig and the Angry Inch , Fun Home , Hamilton , Dear Evan Hansen , Hadestown , and Kimberly Akimbo . In particular, two that became Broadway hits, Grease and A Chorus Line , encouraged other producers to premiere their shows off-Broadway. Plays that have moved from off-Broadway houses to Broadway include Doubt , I Am My Own Wife , Bridge & Tunnel , The Normal Heart , and Coastal Disturbances . Other productions, such as Stomp , Blue Man Group , Altar Boyz , Perfect Crime , Forbidden Broadway , Nunsense , Naked Boys Singing , Bat Boy: The Musical , and I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change have had runs of many years off-Broadway, never moving to Broadway. The Fantasticks ,
220-512: The U.S. state of Pennsylvania George Wolff (disambiguation) [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Wolfe&oldid=1165695995 " Category : Human name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
242-575: The letter. Wolfe directed a Broadway revival of Eugene O'Neill 's The Iceman Cometh in 2018, with Denzel Washington starring as Hickey. The production played at the Jacobs Theatre for 14 weeks and began regular performances April 26. Wolfe is openly gay . In 2022, he was featured in the book 50 Key Figures in Queer US Theatre , with a profile written by theatre scholar Charles I. Nero. Off Broadway An off-Broadway theatre
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#1732868662892264-588: The longest-running musical in theatre history, spent its original 42-year run off-Broadway and had another off-Broadway run from 2006 to 2017. Off-Broadway shows, performers, and creative staff are eligible for the following awards: the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award , the Outer Critics Circle Award , the Drama Desk Award , the Obie Award (presented since 1956 by The Village Voice ),
286-461: The musical Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk , an ensemble of tap and music starring Savion Glover ; the show moved to Broadway's Ambassador Theatre . His work won a second Tony Award for direction and was an enormous financial success. In 2000, Wolfe co-wrote the book and directed the Broadway production of the musical The Wild Party . In late 2004, Wolfe announced his intention to leave
308-656: The play was Tribal Rites, or The Coming of the Great God-bird Nabuku to the Age of Horace Lee Lizer . Wolfe stated in an article he wrote about Jackson for the Los Angeles Times that "this production was perhaps the most crucial to my evolution" as an artist. Among Wolfe's first major offerings—the musical Paradise (1985) and his play The Colored Museum (1986)--were off-Broadway productions that met with mixed reviews. In 1990, however, Wolfe won an Obie Award for
330-644: The salary requirements of the union for Broadway theatres. The adoption of the 499-seat criterion occurred after a one-day strike in January 1974. Examples of off-Broadway theatres within the Broadway Box are the Laura Pels Theatre and The Theater Center . The off-Broadway movement started in the 1950s as a reaction to the perceived commercialism of Broadway and provided less expensive venues for shows that have employed many future Broadway artists. An early success
352-543: The school. After a family move, he began attending the integrated Frankfort public schools. Wolfe attended Frankfort High School where he began to pursue his interest in the theatre arts, and wrote poetry and prose for the school's literary journal. After high school, Wolfe enrolled at Kentucky State University , a historically black college and the alma mater of his parents. Following his first year, he transferred to Pomona College in Claremont, California , where he pursued
374-506: The size of the venue, a theatre was considered a Broadway (rather than off-Broadway) house if it was within the "Broadway Box", extending from 40th Street north to 54th Street and from Sixth Avenue west to Eighth Avenue , including Times Square and West 42nd Street . This change to the contractual definition of "off-Broadway" benefited theatres satisfying the 499-seat criterion because of the lower minimum required salary for Actors' Equity performers at Off-Broadway theatres as compared with
396-428: The theater for film direction, beginning with the well-received HBO film Lackawanna Blues . Wolfe has also continued to direct plays, such as Suzan-Lori Parks ' Pulitzer Prize -winning play Topdog/Underdog (2001), and Tony Kushner 's Caroline, or Change (2003), a through-composed musical. In the summer of 2006, Wolfe directed a new translation of Bertolt Brecht 's Mother Courage and Her Children at
418-722: The time Delacorte Theatre in Central Park, starring Meryl Streep , Kevin Kline , and Austin Pendleton . Wolfe directed the film Nights in Rodanthe , starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane , which opened in theaters in September 2008. Wolfe is bringing his artistic talent to the design of the upcoming Center for Civil & Human Rights in Atlanta as its new chief creative officer. In 2013, he
440-457: The time, however, that "Broadway is just as eclectic – and just as footless – as 'Off-Broadway'." Theatre Row , on West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues in Manhattan, is a concentration of off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway theatres. It was developed in the mid-1970s and modernized in 2002. Many off-Broadway shows have had subsequent runs on Broadway, including such musicals as Hair , Godspell , Little Shop of Horrors , Sunday in
462-517: Was Circle in the Square Theatre 's 1952 production of Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams . According to theatre historians Ken Bloom and Frank Vlastnik, off-Broadway offered a new outlet for "poets, playwrights, actors, songwriters, and designers. ... The first great Off-Broadway musical was the 1954 revival" of The Threepenny Opera , which proved that off-Broadway productions could be financially successful. Critic John Gassner argued at
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#1732868662892484-752: Was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame . In August 2017, Wolfe was the only one of the 17 private members of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities who did not sign on to a letter of mass resignation in the wake of Donald Trump 's remarks on the Unite the Right rally incident in Charlottesville, Virginia . However, his representatives stated that he, too, would be resigning and would add his name to
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