George C. Wolfe

Infobox actor
name = George Wolfe

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imagesize =
caption =
birthname = George Costello Wolfe
birthdate = birth date and age|1954|9|23
birthplace = Frankfort, Kentucky, USA
spouse =
yearsactive =
homepage =
tonyawards = Best Direction of a Play
1993 '
Best Direction of a Musical"'
1996 "Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk"

George Costello Wolfe (born September 23, 1954) is an American playwright and director of theater and film.

Biography

Early life

Wolfe was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, to Costello Wolfe, a government clerk, and Anna Lindsey, an educator. [cite web | title=George C. Wolfe Biography | url=http://www.filmreference.com/film/86/George-C-Wolfe.html | work=filmreference | date=2008 | accessdate=2008-05-28] He attended an all-black private school where his mother taught and later began attending the integrated Frankfort public school district after a family move.

He 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 the historically-black Kentucky State University, the alma mater of his parents, Costello and Anna Lindsey Wolfe. Following his first year, he transferred to Pomona College in Claremont, California, where he pursued a BA in theater. Wolfe then taught for several years in Los Angeles at the Inner-City Cultural Center and later in New York, where he received an MFA in dramatic writing and musical theater at New York University in 1983.

Career

Wolfe's first offerings--the musical "Paradise" (1985), his play "The Colored Museum" (1986)--were off-Broadway productions that met with mixed reviews. In 1989, however, Wolfe won an Obie Award for 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. Two years later, Wolfe directed Tony Kushner's "Angels in America: Millennium Approaches" to great critical acclaim as well as 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, where, in 1996, he created 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 and his work won him a second Tony Award for direction and was an enormous financial success.

In 2000, Wolfe co-wrote the book and directed the Broadway production "The Wild Party".

In late 2004, Wolfe announced his intention to leave the theater for film direction, beginning with the well-received HBO film "Lackawanna Blues".

Despite this move, Wolfe continues to direct plays such as Tony Kushner's "Caroline, or Change" and Suzan-Lori Parks' Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Topdog/Underdog". In the summer of 2006 he directed a new translation of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park starring Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Austin Pendleton.

Wolfe is openly gay.cite news | author=Anne Stockwell | title=Wolfe's New Direction | url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1589/is_2005_Feb_1/ai_n9487808 | work=The Advocate | date=1 February 2005 | accessdate=2008-05-28]

References

External links

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* [http://www.glbtq.com/arts/wolfe_gc.html George C. Wolf] in the glbtq Encyclopedia
* [http://broadwayworld.com/galleryperson.cfm?personid=7940 George C. Wolf images]