November 8, 2002

Award-winning playwright visits drama department

John Guare, one of America's most well-known and influential playwrights and screenwriters, visited Loyola's Department of Drama and Speech October 30 - November 4. His appearance preceded the opening of his epic play Women and Water on November 15 in Loyola's Marquette Theater.

Guare collaborated with director Lane Savadove on both the script and the rehearsal process. The playwright and the director have previously worked together at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and at New York Theater Workshop. Guare also was the guest artist at a public forum, "The Future of Theatre and Film In America: A Forum with John Guare," on November 4. The forum addressed the future of theatre and film in America, the writing process, and artistic collaboration.

For many, Guare has been the most influential playwright in reinventing American theater. For two decades Guare has led drama down a previously un-forged path. He has challenged the kitchen sink style of American realism in order to take the audience into the dangerous terrain of inner truths and unfulfilled dreams. In theater, Guare has received three Obie Awards, three Tony awards (along with numerous nominations), two New York Drama Critics Circles Awards, and the British Olivier award, all for best new play. In film, Guare has received the Cannes Film Festival award for best original screenplay for Taking Off (with Milos Foreman), and his screenplay Atlantic City won critics awards for best original screenplay in the New York and Los Angeles Film festivals and the Venice Film Festival Grand Prize as well as earning him an Academy Award nomination. He is best known for his plays House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation, which was also made into a feature film starring Stockard Channing, Will Smith, and Donald Sutherland. He is a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been enshrined in the Theater Hall of Fame.

"Guare's visit and public forum was a rare look inside one of theater's greatest artists. It was a rare treat for New Orleans audiences," said Georgia Gresham, chair of the department.