Bonnie Greer
Encyclopedia
Bonnie Greer, OBE
(born 16 November 1948, Chicago
) is an American-British playwright and critic.
sharecroppers. He was stationed in the UK during World War II and took part in the D-Day landings. Greer was born on the west side of Chicago, the eldest of seven children born to Ben, a factory worker, and Willie Mae, a housewife. Though she began writing plays at the age of 9, she originally set out on a legal career, but dropped out when her professor told her he did not think women should have a career in law. Instead she studied theatre in Chicago under David Mamet
's supervision and at the Actors Studio
in New York with Elia Kazan
.
in 1986 and has been based in the UK since then; she acquired British citizenship in 1997. She has worked mainly in theatre with women and ethnic minorities, and is a former Arts Council
playwright in residence at the Soho Theatre
and for NITRO, once known as the Black Theatre co-operative. Greer has played Joan of Arc
at the Theatre Atelier in Paris.
She has written radio plays for BBC Radio 3
and Radio 4
, including a translation of The Little Prince
. Her plays include Munda Negra (1993) concerning the mental health problems of black women, Dancing On Blackwater (1994) and Jitterbug (2001), and the musicals Solid and Marilyn and Ella. The later work began as a radio play broadcast in December 2005 (Marilyn and Ella Backstage at the Mocambo) after Greer saw a documentary on Marilyn Monroe
which mentioned Monroe's assistance to the jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald
over the colour bar
which prevented the singer from working at certain venues, especially the Mocambo
nightclub. Adapted for the stage, it was given a production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2006 and was later rewritten and performed at the Theatre Royal Stratford East
in 2008. The play is to be produced at the Apollo Theatre
, in London's West End, from November 2009.
She is the author of two novels: Hanging by Her Teeth (1994) and Entropy (2009), and currently is working on a play for the National Theatre
Studio. In April 2005 she was appointed to the British Museum
's Board of Trustees for a period of four years and in 2008 the Prime Minister Gordon Brown
, announced that her appointment was continued. In March 2009 she was promoted to Deputy Chairman. Greer has been a regular contributor to BBC Two
's Newsnight Review, and Question Time
. She was a panel member on the edition
which also featured Nick Griffin
, leader of the British National Party
. Commenting after the recording she called it "probably the weirdest and most creepy experience of my life". Her co-produced documentary, Reflecting Skin was shown by the BBC in 2004.
An occasional writer for The Guardian
and New Statesman
, she is a former theatre critic for Time Out magazine.British Museum profile page She was formerly director of the Talawa Theatre Company
and has served on the boards of the Royal Opera House
and the London Film School.
Greer's latest book Obama Music was published by Legend Press
in October 2009. Her biography of Langston Hughes
will be published in 2011. She is currently working on a novel about Rossetti and on a new work for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Greer was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(born 16 November 1948, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
) is an American-British playwright and critic.
Early life
Greer's father was born to a family of MississippiMississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
sharecroppers. He was stationed in the UK during World War II and took part in the D-Day landings. Greer was born on the west side of Chicago, the eldest of seven children born to Ben, a factory worker, and Willie Mae, a housewife. Though she began writing plays at the age of 9, she originally set out on a legal career, but dropped out when her professor told her he did not think women should have a career in law. Instead she studied theatre in Chicago under David Mamet
David Mamet
David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...
's supervision and at the Actors Studio
Actors Studio
The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947, by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow who provided...
in New York with Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan was an American director and actor, described by the New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Greek parents originally from Kayseri in Anatolia, the family emigrated...
.
Since 1986
Greer visited the UK as part of a production at the Edinburgh FestivalEdinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
in 1986 and has been based in the UK since then; she acquired British citizenship in 1997. She has worked mainly in theatre with women and ethnic minorities, and is a former Arts Council
Arts council
An arts council is a government or private, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing events at home and abroad...
playwright in residence at the Soho Theatre
Soho Theatre
Soho Theatre is a theatre in the eponymous Soho district of the City of Westminster. It presents new works of theatre, together with comedy and cabaret....
and for NITRO, once known as the Black Theatre co-operative. Greer has played Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
at the Theatre Atelier in Paris.
She has written radio plays for BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
and Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
, including a translation of The Little Prince
The Little Prince
The Little Prince , first published in 1943, is a novella and the most famous work of the French aristocrat writer, poet and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ....
. Her plays include Munda Negra (1993) concerning the mental health problems of black women, Dancing On Blackwater (1994) and Jitterbug (2001), and the musicals Solid and Marilyn and Ella. The later work began as a radio play broadcast in December 2005 (Marilyn and Ella Backstage at the Mocambo) after Greer saw a documentary on Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
which mentioned Monroe's assistance to the jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
over the colour bar
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
which prevented the singer from working at certain venues, especially the Mocambo
Mocambo
The Mocambo was a nightclub in West Hollywood, California, at 8588 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip. It was owned by Charlie Morrison and Felix Young.-History:...
nightclub. Adapted for the stage, it was given a production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2006 and was later rewritten and performed at the Theatre Royal Stratford East
Theatre Royal Stratford East
The Theatre Royal Stratford East is a theatre in Stratford in the London Borough of Newham. Since 1953, it has been the home of the Theatre Workshop company.-History:...
in 2008. The play is to be produced at the Apollo Theatre
Apollo Theatre
The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. Designed by architect Lewin Sharp for owner Henry Lowenfield, and the fourth legitimate theatre to be constructed on the street, its doors opened on 21 February 1901 with the American...
, in London's West End, from November 2009.
She is the author of two novels: Hanging by Her Teeth (1994) and Entropy (2009), and currently is working on a play for the National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
Studio. In April 2005 she was appointed to the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
's Board of Trustees for a period of four years and in 2008 the Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
, announced that her appointment was continued. In March 2009 she was promoted to Deputy Chairman. Greer has been a regular contributor to BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
's Newsnight Review, and Question Time
Question Time (TV series)
Question Time is a topical debate BBC television programme in the United Kingdom, based on Any Questions?. The show typically features politicians from at least the three major political parties as well as other public figures who answer questions put to them by the audience...
. She was a panel member on the edition
Question Time British National Party controversy
The Question Time British National Party controversy in early September 2009 followed an invitation by the British Broadcasting Corporation to Nick Griffin, leader of the far-right British National Party , to be a panellist on Question Time, one of its flagship television programmes on current...
which also featured Nick Griffin
Nick Griffin
Nicholas John "Nick" Griffin is a British politician, chairman of the British National Party and Member of the European Parliament for North West England....
, leader of the British National Party
British National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
. Commenting after the recording she called it "probably the weirdest and most creepy experience of my life". Her co-produced documentary, Reflecting Skin was shown by the BBC in 2004.
An occasional writer for The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
, she is a former theatre critic for Time Out magazine.British Museum profile page She was formerly director of the Talawa Theatre Company
Talawa Theatre Company
The Talawa Theatre Company was founded in London in 1985 by Jamaican born Yvonne Brewster, Mona Hammond, Carmen Munroe and Inigo Espejel, becoming the UK's most prominent black theatre company...
and has served on the boards of the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
and the London Film School.
Greer's latest book Obama Music was published by Legend Press
Legend Press
Legend Press is a small British book publisher founded in 2005 by Tom Chalmers. Specialising in mainstream trade paperback fiction, Legend Press became the youngest-run publisher in the UK trade market. In 2006, the company set out its intention to double the number of titles it publishes each...
in October 2009. Her biography of Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance...
will be published in 2011. She is currently working on a novel about Rossetti and on a new work for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Greer was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours.
Books
- Hanging by Her Teeth (1994) novel
- Entropy (2009) novel
- Obama Music Legend PressLegend PressLegend Press is a small British book publisher founded in 2005 by Tom Chalmers. Specialising in mainstream trade paperback fiction, Legend Press became the youngest-run publisher in the UK trade market. In 2006, the company set out its intention to double the number of titles it publishes each...
2009 - Langston Hughes: the Value Of Contradiction, in the US by Arcadia, July 2011, in the UK by Blackamber Books, May 2011.
External links
- A Profile of Bonnie Greer from the Newsnight review website
- British Museum profile page
- Profile of Bonnie Greer on The Guardian
- profile at The Times 7 December 2009
- Profile and video discussions with Greer at Intelligence squared
- National Portrait Gallery Collection
- Greer at Legendpress publishers
- Lecture (video file 2 hrs) "Abstraction of Wit in Black Heritage and Modern Times" 9 February 2010 Insights lecture programme from the University of Newcastle
- "Marilyn, Ella . . & Bonnie Newsnight's kindest critic brings the strange-but-true tale of two icons to Edinburgh. Sunday Herald 6 August 2006