Tracy Letts
Encyclopedia
Tracy Letts is an American
playwright
and actor
who received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
for his play August: Osage County
.
to best-selling author
Billie Letts
(nee Gipson) and the late college professor
and actor
Dennis Letts
. His brother Shawn is a jazz musician and composer
. He also has a brother Dana. Letts was raised in Durant, Oklahoma
and graduated from Durant High School
in the early 1980s. He moved to Dallas, where he waited tables and worked in telemarketing
while starting as an actor. He acted in Jerry Flemmons' O Dammit!, which was part of a new playwrights series sponsored by Southern Methodist University
.
Letts moved to Chicago
at the age of 20, and worked for the next 11 years at Steppenwolf
and Famous Door. He is still an active member of the Steppenwolf company today. He was a founding member of Bang Bang Spontaneous Theatre, whose members included Greg Kotis
(Tony Award
-winner for Urinetown
), Michael Shannon
(Academy Award-nominee for Revolutionary Road
), Paul Dillon
, and Amy Pietz
. In 1991, Letts wrote the play Killer Joe. Two years later, the play premiered at the Next Lab Theater in Chicago, followed by the 29th Street Rep in NYC. Since then, Killer Joe has been performed in at least 15 countries in 12 languages.
In 2008, Letts won a Tony and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for August: Osage County. It had premiered in Chicago in 2007, before moving to New York. It opened on Broadway in 2007 and ran into 2009.
His mother Billie Letts
has said of his writing, "I try to be upbeat and funny. Everybody in Tracy's stories gets naked or dead." Letts' plays have been about people struggling with moral and spiritual questions. He says he was inspired by the plays of Tennessee Williams
and the novels of William Faulkner
and Jim Thompson
. Letts considers sound to be a very strong storytelling tool for theater.
Nominations
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
who received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918.From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway 'season' rather than the calendar year...
for his play August: Osage County
August: Osage County
August: Osage County is a darkly comedic play by Tracy Letts. It was the recipient of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play premiered at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago on 28 June 2007, and closed on 26 August 2007. Its Broadway debut was at the Imperial Theater on 4 December 2007 and...
.
Biography
Letts was born in Tulsa, OklahomaTulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
to best-selling author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
Billie Letts
Billie Letts
Billie Letts is an American novelist and educator. She was a professor at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.-Family:She was married to professor-turned-actor Dennis Letts until his death in 2008, and is the mother of playwright/actor Tracy Letts, jazz musician/composer Shawn Letts, and Dana...
(nee Gipson) and the late college professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
Dennis Letts
Dennis Letts
Dennis Letts was an American college professor and actor. Letts made his Broadway theater debut in December 2007 in the production of August: Osage County, which was written by his son, playwright Tracy Letts....
. His brother Shawn is a jazz musician and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
. He also has a brother Dana. Letts was raised in Durant, Oklahoma
Durant, Oklahoma
Durant is a city in Bryan County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 15,877 at the 2010 census. Durant is the principal city of the Durant Micropolitan Statistical Area, which had a population of 42,416 in 2010...
and graduated from Durant High School
Durant High School (Oklahoma)
Durant High School is a public secondary school in Durant, Oklahoma, serving grades 9, 10, 11, and 12. The school is part of the Durant Independent School District. Durant's mascot is the Lion...
in the early 1980s. He moved to Dallas, where he waited tables and worked in telemarketing
Telemarketing
Telemarketing is a method of direct marketing in which a salesperson solicits prospective customers to buy products or services, either over the phone or through a subsequent face to face or Web conferencing appointment scheduled during the call.Telemarketing can also include recorded sales pitches...
while starting as an actor. He acted in Jerry Flemmons' O Dammit!, which was part of a new playwrights series sponsored by Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church...
.
Letts moved to 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...
at the age of 20, and worked for the next 11 years at Steppenwolf
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Tony Award-winning Chicago theatre company founded in 1974 by Gary Sinise, Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry in the basement of a church in Highland Park, Illinois. It has since relocated to Chicago's Halsted Street, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Its name comes from...
and Famous Door. He is still an active member of the Steppenwolf company today. He was a founding member of Bang Bang Spontaneous Theatre, whose members included Greg Kotis
Greg Kotis
Greg Kotis is a New York-based playwright, who specializes in dark, disturbing comedies with socially relevant themes.-Earlier career:Kotis studied political science at the University of Chicago. He dropped out when took a course on the Short Comic Scene, he realised that he wanted to be part of...
(Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
-winner for Urinetown
Urinetown
Urinetown: The Musical is a satirical comedy musical, with music by Mark Hollmann, lyrics by Hollmann and Greg Kotis, and book by Kotis. It satirizes the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement, and municipal politics...
), Michael Shannon
Michael Shannon (actor)
Michael Corbett Shannon is an American stage, film, and television actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Revolutionary Road...
(Academy Award-nominee for Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road (film)
Revolutionary Road is a 2008 American drama film directed by Sam Mendes, from screenplay by Justin Haythe, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. It is based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Richard Yates....
), Paul Dillon
Paul Dillon
Paul Dillon is an actor born in Joliet who began his career in show business in Chicago. His movie career began in 1994 with the movie Blink in which he played the role of Neal Booker...
, and Amy Pietz
Amy Pietz
Amy Pietz is an American film and television actress.-Early life:Pietz was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the adopted daughter of Nancy, a nurse, and Arnold Pietz, a truck driver. She trained throughout her childhood in ballet and prepared to go professional, but eventually decided not to due to...
. In 1991, Letts wrote the play Killer Joe. Two years later, the play premiered at the Next Lab Theater in Chicago, followed by the 29th Street Rep in NYC. Since then, Killer Joe has been performed in at least 15 countries in 12 languages.
In 2008, Letts won a Tony and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for August: Osage County. It had premiered in Chicago in 2007, before moving to New York. It opened on Broadway in 2007 and ran into 2009.
His mother Billie Letts
Billie Letts
Billie Letts is an American novelist and educator. She was a professor at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.-Family:She was married to professor-turned-actor Dennis Letts until his death in 2008, and is the mother of playwright/actor Tracy Letts, jazz musician/composer Shawn Letts, and Dana...
has said of his writing, "I try to be upbeat and funny. Everybody in Tracy's stories gets naked or dead." Letts' plays have been about people struggling with moral and spiritual questions. He says he was inspired by the plays of Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
and the novels of William Faulkner
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
and Jim Thompson
Jim Thompson (writer)
James Myers Thompson was an American author and screenwriter, known for his pulp crime fiction....
. Letts considers sound to be a very strong storytelling tool for theater.
Writer
- 1993 Killer Joe
- 1996 Bug (play)Bug (play)Bug is a play by American playwright Tracy Letts. It was adapted into a film in 2006.- Synopsis :Most of the play takes place in a seedy motel room. Lonely cocktail waitress Agnes lives there, hiding from her violent ex-con ex-husband Jerry Goss. One night, her lesbian biker friend R.C. introduces...
- 2003 Man from Nebraska
- 2007 Bug (film)Bug (2006 film)Bug is a 2006 American horror/thriller directed by William Friedkin, and starring Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon and Harry Connick, Jr..The film is based on the play of the same name written by Tracy Letts.-Plot:...
- 2007 August: Osage CountyAugust: Osage CountyAugust: Osage County is a darkly comedic play by Tracy Letts. It was the recipient of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play premiered at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago on 28 June 2007, and closed on 26 August 2007. Its Broadway debut was at the Imperial Theater on 4 December 2007 and...
- 2008 Superior DonutsSuperior DonutsSuperior Donuts is a play by American playwright Tracy Letts. Its world premiere was staged by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 2008, and it premiered on Broadway in 2009.-Synopsis:...
- 2009 Three SistersThree Sisters (play)Three Sisters is a play by Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov, perhaps partially inspired by the situation of the three Brontë sisters, but most probably by the three Zimmermann sisters in Perm...
(adaptationLiterary adaptationLiterary adaptation is the adapting of a literary source to another genre or medium, such as a film, a stage play, or even ace video game...
)
Stage
- 1988 The Glass MenagerieThe Glass MenagerieThe Glass Menagerie is a four-character memory play by Tennessee Williams. Williams worked on various drafts of the play prior to writing a version of it as a screenplay for MGM, to whom Williams was contracted...
- 1991-1995 Bang Bang Spontaneous Theatre
- 1994 Picasso At The Lapin AgilePicasso at the Lapin AgilePicasso at the Lapin Agile is a play written by Steve Martin in 1993. It features the characters of Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso, who meet at a bar called the Lapin Agile in Montmartre, Paris...
- 1999 Three Days of RainThree Days of RainThree Days of Rain is a play by Richard Greenberg that was commissioned and produced by South Coast Repertory in 1997. The title comes from a line from W. S. Merwin's poem, "For the Anniversary of My Death"...
- 2001 Glengarry Glen RossGlengarry Glen RossGlengarry Glen Ross is a 1984 play written by David Mamet. The play shows parts of two days in the lives of four desperate Chicago real estate agents who are prepared to engage in any number of unethical, illegal acts—from lies and flattery to bribery, threats, intimidation and burglary—to sell...
- 2002 The Dazzle
- 2003 Homebody/Kabul
- 2004 The DresserThe DresserThe Dresser is a 1983 film which tells the story of an aging actor's personal assistant, who struggles to keep his charge's life together. It is based on a screenplay by Ronald Harwood, in turn based on his successful 1980 West End and Broadway play of the same name.The film was directed by Peter...
- 2005 Last of the Boys
- 2005 Orson's ShadowOrson's ShadowOrson's Shadow is a play by Austin Pendleton. The play received a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Play and won the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance....
- 2005 The Pain and the Itch
- 2006 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a play by Edward Albee that opened on Broadway at the Billy Rose Theater on October 13, 1962. The original cast featured Uta Hagen as Martha, Arthur Hill as George, Melinda Dillon as Honey and George Grizzard as Nick. It was directed by Alan Schneider...
- 2006 The PillowmanThe PillowmanThe Pillowman is a 2003 play by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. It received its first public reading in an early version at the Finborough Theatre, London, in 1995...
- 2006 The Well-Appointed Room
- 2007 Betrayal
- 2009 American Buffalo
- 2010 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a play by Edward Albee that opened on Broadway at the Billy Rose Theater on October 13, 1962. The original cast featured Uta Hagen as Martha, Arthur Hill as George, Melinda Dillon as Honey and George Grizzard as Nick. It was directed by Alan Schneider...
Filmography
- 1988 Paramedics - Van owner
- 1992 Straight TalkStraight TalkStraight Talk is an 1992 American comedy-film distributed by Hollywood Pictures, directed by Barnet Kellman and starring Dolly Parton and James Woods. Parton did not receive star-billing in any other theatrically-released films until the 2012 film Joyful Noise, alongside Queen Latifah...
- Sean - 1995 Home Improvement - Henry (TV)
- 1996 Early EditionEarly EditionEarly Edition is an American television series that aired on CBS from September 28, 1996 to May 27, 2000. Set in the city of Chicago, Illinois, it follows the adventures of a man who mysteriously receives each Chicago Sun-Times newspaper the day before it is actually published, and who uses this...
- Jonathan / Marksman (TV) - 1997 SeinfeldSeinfeldSeinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
- Counterguy (TV) - 1998 Chicago Cab - Sports fan
- 1998 The Drew Carey ShowThe Drew Carey ShowThe Drew Carey Show is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from 1995 to 2004. The show was set in Cleveland, Ohio, and revolved around the retail office and home life of "everyman" Drew Carey, a fictionalized version of the actor....
- Lomax (TV) - 1998 U.S. MarshalsU.S. Marshals (film)U.S. Marshals is a 1998 action thriller film starring Tommy Lee Jones and Wesley Snipes, and a sequel to The Fugitive. The storyline of U.S. Marshals does not feature the character Dr. Richard Kimble; the role of the protagonist has been passed onto Samuel Gerard and his team of U.S...
- Sheriff Poe - 1999 GuinevereGuinevere (film)Guinevere is a film about the artistic and romantic relationship between a young student and her older mentor.The film was written and directed by Audrey Wells and stars Stephen Rea, Sarah Polley, Jean Smart, and Gina Gershon. The running time is 105 minutes. The film was a 1999 Sundance Film...
- Zack - 1999 Judging AmyJudging AmyJudging Amy is an American television drama that was telecast from September 19, 1999, through May 3, 2005, on CBS-TV. This TV series starred Amy Brenneman and Tyne Daly...
- Mr. Kleinman (TV) - 2000 ProfilerProfiler (TV series)Profiler was an American crime drama that aired on NBC from 1996 to 2000. The series follows the exploits of a criminal profiler working with the fictional FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force based in Atlanta, Georgia....
- Mr. Adams (TV) - 2001 Strong MedicineStrong MedicineStrong Medicine is a medical drama with a focus on feminist politics, health issues and class conflict. The television series aired on the Lifetime network from 2000 to 2006. It is distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The series was created and produced in part by comedienne and...
- Ken (TV) - 2001 The DistrictThe DistrictThe District is a television police drama which aired on CBS from October 7, 2000 to May 1, 2004. The show followed the work and personal life of the chief of Washington, D.C.'s Police Department .-Premise:...
- Brad Gilroy (TV)
Awards and nominations
Awards- 2008 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding PlayDrama Desk Award for Outstanding PlayThis is a list of winners of the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play initially introduced in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre.-1950s:Vernon Rice Award for Best Production...
- August: Osage County - 2008 Pulitzer Prize for DramaPulitzer Prize for DramaThe Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918.From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway 'season' rather than the calendar year...
- August: Osage County - 2008 Tony Award for Best PlayTony Award for Best PlayThe Tony Award for Best Play is an annual award celebrating achievements in live American theatre, including musical theatre, honoring productions on Broadway in New York. It currently takes place in mid-June each year.There was no award in the Tony's first year...
- August: Osage County
Nominations
- 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama - Man from Nebraska