Donald Margulies


Playwright, Screenwriter

About

Also Known As
Donald B Margulies
Birth Place
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Born
September 02, 1954

Biography

An outstanding artist as a child, playwright Donald Margulies won a partial scholarship to the prestigious Pratt Institute in his native Brooklyn and then transferred to SUNY Purchase. There, under the wing of critic and professor Julius Novick, he decided he would be a playwright, and though the road was long and hard (he spent several years toiling as a graphics designer), he finally m...

Family & Companions

Lynn Street
Wife
Physician. Together since c. 1979; married since c. 1987; a graduate of Yale Medical School, she works in a primary-care health clinic in New Haven.

Biography

An outstanding artist as a child, playwright Donald Margulies won a partial scholarship to the prestigious Pratt Institute in his native Brooklyn and then transferred to SUNY Purchase. There, under the wing of critic and professor Julius Novick, he decided he would be a playwright, and though the road was long and hard (he spent several years toiling as a graphics designer), he finally made an impression when "Sight Unseen" (1991), his meditation on art, fame, money and lost love, earned an OBIE and became a finalist for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize. It marked his first association with South Coast Rep, the Costa Mesa, California theater that also commissioned the subsequent two-character "Collected Stories" (1996), its tale of rivalry between an established writer and an up-and-coming one recalling "All About Eve" and garnering Pulitzer consideration as well. His only foray to Broadway (to date) has been "What's Wrong with This Picture?" (1994), a cliched, autobiographical look at 1950s Brooklyn originally produced 10 years before at the Manhattan Theatre Company. He faired better with "The Model Apartment" (1996), a play confronting the Holocaust, which garnered him a second OBIE.

Margulies provided part of the writing pedigree for the ABC drama series "Once and Again" (1999-2002) by scripting its Thanksgiving episode, then picked up the Pulitzer for "Dinner with Friends" (2000), a play which actually opened in Paris before New York, enjoying success and an extended run at the Comedie des Champs-Elyses. In it, he keenly explored the dissolution of supposedly steady marriages and the impact on friendships between the split spouses and couples who remain together. His next piece, "God and Vengeance" (also 2000), was an adaptation of a 1906 Yiddish play that had received numerous productions around the world. Boasting perhaps the first lesbian relationship ever depicted on the Broadway stage when it debuted there in 1923, it generated a furor resulting in its producer and 12 actors being indicted by a grand jury for "the crime of presenting an obscene, indecent, immoral and impure theatrical production." Though Margulies transferred the action from a 20th-century Polish village to Manhattan in 1923 to make it more relevant to modern audiences, its inherent melodrama was a bit grating to contemporary sensibilities, and its "cast of thousands" did not bode well for a commercial move beyond its regional beginnings.

Life Events

1987

Scripted the ABC Afterschool Special, "Divorced Kids' Blues"

1988

Wrote and produced the ABC sitcom "Baby Boom"

1991

Penned "Sight Unseen," which was shown at the Manhattan Theater Club

1993

His "The Loman Family Picnic" played at Manhattan Theatre Club

1994

Debuted his "What's Wrong with This Picture?" on Broadway; directed by Joe Mantello

1996

Confronted the Holocaust with "The Model Apartment"

1997

Premiered his "Collected Stories," recalling "All About Eve" at South Coast Rep; Uta Hagen appeared as the older writer in a 1998 production at NYC's Lucille Lortel Theater

1999

Co-wrote with fellow playwright Michael Weller, the Marshall Herskovitz-Edward Zwick executive produced ABC drama "Once and Again"

2000

Adapted "God and Vengeance" from a 1906 Yiddish play that first debuted on Broadway in 1923

2000

Won the Pulitzer Prize for his play "Dinner with Friends"; first premiered in Paris before moving to New York

2001

Wrote the screenplay adaptation of "Dinner With Friends" (aired on HBO)

2002

Adapted his play "Collected Stories" for TV (aired on PBS)

2004

Debuted "Sight Unseen" on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre

2005

Penned the Broadway play "Brooklyn Boy"

2009

Wrote the Off-Broadway play "Shipwrecked! An Entertainment - The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told By Himself)"

2010

Wrote the acclaimed Broadway play "Time Stands Still"; earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Play

Companions

Lynn Street
Wife
Physician. Together since c. 1979; married since c. 1987; a graduate of Yale Medical School, she works in a primary-care health clinic in New Haven.

Bibliography