Playwrights

Balducci, Carolyn

Feb. 13, 1946     –

Place of Birth:  Pelham, NY

Place of Principal Residence:  Ann Arbor, MI

Biography:
Carolyn Feleppa Balducci was born in Pelham, NY to Ernest and Rosaria Feleppa.  She first got her interest in writing through art, being both an avid reader and an artist.  During her education at Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart in Purchase, NY she wavered between focusing on studio art and English.  In the end, she chose studio art, but her interest in writing lived on.  “As electives, I took a couple of creative writing courses,” Balducci said.  “My best marks were in The History of the English Language — go figure!”  After graduation Balducci taught Creative Writing at the University of Michigan.  She became interested in theater and started translating plays, as well as writing her own for university productions.  Years later Balducci felt the need to become more involved in her hometown, Montauk, and took up the job of program director for the Montauk library.  Her job included organizing local actors to do dramatic readings, a task that required catering plays to the interest of the community as well as using the talents of acting companies to their best advantage.  One of her translated plays, In Times of War by David Alan Moore, was performed by Stage Left in Chicago.  Balducci has written books, articles, poems, plays, and screenplays.  Currently she focuses her time on writing stage plays and screenplays.

Selected works:

       
• Margaret Fuller, A Life of Passion and Defiance (1991)
       
• A Self-Made Woman: the Life of Nobel Prize Winner Grazia Deledda (1975)
       
• Earwax (1972)
       
• Giovanni the Fearless (1971)

Awards:

 
• ALA Notable Book Award
 
• S.I.A.E. commendation for contributions to Italian theater in America
 
• Grants from Michigan Council for the Arts and Ohio Program in the Humanities
 
• American Library Association ‘Guest Editor’
 
• Mademoiselle Magazine ‘Who’s Who’

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
  Working at University of Michigan sparked an interest in Balducci to get involved in writing and translating dramatic works, an occupation she continues today.

Bloss, Joan

Dec. 9, 1928   –

Place of Birth: New York, NY

Place of Principle Residence: Ann Arbor, MI

Biography:
Joan Blos, a New York City native, was born on December 9, 1928 to Max (a psychiatrist) and Charlotte (teacher) Winsor, both of whom influenced her professional pursuits. Joan’s love for libraries was inherited from her parents, who took her on frequent trips to it and read out loud to her.  Joan attended Vassar College during 1946 – 1949 and got her B.A. in physiology, a decision she contributed to her father.  After graduation she worked as a college classroom assistant in a special nursery for disturbed by very young children.  It was there she discovered her love for teaching children.  Blos went for a year to New York City College to get a master’s degree in psychology, but did not complete the program.  Instead she became a doctoral candidate at Yale and also worked as a research assistant in Yale’s Child Study Center where she was employed in the pediatric play program where she interacted with child patients.  Blos later attributed this experience to sparking an interest in children’s literature. At Yale she also met her husband, Peter Blos.  Three years later she decided academic psychology wasn’t a good fit and moved back to New York City with her husband.  Blos reregistered for an M.A. at the City College of New York City and also worked part-time at the Bank Street College of Education, an organization focused on a progressive view of education, in the Publications division.  Here she began writing, reviewing, and teaching.  In 1970 Blos left New York City for Michigan.  She published her first book, “It’s Spring,” She Said and has since released a plethora of other books as well as a stage play. 

Selected Works:

     
• In the City (1964)
     
• Just Think (1971)
     
• A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal, 1830 – 1838 (1979)
     
• Martin’s Hats (1984)
     
• The Grandpa Days (1989)
     
• On Very Best Valentine’s Day (1989)
     
• Brooklyn Doesn’t Rhyme (1994)
     
• Hungry Little Boy (1995)
     
• Hello Shoes! (1999)

Awards:

• 1980 Newbery Medal for A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal
• American Book Award (Children’s Fiction) for A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal
     
• 1987 Globe-Horn Book Honor Award for Old Henry
     
• Booklist Editor’s choice for Old Henry
     
• Honorary Doctorate from Bank Street College of Education in NYC

Critical Reception:
Blos’ novel A Gather of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal, 1830-32 received rave reviews.  Kirkus Reviews wrote the book was “carefully researched and convincingly delivered.”  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch commented that the “careful tuning of psychological nuances to historical elements…gives the story its powerful immediacy.  A Gathering of Days not only gives the reader a close look at the early 1800s, it offers… a deeply moving human experience.”  The Toronto Globe and Mail described Blos’ book Brothers of the Heart: A Story of the Old Northwest, 1837 – 1838 as “more powerful and more stirring than its award-winning predecessor.”  St. James Guide to Children’s Writers wrote Blos’ “language, with its rhythms and lilt of earlier times, is remarkably spare, not replete with full-blown descriptions, yet giving the reader a strong sense of place and characterization.  Blos has accomplished the fine feat of balancing history with universal human experience, uniting the book’s past with the reader’s present.  Brothers of the Heart was rewritten as a stage play in 1999.

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work: 
Living in Ann Arbor has allowed Blos to do local research for her books, most particularly Brothers of the Heart, where she drew inspiration for her setting, as well as spending time in the Ypsilanti Historical Society and the Bentley Library.  She is actively involved in the community publishing plays for theatrical companies such as Wild Swan Theater.  Today plenty of her time is reading in the Library of the University of Michigan and writing books. 

Lardner, Ring

March 6, 1885 - September 35, 1933

Place of Birth:  Niles, MI

Biography:
  Wilmer Ringold Lardner was born to Lena and Henry Lardner in Niles, MI in 1885.  Despite a physical disability, Lardner participated in sports, particularly baseball, which later manifested to being a sports writer later on in his life.  Early on Lardner had an interest in music, theatricals, and writing, composing his high school class’ poem that was published in the Daily Star.  Lardner briefly attended Armour Institute of Technology for engineering, but dropped out and worked a variety of jobs before landing work as a reporter for the South Bend Times in 1905.  In 1907, Lardner transferred to being a sports reporter for various Chicago newspapers, and later as an editor for Sporting News and a columnist for The Chicago Tribune.  Starting in 1907 Lardner began building a reputation as one of the most insightful, entertaining, and innovative sports reporters in the country.  Lardner in particular stood out for the humor, satire, and slang vernacular incorporated into his writing.  Lardner reportedly could turn the most dull baseball came into a comedic, keen perceptive articles and columns.  Eventually Lardner’s columns were printed in 115 newspapers, and over his lifetime he wrote 4,500 articles and columns.  He has received much attention for his American slang vernacular where he studied the way people speak to relate to readers, instead of using it as a device to humiliate.  Eventually Lardner focused more on his short stories and theatrical pieces that portrayed more satire of all aspects of American life than in his columns.  Although he wrote many plays, his only success was June Moon, co-authored with George Kaufman.  He has been compared to authors such as Sinclair Lewis and Mark Twain.  Lardner died on September 35, 1933 of a heart attack. 

Selected Works:

     
• Bib Ballads (1915)
     
• Gullible’s Travels (1917)
     
• Own Your Own Home (1919)
     
• Symptoms of Being 35 (1921)
     
• The Love Nest and Other Stories (1926)
     
• June Moon: a Comedy in a Prologue and Three Acts (1930)

Critical Reception:
Lardner was one of the lucky few who’s writing enjoyed critical and popular approval.  During the 1920s, Lardner rose to great prominence, and was arguably one of the most influential writers of the decade.  His noted style included satire and slang vernacular, and his sports columns were wildly successful, being published in 115 newspapers.  In the last few years of his life, Lardner fell out of public attention.  However, Lardner still remains the forbearer of relating personally with his readers by using humor and the common style of speech.  Journalists today still follow his example.

 

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
  Lardner grew up in Niles, MI where he first developed his love for sports, particularly baseball, and writing, music, and theatricals.  Later on in life, Lardner incorporated these interests into his career as a sports writer and author of theatricals.

 

Milner, Ron

May 29, 1938 – July 9, 2004

Place of Birth: Detroit, MI

Principle Residence: Detroit, MI

Biography:
Ron Milner never abandoned his native hometown Detroit, MI.  His experience as an African-American growing up in an era of racial tension stayed with him all his life.  As a young man he attended Highland Park Junior College, Detroit Institute of Technology, and Columbia University of New York.  At age nineteen Milner met Woodie King, Jr. who encouraged his friend the short play, American Agony, which the two performed in a small coffee shop.  The men continued collaborating for forty-four years.  Milner wrote plays for the Concepts East Theater (founded by King in 1959).  The same theater produced other famous writers of the Black Arts Movement such as Ed Bullins, Ben Caldwell, Amiri Baraka, and J.E. Franklin.  When employed as a writer in residence at Lincoln University, Milner was encouraged to write by his friend Langston Hughes to use a more personal voice in his writing.  During this time his writing matured, and Milner gradually came to be known at the “people’s playwright” for his ceaseless commitment in using Black theater for the advancement of Black people.  Several of his plays enjoyed great success, including Checkmates, which starred Denzel Washington and Paul Winfield, and What the Wine-Sellers Buy, which earned over a million dollars.  In addition to writing many plays, Milner was a director, critic, and editor.  He taught creative writing at the University of Southern California from 1979 – 1981 before moving back to Detroit.  Milner worked hard to establish regional-level Black theater in Michigan and to educate children by using theater.  Milner died of liver cancer in 2004. 

Selected Works:

         
• Don’t Get God Started (1987)
         
• Crack Steppin’ (1981)
         
• Season’s Reasons (1976)
         
• Who’s Got His Own (1966)
         
• What the Wine-Sellers Buy (1974)
         
• Black Short Story Anthology (1972)

Awards:

   
• Rockefeller Grant
   
• John Hay Whitney Fellowship
   
• Checkmates performed on Broadway
   
• What the Wine-Sellers Buy first play by an African American produced by                         Joseph Papp at the New York Shakespeare Festival at Lincoln Center

Critical Reception:

“It [What the Wine-Sellers Buy] is an interesting play and deserves a wider circulation…Mr. Milner’s picture of the Detroit ghetto has that special authority that infallibly suggests authenticity, and his story of a black kid finally resisting the temptation to become a pimp is satisfyingly moral.’‘
- Clives Barnes of The New York Times

“Detroit is to the Black Theater movement what New Orleans is to jazz, because of the contributions of three men: Lloyd Richards; Woodie King; and Ron Milner.”
- August Wilson

“Ron Milner, a native Detroit writer, is one of the most produced and highly respected African American playwrights. Since the 1960s his works have become staples of African American theaters around the country”
—Bill Harris, Wayne State University

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Milner received his inspiration and dedication from his hometown, Detroit.  According to Milner, he found more clarity and creativity in this environment.  He worked tirelessly towards the advancement of Black people through theater.

Piercy, Marge

March 31, 1936 -

Place of Birth:  Detroit, MI

Place of Principle Residence:  Wellfleet, MA

Biography:
Marge Piercy was born to Bernice and Robert Piercy in Detroit, MI.  Growing up during the Great Depression, Piercy and her family struggled to get by.  Her grandmother and mother raised her to be a Jew, and Piercy remains one today.  At age seventeen, she won a full scholarship to the University of Michigan, earning her A.B. in 1957.  Piercy describes this time as enjoyable academically, but difficult with being a feminist in the Freudianism that permeated the campus.  Upon graduating, Piercy won a fellowship to attend Northwestern University, where she earned her M.A. in 1958.  Piercy has lived numerous places, teaching poetry and writing at many universities.  She is actively involved in politics, and was involved in the anti-Vietnam war protest, the Women’s movement, and currently with the resistance to the war in Iraq.  Early on in her writing career (around her early to mid-twenties), Piercy did not enjoy much success.  Eventually she got her first book published, Breaking Camp, in 1968, and has since published seventeen novels.  Much of Piercy’s fiction and writing revolves around politics, women, and the working class.  With her current husband, Ira Wood, Piercy has written a play (The Last White Class), co-authored a novel, and established the Leapfrog Press.  Piercy currently works as a writer and lecturer and lives in Wellfleet, MA.   

Selected Works:

     
• Breaking Camp (1968)
     
• Woman on the Edge of Time (1976)
     
• The Moon is Always Female (1980)
     
• The Longings of Women (1994)

Awards:

     
• 1956, 1957 Hopwood Award for Fiction and Poetry
     
• 1968, 1974 Borestone Mountain Poetry Award (Twice)
     
• 1986, 1990 Carolyn Kizer Poetry Prize from Calapooya College
     
• 1989 Two Thousand Notable American Women, 1st edition, American Biographical Institute, Inc.
     
• 1990 The Golden Rose Poetry Prize, New England Poetry Club
     
• 1991 May Sarton Award, New England Poetry Club
     
• 1992 Brit ha-Dorot Award, The Shalom Center
     
• 1992 Barbara Bradley Award, New England Poetry Club
     
• 1993 Arthur C. Clarke Award, Best Science Fiction Novel published in the United Kingdom
     
• 1997 ALA ‘97 Notable Book Award for What Are Big Girls Made Of?
     
• 2000 Paterson Poetry Prize for The Art of Blessing the Day
 
• James B. Angell Scholar and Lucinda Goodrich Downs Scholar
 
• Orion Scott Award in Humanities
 
• Literature Award from the governor’s commission on the Status of Women (Massachusetts)
 
• Rhode Island School of Design Faculty Association medal
 
• Shaffer/PEN/New England Award for Literary Excellence
 
• Honorary Doctor of Letters, Bridgewater State College
 
• Honorary Doctor of Letters, Lesley College

Critical Reception:
“Marge Piercy is not just an author, she’s a cultural touchstone. Few writers in modern memory have sustained her passion, and skill, for creating stories of consequence.”
    -The Boston Globe

For He, She, and It:

“This is a beautifully-written book that evokes style and mood wonderfully. Considering the constant changes of scene between 17th-century Prague and the mid-21st, Ms. Piercy does a marvellous job of making each era believable. Using the two time periods is more than just a device; the earlier tale is instrumental in bringing about the conclusion of events in the 21st century.”
- BlogCritics Magazine

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Piercy’s childhood in Detroit, MI shaped her perspective on the world, especially with fostering her politically themed work.  Her family lived in a segregated neighborhood during the depression, and her grandfather was murdered for being a union organizer.  This involvement with injustice later inspired Piercy to get actively involved in political protests, fighting against the Vietnam and Iraq wars and pushing for more rights for women and the working class.

 

 

 

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