Gibson, William 1914–

(William Mass)

PERSONAL: Born November 13, 1914, in New York, NY; son of George Irving (a bank clerk) and Florence (Dore) Gibson; married Margaret Brenman (a psychoanalyst), September 6, 1940; children: Thomas, Daniel. Education: Attended College of City of New York (now City College of the City University of New York), 1930–32. Politics: Democrat.

ADDRESSES: Home—General Delivery, Stockbridge, MA 01262-9999. Agent—Flora Roberts, 157 West 57th St., New York, NY 10022.

CAREER: Author and playwright. Piano teacher at intervals in early writing days to supplement income. President and cofounder of Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stockbridge, MA, 1966–.

MEMBER: PEN, Authors League of America, Dramatists Guild.

AWARDS, HONORS: Harriet Monroe Memorial Prize, 1945, for group of poems published in Poetry; Topeka Civic Theatre Award, 1947, for A Cry of Players; Sylvania Award, 1957, for television play The Miracle Worker; Antoinette Perry Award Nomination for best play, 1958, for Two for the Seesaw; Antoinette Perry Award for best play, 1960, for The Miracle Worker.

WRITINGS:

PLAYS

I Lay in Zion (one-act play; produced at Topeka Civic Theatre, 1943), Samuel French (New York, NY), 1947.

(Under pseudonym William Mass) The Ruby (one-act lyrical drama), with libretto (based on Lord Dunsany's A Night at an Inn) by Norman Dello Joio, Ricordi, 1955.

The Miracle Worker (three-act; originally written as a television drama; produced by Columbia Broadcasting System for Playhouse 90 in 1957 and by National Broadcasting Company in 1979; rewritten for stage and produced on Broadway at Playhouse Theatre, October 19, 1959; rewritten for screen and produced by United Artists in 1962; also see below), Knopf (New York, NY), 1957.

Dinny and the Witches [and] The Miracle Worker (the former produced off-Broadway at Cherry Lane Theatre, December 9, 1959; also see below), Atheneum (New York, NY), 1960.

Two for the Seesaw (three-act comedy; copyrighted in 1956 as After the Verb to Love; produced on Broadway at Booth Theatre, January 16, 1958; also see below), Samuel French (New York, NY), l960.

Dinny and the Witches: A Frolic on Grave Matters, Dramatists Play Service, 1961.

(With Clifford Odets) Golden Boy (musical adaptation of Odets's original drama, with lyrics by Lee Adams, and music by Charles Strouse; first produced on Broadway at Majestic Theatre, October 20, l964), Atheneum (New York, NY), 1965.

A Cry of Players (three-act; produced at Topeka Civic Theatre, February, 1948; produced on Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, November 14, 1968), Atheneum (New York, NY), 1969.

John and Abigail (three-act drama; produced at Berkshire Theatre Festival, 1969, later in Washington, DC, at Ford's Theatre, January 9, 1970), published as American Primitive: The Words of John and Abigail Adams Put into a Sequence for the Theater, with Addenda in Rhyme, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1972.

The Body and the Wheel (produced in Lenox, MA, at Pierce Chapel, April 5, 1974), Dramatists Play Service, 1975.

The Butterfingers Angel, Mary and Joseph, Herod the Nut, and the Slaughter of 12 Hit Carols in a Pear Tree (produced at Pierce Chapel, December, 1974), Dramatists Play Service, 1975.

Golda (produced on Broadway at the Morosco Theatre, November 14, 1977), Samuel French (New York, NY), 1977.

Goodly Creatures (produced in Washington, DC, at the Round House Theatre, January, 1980), Dramatists Play Service, 1990.

Monday after the Miracle (produced in Charleston, SC, at the Dock Street Theatre, May, 1982, later produced on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, December 14, 1982), Dramatists Play Service, 1990.

Handy Dandy (produced in New York, NY, 1984), Dramatists Play Service, 1986.

Raggedy Ann and Andy (musical; music and lyrics by Joe Raposo), first produced in Albany, NY, 1984, produced in New York City, 1986, as Raggedy Ann.

Golda's Balcony (one-act; produced in Lenox, MA, May 18, 2002), Applause Theatre & Cinema Books (New York, NY), 2003.

OTHER

Winter Crook (poems), Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1948.

The Cobweb (novel), Knopf (New York, NY), 1954.

The Seesaw Log (a chronicle of the stage production, including the text of Two for the Seesaw), Knopf (New York, NY), 1959.

A Mass for the Dead (chronicle and poems), Atheneum (New York, NY), 1968.

A Season in Heaven (chronicle), Atheneum (New York, NY), 1974.

Shakespeare's Game (criticism), Atheneum (New York, NY), 1978.

ADAPTATIONS: The Cobweb was filmed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1957; Two for the Seesaw was filmed by United Artists, 1962.

SIDELIGHTS: While William Gibson has published poetry, plays, fiction, and criticism, he is best known for his 1957 play The Miracle Worker. Originally written and performed as a television drama, and adapted in later years for both stage and screen, The Miracle Worker remains Gibson's most widely revived piece. It was filmed again for television in 1979 and also formed the basis for Gibson's 1982 play, Monday after the Miracle, which picks up the characters almost twenty years later. Writing in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Stephen C. Coy called the drama "a classic American play—and television play, and film—the full stature of which has yet to be realized."

The story, which is based on real people and actual events, concerns the relationship between Helen Keller, a handicapped child who has been deaf and blind since infancy, and Annie Sullivan, the formerly blind teacher who has been called in to instruct her. When Annie arrives she finds that Helen has been utterly spoiled by well-intentioned parents who, in their sympathy, allow her to terrorize the household. Annie's efforts to civilize Helen and Helen's resistance result in a fierce, and fre-quently physical, struggle that forms the central conflict of the play. The "miracle" occurs when, after months of frustration, Annie is finally able to reach the child. Coy explained: "Just as the struggle appears to be lost, Helen starts to work the pump in the Keller yard and the miracle—her mind learning to name things—happens before the audience as she feels the water and the wet ground. Annie and others realize what is happening as Helen, possessed, runs about touching things and learning names, finally, to their great joy, 'Mother' and 'Papa.' The frenzy slows as Helen realizes there is something she needs to know, gets Annie to spell it for her, spells it back, and goes to spell it for her mother. It is the one word which more than any other describes the subject of The Miracle Worker: 'Teacher.'"

Praising the play's "youthfulness and vigor," New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther described the tremendous concentration of energy apparent in the battle scenes between Helen and Annie: "The physical vitality and passion are absolutely intense as the nurse, played superbly by Anne Bancroft moves in and takes on the job of 'reaching the soul' of the youngster, played by Patty Duke…. When the child, who is supposed to be Helen Keller in her absolutely primitive childhood state, kicks and claws with the frenzy of a wild beast at the nurse who is supposed to be Annie Sullivan, the famous instructor of Miss Keller, it is a staggering attack. And when Annie hauls off and swats her or manhandles her into a chair and pushes food into her mouth to teach her habits, it is enough to make the viewer gasp and grunt."

The Broadway production of the play was so well received that a film version with the same stars was made in 1962 and enjoyed similar success. Later revivals have not fared so well. When The Miracle Worker was filmed for television in 1979 (with Patty Duke playing Annie Sullivan), Tom Shales commented in the Washington Post that the only point in doing The Miracle Worker again "was to give Patty Duke Astin a chance on the other side of the food." His objections ranged from what he called "careless casting" to the inappropriateness (almost an insult, he called it) of making a television movie from a screenplay written for live television. For the writing itself, however, Shales had nothing but praise. "William Gibson's play … remains, even when not perfectly done, a nearly perfect joy, one of the most assuredly affirmative dramatic works to come out of the optimistic '50s."

Gibson's three-act play, Two for the Seesaw, which played on Broadway in 1958, starring Anne Bancroft and Henry Fonda, was a hit, giving momentum to the playwright's career. This "most adroit and refreshing dramatic duet," as Marya Mannes called it in the Reporter, revolves around the relationship of Jerry, a lawyer from Nebraska, and Gittel, a girl from the Bronx. Though Lionel Trilling suggested in the Drama Review that the play "challenges none of the vested interests, affronts none of the deep-rooted pieties of … [the] audience," he remarked that "even a modest comedy about a love affair may be more or less honest, as may any scene in the play, or any speech in a scene." Likening it to a best-selling novel, the Nation's Harold Clurman went on to describe the work as a "conventional tale" lacking concrete characters, but replete with jokes and clichés. When Gibson published the play as The Seesaw Log, he prefaced it with a chronicle of the more than two months of work that led up to its Broadway premiere. When the play was revived at the Marin Theatre in Mill Valley, California, in 2002, the director staged it as a period piece. Although San Francisco Chronicle critic Robert Hurwitt found the more than two-hour length unjustified for the plot and ill-suited to the modern theatergoer, he praised its undated emotional realism. "As much as its details demonstrate the degree to which things have changed since 1958," he added, "the emotional journeys of its characters haven't dated a bit."

In addition to The Miracle Worker, and Two for the Seesaw, Gibson wrote several other three-act biographical plays, including Cry of Players, about William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway; John and Abigail, about John and Abigail Adams; Goodly Creatures, about Anne Hutchinson; and Golda, about Israeli prime minister Golda Meir. In 1977 Golda appeared on Broadway, starring Anne Bancroft. The play portrays not only Meir's political role, but shows through flashbacks her childhood, life, and work with the Zionist movement. The original had a short and unsuccessful run, yet Gibson felt strongly enough about the work to return to it a quarter-century later. The octogenarian reworked what had been a play with a cast of more than twenty, to a one-act version titled Golda's Balcony. With the distance of time between the play and the historical events of the Yom Kippur War, during which the play takes place, Golda's Balcony fared much better. While during the original production, the personages and events were often in the news, in the reworked version subtle video projections of personages and events help viewers put the work into historical context. Noting that the play, "imparts a lot of information in its ninety minutes," Variety's Marland Taylor found that "sometimes the transitions from Israel's history to her [Meir's] personal history are too abrupt," and the work seems rather like a lecture. Despite the fact that the play portrays only the Israeli viewpoint about the war, Neil Genzlinger de-scribed the play as "enlightening nonetheless" in his New York Times review. "Thanks to the vigor of Gibson's writing and actor Annette Miller's strong performance, Golda's Balcony is often involving and enlightening," concluded Taylor.

"Despite an age most would consider ripe for retirement, William Gibson (just shy of 90) shows no signs of stopping," wrote Sarah Hart in a sidebar for her 2003 article in American Theatre. The Berkshire Theatre Festival opened the 2003 season with Gibson's American Primitive, which had premiered at the festival in 1969 as John and Abigail. Gibson remained excited about the play that he once thought was not quite right for the theatre. "This production is the first time that this play convinced me it was a theatre piece," Gibson told Hart. "The actors, the direction—It's extraordinary." Festival executive director Kate Maguire noted, "His mind and strength are so intense. I want to be around that, and I want it for the organization. It feels like good karma to open the season with his play, like all the elements have conspired to bring this about."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Dramatists, 6th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1999.

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 23, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1983.

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 7: Twentieth-Century American Dramatists, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1981.

Gibson, William, The Seesaw Log, Knopf (New York, NY), 1959.

PERIODICALS

America, November 10, 1990, p. 350.

American Theatre, November, 2003, Sarah Hart, "An American Revolution: The 75-Year-Old Berkshire Theatre Festival Looks to Its Star-Spangled Past to Inspire a Still-Fermenting Future" (includes sidebar "For William Gibson, Opportunity Knocks Twice"), p. 32.

Back Stage West, January 6, 2000, Terri Roberts, review of The Miracle Worker, p. 10.

Cosmopolitan, August, 1958.

Daily Variety, June 5, 2002, Marland Taylor, review of Golda's Balcony, p. 9.

Drama Review, May, 1960, Lionel Trilling, review of Two for the Seesaw, p. 17.

Los Angeles Times, October 19, 1982; May 13, 1999, Mark Chalon Smith, "Actors Carry Miracle in Costa Mesa," p. 6.

Nation, February 1, 1958, Harold Clurman, review of Two for the Seesaw, p. 107; December 2, 1968.

New England Theatre, spring, 1970.

New Leader, December 16, 1968.

New Republic, November 9, 1959, Robert Brustein, review of The Miracle Worker, p. 28.

Newsweek, March 16, 1959; July 27, 1970.

New York, November 5, 1990, p. 127.

New Yorker, November 23, 1968; November 5, 1990, p. 120.

New York Times, May 24, 1962; May 27, 1962; June 3, 1962; November 16, 1977; December 9, 1980; May 26, 1982; December 15, 1982; March 16, 2003, Shimon Peres, "Always a Lioness, Protecting Her Beloved Israel," p. 7(L); April 1, 2003, Neil Genzlinger, "A 1977 Golda Meir Gets into Shape," review of Golda's Balcony, p. E5.

New York Times Book Review, March 15, 1959, Harold Clurman, review of Two for the Seesaw, p. 5; April 14, 1968.

Poetry, August, 1948, James Hall, review of Winter Crook, pp. 278, 281.

Reporter, March 6, 1958, Marya Mannes, review of Two for the Seesaw, p. 36.

San Francisco Chronicle, May 23, 2002, Robert Hurwitt, "Seesaw's Timeless Back-and-Forth; 1958 Broadway Hit Retains Relevance," p. D9.

Saturday Review, March 13, 1954, Charles Lee, review of "The Cobweb," p. 19; March 14, 1959, Henry Hewes, review of The Seesaw Log, p. 55; March 23, 1968.

Tulane Drama Review, May, 1960.

Variety, February 21, 1971; June 10, 2002, Marland Taylor, review of Golda's Balcony, p. 38; March 31, 2003, Marilyn Stasio, review of Golda's Balcony, p. 30.

Washington Post, October 13, 1979; January 20, 1980; January 26, 1980; November 27, 1981; December 3, 1981; October 3, 1982; October 14, 1982.

Writing, Conrad Geller, "A Battle to Free a Human Soul: In The Miracle Worker, William Gibson Skillfully Depicts Conflict-The Center of All Successful Drama," p. 14.