NELSON, Richard 1950-

PERSONAL: Born October 17, 1950, in Chicago, IL; son of Richard Finis (a sales representative) and Viola (a dancer; maiden name, Gabriel) Nelson; married Cynthia B. Bacon, May 21, 1972; children: Zoe Elizabeth, Jocelyn Anne. Education: Hamilton College (Clinton, NY), B.A., 1972.

ADDRESSES: Home—32 South St., Rhinebeck, NY 12572. Agent—Peter Franklin, William Morris Agency, 1350 Sixth Ave., New York, NY 10019; Patricia MacNaughton, MLR, 200 Fulham Rd., London SW10 9PN, England.

CAREER: Playwright and director. Playwright, 1972—; Brooklyn Academy of Music Theater Company (BAM), New York, NY, literary manager, 1979-81; Goodman Theater of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, associate director, 1980-83; Tyrone Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, MN, dramaturge, 1981-82.

Also directed the stage productions for his plays Between East and West (with Ted D'Arms), Goodnight Children Everywhere, Madame Melville, The General from America, and the unpublished plays James Joyce's The Dead, Franny's Way, and My Life with Albertine. Also worked on lighting design for several Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, and appeared on an episode of Working in the Theatre for the City University of New York, 2000.

MEMBER: PEN.

AWARDS, HONORS: Thomas J. Watson travel fellowship, 1972; Office for Advanced Drama Research grant, 1976, for Conjuring an Event; National Endowment for the Arts creative writing fellowship, 1979, 1985; Obie Award for distinguished play writing, Village Voice, 1979, for The Vienna Notes; Rockefeller Foundation grants, 1979, 1988; Obie Award for innovative programming, Village Voice, 1980; Guggenheim fellowship, 1983; ABC Playwriting Award, American Broadcasting Companies (ABC) Television, 1985, for Principia Scriptoriae; National Endowment for the Arts playwriting fellowships, 1986, 1987; Playwrights USA Award, Home Box Office (HBO), 1986, for Between East and West; Time Out London Theatre Award, 1987, for Principia Scriptoriae; Giles Cooper Award for best radio play, 1988, for Languages Spoken Here; Lila Wallace Writers Award, Reader's Digest Fund, 1991-93; Antoinette Perry ("Tony") Award nomination for best play, 1992, for Two Shakespearean Actors; Lannan Literary Award, 1995; and Antoinette Perry ("Tony") Award for best book of a musical, 2000, for James Joyce's The Dead.

WRITINGS:

PUBLISHED STAGE PLAYS

The Killing of Yablonski: Scenes of Involvement in a Current Event (produced in Los Angeles, CA, at the Mark Taper Forum/Lab, 1975), published in Plays by Richard Nelson: Early Plays, Volume 1, Broadway Play Publishing (New York, NY), 1998.

Conjuring an Event (produced in Los Angeles, CA, at the Mark Taper Forum/Lab, 1976; produced in New York, NY, at the American Place Theater, March 19, 1978), published in An American Comedy and Other Plays, PAJ Publications (New York, NY), 1986, published in Plays by Richard Nelson: Early Plays, Volume 1, Broadway Play Publishing (New York, NY), 1998.

Scooping (one-act monologue; produced in Washington, DC, at the Arena Stage, 1977), published in Plays by Richard Nelson: Early Plays, Volume 1, Broadway Play Publishing (New York, NY), 1998.

Jungle Coup (produced in New York, NY, at Playwrights Horizons Theatre, June 22, 1978), published in Plays from Playwrights Horizons, Broadway Play Publishing (New York, NY), 1987, published in Plays by Richard Nelson: Early Plays, Volume 1, Broadway Play Publishing (New York, NY), 1998.

The Vienna Notes (produced in Minneapolis, MN, at the Tyrone Guthrie Theater, October 6, 1978; produced in New York, NY, at Playwrights Horizons Theatre, January 18, 1979), published in Wordplays, PAJ Publications (New York, NY), 1980, published in Plays by Richard Nelson: Early Plays, Volume 2, Broadway Play Publishing (New York, NY), 1998.

Bal (produced by Chicago Theatre Group, in Chicago, IL, at the Goodman Theater, February 29, 1980), published in An American Comedy and Other Plays, PAJ Publications (New York, NY), 1986, published in Plays by Richard Nelson: Early Plays, Volume 2, Broadway Play Publishing (New York, NY), 1998.

Rip Van Winkle or "The Works" (produced in New Haven, CT, at the Yale Repertory Theater, December 4, 1981), Broadway Play Publishing (New York, NY), 1986.

The Return of Pinocchio (produced in Seattle, WA, at Empty Space, March, 1983; produced in New York, NY, by Double Image Theater, September, 1986), published in An American Comedy and Other Plays, PAJ Publications (New York, NY), 1986, published in Plays by Richard Nelson: Early Plays, Volume 2, Broadway Play Publishing (New York, NY), 1998.

(And codirector, with Ted D'Arms) Between East and West (two-act; produced in Seattle, WA, at the Seattle Repertory Theater, March 23, 1984; produced in London, England, at the Hampstead Theatre Club, December, 1987), published in New Plays USA 3, edited by James Leverett and M. Elizabeth Osborne, Theatre Communications Group (New York, NY), 1986, published by Faber & Faber (Boston, MA), 1989, published in Principia Scriptoriae [and] Between East and West, Faber & Faber (Boston, MA), 1991.

An American Comedy (produced in Los Angeles, CA, at the Mark Taper Forum, October 13, 1986), published in An American Comedy and Other Plays, PAJ Publications (New York, NY), 1986.

An American Comedy and Other Plays (includes An American Comedy, Bal, The Return of Pinocchio, and Conjuring an Event), PAJ Publications (New York, NY), 1986.

Principia Scriptoriae (two-act; produced in New York, NY, at Manhattan Theatre Club, March 25, 1986; produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, in London, England, 1986), Theatre Communications Group (New York, NY), 1986, published in Principia Scriptoriae [and] Between East and West, Faber & Faber (Boston, MA), 1991.

Chess (book for the two-act musical; produced on Broadway at the Imperial Theater, 1988; music by Benny Andersson and Bjön Ulvaeus, lyrics by Tim Rice, based on an idea by Tim Rice), Samuel French (New York, NY), 1989.

Some Americans Abroad (two-act; produced in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, by the Royal Shakespeare Company, July, 1989; produced in New York, NY, at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre, 1990), Faber & Faber (Boston, MA), 1989.

Sensibility and Sense (produced in New York, NY, at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre, 1989), Faber & Faber (Boston, MA), 1989.

Two Shakespearean Actors (produced in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, 1990; produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, in New York, NY, at Lincoln Center Theatre, 1991), Faber & Faber (Boston, MA), 1990.

Columbus and the Discovery of Japan (produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, in London, England, at the Barbican Theatre, 1992), Faber & Faber (Boston, MA), 1992.

(With Alexander Gelman) Misha's Party (produced in London, England, at the Pit, 1993; produced in Williamstown, MA, at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, MainStage Theatre, 1997), Faber & Faber (Boston, MA), 1993.

(And director) The General from America (produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company in London, England, at Barbican Theatre, 1996; produced by the Milwaukee Repertory Company), published in Madame Melville [and] The General from America, Grove Press (New York, NY), 2000, published separately, Samuel French (New York, NY), 2003.

(And director) Goodnight Children Everywhere (produced in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, by the Royal Shakespeare Company, 1997; produced in New York, NY, at Playwrights Horizons Theatre, 1999), Faber & Faber (Boston, MA), 1997.

Plays by Richard Nelson: Early Plays, Volume 1 (contains The Killing of Yablonski, Scooping, Jungle Coup, and Conjuring an Event), Broadway Play Publishing (New York, NY), 1998.

Plays by Richard Nelson: Early Plays, Volume 2, (contains The Vienna Notes, Bal, and The Return of Pinocchio,), Broadway Play Publishing (New York, NY), 1998.

Plays by Richard Nelson: Early Plays, Volume 3, Broadway Play Publishing (New York, NY), 1999.

Richard Nelson: Plays 1 (contains Some Americans Abroad, Two Shakespearean Actors, New England, Principia Scriptoriae, and Left), Faber & Faber (Boston, MA), 1999.

UNPUBLISHED STAGE PLAYS

Roots in Water (a collection of twelve vignettes), produced in Woodstock, NY, at River Arts Repertory, summer, 1988.

Life Sentences (expanded version of Nelson's television special "The End of a Sentence"), produced in New York, NY, at Second Stage, 1993.

New England, produced in London, England, at the Barbican Theatre, 1994; produced in New York, NY, at the Manhattan Theatre Club, 1995.

(And director) Franny's Way (one act), produced in New York, NY, at Playwrights Horizons Theatre, 2001.

Also author, with Colin Chambers, of the unpublished children's play Kenneth's First Play.

RADIO PLAYS

Languages Spoken Here (produced on BBC Radio-3, 1987), published in Best Radio Plays of 1987, Methuen (London, England), 1988.

Roots in Water (radio version of the stage play), produced as a radio play on BBC-Radio 3, 1989.

Eating Words (produced on BBC-Radio 3, 1989), published in Best Radio Plays of 1989, Methuen (London, England), 1989.

Also author of radio plays for WUHY-FM titled "The Unrequited Lovers' Manual," "Hank Aaron's 715th," "The Fall of Agnew," and "Watergate: An Audio Memory." Also author of radio plays for other stations, including "Advice to Eastern Europe" (1990) and "The American Wife" (1994).

TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS

(With Elinor Karpf and Stephen Karpf) Terror in the Sky (television movie), CBS, 1971.

Houston, We've Got a Problem (television movie), ABC, 1974.

Sensibility and Sense (two-act television version of the stage play for American Playhouse series), PBS, 1990.

The End of a Sentence (television play for series American Playhouse), directed by David Jones and produced by Nondas Voll for WETA-TV, 1991.

Also author of unproduced television script "A Shock of Recognition." Also author of a television episode for the series Kojak, CBS, 1973.

TRANSLATIONS AND ADAPTATIONS

Don Juan (adaptation of a work by Moliere; produced in Washington, DC, at the Arena Stage, April 3, 1979), Broadway Play Publishing (New York, NY), 1989.

(With Helga Ciulei) The Wedding (translation of a work by Bertolt Brecht; first of two-part production titled "The Marriage Dance: An Evening of Farce"), produced in New York, NY, at Brooklyn Academy of Music, May 22, 1980.

The Suicide (adaptation of a work by Nikolai Erdman; produced in Chicago, IL, at the Goodman Theatre, 1980), Broadway Play Publishing (New York, NY), 2000.

Il Campiello (adaptation of a work by Carlo Goldoni; produced in New York, NY, at the Acting Company, 1980), Theatre Communications Group (New York, NY), 1981.

Jungle of Cities (adaptation of a work by Bertolt Brecht), produced in New York, NY, at the Playhouse Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 1981.

The Marriage of Figaro (adaptation of a work by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais; produced in Minneapolis, MN, at the Tyrone Guthrie Theater, July 15, 1982; produced on Broadway at the Circle in the Square Theater, October, 1985), Broadway Play Publishing (New York, NY), 1991.

Three Sisters (adaptation of a work by Anton Chekhov), produced in Minneapolis, MN, at the Tyrone Guthrie Theater, 1984.

Accidental Death of an Anarchist (adaptation of a work by Dario Fo; based on a literal translation by Susan Cowan), produced in Washington, DC, at the Arena Stage, February 3, 1984; produced on Broadway at the Belasco Theater, November 15, 1985), Samuel French (New York, NY), 1987.

Ethan Frome (screenplay; based on the novel by Edith Wharton), directed by John Madden, Miramax Films, 1993.

The School for Husbands (adaptation of The Moliere Comedies by Moliere), produced in New York, NY, at Roundabout Theatre, 1995.

The Imaginary Cuckold (adaptation of a work by Moliere), produced in New York, NY, at Roundabout Theatre, 1995.

(And director; and lyricist with Shaun Davey) James Joyce's The Dead (musical based on the story by James Joyce; produced in New York, NY, at Playwrights Horizons Theatre, 1999), music by Shaun Davey, Stage & Screen (Garden City, NY), 1995.

(And director) Madame Melville (one act; produced in London, England, at Vaudeville Theatre, 2000-2001; produced in New York, NY, at the Promenade Theatre, 2001; adapted from a work by Charles Isherwood), published in Madame Melville [and] The General from America, Grove Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Enrico IV (adaptation of a work by Luigi Pirandello), produced in San Francisco, CA, at Geary Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, 2001.

(And lyricist and director) My Life with Albertine (based on the "Albertine" section of Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past), music by Ricky Ian Gordon, produced in New York, NY, at Playwrights Horizons Theatre, 2003.

Also author of Jitterbugging (adaptation), produced in 1989, and The Father (adaptation of a work by August Strindberg), produced in New York, NY, at Criterion Center Stage.

OTHER

(Author of introduction and editor) Strictly Dishonorable and Other Lost American Plays, Theatre Communications Group (New York, NY), 1986.

(With David Jones) Making Plays: The Writer-Director Relationship in the Theatre Today, edited by Colin Chambers, Faber & Faber (Boston, MA), 1995.

Contributor to periodicals, including seven-part series on the trial of labor leader Tony Boyle for Philadelphia Drummer, 1974, and essays for Performing Arts Journal.

SIDELIGHTS: Playwright Richard Nelson is known for his portrayals of individuals, often writers, whose personal beliefs and professional obligations come into conflict with their political convictions. Nelson's dramatic works The Killing of Yablonski, Conjuring an Event, Jungle Coup, and Scooping, for example, which were collected and published in 1998 as Plays by Richard Nelson, Volume 1, form a series that examines the extent to which the media coverage of a news event is influenced by individual biases and journalistic choices. His Obie Award-winning Vienna Notes focuses on an American senator preparing to present a chapter of unpublished memoirs at an international conference. Nelson is also recognized for his numerous adaptations—including The Marriage of Figaro and The Accidental Death of an Anarchist—that incorporate topical references to American culture and politics, as well as the famous My Life with Albertine, a reflection of lost love. Nelson often relies on history and ponderings of the past to provide rich backgrounds for his works.

Many of Nelson's works have appeared on Broadway, including Chess, which is set during the last rounds of the 1972 world chess championship match. The musical focuses on the match's two final players: Bobby Fischer, an American, and Boris Spassky, a Russian. The air of the play is permeated with Cold War attitudes that have not yet warmed, putting a greater importance on the chess match, its players almost ambassadors. Bobby's assistant and former lover, Florence, falls in love with the gentle, unhappily married Russian, ultimately battling his wife for his affections. Variety reviewer Rita Katz Farrell wrote that the play "might have worked better with more emphasis on the flawed human beings at its core rather than the flawed politics of the Cold War." Beverly Creasey from Theater Mirror, however, stated that the best part of the play was "the corruption of a pure love of the game of chess by Commissars and Cold Warriors playing a ruthless international game in which human lives and emotions are irrelevant pawns." This reviewer felt that while Nelson wrote an "excellent book," the play's music detracted from its value.

Nelson again strives to represent historical happenings with Two Shakespearean Actors, a Broadway play about the Astor Place riots in New York City. In 1849, American actor Edwin "Ned" Forrest starred in a production of Macbeth at the Broadway Theater, while the British actor William Macready starred in a production of the same work, staged at the Astor Place Opera House. Tensions grew in the city as the two productions continued to run simultaneously, until they exploded one night in Greenwich Village. Fans of Forrest and Macready maimed and killed one another in support of the actors, ultimately setting the Village aflame.

As New Yorkers die and the Village burns, Forrest and Macready take cover in Forrest's theater, discussing acting and performing for one another in an empty theater. Their arrogance is apparent throughout the play, but especially when the actors become irritated by the gunshots outside. At one point, Forrest yells, "I told you before, to just leave us alone!" David Richards of the New York Times wrote that this "outburst, I think, goes to heart of Mr. Nelson's drama. For his two celebrated actors, the imagined world is more important than the real world."

Back Stage reviewer David Sheward criticized Nelson's play, stating, "Instead of thoroughly examining the reasons why the performance of a play would cause such a bloody rampage, Nelson settles for easy targets like the exaggerated styles of nineteenth-century thespians and such in-jokes as forgotten lines and funny stage stories." It is Sheward himself, however, who points out the "study in contrasts between Anglo and American viewpoints and values" offered in Two Shakespearean Actors. These contrasts create a tension present from the play's opening and become the cultural culprit of the riots upon its close. Two Shakespearean Actors was nominated for a 1992 Tony award for best play.

One of Nelson's most famous works, Principia Scriptoriae, was published in 1991 in Principia Scriptoriae [and] Between East and West. Principia Scriptoriae concerns two young intellectuals who meet when imprisoned in an unidentified Latin American country for distributing subversive political leaflets. Ernesto Pico is the Cambridge-educated native who wrote the pamphlet, and Bill Howell, his cell mate, is a naive and arrogant American activist beginning a career in journalism. Act I focuses on the relationship that develops between the aspiring writers as they converse about their disparate cultures, politics, and literary tastes, with machine gun fire and the screams of tortured prisoners in the background indicating what awaits them. Act II takes place fifteen years later at an international diplomatic meeting in the country, which has since become a left-wing dictatorship. Howell and Ernesto meet again, this time to observe and write about the negotiations in progress over the fate of a poet imprisoned for supporting the previous regime. The writers are torn between their sympathy for a fellow writer and their hatred for his affiliation with the government that tortured them. They struggle, according to the New York Times' Frank Rich, with the question of whether to "condemn totalitarianism regardless of the political fashions it wears."

Principia Scriptoriae received mixed reviews upon its 1986 Manhattan premiere. Some critics felt the play poorly represented the responsibilities of writers in repressive societies. The New York Post's Clive Barnes, for example, deemed the play "interesting," but felt that its "political implications—right is right, left is left, and dictatorship, left or right, is wrong—lies [sic] listlessly on the table." Other critics, however, admired the play's powerful emotional tension and engagement with complex issues. "The prison scenes created a sense of human courage holding out against panic that will not easily be forgotten," observed Jeremy Kingston in the London Times, and Rich noted that the play "makes for an unusually weighty slice of new American theater." The play was similarly praised by New York Daily News drama critic Douglas Watt, who appreciated its "stimulating dialogue" and concluded that "Principia Scriptoriae [was] excellently acted, finely directed, and engrossing." The other play in this publication, Between East and West, was first produced in 1984 and features a Czech immigrant couple (a director, Gregor, and his actress wife, Erma) that has trouble fitting into American society. Erma reads Chekhov's Three Sisters for an audition piece but cannot quell her accent. "Language defines behavior in the play, and Nelson develops a more finely modulated, minimalist, understated, and oblique dialogue that persists in later plays," wrote Richard H. Palmer in Reference Guide to American Literature. Nelson received a Time Out London Theatre Award for Principia Scriptoriae, as well as an ABC Playwriting Award following the play's television production.

The characters in the historically based Goodnight Children Everywhere are London-born siblings, who were separated and sent to Canada and Wales during the London air raids of World War II, and are finally able to reunite at the play's beginning. In this play, which was first produced in 1997 and published in 2000, Betty, Ann, and Vi wait for their younger brother, Peter, to arrive. The four reunite after six years' separation to find one another startlingly different. As they catch up on lost years, it is revealed that Betty, the oldest, had stayed with their parents until their death, while Peter was sent to live with a cruel uncle, and Ann and Vi stayed with a Welsh family who attempted to teach them the value of hard work. The psychological turmoil of war and familial separation has left these young people with abnormal behavioral problems, which at first surface in odd behaviors, but become darker and more dangerous as the play continues. Ann, who has married a man twice her age and is pregnant with his child, is now drawn to Peter, who is only seventeen-years-old and is still struggling to find himself. The sexual tension between the two persists as the others try not to notice. Vi, an actress, is busy using her sexuality to woo work out of directors, while Betty, a nurse, has relegated herself to spinsterhood at the young age of twenty-one.

In Back Stage, Elias Stimac called Goodnight Children Everywhere "a gripping drama," stating, "Nelson has masterfully mapped out the intertwining family dynamics, and evokes sympathy and shock from viewers in equal measure." Charles McNulty wrote in Variety that "while there's no denying the subtle intelligence of the work, the dramatic core seems somewhat underdeveloped." McNulty continued, however, stating that "what's most compelling about the playwright's handling of his particular family's traumatic legacy is the way sexuality encodes so much of the psychological damage."

Nelson next published Madame Melville [and] The General from America. In The General from America, which premiered in 1996, Nelson turns to history once again to examine the events surrounding Benedict Arnold's famous betrayal of his country. Nelson shows playgoers how General Arnold was charged with profiteering by George Washington, who stripped him of his rank and sent him to work at West Point. This and other events led to the infamous act in which Arnold sold military secrets to the British and America, synonymizing the name "Benedict Arnold" with "traitor." Critic Charles Isherwood wrote in Daily Variety that "Nelson takes such a dim view of everyone's behavior that one may surmise the production's gloomy look was intended to be metaphorical." Commenting on the play's historical value, Curtain Up reviewer Elyse Sommer pointed out that Nelson "does not try to whitewash Arnold's treason. What the play does instead is to put it into the context of history, to show us why and how a man could be both patriot and turncoat." Sommer also observed, "Despite an at time grating use of colloquial language, Nelson and his actors do a good job in establishing the mood of the times and depicting the other players in the drama of Arnold's downfall."

Madame Melville, the accompanying play in the publication, first premiered in London in 2000. It tells the story of a fifteen-year-old boy seduced into an affair with his Parisian literature teacher, Claudie Melville. Played on the stage by a twenty-year-old Macaulay Culkin, Carl ruminates on the lessons he learned from Madame Melville, who not only taught him about literature, but also about art, philosophy, and love. "Nelson's writing is more delicate than the foregoing précis would suggest, even if his subject is on the precocious side," commented Isherwood in Variety. "His direction is subtly cued to the currents of hesitancy and affection between this odd couple," continued Isherwood.

Set in 1957 and filled with sexual and emotional turmoil, Franny's Way, like Madame Melville, is also a reflective play. When it begins, an older Franny recollects her teenage sexual awakening, which took place on a trip to New York City. Seventeen-year-old Franny and her fifteen-year-old sister, Dolly, travel to Greenwich Village, accompanied by their grandmother, to visit their cousin. Sally and her husband Phil have lost a baby, which has put a great deal of tension on both their marriage and their sexual relationship. Sally enjoys having the sisters in her home because it distracts her from her uncomfortable life, but at the play's end, she is not the only one distracted by Franny. When Dolly and her grandmother go to a play, Franny sneaks off to meet a boyfriend. The rendezvous does not go well, and Franny returns to find Sally and Phil clumsily attempting to rekindle dead desire. Meanwhile, Dolly has arranged a secret meeting with the sisters' estranged mother, enraging Franny upon her return. The tension mounts as Franny and Phil become uncomfortably close, leading to the sexual encounter that closes the play. "The play is effective at establishing an atmosphere of thwarted desire," wrote Isherwood in a review for Variety, but he pointed out that "the production works hard for low-key poignance, which can prove elusive when it is so diligently bidden." Isherwood did, however, deem the play a "delicately observed, gently nostalgic epiphan[y]."

Reflection on life's former circumstances again surfaces in Nelson's My Life with Albertine, the 2003 adaptation of a section of Marcel Proust's epic novel Remembrance of Things Past. In the play, the older Marcel torturously reminisces the greatest love of his life and the reasons it went wrong. The story begins in 1919, when seventeen-year-old Marcel travels to Paris to visit his grandmother and meets Albertine, a young, free-spirited, and beautiful woman who steals his heart. Albertine, the audience learns, cannot commit to the confines of love, and as she pulls away from Marcel, his passion for her becomes greater, leading to the saddened state of his present character.

In a review of My Life with Albertine, Isherwood observed in Daily Variety that Nelson's adaptation is "a delicate, stylishly presented production that attempts to honor both the spirit and the letter of the original," but complained that it is also "both static and choppy, and ultimately pedantic in its attempts to impart the reflections on love's illusions and life's mysteries that are developed with such tender rapture throughout Proust's novel." Critic John Rowell raised an interesting question in a review of the play for Show Business Weekly: "Was the 'Albertine' section of Remembrance begging to be musicalized?" Rowell, however, explained that he admires Nelson's adaptation, calling it a "meticulously crafted, beautifully mounted chamber piece that had been written, directed, and designed by theater craftspeople of impeccable taste and skill."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Berney, K. A., editor, Contemporary American Dramatists, St. James Press (London, England), 1994.

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

Comtemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, Volume 39, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2002.

Nelson, Richard, Two Shakespearean Actors, Faber & Faber (Boston, MA), 1990.

Riggs, Thomas, editor, Reference Guide to American Literature, 4th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 2000.

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, October, 1998, review of A Culture of Confidence, p. 1349.

American Theatre, December, 1995, review of Making Plays: The Writer-Director Relationship in the Theatre Today, p. 30; December, 1996, review of The General from America, p. 20.

Back Stage, February 7, 1992, David Sheward, review of Two Shakespearean Actors, pp. 23-24; June 18, 1999, Elias Stimac, review of Goodnight Children Everywhere, p. 56.

Chicago Tribune, May 5, 1988.

Christian Science Monitor, November 20, 1984; April 16, 1986.

Daily News (New York, NY), November 16, 1984; October 11, 1985; April 10, 1986.

Daily Variety, March 28, 2002, Charles Isherwood, review of Franny's Way, p. 20; November 22, 2002, Charles Isherwood, review of The General from America, p. 4; March 14, 2003, Charles Isherwood, review of My Life with Albertine, pp. 10-11.

Economist (U.S.), August 8, 1992, review of Columbus and the Discovery of Japan, p. 78.

Los Angeles Times, October 7, 1983.

New Leader, February 10, 1992, Stefan Kanfer, review of Two Shakespearean Actors, p. 22.

New Republic, April 14, 2003, Robert Brustein, "On Theater—Why Plays Fail," review of My Life with Albertine, p. 25.

New York, April 15, 1985.

New York Post, November 19, 1984; October 11, 1985; April 12, 1986.

New York Times, February 21, 1978; March 21, 1978; November 16, 1984; October 11, 1985; April 3, 1986; April 10, 1986; April 30, 1986; September 24, 1986; January 17, 1988; April 24, 1988; April 29, 1988; May 8, 1988; January 26, 1992, David Richards, review of Two Shakespearean Actors.

Theatre Journal, March, 1997, review of Making Plays, p. 95.

Time, April 28, 1986.

Times (London, England), December 18, 1987.

Times Literary Supplement, April 28, 1995, review of Making Plays, p. 9.

Variety, May 31, 1999, Charles McNulty, review of Goodnight Children Everywhere, p. 42; February 14, 2000, Rita Katz Farrell, review of Chess, p. 50; May 14, 2001, Charles Isherwood, review of Madame Melville, p. 31; April 1, 2002, Charles Isherwood, review of Franny's Way, p. 41.

Wall Street Journal, November 20, 1984.

ONLINE

Curtain Up Web site,http://www.curtainup.com/ (May 30, 2003), Elyse Sommer, review of Goodnight Children Everywhere; (March 5, 2004), Elyse Sommer, review of The General from America.

New York Metro Web site,http://www.newyorkmetro.com/ (May 30, 2003), John Simon, review of Goodnight Children Everywhere; (March 5, 2004), John Simon, review of The General from America.

Peter Gill Web site,http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/parade/abj76/PG/pieces/richard_nelson.shtml (May 30, 2003), "Richard Nelson."

Show Business Weekly Web site,http://www.showbusinessweekly.com/ (March 5, 2004), John Rowell, review of My Life with Albertine.

Theatre Database Web site,http://www.theatredb.com/ (March 4, 2004), "Richard Nelson."

Theatre Mirror Web site,http://www.theatermirror.com/ (1997), Beverly Creasey, review of Chess.*