Tracy Letts

Infobox actor
name = Tracy Letts

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imagesize = 180px
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birthname =
birthdate = Birth date and age|1965|7|4
birthplace = Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
othername =
occupation = Playwright, actor
spouse =
yearsactive =
website =
tonyawards = Tony Award for Best Play
2008 ""
awards = Drama Desk Award Outstanding Play
2008 '
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
2008 '

Tracy Letts (born July 4, 1965, Tulsa, Oklahoma) [cite news | author= | title=Deutsche Erstaufführung des Off-Bradway-Erfolges von 2004 | url=http://www.theaterszene-koeln.de/stueck.php?id=18749 | work=Theaterszene Köln: Stücke | date= | accessdate=2008-07-03] is a Pulitzer-Prize winning American playwright and actor. He has been an ensemble member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company since 2002. [cite news | author= | title=Tracy Letts's Productions at Steppenwolf | url=http://www.steppenwolf.org/ensemble/members/productions.aspx?id=41 | work=Steppenwolf Theatre Company | date=2008 | accessdate=2008-07-03]

Biography

Letts is the son of the best-selling author Billie Letts, and the late one-time college professor, later actor Dennis Letts. cite news | author=Associated Press | title=Dennis Letts, 73, a Professor Who Became Broadway Actor, Dies | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/theater/25letts.html?_r=1&em&ex=1204606800 | work=The New York Times | date=2008-02-25 | accessdate=2008-07-03] His brother Shawn is a jazz musician and composer. He also has a brother, Dana. Tracy grew up in Durant, Oklahoma and he graduated from Durant High School. After graduating in the early 80s he moved to Dallas. He stayed there for two years, while he waited tables and worked in telemarketing, and he also got the part in a one-man play, Jerry Flemmons' "O Dammit!", which was part of a "New Playwrights Series" sponsored by the Southern Methodist University.

Letts moved to Chicago at the age of 20, and worked for the next 11 years at Steppenwolf and Famous Door. In 1991, a time when he had an alcohol problem, he wrote the play "Killer Joe". (He would later join Alcoholics Anonymous, and has been sober ever since.) Two years later, the play premiered at the Next Lab Theater in Chicago and then at 29th Street Rep in NYC. Since then, "Killer Joe" has been performed in at least 15 countries in 12 languages.cite news | author=Carlton Stowers | title=Sweet Revenge | url=http://dallasobserver.com/2003-11-27/news/sweet-revenge | work=The Dallas Observer | date=27 November 2003| accessdate=2008-07-03] In 2008, he won a Tony for "August: Osage County".

His mother Billie Letts has said about his writing, "I try to be upbeat and funny. Everybody in Tracy's stories gets naked or dead."Every one of the three plays he's written is about people struggling with moral and spiritual questions. He says he has drawn inspiration from the plays of Tennessee Williams and the novels of William Faulkner and Jim Thompson. Letts considers sound to be a very strong story telling tool for theater. [cite web | author=Aifen Wang | title=In-your-face Theatre with In Your Face Sound Design | url=http://www.stageresearch.com/showcases/indexArchived.aspx?0612_showcase.html | publisher=Stage Research | date=2008 | accessdate=2008-07-03]

Work

Writer

* 1998 "Killer Joe"
* 2003 "Man from Nebraska"
* 2004 "Bug"
* 2007 "Bug" (screenplay)
* 2007 ""
* 2008 "Superior Donuts"

tage

*1988 "The Glass Menagerie"
*1994 "Picasso At The Lapin Agile"
*1999 "Three Days of Rain"
*2001 "Glengarry Glen Ross"
*2002 "The Dazzle"
*2003 "Don Delillo"
*2003 "Homebody/Kabul"
*2003 "Man From Nebraska"
*2004 "The Dresser"
*2005 "Last of the Boys"
*2005 "Orson's Shadow"
*2005 "The Pain and the Itch"
*2006 "The Pillowman"
*2006 "The Well-Appointed Room"
*2007 "Betrayal"

Filmography

*1988 "Paramedics" - Van owner
*1992 "Straight Talk" - Sean
*1995 "Home Improvement" - Henry (TV)
*1996 "Early Edition" - Jonathan / Marksman (TV)
*1997 "Seinfeld" - Counterguy (TV)
*1998 "Chicago Cab" - Sports fan
*1998 "The Drew Carey Show" - Lomax (TV)
*1998 "U.S. Marshals" - Sheriff Poe
*1999 "Guinevere" - Zack
*1999 "Judging Amy" - Mr. Kleinman (TV)
*2000 "Profiler" - Mr. Adams (TV)
*2001 "Strong Medicine" - Ken (TV)
*2001 "The District" - Brad Gilroy (TV)

Awards and nominations

;Awards
* 2008 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play - "August: Osage County"
* 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama - "August: Osage County"
* 2008 Tony Award for Best Play - "August: Osage County";Nominations
* 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama - "Man from Nebraska"

References

External links

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