Jonathan Tolins Developing Patty Hearst Limited Series for CBS

According to Deadline, GREASE LIVE! writer and playwright Jonathan Tolins is currently at work on a limited series for CBS, centered around the 1974 abduction of Patty Hearst.

The project follows the events of when "Hearst, granddaughter of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, was abducted from her Berkeley, California apartment by the terrorist group, the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). The limited series will follow the 19-month FBI/police search and capture of Hearst, who turned SLA sympathizer and changed her name to Tania. The story captivated the nation and played out on the nightly news through the course of Hearst's trial."

Tolins is the author of Buyer & Cellar, which was named Best Unique Theatrical Experience by the Off-Broadway Alliance when it premiered at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Other plays include The Twilight of the Golds (Broadway, Booth Theatre), If Memory Serves (Promenade), The Last Sunday in June (Rattlestick, Century Center) and Secrets of the Trade (Primary Stages).

A collection of his plays has been published by Grove/Atlantic. His film work includes The Twilight of the Golds and Martian Child.

For television, he was a writer for "Queer as Folk," The Academy Awards, The TONY AWARDS and "Partners."

He was the author of Pushkin 200: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall, acted as script consultant on Walking with Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular, and co-wrote The Divine Millennium Tour and The Showgirl Must Go On for Bette Midler.

He has written articles for Opera News, Opera Monthly, TheaterWeek, Time magazine and The Huffington Post, and is a panelist on the Metropolitan Opera Radio Quiz. He lives in Fairfield, Connecticut with his husband, the writer and director Robert Cary, and their children, Selina and Henry. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Writers Guild of America.

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