Four-Time Tony-Winning Playwright Terrence McNally Will Be Saluted at Chapman University Symposium, April 25-26

Four-time Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally ("Master Class," "Kiss of the Spider Woman," "Ragtime," "Love! Valour! Compassion!") will visit Chapman University in Orange, Calif. on Friday and Saturday, April 25 and 26, to take part in a symposium examining and celebrating his work.

In addition to a public lecture in which McNally will talk about his plays and modern theatre, the playwright will work directly with Chapman literature, creative writing and theatre students. The students will present papers on McNally's work on Saturday and perform "A Terrence McNally Festival" staged performances of five of his one-act plays - on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, with McNally present at the Friday night performance to offer feedback. The symposium will also include a keynote lecture by Raymond-Jean Frontain, Ph.D. of the University of Central Arkansas, one of the world's leading McNally scholars.

Most symposium events are free and open to the public. McNally's talk on Saturday evening is $10 general admission. Tickets are available through Chapman's online ticketing service: http://chapman.universitytickets.com

A full schedule of the symposium is below.

The symposium, presented by Chapman's Departments of English and Theatre, Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the College of Performing Arts, is "a significant event in the arts life of our university," said Myron Yeager, Ph.D., Chapman professor of English and the event's lead planner. "The Chapman University community - and the public - will gain an unparalleled experience, and the chance to engage with an individual who has made a powerful contribution to the shaping of contemporary American art and culture."

ABOUT TERRENCE MCNALLY

Terrence McNally was born in 1938 in St. Petersburg, Florida and grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas. Listening to radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera, McNally developed an early love of the opera that would surface in his later work, most notably in "The Lisbon Traviata" (1989) and "Master Class" (1996, for which he received a Tony Award for Best Play). His love of music also inspired him to collaborate on several musicals, including "The Rink" (1984), "Kiss of the Spider Woman" (1993), "Ragtime" (1996) and "The Full Monty" (2000), and three operas, including "The Food of Love" (1999), "Dead Man Walking" (2000) and "Three Decembers" (2008). Both "Kiss of the Spider Woman" and "Ragtime" earned him Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical.

Equally comfortable writing drama or musical theatre, McNally both gratifies and challenges his audiences. His treatment of such topics as love, fear, sexuality and AIDS illuminates the ways people connect or fail to connect in a world in which human relationships are essential to survival. His drama written for PBS about a mother coping with the death of her son from AIDS, "Andre's Mother" (1990) earned an Emmy Award for Best Writing in a Miniseries or Special and serves as the context for his twentieth Broadway production, "Mothers and Sons," which premiered last month. His study of the integrity of love and friendship in "Love! Valour! Compassion!" (1994) earned McNally his fourth Tony Award as well as the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play. "Corpus Christi" (1999) dramatized a homosexual version of Jesus Christ, drawing death threats and mobs of angry protesters when the play was performed in the U.S. and England.

Some of McNally's other notable credits include "The Ritz" (1975), "Frankie and Johnnie at the Clair de Lune" (1987), "Lips Together, Teeth Apart" (1991, which received a Drama Desk Award for Best New Play), "Unusual Acts of Devotion" (2008), "Golden Age" (2009), "Some Men" (2006) and "And Away We Go" (2014). In addition to four Tonys and an Emmy, McNally has received two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Hull-Warriner Award, a Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. A member of the Dramatists Guild Council since 1970, he has served as the guild's vice president since 1981.

TERRENCE MCNALLY AT CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY
A Symposium - Friday-Saturday, April 25-26, 2014

THURSDAY, APRIL 24

7:30 p.m. "A Terrence McNally Festival" Black Box Theatre, Moulton Hall 149
Student performers will present five one-act McNally plays. Open to general public. Performance will be repeated on Friday and Saturday nights.

FRIDAY, APRIL 25

7:30 p.m. "A Terrence McNally Festival" Black Box Theatre, Moulton Hall 149
Student performers will present five one-act McNally plays, with McNally attending TONIGHT ONLY and offering them feedback. Open to general public. Performance will be repeated on Saturday night.

SATURDAY, APRIL 26

12 noon McNally luncheon with students. (Not open to public)

1:15 p.m. Symposium of student papers on McNally. Open to the public. Argyros Forum 208

3:30 p.m. Lecture: "Something About Grace: Terrence McNally and the Redemptive Power of Theatre"
Raymond-Jean Frontain, Ph.D., University of Central Arkansas. Open to the public.
Argyros Forum 208.

7:30 p.m. Terrance McNally - Public Lecture: "My Life in the Theatre" Waltmar Theatre
$10 general admission. McNally speaks on his life and work. Tickets available at http://chapman.universitytickets.com

9 p.m. "A Terrence McNally Festival" Black Box Theatre, Moulton Hall 149
Student performers present five one-act plays by McNally. Open to general public.

SUNDAY, APRIL 27

2 p.m. "Corpus Christi" Theatre Out, Santa Ana
Private performance of play for Chapman students; McNally will
give talk-back at end of performance. (Not open to public.)

ABOUT CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY

Consistently ranked among the top universities in the West, Chapman University provides a uniquely personalized and interdisciplinary educational experience to highly qualified students. Our programs encourage innovation, creativity and collaboration, and focus on developing global citizen-leaders who are distinctively prepared to improve their community and their world. Visit us at http://www.chapman.edu.