The Loveliest Afternoon of the Year by John GuareTHE LOVELIEST AFTERNOON OF THE YEAR. He and She first meet when She is feeding pigeons in the park, and He asks her for the plastic favor at the bottom of the Crackerjack box. He tells her that his wife takes all his money, bends the coins in her teeth, and shoots at his feet with a rifle with a blue silencer. She doesn't know what to make of him, but they begin to meet regularly, and gradually more of his story comes out. He tells her he is a seeing-eye person for blind dogs; that years ago his sister Lucy's arm was ripped off by a polar bear in the park zoo and that as a result she became covered all over with white hair; and then that he doesn't have a wife at all. He embarrasses her by singing at the top of his lungs—and She begins to wonder if he is not utterly mad. She is lonely and wants to be married, but is that the answer? The sight of a fat woman pushing two gross children in a perambulator increases her doubts, but then she notices that a blind dog walks beside her, and everything begins to make strange, awful and rather dismaying sense. The fat woman pulls out a rifle with a blue silencer and fires. He and She fall, mortally wounded. Was it all true? Does He really have a sister named Lucy? With his dying breath He proclaims that he does, and they expire contentedly, reaching out for each other as they tumble to the ground.

John GuareFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2013)John GuareJohn Guare at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival.jpgGuare at the 2009 premiere of PoliWoodBorn February 5, 1938 (age 75)New York City, New York, U.S.Occupation PlaywrightNationality AmericanAlma mater Georgetown University,Yale School of DramaPeriod 1964–presentNotable work(s) The House of Blue Leaves; Six Degrees of SeparationJohn Guare (rhymes with "air"; born February 5, 1938) is an American playwright. He is best known as the author of The House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation, and Landscape of the Body. His style, which mixes comic invention with an acute sense of the failure of human relations and aspirations, is at once cruel and deeply compassionate.In the foreword to a collection of Guare's plays, film director Louis Malle writes:Guare practices a humor that is synonymous with lucidity, exploding genre and clichés, taking us to the core of human suffering: the awareness of corruption in our own bodies, death circling in. We try to fight it all by creating various mythologies, and it is Guare's peculiar aptitude for exposing these grandiose lies of ours that makes his work so magical.[citation needed]

Contents [hide] 1 Early life2 Career3 Works4 Awards and honors5 References6 External linksEarly life[edit]

Guare was born in New York City and raised in Jackson Heights, Queens. He was raised a Roman Catholic, but is apparently now a lapsed Catholic.[1] He was educated at St. John's Preparatory School and Georgetown University (BA, 1960), where in 1958 he contributed a song to an original musical revue entitled The Natives Are Restless and presented by the Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society. The song humorously attributed the success of many famous people to the syllable "O" in their names. Under the direction of Donn B. Murphy, his play The Toadstool Boy, about a country singer's quest for fame, won first place in the District of Columbia Recreation Department's One-Act-Play competition.In 1960, the Mask and Bauble presented The Thirties Girl, a musical for which Guare did the book, much of the music and the lyrics, again under Murphy's tutelage. Set in Hollywood's turbulent 1920s, it dealt with the dethronement of a reigning diva by a fresh-faced starlet. Guare went on to the Yale School of Drama (MFA, 1963).Career[edit]

Guare's early plays, mostly comic one-acts exhibiting a flair for the absurd, include To Wally Pantoni, We Leave a Credenza (1964), Muzeeka (1968), and Cop-Out (1968). The House of Blue Leaves (1971), a domestic drama by turns wildly comic and despairingly poignant, moved Guare into the front ranks of American dramatists. Chaucer in Rome, a sequel to The House of Blue Leaves, received its world premiere at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in July 1999 and later enjoyed a production in New York by Lincoln Center Theater.Later plays include Marco Polo Sings a Solo, Bosoms and Neglect, Moon Over Miami, Six Degrees of Separation, and Four Baboons Adoring the Sun. Lake Hollywood and A Few Stout Individuals (2002) both received their world premieres at Signature Theatre. Six Degrees of Separation (1990), an intricately plotted comedy of manners about an African-American confidence man who poses as the son of film star Sidney Poitier, has been the most highly praised and widely produced of Guare's full-length plays. It was made into a film in 1993.Guare’s cycle of plays on nineteenth-century America, Gardenia, Lydie Breeze and Women and Water, has been performed in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington D.C., London and Australia. A Few Stout Individuals returns to nineteenth century America, with a cast that includes Ulysses S. Grant, Mark Twain, soprano Adelina Patti and the Emperor and Empress of Japan. These historic dramas investigate the violence at the root of American identity and the failure of utopian aspirations.

Guare has also been involved with musical theatre. His libretto with Mel Shapiro for the musical Two Gentlemen of Verona was a success when it premiered in 1971 and was revived in 2005 at the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park. It won the two men the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical. He wrote the songs for Landscape of the Body. Guare wrote narration for '"Psyche,"' a tone poem by César Franck, which premiered at Avery Fisher Hall in October 1997, conducted by Kurt Masur with the New York Philharmonic. In 1999, he revised the book of the Cole Porter musical comedy, Kiss Me, Kate for its Broadway revival. He also wrote the book for the Broadway musical Sweet Smell of Success (musical).Guare wrote the screenplay for Louis Malle's film Atlantic City (1980), for which he was nominated for an Oscar.He was a founding member in 1965 of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut and Resident Playwright at the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1976. He is a council member of the Dramatists Guild, co-editor of the Lincoln Center Theater Review, co-produces the New Plays Reading Room Series at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts and teaches in the Playwriting department at the Yale School of Drama.Works[edit]

All dramas for the stage unless otherwise noted.1971: The House of Blue Leaves1971: Two Gentlemen of Verona1974: Rich and Famous1977: Landscape of the Body1977: Marco Polo Sings a Solo1979: Bosoms and Neglect1980: Atlantic City (screenplay)1982: Lydie Breeze1982: Gardenia1986: The Race to Urga1990: Six Degrees of Separation1990: Women and Water1992: Four Baboons Adoring the Sun1999: Lake Hollywood2001: Chaucer in Rome2002: A Few Stout Individuals2010: A Free Man of Color2011: Erased/Elzbieta2012: Are You There, McPhee?2013: 3 Kinds of ExileAwards and honors[edit]

Muzeeka won an Obie in 1968.The House of Blue Leaves won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play in 1971 and four Tony Awards for its 1986 revival at Lincoln Center Theater.

Two Gentlemen of Verona won both the Tony Award and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical in 1972. Guare also received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics.Six Degrees of Separation won an Obie Award, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and London’s Olivier Award for Best Play; it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama.Mr. Guare received the Award of Merit from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for his plays The House of Blue Leaves, Rich and Famous, Marco Polo Sings a Solo, Landscape of the Body and Bosoms and Neglect.In 1989, the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters elected him a member.In 1993 he was elected to the Theatre Hall of Fame.In 1996 he received the New York State Governor’s Arts Award.Signature Theatre honored him with a season 1998 - 1999.In 1999 he was honored at the William Inge Festival.In 2003 he received the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for a Master American Dramatist.References[edit]

Jump up ^ http://www.adherents.com/people/pg/John_Guare.htmlExternal links[edit]

Anne Cattaneo (Winter 1992). "John Guare, The Art of Theater No. 9". The Paris Review.John Guare at the Internet Movie DatabaseBiography at theatredatabase.comJohn Guare with poster for his Caffe Cino productionJohn Guare Papers at Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.[show] v t eDrama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics (1969–1975)[show] v t eDrama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical (1970–1975)[show] v t eTony Award for Best Book of a Musical (1950–1975)Authority controlWorldCat VIAF: 71506879 LCCN: n80065728 ISNI: 0000 0001 1474 608X GND: 124241921Categories: 1938 birthsAmerican dramatists and playwrightsFellows of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesGeorgetown University alumniLiving peopleMembers of the American Academy of Arts and LettersObie Award recipientsPeople from Queens, New YorkWriters from New York CityYale School of Drama alumniNavigation menuCreate accountLog inArticleTalkReadEditView historySearchMain pageContentsFeatured content

Current eventsRandom articleDonate to WikipediaInteractionHelpAbout WikipediaCommunity portalRecent changesContact pageToolsPrint/exportLanguagesDeutschFrançaisSuomiEdit linksThis page was last modified on 24 December 2013 at 19:15.Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.Privacy policyAbout WikipediaDisclaimersContact WikipediaDevelopersMobile viewWikimedia Foundation Powered by MediaWiki