{"id":11735,"date":"2017-08-17T15:17:59","date_gmt":"2017-08-17T15:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bretadamsltd.net\/content\/"},"modified":"2022-02-01T22:10:40","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T22:10:40","slug":"lee-blessing","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bretadamsltd.net\/content\/client\/plays\/lee-blessing\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee Blessing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plays Written by Lee Blessing<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE FAMILY LINE
\nMINNEAPOLIS \/ ST. PAUL<\/p>\n

Synopses:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Family Line – \u00a0Finn\u2019s mother has died suddenly of COVID. He\u2019s a mixed-race 15-year-old who must now be transported to his estranged father. No one dares fly, so Finn\u2019s white grandfather Jonah (whom he\u2019s never met) is tasked with making the nonstop cross-country drive. They spend 24 hours together, each getting to know a perfect stranger at the most imperfect time. Will they find common ground? Will they get there at all? Are they a family in name only, or something more?<\/p>\n

Minneapolis \/ St. Paul \u2013 Randall, a successful mystery writer with a wife and teenaged daughter, lives in Minneapolis. Mandy, a bit of a mystery with a husband and a troublesome, drug-addicted stepson, lives in St. Paul. Randall and Mandy are the same person. This gender-bending tale of bigamy chronicles the struggle of Randall\/Mandy\u2019s searching for him\/herself without destroying the lives of those who matter most. We flow back and forth in time as well as back and forth between characters. We learn the whys and especially the hows of a highly specific life and everyone it affects.<\/p>\n

Bio:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Broadway and London’s West End: <\/span>A Walk in the Woods<\/i><\/b> (also seen on PBS\u2019s<\/span> \u201cAmerican Playhouse\u201d), most recently revived by Keen Company on Theatre Row.\u00a0 Off-Broadway:<\/span> A Body of Water, When We Go Upon the Sea<\/i><\/b>,<\/span> Going to St. Ives<\/i><\/b>, (Outer Critics Circle Award, Best Play, OBIE for ensemble performance); <\/span>Thief River<\/i><\/b> (Drama Desk nomination, Best Play); <\/span>Cobb<\/i><\/b> (Drama Desk award, best ensemble); <\/span>Chesapeake<\/i><\/b>, <\/span>Eleemosynary<\/i><\/b> and <\/span>Down the Road<\/i><\/b>.\u00a0 Signature Theatre season: <\/span>Fortinbras<\/i><\/b>, <\/span>Lake Street Extension<\/i><\/b>, <\/span>Two Rooms<\/i><\/b> and the world premiere of <\/span>Patient A<\/i><\/b>.\u00a0 Notable premieres: <\/span>For the Loyal<\/i><\/b>, Illusion Theater;<\/span> A User\u2019s Guide to Hell, Featuring Bernard Madoff<\/i><\/b>; produced by Project Y at the Atlantic Theatre; <\/span>A View of the Mountains<\/i><\/b>, <\/span><\/i>New Jersey Repertory Company; <\/span>Perilous Night<\/i><\/b>, Nimbus Theatre, Minneapolis, <\/span>Seven Joys<\/i><\/b> (part of <\/span>The Bomb: A Partial History<\/span><\/i>, Tricycle Theatre, London);<\/span> Wood for the Fire<\/i><\/b> (part of <\/span>The Great Game<\/span><\/i>, Tricycle Theatre, London);<\/span> Great Falls<\/i><\/b>, Humana New Play Festival of the Actors Theatre of Louisville; <\/span>A Body of Water<\/i><\/b>, Tyrone Guthrie Theater and The Old Globe; <\/span>Lonesome Hollow<\/i><\/b>, <\/span>Flag Day<\/i><\/b> and <\/span>Whores<\/i><\/b>, Contemporary American Theatre Festival; <\/span>The Scottish Play<\/i><\/b>, La Jolla Playhouse; <\/span>Black Sheep<\/i><\/b>, Florida Stage and <\/span>The Winning Streak<\/i><\/b>, <\/span><\/i>George Street Playhouse.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other plays include <\/span>The Family Line, Minneapolis<\/i><\/b>\/<\/i><\/b>St. Paul<\/b>,<\/span> Uncle<\/i><\/b>,<\/span> The Hourglass Project<\/i><\/b>, <\/span>Independence, Riches<\/i><\/b>,<\/span> Oldtimers Game<\/i><\/b> and <\/span>Nice People Dancing to Good Country Music<\/i><\/b>.\u00a0 Adaptations include: <\/span>Courting Harry<\/i><\/b>, from \u201cBecoming Justice Blackmun\u201d by Linda Greenhouse, premiered at History Theatre.\u00a0 <\/span>Heaven\u2019s My Destination<\/i><\/b>, from Thornton Wilder\u2019s 1935 novel, premiered at the Cleveland Play House.\u00a0 Profile Theatre in Portland, OR devoted an entire season to Blessing\u2019s work.\u00a0 In October, 2011 Tricycle Theatre in London produced a revival of <\/span>A Walk in the<\/i><\/b> Woods<\/i><\/b>.\u00a0 Additional awards: The Steinberg\/American Theater Critics Association Award and Citation, the L.A. Drama Critics Award, The Great American Play Award, The Humanitas Award and the George and Elisabeth Marton Award among others. Nominations for Tony and Olivier awards, as well as the Pulitzer Prize.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For a dozen years Blessing headed the graduate playwriting program at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University.\u00a0 He is married to playwright and TV writer-producer Melanie Marnich and currently lives in Los Angeles.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2016 McFarland & Co. published. <\/span>The Theater of Lee Blessing, A Critical Study of 44 Plays<\/span><\/i>, by Philip Zwerling.<\/span><\/p>\n

Blessing is a current member or alumnus of the Writers Guild of America, west; the Playwrights\u2019 Center in Minneapolis; New Dramatists in NY and the <\/span>Societe des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Website: www.leeblessing.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plays Written by Lee Blessing THE FAMILY LINE MINNEAPOLIS \/ ST. PAUL Synopses: The Family Line – \u00a0Finn\u2019s mother has<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":495,"menu_order":58,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11735","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bretadamsltd.net\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bretadamsltd.net\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bretadamsltd.net\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bretadamsltd.net\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bretadamsltd.net\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11735"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bretadamsltd.net\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16026,"href":"https:\/\/www.bretadamsltd.net\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11735\/revisions\/16026"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bretadamsltd.net\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bretadamsltd.net\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}