Hall of Fame Playwright Tina Howe Dies at 85
(© David Gordon)
Absurdist playwright Tina Howe, best known for celebrated works such as Pride’s Crossing and Coastal Disturbances, has died. One of her mentees, playwright Sarah Ruhl, announced her passing on social media. She was 85.
As an undergraduate student at Sarah Lawrence College, Howe penned and produced her first play, Closing Time, directed by her classmate Jane Alexander who also performed in the piece. Her first full-length play to receive a professional production was The Nest, which opened off-Broadway in 1970 following a premiere at the Act IV Theater in Provincetown, Massachusetts, the year prior. Howe went on to receive nearly a dozen off-Broadway productions with works including Museum, The Art of Dining, Painting Churches (Pulitzer Prize Finalist), Coastal Disturbances, One Shoe Off, Pride’s Crossing (New York Drama Critics Circle Award, Pulitzer Prize finalist), Birth and After Birth, and Chasing Manet.
Coastal Disturbances transferred to Broadway in 1987, directed by Carole Rothman and featuring Annette Bening and Tim Daly. Howe earned a Tony nomination for Best Play, as did Rothman for direction and Bening for Featured Actress. Howe also penned English translations of Eugène Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano and The Lesson, which were produced off-Broadway at Atlantic Theater Company in 2004. Howe had always listed Ionesco among her literary heroes.
In 2012, Howe received the 3rd Annual Lilly Award Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2017, was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. In addition to her work as a playwright, she also served as the inaugural head of the MFA playwriting program at Hunter College (2010-15).
