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TIP-OFF Nov. 8, 2002 LEGENDARY WRITER, DIRECTOR ARTHUR LAURENTS TO VISIT NCSA Will Address Drama Students, See Play, and Meet with Colleagues on Nov. 15
WINSTON-SALEM – Award-winning playwright, screenwriter and director Arthur Laurents will be a guest artist at the North Carolina School of the Arts School of Drama next Friday, Nov. 15. Laurents is perhaps best-known as the book author of the musicals “West Side Story” and “Gypsy,” which were subsequently made into films starring Natalie Wood. Laurents also wrote the screenplays for the films THE WAY WE WERE with Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand, and THE TURNING POINT with Shirley MacLaine and Mikhail Baryshnikov, which won Laurents a Golden Globe Award. He won the Tony Award for Best Musical for “Hallelujah, Baby!” Laurents’ connections to NCSA go back several decades. Laurents worked with Gerald Freedman, now the dean of the NCSA School of Drama, on the original Broadway productions of “West Side Story” and “Gypsy.” Freedman was the assistant director to Jerome Robbins on both. Most recently, Laurents has worked with NCSA drama faculty member Cigdem Onat on two productions, the Lincoln Center revival of his play “The Time of the Cuckoo,” for which Onat won a Theatre World Award, and the world premiere of “Claudia Lazlo,” at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick. Onat and Laurents will work together again in 2003, at the Huntington Theatre in Boston. One of Laurents’ earliest plays, “The Time of the Cuckoo” was made into the film SUMMERTIME, with Katharine Hepburn and Rosanno Brazzi. Other of his credits include “La Cage aux Folles,” director and book (based on his play, “The Bird Cage”); “Nick and Nora,” director and book author; Alfred Hitchcock’s ROPE, screenplay; BONJOUR TRISTESSE, screenplay; and ANASTASIA, screenplay. Laurents published his biography, “Original Story By/A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood,” in 2000. Media: During his visit to NCSA, Mr. Laurents is scheduled to speak to drama students and faculty at 4 p.m. Nov. 15 in the Proscenium Thrust, Performance Place. He also plans to attend the School’s production of “Undiscovered Country,” which Onat is directing, during the evening. Mr. Laurents will be available for interviews following his meeting with drama students. For more information, or to schedule an interview, please call Marla Carpenter at 336-770-3337 in the NCSA public relations office. ###
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TIP-OFF Nov. 8, 2002 LEGENDARY WRITER, DIRECTOR ARTHUR LAURENTS TO VISIT NCSA
Will Address Drama Students, See Play, and Meet with Colleagues on Nov. 15

WINSTON-SALEM – Award-winning playwright, screenwriter and director Arthur Laurents will be a guest artist at the North Carolina School of the Arts School of Drama next Friday, Nov. 15.

Laurents is perhaps best-known as the book author of the musicals “West Side Story” and “Gypsy,” which were subsequently made into films starring Natalie Wood.

Laurents also wrote the screenplays for the films THE WAY WE WERE with Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand, and THE TURNING POINT with Shirley MacLaine and Mikhail Baryshnikov, which won Laurents a Golden Globe Award. He won the Tony Award for Best Musical for “Hallelujah, Baby!”

Laurents’ connections to NCSA go back several decades. Laurents worked with Gerald Freedman, now the dean of the NCSA School of Drama, on the original Broadway productions of “West Side Story” and “Gypsy.” Freedman was the assistant director to Jerome Robbins on both.

Most recently, Laurents has worked with NCSA drama faculty member Cigdem Onat on two productions, the Lincoln Center revival of his play “The Time of the Cuckoo,” for which Onat won a Theatre World Award, and the world premiere of “Claudia Lazlo,” at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick. Onat and Laurents will work together again in 2003, at the Huntington Theatre in Boston.

One of Laurents’ earliest plays, “The Time of the Cuckoo” was made into the film SUMMERTIME, with Katharine Hepburn and Rosanno Brazzi. Other of his credits include “La Cage aux Folles,” director and book (based on his play, “The Bird Cage”); “Nick and Nora,” director and book author; Alfred Hitchcock’s ROPE, screenplay; BONJOUR TRISTESSE, screenplay; and ANASTASIA, screenplay.

Laurents published his biography, “Original Story By/A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood,” in 2000.

Media: During his visit to NCSA, Mr. Laurents is scheduled to speak to drama students and faculty at 4 p.m. Nov. 15 in the Proscenium Thrust, Performance Place. He also plans to attend the School’s production of “Undiscovered Country,” which Onat is directing, during the evening. Mr. Laurents will be available for interviews following his meeting with drama students. For more information, or to schedule an interview, please call Marla Carpenter at 336-770-3337 in the NCSA public relations office.

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