Bonnie Greer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Bonnie Greer
Born 16 November 1948 (1948-11-16) (age 63)
Occupation Playwright, Author, Critic
Citizenship American citizen (1948–1997)
Dual American-British citizenship (1997 – present)
Spouse(s) David Hutchins (1993–)

Bonnie Greer, OBE (born 16 November 1948, Chicago) is an American-British playwright and critic.

Contents

[edit] Life and career

[edit] Early life

Greer's father was born to a family of Mississippi sharecroppers. He was stationed in the UK during World War II and took part in the D-Day landings.[1] Greer was born on the west side of Chicago, the eldest of seven children born to Ben, a factory worker, and Willie Mae, a housewife.[2][3][4] Though she began writing plays at the age of 9, she originally set out on a legal career, but dropped out when her professor told her he did not think women should have a career in law.[3] Instead she studied theatre in Chicago under David Mamet's supervision[5] and at the Actors Studio in New York with Elia Kazan.[6]

[edit] Since 1986

Greer visited the UK as part of a production at the Edinburgh Festival in 1986[3] and has been based in the UK since then; she acquired British citizenship in 1997.[7] She has worked mainly in theatre with women and ethnic minorities, and is a former Arts Council playwright in residence at the Soho Theatre and for NITRO, once known as the Black Theatre co-operative.[8] Greer has played Joan of Arc at the Theatre Atelier in Paris.

She has written radio plays for BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4, including a translation of The Little Prince. Her plays include Munda Negra (1993) concerning the mental health problems of black women, Dancing On Blackwater (1994) and Jitterbug (2001),[9] and the musicals Solid and Marilyn and Ella. The later work began as a radio play broadcast in December 2005 (Marilyn and Ella Backstage at the Mocambo[10]) after Greer saw a documentary on Marilyn Monroe which mentioned Monroe's assistance to the jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald over the colour bar which prevented the singer from working at certain venues, especially the Mocambo nightclub. Adapted for the stage, it was given a production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2006 and was later rewritten and performed at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in 2008.[11] The play is to be produced at the Apollo Theatre, in London's West End, from November 2009.

She is the author of two novels: Hanging by Her Teeth (1994) and Entropy (2009), and currently is working on a play for the National Theatre Studio. In April 2005 she was appointed to the British Museum's Board of Trustees for a period of four years and in 2008 the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, announced that her appointment was continued. [12]In March 2009 she was promoted to Deputy Chairman. Greer has been a regular contributor to BBC Two's Newsnight Review, and Question Time. She was a panel member on the edition which also featured Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party. Commenting after the recording she called it "probably the weirdest and most creepy experience of my life".[13] Her co-produced documentary, Reflecting Skin was shown by the BBC in 2004.

An occasional writer for The Guardian and New Statesman, she is a former theatre critic for Time Out magazine.[12] She was formerly director of the Talawa Theatre Company and has served on the boards of the Royal Opera House and the London Film School.[14]

Greer's latest book Obama Music was published by Legend Press in October 2009. Her biography of Langston Hughes will be published in 2011. She is currently working on a novel about Rossetti and on a new work for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Greer was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours.[15]

[edit] Honours and awards

[edit] Selected works

[edit] Books

  • Hanging by Her Teeth (1994) novel
  • Entropy (2009) novel
  • Obama Music Legend Press 2009
  • Langston Hughes: the Value Of Contradiction, in the US by Arcadia, July 2011, in the UK by Blackamber Books, May 2011.

[edit] Plays

  • Munda Negra (1993)
  • Dancing On Blackwater (1994)
  • Jitterbug (2001)

[edit] Musicals

  • Solid
  • Marilyn and Ella

[edit] Film

  • 1996 White Men Are Cracking Up (Screenplay) [16]

[edit] TV

  • Siren Spirits (1995)

[edit] Radio plays

  • The Little Prince

[edit] References

  1. ^ Bonnie Greer "A tip for Nick: two-bit rhetoric won't work here", The Times, 24 October 2009
  2. ^ Bonnie Greer "No leaders", New Statesman, 11 October 2009
  3. ^ a b c Stephan Phelan "Marilyn, Ella . . & Bonnie", Sunday Herald, 6 August 2006, as reproduced on the Find Articles website.
  4. ^ "I spent my childhood dodging bullets – Bonnie Greer", Hornsey and Crouch End Journal, 1 November 2006, as reproduced on David Lammy's website.
  5. ^ Bonnie Greer "Diary", New Statesman, 14 April 2009
  6. ^ "Abstraction of Wit in Black Heritage and Modern Times", Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts, Newcastle University (page for postponed lecture 22 October 2009)
  7. ^ Sophie Taylor "Black playwright Bonnie Greer will join a panel including BNP leader Nick Griffin on Question Time", The First Post 13 October 2009
  8. ^ Spread the Word website
  9. ^ Bonnie Greer, BBC News, 2 May 2002
  10. ^ BBC Woman's Hour webpage
  11. ^ Ciar Byrne "Marilyn and Ella: The meeting of the misfits", The Independent, 13 February 2008
  12. ^ a b British Museum profile page
  13. ^ David Cohen "When Bonnie Greer met Nick Griffin", Evening Standard, 23 October 2009
  14. ^ National Portrait Gallery Collection webpage.
  15. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 59446. p. 10. 12 June 2010.
  16. ^ "White Men Are Cracking Up (1996)" New York Time

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bonnie_Greer&oldid=459980588"
Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Interaction
Toolbox
Print/export