Edward Graczyk (born 1941/1942)is a playwright originally from

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. He wrote several children's plays early in his career, but became better known as the author of 1976's '' Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean''. In 1982, Graczyk won the Best Screenplay Award at the Belgium International Film Festival for Robert Altman's motion picture adaptation.

Career

Graczyk was born in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. Between 1968 and 1973, he lived in Midland, Texas and wrote children's plays such as ''Aesop's Falables'' and ''Livin' de Life''. He began to develop his stage drama '' Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean'', after driving to the small town of

Marfa Marfa may refer to: Music * Marfa (instrument), an African percussion instrument * Marfa (music), celebratory music of the Hyderabadi Muslims Places * Márfa, a village in Baranya county, Hungary * Marfa, Chad * Marfa, Texas, a city in the hi ...

and researching the customs of the area. The legend of actor James Dean, and the closure of

five-and-dime A variety store (also five and dime (historic), pound shop, or dollar store) is a retail store that sells general merchandise, such as apparel, automotive parts, dry goods, toys, hardware, home furnishings, and a selection of groceries. It us ...

stores in this place, lent their influences to the play's development. Graczyk went on to say: After his brief stay in Texas, he moved back to Ohio and served as the artistic director of the

Players Theatre The Players' Theatre was a London theatre which opened at 43 King Street, Covent Garden, on 18 October 1936. The club originally mounted period-style musical comedies, introducing Victorian-style music hall in December 1937. The threat of Worl ...

in Columbus, Ohio; his tenure there lasted from 1973 to 1993. The first version of ''Jimmy Dean'' premiered in September 1976 at Players Theatre; in early 1980, it moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

for a brief run before filmmaker Robert Altman acquired the rights. The resulting Broadway version, which premiered in February 1982, was not a critical success. Nonetheless, Altman soon managed to make a low-budget film adaptation financed by

Viacom Enterprises Viacom Productions (formerly Viacom Enterprises) was a television production arm of Viacom International. The division was active from 1974 until 2004, when the company was folded into Paramount Network Television 10 years following Viacom's acq ...

and

Mark Goodson Productions Mark Leo Goodson (January 14, 1915 – December 18, 1992) was an American television producer who specialized in game shows, most frequently with his business partner Bill Todman, with whom he created Goodson-Todman Productions. Early life and ea ...

. The film won numerous awards at film festivals, including Best Film at

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

; Ed Graczyk won for Best Screenplay at the Belgium International event. The playwright followed up ''Jimmy Dean'' with ''A Murder of Crows'', which opened at New York's South Side Theater in September 1988. In the early 1990s, he wrote a

one-man show A solo performance, sometimes referred to as a one-man show or one-woman show, features a single person telling a story for an audience, typically for the purpose of entertainment. This type of performance comes in many varieties, including auto ...

with

Keith Carradine Keith Ian Carradine ( ; born August 8, 1949) is an American actor who has had success on stage, film, and television. He is known for his roles as Tom Frank in Robert Altman's film ''Nashville'', Wild Bill Hickok in the HBO series '' Deadwood ...

entitled ''My Time Ain't Long''. By 2003, he was living in Ohio's

Miami Valley The Miami Valley is the land area surrounding the Great Miami River in southwest Ohio, USA, and includes the Little Miami, Mad, and Stillwater rivers as well. Geographically, it includes Dayton, Springfield, Middletown, Hamilton, and other ...

area and was still writing plays, although in his words, "There are currently several scripts running around in my computer looking for an exit." His most recent work, ''The Blue Moon Dancing'', premiered in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

on August 20, 2010. Throughout his career, Graczyk has also served as a theater designer and administrator. He has worked with various institutions such as the Hartford Stage Company and the

Erie Playhouse Erie Playhouse is a historic theatre located in Erie, Pennsylvania. History The Erie Playhouse was established as the "Peoples Theatre" by 1882, and was incorporated as the Erie Civic Theatre Association in 1916. The troupe performed at the H ...

Selected works

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Graczyk, Ed 1941 births Living people 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights American male screenwriters American male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers Screenwriters from Ohio

Career

Selected works

See also

Notes

References

External links