Greg Kotis (born 1965/1966) is an American playwright, best known for writing the book and co-writing the lyrics for the musical ''

Urinetown ''Urinetown: The Musical'' is a satirical comedy musical that premiered in 2001, with music by Mark Hollmann, lyrics by Hollmann and Greg Kotis, and book by Kotis. It satirizes the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, bu ...

''.

Biography

Career

Kotis studied political science at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, where he was a member of the improvisational and

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and ...

group Off-Off Campus. He dropped out when he took a course on the Short Comic Scene, realizing that he wanted to be part of the theatre industry instead. Kotis became a member of the Cardiff Giant Theatre Company and the

Neo-Futurists The Neo-Futurists are an experimental theater troupe founded by Greg Allen in 1988, based on an aesthetics of honesty, speed and brevity. Neo-Futurists in theatre were inspired by the Italian Futurist movement from the early 20th century. Origin ...

. He moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1995 where he established a branch of the Neo-Futurists together with his wife

Ayun Halliday Ayun Halliday is an American writer and actor. She is best known as the author and illustrator (or, as Halliday herself terms it, "the chief primatologist") of the long-running zine ''The East Village Inky''. The zine got its name from Hallida ...

. While moonlighting in fringe theater, Kotis worked as a location scout for the show

Law & Order ''Law & Order'' is an American police procedural and legal drama television series created by Dick Wolf and produced by Wolf Entertainment, launching the '' Law & Order'' franchise. ''Law & Order'' aired its entire run on NBC, premiering ...

''Urinetown''

By 1998, Kotis had a daughter with his wife, and thus the responsibility of supporting a family. Kotis began writing ''Urinetown: The Musical'', deciding it would be his last work: "I told myself, I tried to find a life in the theater and we had some fun...it was time to move on. The theater life, particularly our theater life, wasn't making us any money. I would just stick to location scouting and apply myself to making money. With 'Urinetown,' I thought, 'Let's just have one last big laugh.' " Kotis had gotten the idea for ''Urinetown'' when, on an ill-budgeted visit to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

in 1995, he had to limit his trips to the city's prevalent pay toilets. ''Urinetown the Musical'' received ten

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual c ...

nominations: Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Book of a Musical, Best Musical, Best Actor in a Musical, two nominations for Best Actress in a Musical (Nancy Opel and Jennifer Laura Thompson), Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Best Choreography, and Best Orchestration. ''Urinetown'' has been performed around the world and in hundreds of American cities.

Other Works

He produced the play ''Pig Farm'', which premiered at The

Roundabout Theatre The Roundabout Theatre Company is a leading non-profit theatre company based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, affiliated with the League of Resident Theatres. History The company was founded in 1965 by Gene Feist, Michael Fried and Elizab ...

in New York City in June 2006.Gross, Christofe
"Theater Review: Greg Kotis' Pig Farm - South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California"
blogcritics.org, January 25, 2007 He is also working on a sequel to the musical Urinetown with his theatrical partner Mark Hollmann titled Yeast Nation.

Personal life

Kotis married his wife, writer and actor

, in 1995. They have two children, India (born 1997) and Milo (born 2000). They reside in

East Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, ...

References

External links

*
Biography at americantheatrewing.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kotis, Greg 1960s births 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights 21st-century American male writers American musical theatre lyricists Broadway composers and lyricists Living people Tony Award winners University of Chicago alumni Year of birth missing (living people)