Robert Chesley (March 22, 1943, Jersey City, New Jersey – December 5, 1990,

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

) was a playwright, theater critic and musical composer.

Biography

Chesley earned his B.A. in music from

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

in 1965. Between 1965 and 1975 he composed the music to over five dozen songs and choral works, chiefly to texts by poets such as

Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massac ...

Willa Cather Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including '' O Pioneers!'', '' The Song of the Lark'', and '' My Ántonia''. In 192 ...

, James Agee,

Walter de la Mare Walter John de la Mare (; 25 April 1873 – 22 June 1956) was an English poet, short story writer, and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners", and for a highly acclaimed selection of ...

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

and

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...

. His instrumental works include the score to a 1972 film by Erich Kollmar. In 1976 he moved to San Francisco and became theater critic at the

San Francisco Bay Guardian The ''San Francisco Bay Guardian'' was a free alternative newspaper published weekly in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1966 by Bruce B. Brugmann and his wife, Jean Dibble. The paper was shut down on October 14, 2014. It was relaun ...

, during its golden period when composer-actor Robert DiMatteo was also on the staff as film critic. In 1980 Theatre Rhinoceros produced Chesley's first one-act, ''Hell, I Love You''; in 1984 his ''Night Sweat'' became one of the first produced full-length plays to deal with AIDS. On August 31, 1986, his two-character play, ''

Jerker ''Jerker, or The Helping Hand: A Pornographic Elegy with Redeeming Social Value and a Hymn to the Queer Men of San Francisco in Twenty Telephone Calls, Many of Them Dirty'' (commonly known simply as ''Jerker'') is a 1986 one-act play by Robert Ch ...

'', aired on the Pacifica Radio station KPFK's IMRU Program. Its frank sexual language immediately stirred controversy; later that year the FCC rewrote its rules governing the broadcast of "questionable" works, citing ''Jerker'' as the test case. He was also co-founder of the Three-Dollar Bill Theater in New York City. In total, Chesley wrote 10 full-length and 21 one-act plays. Several works were premiered posthumously and several of his major plays have been published. Chesley died of AIDS in San Francisco at the age of 47. The

Robert Chesley Award The Robert Chesley Award was an annual literary award, presented by Publishing Triangle to honour drama works by playwrights in the LGBT community. First presented in 1994, the award was named in memory of playwright Robert Chesley. The award was d ...

for Lesbian and Gay Playwriting, given annually by

Publishing Triangle The Publishing Triangle, founded in 1988 by Robin Hardy, is an American association of gay men and lesbians in the publishing industry. They sponsor an annual National Lesbian and Gay Book Month, and have sponsored the annual Triangle Awards pro ...

, is named in his honor. The Robert Chesley/Victor Bumbalo Foundation was established in 1993 to support playwrights of LGBT theatre, and has been in partnership with the

Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico is an artist residency program in the artists' colony of Taos, New Mexico. The Foundation, which offers prize fellowships to painters, poets, sculptors, writers, playwrights, composers, photographers and ...

in Taos, New Mexico, since 2009 to annually award a residency at the Foundation and a stipend to a selected playwright.

Plays

*''Beatitudes'' (1984) *''Come Again: An Entertainment During The Siege'' (1987) *''Dog Plays'' (1989) *''Wild (Person, Tense) Dog'' *''The Deploration of Rover'' *''Hold'' *''Happy V.D.'' *''April First'' *''Arbor Day'' *''Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts'' *''The Scream'' *''A Christmas Card'' *''Hell, I Love You and Breaking Up: Fragments'' (1981) *''Madeleine de Lucien'' (1985) *'' Jerker, or The Helping Hand: A Pornographic Elegy with Redeeming Social Value and a Hymn to the Queer Men of San Francisco in Twenty Telephone Calls, Many of Them Dirty'' (1986) *''A Dog's Life'' *''Maggie's Play'' *''Somebody's Little Boy'' *''The Lost Doll'' *''Laughter and Tears'' *''Et Tu, Lesbo'' *''Nocturnes'' (1983) *''Night Sweat'' (1983) *''Pigman: A Comedy in Three Acts'' (1985-6) *''Private Theatricals: Morning, Noon & Night'' (1990) *''Stray Dog Story : An Adventure In Ten Scenes'' (1981)

References

External links

*
Robert Chesley papers, 1978-2005
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chesley, Robert 1943 births 1990 deaths Writers from Jersey City, New Jersey American male composers 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights AIDS-related deaths in California American LGBT musicians American gay writers LGBT dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American composers American male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American male musicians Reed College alumni 20th-century LGBT people