Wayne Lemon is an American playwright and screenwriter.

Career

Lemon's theatrical work has been performed by

Steppenwolf Theatre Company Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Chicago theatre company founded in 1974 by Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry, and Gary Sinise in the Unitarian church on Half Day Road in Deerfield, Illinois and is now located in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on ...

South Coast Repertory South Coast Repertory (SCR) is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California. Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson, is led by Artistic Director David Ivers and Managing Direc ...

Hartford Stage Hartford Stage is an American 501(c)(3) non-profit regional theatre company located on Church Street in downtown Hartford, Connecticut. Since its founding in 1963, Hartford Stage has won the Regional Theatre Tony Award (1989) and many Connectic ...

and The Denver Centre for the Performing Arts, among others. His plays have been featured in Hartford Stage's Brand: NEW Fall Festival of Plays, Horizon Theatre Company's New South Playworks, New Haarlem Arts Theatre's Unheard Voices for the American Theater, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's Southern Writers' Project and the American National Theatre. His darkly comic work '' Jesus Hates Me'' was chosen as the inaugural production of the Denver Center Theatre Company's New Play Summit. Lemon began his career as a film and theatre critic for the ''

Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...

.'' Lemon has been a guest lecturer at The

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, The

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

Marquette University Marquette University () is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Established by the Society of Jesus as Marquette College on August 28, 1881, it was founded by John Henni, John Martin ...

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...

and the University of Texas. He has served as playwright in residence at theaters across America. Other theatrical works include ''8 feet of water'', ''Drive By'' and ''Buddy Sharp''. His stage work has been published by Smith & Krause, New York, as part of their Best New Playwrights series, as well as their Comedy Monologue series. Lemon has been a repeat participant in Denver Center's Playwright Slam, reading new material aloud for attendees of the New Play Summit. Lemon currently writes for the motion picture industry in Los Angeles. Recent projects include ''Master Thieves'' (based on the book by Stephen Kurkjian) and ''The Presidents Club'' (based on the book by

Nancy Gibbs Nancy Reid Gibbs (born January 25, 1960) is an American essayist, speaker, and presidential historian. She is the former Managing Editor for ''TIME'' magazine, an author, and commentator on politics and values in the United States. She is the co- ...

and Michael Duffy) for

Sony Pictures Entertainment Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, ac ...

with Matt Tolmach producing. Lemon's debut screenplay, ''The Havana Affair'', was named to the industry's 2015 Hit List as well as 2016's Young & Hungry List before being set up at Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way in association with Tobey Maguire's Material Pictures.

Critical response to ''Jesus Hates Me''

Lemon has hit upon a genre as irreverent and at times as profane as rap, yet filled with pertinent issues and rebellious politics.
''Variety''

his His or HIS may refer to: Computing * Hightech Information System, a Hong Kong graphics card company * Honeywell Information Systems * Hybrid intelligent system * Microsoft Host Integration Server Education * Hangzhou International School, in ...

irreverent

dramedy Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

about the search for meaning may offend as often as it convulses. Lemon's narrative is both wildly inappropriate and keenly idiomatic. There's a compassionate point beneath its quirky corrosion.
''Los Angeles Times''
Lemon is a keen observer of human flaws and frailties, skillfully merging dozens of minute details to form a seriocomic mosaic. Up close, much of it is pointedly funny. From a distance, it's sickly-sad.
''Orange County Register''
Through their failures and foibles, Lemon makes them wretched and pitiable — and endlessly, helplessly funny. It’s quite the dramatic challenge to mix faith and fun, catastrophe and comedy, emotional crises with entertainment. Lemon squeezes all the juice out of his characters and their sorrowful-if-they-weren’t-side-splitting lives.-
of San Diego''
Though ''Jesus Hates Me'' does have its occasional sweet moments, it's the acidic ones that make it such a treat.
''StageSceneLA''
''Jesus Hates Me'' questions faith by confronting social taboos, everything from racism to blasphemy, fraud to adultery, suicide to incest — all through a lens of dark humor.
''San Diego Reader''
"Jesus Hates Me" can best be described as Jean Paul Satre's "No Exit" hopped up on booze, drugs, sex and a plate of Texas BBQ.--''Broadway World'' An exquisite comedy, featuring black lines of intriguing thought, with some of the funniest dialogue ever heard. Lemon has done an amazing piece of work.--''Back Stage'' ''Jesus Hates Me'' is a character study, a comedy, a dramatic statement, a fleeting discourse on religion, an exploration of belief, a brief treatise on predestination versus self-determination and a whole lot of fun. It is alive as few plays are.--''Centerstage'' This irreverent take on the search for meaning is hilarious, poignant, heartfelt, and a deeply vivid portrait of lives teetering on the edge of something big.--''KPBS Arts'' "Jesus Hates Me" will have you doubled-over with laughter at what you're watching while cringing inside by what it actually means."--''Stage Happenings'' Lemon's comic touch is razor sharp.--''San Diego Union-Tribune''

External links

Tracking Board: Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire Producing Spy Thriller The Havana Affair

Movie Insider: The Havana Affair

Tracking Board: The Young and Hungry List 2016

The Wrap: ‘Narcos’ Director Jose Padilha to Develop ‘Master Thieves’ at Sony

Playbill

Variety: Denver Remounts New Play Plan

Denver Center Theatre Company: Inside OUT, Jesus Hates Me Study Guide

Doolee Playwrights

Variety: Jesus Hates Me

Los Angeles Times: Jesus Hates Me at Change Theater

Orange County Register: Jesus Hates Me rings laughs from its dramatic core

Times of San Diego: Disillusionment of Biblical Proportion--Jesus Hates Me

StageScene LA: WOW! Jesus Hates Me

San Diego Reader: Adultery, Incest, through a lens of dark humor

American Repertory Theater of WNY Presents Jesus Hates Me
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lemon, Wayne American dramatists and playwrights American male screenwriters Screenwriters from Texas Living people American male dramatists and playwrights Year of birth missing (living people)