Tony Kushner Leads Star-Studded 85th Birthday Celebration For Playwright John Guare

The Unterberg Poetry Center at 92NY is holding a star-studded 85^th birthday celebration for playwright John Guare February 6.

The program, featuring Guare’s words and music, has been created by playwright Tony Kushner, who said, “So enormous is the esteem in which I hold the Great Guare and his monumentally important body of work. Like Williams, he figured out a way for Americans to do a kind of stage poetry. There are astonishingly beautiful things in his plays.”

Among Guare’s theatrical works are Two Gentlemen of Verona (for which he won a Tony Award for best book of a musical and Drama Desk Awards for outstanding book and lyrics), Lydie Breeze, Six Degrees of Separation, The House of Blue Leaves and Landscape of the Body.

Among those appearing in the February 6 program will be Dylan Baker, Becky Ann Baker, Ato Blankson-Wood, Bill Camp, Paul Dano. Ariana DeBose, Billy Eichner, Linda Emond, Mike Faist, Edie Falco, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Corey Hawkins, Amy Herzog, Samuel Hunter, Zoe Kazan, Tony Kushner, Linda Lavin, Kenneth Lonergan, Camryn Manheim, Elizabeth Marvel, Suzan-Lori Parks, Ben Stiller, and Meryl Streep. All will appear in person except for Gurgis, Shawn and Stiller, who will appear on video.

When he was 11,Guare produced his first play; he later graduated from Georgetown and Yale.

Founded in 1939, the poetry center offers some 30 events annually as well as a brunch lecture series, outreach programs and a poetry contest.