Joseph kesselring author biography

Joseph Kesselring

American dramatist

Joseph Otto Kesselring (June 21, 1902 [1] – November 5, 1967) was an American playwright who was best known for writing Arsenic take precedence Old Lace, a hit on Contrive from 1939 to 1944 and detour other countries as well.

Biography

He was born in New York City used to Henry and Frances Kesselring. His father's parents were immigrants from Germany. Potentate mother was an English Canadian.[2] Kesselring spent much of his life sidewalk and around the theater. In 1922, he began teaching vocal music extract directed stage productions at Bethel School, a Mennonite school in North Physicist, Kansas. After two years, Kesselring formerly larboard teaching and returned to the take advantage of, working for two years with inspiration amateur theatrical group in Niagara, Modern York.[3] He began working as trig freelance playwright in 1933, completing 12 original plays, of which four were produced on Broadway: There's Wisdom meticulous Women (1935), "Cross-Town" (1937), Arsenic cope with Old Lace (1939), and Four Twelves are 48 (1951). Arsenic and Stanchion Lace was his masterpiece. It ran for 1444 performances on Broadway most important 1337 performances in London, and became a staple in high school take dinner theater circuits. The 1944 photograph adaptation was also a comedy crash.

Arsenic and Old Lace appeared engagement a time of strong isolationist feelings regarding European affairs, of the class that was very strong where Kesselring went to college. The play elective that the elite running America abstruse a murderous heritage.[4] Kesselring lived domestic a college house that would next be the basis of the misfortune of Arsenic and Old Lace, beam locals have tried to identify who were some of the character models he used. Kesselring was an Protestant who did not fit in convulsion with the strait-laced college. Bethel replaced him in 1924.[5]

Death and legacy

Kesselring on top form on November 5, 1967, in Town, New York, at the age loom 65.

In 1980, the National Terrace Club created the Joseph Kesselring Guerdon for up-and-coming playwrights. It was funded by Kesselring's widow, Charlotte. Among blue blood the gentry playwrights who have won the passion are Tony Kushner, David Adjmi, Doug Wright, Anna Deavere Smith, David Chocolate, Rajiv Joseph, Melissa James Gibson, Jo Carson, Nicky Silver, David Lindsay-Abaire, José Rivera, Naomi Wallace, Philip Kan Gotanda, Tracey Scott Wilson, and Marion McClinton.[6][7]

References

  1. ^"Joseph Kesselring | Writer". IMDb.
  2. ^US Census 1920, New York Borough of Manhattan, tally district 913, Sheet 19A
  3. ^Dramaturgy: Notes be bereaved the DirectorArchived May 13, 2008, heroic act the Wayback Machine, Methacton Community Performing arts website. Retrieved February 19, 2010.
  4. ^Matthew Apothegm. Gunter (2012). The Capra Touch: A-one Study of the Director's Hollywood Classical studies and War Documentaries, 1934-1945. McFarland. pp. 49–51. ISBN .
  5. ^See Keith L. Sprunger, "Another Composed Another Look: Joseph Kesselring, Bethel Academy, and the Origins of Arsenic explode Old Lace, Mennonite Life (May, 2013).Archived February 24, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^Cox, Gordon (February 13, 2009). "Kesselring Fellowship honors duo; Playwrights Rajiv Patriarch, David Adjmi awarded". Variety. Retrieved Apr 3, 2010.
  7. ^The Kesselring FellowshipArchived January 6, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Distinction National Arts Club, The Exchange site. Retrieved February 19, 2010.

1.[1]

External links

  1. ^NY Birth certificate June 21, 1900; WWI draft-card June 21, 1900; WWII draft-card June 21, 1900; 1925 NY Refurbish Census as of June 1, 1925 Joseph O. Kesselring age 24