![Three people stand in a gray lobby area; on the left, a man in a black sweater and pink button down shirt, to his right, a woman in a black tank top that reads "THEATER OF THE APES", and to her right, a man with glasses in a black and white plaid shirt.](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/30/David_Carl%2C_Ayun_Halliday%2C_Greg_Kotis_at_The_Tank%2C_December_2018.jpg/220px-David_Carl%2C_Ayun_Halliday%2C_Greg_Kotis_at_The_Tank%2C_December_2018.jpg)
Greg Kotis (born 1965/1966)[1] is an American playwright, best known for writing the book and co-writing the lyrics for the musical Urinetown.
Biography
[edit]Career
[edit]Kotis studied political science at the University of Chicago, where he was a member of the improvisational and sketch comedy 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. He moved to New York City in 1995 where he established a branch of the Neo-Futurists together with his wife Ayun Halliday.[2] While moonlighting in fringe theater, Kotis worked as a location scout for the show Law & Order.[3]
Urinetown
[edit]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.' "[4]
Kotis had gotten the idea for Urinetown when, on an ill-budgeted visit to Paris in 1995, he had to limit his trips to the city's prevalent pay toilets.[5] Urinetown the Musical received ten Tony Award 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
[edit]He produced the play Pig Farm, which premiered at The Roundabout Theatre in New York City in June 2006.[6][7]
He wrote a prequel to Urinetown with his theatrical partner Mark Hollmann titled “Yeast Nation (The Triumph of Life).” He is also working on a sequel to Urinetown called “Welcome to Space” meant to close off the "Urinetown Trilogy.”
Personal life
[edit]Kotis married his wife, writer and actor Ayun Halliday, in 1995. They have two children, India (born 1997) and Milo (born 2000). They reside in East Harlem.
References
[edit]- ^ "Ayun Halliday and Greg Kotis", November 12, 1995, The New York Times
- ^ "Greg Kotis". The Neo-Futurist Theater. 2012-12-04. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
- ^ Brady, Lois Smith (21 May 2006). "Ayun Halliday and Greg Kotis". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
- ^ Brady, Lois Smith (21 May 2006). "Ayun Halliday and Greg Kotis". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
- ^ Fisher, Philip."Greg Kotis Interview" Archived 2011-06-09 at the Wayback Machine, britishtheatreguide.info, date unknown, accessed February 3, 2010
- ^ Hernandez, Ernio.New Kotis Comedy Pig Farm Nabs Tony Winners and Marshall-Green to Star", playbill.com, December 20, 2005
- ^ Gross, Christofer."Theater Review: Greg Kotis' Pig Farm - South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California" Archived 2011-06-05 at the Wayback Machine, blogcritics.org, January 25, 2007
External links
[edit]- Greg Kotis at the Internet Broadway Database
- Biography at americantheatrewing.org Archived 2008-12-03 at the Wayback Machine