Lanie Robertson is a playwright who often tackles themes of societal issues and features historical characters. He was born in 1936 in Knoxville, Iowa, but at an early age traveled with his family, attending 16 different schools in 14 different states before he graduated highschool. Robertson said his childhood influenced his theatrical writing as it gave him the perspective to observe social situations as an outsider and exposed him to many different types of personalities in different regions. He wrote plays from a young age, but abandoned the craft for ten years. While he was working towards a graduate degree at Temple University and teaching at Philadelphia College of Art, he began writing again.
Robertson has produced over 30 plays for regional and Off-Broadway theatres. His first play, The Insanity of Mary Girard, was produced in 1976 and was later published in 1979. Some other notable plays include Back County Crimes (1980), Nasty Little Secrets (1988), Alfred Aime O’Keeffe (1998), Woman Before a Glass (2005), and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill (1987) which was later produced Off-Broadway in 2014.
Robertson’s work is both nationally and internationally produced. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, Writers Guild of America East, and the Societe des Auteres et Compositeurs Dramatiques. He’s earned awards such as an Outer Critics Circle Award (1987) for Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, a Kliban Award (1985), Berilla Kerr Foundation Award, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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