Thomas Babe

Thomas Babe (March 13, 1941 – December 6, 2000) was an American playwright, "one of Joseph Papp's most prolific resident playwrights at the New York Shakespeare Festival," with seven of his plays premiered at the Public Theatre. His work during the mid-1970s and through the 1980s explored many elements of American history and cultural mythology. He was fascinated by the concept of the traditional hero figure—and the reality behind it.

Early life and education Thomas Babe was born in 1941 in Buffalo, New York, the son of Thomas James and Ruth Ina (née Lossie) Babe. He had two sisters, Mimi and Karen. Although he started writing at a young age, Babe did not go into theater until after earning other degrees at Harvard University, where he was Phi Beta Kappa; and Yale University Law School. It featured a newly freed slave and a Union deserter, who encounter in spirit (and on stage) major figures of the day, such as Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony. Mel Gussow, theater critic for the New York Times, described it as one of Babe's most striking works since A Prayer for My Daughter.

In a letter to The Times in 1982, Mr. Babe said that working in the theater requires "stamina, patience, concern and some little indifference to the passing fancies of each season." He added: "The startling vanishment of the playwright is not only a fact, but his and her persistence in an era of incivility and social chaos is something of a miracle. Celebration is in order."

Personal life He married Susan Bramhall in 1967, and they had a daughter Charissa before their later divorce. In later life, Babe lived in Darien, Connecticut with his companion Neal Bell, a playwright. Babe died of lung cancer at the age of 59 on December 6, 2000, in a hospice in Stamford, Connecticut. His mother, sisters, and daughter Charissa Pacella survived him.

Plays and premiere dates The Pageant of Awkward Shadows, Harvard College Theater, Cambridge, MA, 1963 Kid Champion, Public Theater, New York City, 1974 Mojo Candy, Yale Cabaret, New Haven, CT, 1975 Rebel Women, Public Theater, 1976' Billy Irish, Manhattan Theater Club, New York City, 1976 A Prayer for My Daughter, Public Theater, 1978 Great Solo Town, Yale Cabaret, 1977 Fathers and Sons, Public Theater, 1978 Taken in Marriage, Public Theater, 1979 Salt Lake City Skyline, Public Theater, 1980 When We Were Very Young, Winter Garden Theatre, New York City, 1980 Buried Inside Extra, Public Theater, 1984 Planet Fires, Geva Theatre Center, Rochester, NY, 1985 Carrying School Children, Theatre for the New City, New York City, 1987 Demon Wine, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Los Angeles, CA, 1987 Junk Bonds, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Denver, CO, 1991 Great Day In The Morning, South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, CA, 1993, published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc.

Screenplays The Sun Gods, Warner Bros., 1978 (With Michael Wadleigh) The Vacancy, Warner Bros., 1979 Kid Champion, Music Fair, Inc., 1979

Radio plays Hot Dogs and Soda Pop, National Public Radio (NPR), 1980 The Volunteer Fireman, NPR, 1981 One For the Record, WNYC's The Radio Stage (Marjorie Van Halteren, Producer), 1984

Television Ryan's Hope, and Another World

Opera librettos Tesla, a multimedia opera composed by Carson Kievman The Cursed Daunsers, music by Alfred Guzzetti