DIARY OF A LOST BOY
Donation protected
Hello Friends!
My name is Brian Shnipper, and I am adapting Harry Kondoleon's exhilarating and hilarious final novel DIARY OF A LOST BOY to the stage with award winning playwright Constance Congdon. The money raised will help secure further options and pay for a workshop/reading of the play in New York.
DIARY OF A LOST BOY is a glowingly upbeat testament to life and love, gay and straight, now and forever. Susan and Bill have lived a seemingly idyllic marriage, and have vowed to care for their HIV-positive friend Hector until the end, but suddenly the marriage is breaking apart, and Hector, while coping with his own insidious nightmare, has placed himself smack in the middle of theirs.
Help us bring this beautiful novel to life!
Your donations will assist with the following:
- Securing the rights for future option periods.
- Pay for cast & crew of a workshop/reading in NYC.
- Rental of theatre to produce workshop/reading.
- Copies of the script for reading.
I want to thank you in advance for your support. Your donations are greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Brian Shnipper
Reviews for Harry Kondoleon’s novel DIARY OF A LOST BOY:
“The celebrated book is "Diary of a Lost Boy," a funny new novel about a dying young gay man and his best straight friends, a couple who might have been played by Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in a 30's screwball comedy. …By forcing a reader to see even death as ludicrous, beautiful and thrilling, a writer like Harry Kondoleon brings comfort to the living. You feel thankful for such a person, not sorry.” - Frank Rich, New York Times
“Harry Kondoleon's alternately hilarious and disturbing second novel” - Michael Dorris, Los Angeles Times
"Harry Kondoleon susatains a dazzling dangerous tone in this novel, which I read in one gleeful sitting. The tension between the enameled precision of his brilliant prose and the tragic insight at its heart produces one of the most engaging comic portraits of New York I've read in years." - John Guare
Bios:
Harry Kondoleon arrived on this planet in 1955 and started observing its inhabitants and their curious customs shortly thereafter. His parents were named Sophocles and Athena, though their friends in Queens called them Cliff and Tina. He shared a birthday with his two-years-older sister Christine. He spent a year in Bali where he saw witches dance and caught typhoid fever. He majored in cutthroat competition at the Yale School of Drama and for more than a decade studied heartbreak and rage with New York City’s daily newspaper critics. Kondoleon’s best-known plays include Christmas On Mars, The Vampires, Zero Positive, Slacks and Tops, The Fairy Garden, The Cote D’Azur Triangle, The Brides, Rococo, The Poets’ Corner, Anteroom, Play Yourself, Love Diatribe, The Houseguests, and Saved or Destroyed. His plays have been performed at theaters across the country and around the world including Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage, Circle Repertory Theatre, The Public Theatre and New York Theatre Workshop. They have earned him two Obie Awards, the Oppenheimer/Newsday Award, and a Drama-Logue Award. In addition, he has received Fulbright, Rockefeller, NEA, and Guggenheim fellowships. Several of his plays were published by Theater Communications Group in an anthology entitled Self Torture and Strenuous Exercise. He is also the author of a volume of poetry, The Death of Understanding, and two novels, The Whore of Tjampuan and Diary of a Lost Boy. The latter was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1994, two months before Harry Kondoleon died of complications from AIDS.
Constance Congdon has been called "one of the best playwrights our country and our language has ever produced" by playwright Tony Kushner in Kushner's introduction to her collection Tales of the Lost Formicans and Other Plays. In addition to Tales of the Lost Formicans, which has had more than 300 productions worldwide, Congdon's plays include: Casanova, Dog Opera (both produced at the Public Theatre), Losing Father's Body (Portland Stage - Maine), Lips (Primary Stages), Native American (Portland Stage - Maine, Lyric Hammersmith Studio), The Children of the Elvi (Key City Public Theater), A Mother, starring Olympia Dukakis, and a new verse version of The Misanthrope, both commissioned and produced by American Conservatory Theater. Also at ACT: Moontel Six, a commission by the A.C.T. Young Conservatory and subsequently performed at London's National Theatre, followed by another production of the two-act version at San Francisco's Zeum and directed by Young Conservatory Director, Craig Slaight. The Automata Pietà, another YC commission, received its world premiere at San Francisco's Magic Theatre in 2002; Nightingales went to the Theatre Royale Bath's Youth Theatre. Congdon's No Mercy and its companion piece, One Day Earlier, were part of the 2000 season devoted to Congdon at the Profile Theatre. Her latest play, Paradise Street, developed at New York Theatre Workshop, received its premiere production in Los Angeles at The Attic Theater by the Title 3 Company. She has also written a number of opera libretti and seven plays for the Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis. Congdon's plays have been produced throughout the world, including Cairo and Berlin. Her plays are published mainly by Broadway Plays Publishing. Samuel French published Dog Opera. A collection of four of her plays has been published by TCG, Inc. Her new verse version of Tartuffe will be included in the next Norton Anthology of Drama, and is already out in a single-volume Norton Critical edition. She just finished Take Me to the River, commissioned by the Denver Theater Center. Her adaptation of A Servant of Two Masters was at Yale Rep, season 2010, and continued to The Shakespeare Theater in D.C. and the Guthrie Theater. Her adaptation of Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid has been produced in several regional theaters, most recently at Portland City Stage. In the works is No Little Rebellion, a play about the Daniel Shay's rebellion, commissioned by a consortium of Shakespeare theaters. She's been writing a long time and can thank the NEA, the Rockefeller Foundation, the W. Alton Jones Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, New York Newsdays Best Play Award, the Arnold Weisberger Award, the Berilla Kerr Award, and, most recently, the Helen Merrill Award for making this more possible. Congdon was just honored with an award "for distinguished service to the American theater" at the Great Plains Theater Conference. She's an alum of New Dramatists and a member of the Dramatists Guild and of PEN. Congdon has been teaching playwriting at Amherst College for two decades.
Brian Shnipper conceived and directed the world premiere of STANDING ON CEREMONY: THE GAY MARRIAGE PLAYS (Los Angeles Drama Critics Award) at the Coronet Theatre where it was hailed in the Los Angeles Times as “a burgeoning phenomenon” and a “vital achievement”. It has since been performed in over 75 theatres across the world including the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York, ACT in San Francisco, La Jolla Playhouse, Trinity Rep and Syracuse Stage. Celebrities who have performed include Debra Messing, Zachary Quinto, Alfre Woodard, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Matthew Broderick, Kathy Najimi and Amy Brenneman to name a few. Off Broadway: STANDING ON CEREMONY (New York Theatre Workshop) the world premiere of Will Scheffer’s ALIEN BOY (OOBR Award), LUBNA and FAMILY COMMITMENT (EST). Regional credits include A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAINS (Pasadena Playhouse), U.S. premiere of Daniel MacIvor's THE BEST BROTHERS, RED, OPUS and BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE (Ensemble Theatre Company) , MIRACLE ON SOUTH DIVISION STREET, THE ROAD TO APPOMATTOX (Colony Theatre), ICU starring Caroline Aaron (Circle X Theatre Co.), VOICE OF GOOD HOPE about the life of Barbara Jordan starring Frankie Faison (Luna Stage – Star Ledger’s pick for the Year's 10 Best). His passion for new work led him to serve as producer of ETC's WET INK New Play Festival where he has directed readings of new works by Constance Congdon, Kira Obolensky and Albert Innaurato. The world premiere of Wendy MacLeod’s UNDESCENDED, SAY YOU LOVE SATAN and ALL THE RAGE (Attic Theatre - Artistic Director 2008 - 2010). He served as Artistic Director for 12 Miles West Theatre Company in New Jersey (1998 - 2001) where his credits include the world premieres of Joyce Carol Oates’ SEPARATED and Nagle Jackson’s BARNEY DOWNSIZED. Other 12MW credits: BLUFF, PRIVATE EYES, ALL THE RAGE, THREE VIEWINGS, THE NOTEBOOK OF TRIGORIN, A HOTEL ON MARVIN GARDENS, THE WATER CHILDREN, THE MISANTHROPE, BRUTALITY OF FACT, THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF AMERICA (ABRIDGED) and HITTING FOR THE CYCLE. Mr. Shnipper returned to his alma mater, Montclair State University, to direct Lanford Wilson’s BALM IN GILEAD which was a regional finalist for the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival.
My name is Brian Shnipper, and I am adapting Harry Kondoleon's exhilarating and hilarious final novel DIARY OF A LOST BOY to the stage with award winning playwright Constance Congdon. The money raised will help secure further options and pay for a workshop/reading of the play in New York.
DIARY OF A LOST BOY is a glowingly upbeat testament to life and love, gay and straight, now and forever. Susan and Bill have lived a seemingly idyllic marriage, and have vowed to care for their HIV-positive friend Hector until the end, but suddenly the marriage is breaking apart, and Hector, while coping with his own insidious nightmare, has placed himself smack in the middle of theirs.
Help us bring this beautiful novel to life!
Your donations will assist with the following:
- Securing the rights for future option periods.
- Pay for cast & crew of a workshop/reading in NYC.
- Rental of theatre to produce workshop/reading.
- Copies of the script for reading.
I want to thank you in advance for your support. Your donations are greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Brian Shnipper
Reviews for Harry Kondoleon’s novel DIARY OF A LOST BOY:
“The celebrated book is "Diary of a Lost Boy," a funny new novel about a dying young gay man and his best straight friends, a couple who might have been played by Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in a 30's screwball comedy. …By forcing a reader to see even death as ludicrous, beautiful and thrilling, a writer like Harry Kondoleon brings comfort to the living. You feel thankful for such a person, not sorry.” - Frank Rich, New York Times
“Harry Kondoleon's alternately hilarious and disturbing second novel” - Michael Dorris, Los Angeles Times
"Harry Kondoleon susatains a dazzling dangerous tone in this novel, which I read in one gleeful sitting. The tension between the enameled precision of his brilliant prose and the tragic insight at its heart produces one of the most engaging comic portraits of New York I've read in years." - John Guare
Bios:
Harry Kondoleon arrived on this planet in 1955 and started observing its inhabitants and their curious customs shortly thereafter. His parents were named Sophocles and Athena, though their friends in Queens called them Cliff and Tina. He shared a birthday with his two-years-older sister Christine. He spent a year in Bali where he saw witches dance and caught typhoid fever. He majored in cutthroat competition at the Yale School of Drama and for more than a decade studied heartbreak and rage with New York City’s daily newspaper critics. Kondoleon’s best-known plays include Christmas On Mars, The Vampires, Zero Positive, Slacks and Tops, The Fairy Garden, The Cote D’Azur Triangle, The Brides, Rococo, The Poets’ Corner, Anteroom, Play Yourself, Love Diatribe, The Houseguests, and Saved or Destroyed. His plays have been performed at theaters across the country and around the world including Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage, Circle Repertory Theatre, The Public Theatre and New York Theatre Workshop. They have earned him two Obie Awards, the Oppenheimer/Newsday Award, and a Drama-Logue Award. In addition, he has received Fulbright, Rockefeller, NEA, and Guggenheim fellowships. Several of his plays were published by Theater Communications Group in an anthology entitled Self Torture and Strenuous Exercise. He is also the author of a volume of poetry, The Death of Understanding, and two novels, The Whore of Tjampuan and Diary of a Lost Boy. The latter was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1994, two months before Harry Kondoleon died of complications from AIDS.
Constance Congdon has been called "one of the best playwrights our country and our language has ever produced" by playwright Tony Kushner in Kushner's introduction to her collection Tales of the Lost Formicans and Other Plays. In addition to Tales of the Lost Formicans, which has had more than 300 productions worldwide, Congdon's plays include: Casanova, Dog Opera (both produced at the Public Theatre), Losing Father's Body (Portland Stage - Maine), Lips (Primary Stages), Native American (Portland Stage - Maine, Lyric Hammersmith Studio), The Children of the Elvi (Key City Public Theater), A Mother, starring Olympia Dukakis, and a new verse version of The Misanthrope, both commissioned and produced by American Conservatory Theater. Also at ACT: Moontel Six, a commission by the A.C.T. Young Conservatory and subsequently performed at London's National Theatre, followed by another production of the two-act version at San Francisco's Zeum and directed by Young Conservatory Director, Craig Slaight. The Automata Pietà, another YC commission, received its world premiere at San Francisco's Magic Theatre in 2002; Nightingales went to the Theatre Royale Bath's Youth Theatre. Congdon's No Mercy and its companion piece, One Day Earlier, were part of the 2000 season devoted to Congdon at the Profile Theatre. Her latest play, Paradise Street, developed at New York Theatre Workshop, received its premiere production in Los Angeles at The Attic Theater by the Title 3 Company. She has also written a number of opera libretti and seven plays for the Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis. Congdon's plays have been produced throughout the world, including Cairo and Berlin. Her plays are published mainly by Broadway Plays Publishing. Samuel French published Dog Opera. A collection of four of her plays has been published by TCG, Inc. Her new verse version of Tartuffe will be included in the next Norton Anthology of Drama, and is already out in a single-volume Norton Critical edition. She just finished Take Me to the River, commissioned by the Denver Theater Center. Her adaptation of A Servant of Two Masters was at Yale Rep, season 2010, and continued to The Shakespeare Theater in D.C. and the Guthrie Theater. Her adaptation of Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid has been produced in several regional theaters, most recently at Portland City Stage. In the works is No Little Rebellion, a play about the Daniel Shay's rebellion, commissioned by a consortium of Shakespeare theaters. She's been writing a long time and can thank the NEA, the Rockefeller Foundation, the W. Alton Jones Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, New York Newsdays Best Play Award, the Arnold Weisberger Award, the Berilla Kerr Award, and, most recently, the Helen Merrill Award for making this more possible. Congdon was just honored with an award "for distinguished service to the American theater" at the Great Plains Theater Conference. She's an alum of New Dramatists and a member of the Dramatists Guild and of PEN. Congdon has been teaching playwriting at Amherst College for two decades.
Brian Shnipper conceived and directed the world premiere of STANDING ON CEREMONY: THE GAY MARRIAGE PLAYS (Los Angeles Drama Critics Award) at the Coronet Theatre where it was hailed in the Los Angeles Times as “a burgeoning phenomenon” and a “vital achievement”. It has since been performed in over 75 theatres across the world including the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York, ACT in San Francisco, La Jolla Playhouse, Trinity Rep and Syracuse Stage. Celebrities who have performed include Debra Messing, Zachary Quinto, Alfre Woodard, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Matthew Broderick, Kathy Najimi and Amy Brenneman to name a few. Off Broadway: STANDING ON CEREMONY (New York Theatre Workshop) the world premiere of Will Scheffer’s ALIEN BOY (OOBR Award), LUBNA and FAMILY COMMITMENT (EST). Regional credits include A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAINS (Pasadena Playhouse), U.S. premiere of Daniel MacIvor's THE BEST BROTHERS, RED, OPUS and BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE (Ensemble Theatre Company) , MIRACLE ON SOUTH DIVISION STREET, THE ROAD TO APPOMATTOX (Colony Theatre), ICU starring Caroline Aaron (Circle X Theatre Co.), VOICE OF GOOD HOPE about the life of Barbara Jordan starring Frankie Faison (Luna Stage – Star Ledger’s pick for the Year's 10 Best). His passion for new work led him to serve as producer of ETC's WET INK New Play Festival where he has directed readings of new works by Constance Congdon, Kira Obolensky and Albert Innaurato. The world premiere of Wendy MacLeod’s UNDESCENDED, SAY YOU LOVE SATAN and ALL THE RAGE (Attic Theatre - Artistic Director 2008 - 2010). He served as Artistic Director for 12 Miles West Theatre Company in New Jersey (1998 - 2001) where his credits include the world premieres of Joyce Carol Oates’ SEPARATED and Nagle Jackson’s BARNEY DOWNSIZED. Other 12MW credits: BLUFF, PRIVATE EYES, ALL THE RAGE, THREE VIEWINGS, THE NOTEBOOK OF TRIGORIN, A HOTEL ON MARVIN GARDENS, THE WATER CHILDREN, THE MISANTHROPE, BRUTALITY OF FACT, THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF AMERICA (ABRIDGED) and HITTING FOR THE CYCLE. Mr. Shnipper returned to his alma mater, Montclair State University, to direct Lanford Wilson’s BALM IN GILEAD which was a regional finalist for the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival.
Organizer
Brian Shnipper
Organizer
Lake Oswego, OR