Director and playwright George C. Wolfe is firmly established as one of America’s most influential cultural voices. With the ability to command both the worlds of stage and film, he has recently directed the award-winning film adaptation of August Wilson’s play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and Rustin for President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions.
Wolfe first gained critical acclaim in 1986 for his writing of the off-Broadway production of The Colored Museum, a series of vignettes exploring aspects of the African-American experience. His 1990 adaptation and direction of Spunk garnered him an OBIE Award for Best Off-Broadway Director. His much-garlanded work since includes Jelly’s Last Jam, Angels in America – Millennium Approaches; Bring In ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk; and the autobiographical one-woman show Elaine Stritch at Liberty.
Widely considered an actor’s director, Wolfe made his feature film debut in 2005 with Lackawanna Blues, for which he received Directors Guild and National Board of Review Awards. He followed up with Nights in Rodanthe (2008) and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017).
In 2018, Wolfe returned to Broadway to direct Eugene O’Neill’s classic play The Iceman Cometh, with Denzel Washington in the lead role.
In addition to his extensive stage and film work, George C. Wolfe was appointed to President Barack Obama’s Committee for the Arts and the Humanities, and is a Chief Creative Officer of the Center for Civil and Human Rights. From 1993-2005, he served as producer of New York’s famed Public Theater Shakespeare Festival and was named a “Living Landmark” by the New York Landmarks Conservancy.
September 18 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Public/Private: Gail Papp, in conversation with George C. Wolfe