James Kirkwood, Jr. (August 22, 1924 - April 21, 1989)

James Kirkwood, Jr. (August 22, 1924 – April 21, 1989) was an American playwright and author. In 1976 he received the Tony Award, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the Broadway hit A Chorus Line.

Kirkwood was born in Los Angeles, California. His father James Kirkwood, Sr. was an actor and director in silent films and his mother was actress Lila Lee. After their divorce, he spent much of his time with his mother's family in Elyria, Ohio where he graduated from high school.

Kirkwood wrote the semi-autobiographical novel There Must Be a Pony, which was made into a television film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Robert Wagner. In the story, the main character Jimmy acted in the 1950s TV series Valiant Lady, as Kirkwood himself had done in real life. Other novels include P. S. Your Cat Is Dead! (adapted into a play of the same name, which was, in turn, adapted into a film by Steve Guttenberg), Good Times/Bad Times, Some Kind of Hero, and Hit Me with a Rainbow.

Kirkwood won the 1976 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with collaborator Nicholas Dante for A Chorus Line.

Kirkwood also wrote the comedic play Legends! which toured the United States with Mary Martin and Carol Channing in 1987. The plot concerns a producer with a sure-fire commercial script, but no credibility, who lures two out-of-work but long-time feuding actresses "of a certain age" to star in his putative Broadway production. Legends! was the most financially successful road production of that season, but when producers insisted on cutting an important speech about breast cancer by Mary Martin's character, the actress declared she would complete her contractual obligation, but would not open the play on Broadway, and the show closed on the road. Kirkwood wrote a book about the production of Legends! entitled Diary of a Mad Playwright: Perilous Adventures on the Road with Mary Martin and Carol Channing.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kirkwood,_Jr.

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Frank C. Moore & Robert Fulps

Frank Moore  (June 22, 1953 – April 21, 2002) was born in New York in 1953. He grew up on Long Island and spent his summers with his family in the Adirondacks. From his earliest youth, he had a strong interest in the natural world.

Moore attended Yale College, and spent a year in Paris at the Cite des Arts. He moved to the SoHo area of Manhattan in 1977. In addition to creating paintings and drawings, he designed sets and costumes and collaborated with several major choreographers and ballet companies. He formed a long-term partnership with choreographer and dancer Jim Self with whom he created the film Beehive in 1985, which was expanded into a ballet commissioned by the Boston Ballet in 1987.

In 1985, Moore and his partner, Robert Fulps (Nov. 22, 1953, Dallas, Texas - Feb. 3, 1987, Dallas, Texas), purchased a farmhouse in Deposit, New York. Renovating the house and establishing a flourishing garden deepened his connection to nature. He converted the barn on the property into a painting studio so that he could spend most of each summer, and much of the fall, in the country.

In 1985, Moore learned he was HIV positive. After his diagnosis, his work increasingly grappled with issues around AIDS, environmental degradation, bioethics, homosexuality, and health care. He became a noted AIDS activist. As a founding member of Visual AIDS, he was instrumental in creating and launching the Red Ribbon Project, which became a worldwide symbol of AIDS awareness.

Moore's first solo show was at the Clocktower in Tribeca in 1983. He had numerous one-person exhibitions most notably at Sperone Westwater Gallery, which continues to represent his estate. His work has been exhibited widely in the US and internationally, including in the 1995 Whitney Biennial, at Artists Space in New York City, the Parish Art Museum in Southampton, New York, and in museums in London and Japan. Moore received the Academy Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999. A mid-career retrospective of his work opened at the Orlando Museum of Art in 2002, shortly after his death, and subsequently traveled to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo.


Viral Romance, 1992, Oil and silkscreen on canvas mounted on wood, 35 x 24 1/2 in., Collection of Marc Happel and Harvey Weiss, New York, Image: Courtesy Sperone Westwater, New York


AIDS Quilt (for Robert Fulps)

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Source: http://www.gessofoundation.org/frank_moore.html

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More Artists at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Art