Editing Romulus Linney (playwright) (section)

==Life and career==

Linney was born in [[Philadelphia]],<ref name=nyt-obit /> the son of Maitland ([[married and maiden names|née]] Thompson) Linney and physician Romulus Zachariah Linney III. His great-grandfather was [[Romulus Zachariah Linney]], a prominent [[North Carolinian]] who served the [[Confederate States of America]] in the [[American Civil War]] and was a U.S. Congressman.<ref name="asu-earlylife" /><ref>{{cite web |last1=Jordan |first1=Susan |title=Linney, Romulus Zachariah |url=https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/linney-romulus-zachariah |website=Dictionary of North Carolina Biography |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]] |access-date=11 February 2020 |date=1996 |via=NCpedia.org}}</ref> Linney grew up in the town of [[Madison, Tennessee]] where his father was an [[Doctor of Medicine#United States|M.D.]]<ref name=wp-19801002 /><ref name="sigthtr">{{cite web |title=Romulus Linney (Signature's Legacy Program Playwright / 1991-92 Residency 1 Playwright) |url=https://www.signaturetheatre.org/About/Playwrights---Residencies/Romulus-Linney.aspx |website=[[Signature Theatre Company]] |access-date=13 February 2020}}</ref> He also lived with his extended family for a few years during the [[Great Depression]] in the Linney/Coffey [[homestead (buildings)|homestead]] in [[Boone, North Carolina]] and returned to the homestead to visit his favorite cousins, the Coffeys, throughout his life.<ref name="asu-earlylife" /> Linney recalled that his mother "was a very good amateur actress" and when she starred in the Nashville Community Theatre's 1940 production of ''[[Our Town]]'' as Mrs. Gibbs, he was deeply moved by her performance, particularly by her character's death. "I became really connected to my mother and it was the first time I was really shattered by a play. And in many ways that was the beginning. It, in a very visceral way, showed me the profound impact theater can have... Music might give you exultation or something else equally profound, but theater at a great stroke can just shatter you, can break you." Linney's father died of throat cancer when Linney was 13 years old.<ref name="asu-earlylife" /> Linney said about his father's death, "I've never gotten over it. My father was a very good man...I think his death is in everything I do. All other experiences in life pall beside the death of a parent you dearly love, when you have to deal with that as a child. No religion can console you for it. Nothing can."<ref name="amt-200404p68">{{cite journal |last1=McGregor |first1=Michael |title=Profiles: Romulus Linney: Under the Radar |journal=[[American Theatre (magazine)|American Theatre]] |date=April 2004 |volume=21 |issue=4 |page=68 |id={{ProQuest|220588389}} }}</ref> After his father's death, Linney and his mother moved to [[Washington, D.C.]], where he attended middle school and high school.<ref name=wp-19801002>{{cite news |last1=Williams |first1=Christian |title=Southern Discomfort |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1980/10/02/southern-discomfort/9572a06e-b9e7-41ad-9663-b4c37f33e56c/ |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=October 2, 1980 |page=F15}}</ref>

He earned a [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree from [[Oberlin College]] and a [[Master of Fine Arts]] degree from the [[Yale School of Drama]]. He was an alumnus of [[HB Studio]] in New York City. He authored three novels, four opera librettos, twenty short stories, and 85 plays which have been staged throughout the United States from [[South Coast Repertory]] in California to the [[Virginia Museum of Fine Arts|Virginia Museum Theater (VMT)]] in Richmond, and in Europe and Asia. His plays include ''The Sorrows of Frederick'', ''Holy Ghosts'', ''[[Childe Byron]]'', ''Heathen Valley'', and an adaptation of [[Ernest J. Gaines]]'s novel, ''[[A Lesson Before Dying]]'', which has been produced in New York and in numerous regional theaters. Many of his plays were set in Appalachia (''Tennessee, Holy Ghosts, Sand Mountain, Gint'' and ''Heathen Valley''), while others focused on historical subjects (''The Sorrows of Frederick, King Philip, 2: Goering at Nuremberg'').<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.playbill.com/news/article/146716-Romulus-Linney-Prolific-Writer-of-Erudite-Plays-Dies-at-80-|title=Romulus Linney, Prolific Writer of Erudite Plays, Dies at 80|work=[[Playbill]]|access-date=2 July 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131227054732/http://www.playbill.com/news/article/146716-Romulus-Linney-Prolific-Writer-of-Erudite-Plays-Dies-at-80-|archive-date=27 December 2013}}</ref> His adaptations for the American stage of several modern foreign classics—plays and tales from Tolstoy, Chekhov, Ibsen and others—have been performed from New York to Minneapolis, and his melding of two novels by Henry Adams into the comedy ''Democracy'' was premiered by artistic director [[Keith Fowler]] at VMT.<ref>Linney, Romulus, ''Democracy'', Dramatists Play Service, Inc., NY, NY.</ref>  Linney's vivid biographical reconstructions of controversial personalities are remarkable for their power to retain a lifelike vigor—as in his treatment of Hermann Goering in ''2: Goering at Nuremberg'', and Lord Byron in ''[[Childe Byron]]''.<ref>''[[Childe Byron]]'' provoked a controversial charge of attempted censorship following its 1977 premiere at VMT in Richmond, Virginia.</ref>

In 2010 before his death, Linney completed a libretto for an opera by [[Scott Wheeler (composer)|Scott Wheeler]] based on his first play ''The Sorrows of Frederick ''commissioned by [[The Metropolitan Opera]] and Lincoln Center Theater. He also completed a full-length play about Alzheimer's disease, ''Over Martinis, Driving Somewhere'', which received a workshop at New York Stage and Film in the summer of 2010.

Among Linney's many awards were two Obie awards, one for sustained excellence in play writing; two National Critics Awards; three Drama-Logue Awards; and fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller foundations, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the National Endowment of the Arts. He was a member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]], which conferred upon him its Award in Literature, Award of Merit and its highest award, the gold medal. He received honorary doctorates from [[Oberlin College]] in 1994, from [[Appalachian State University]] in 1995, and from [[Wake Forest University]] in 1998.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www2.oberlin.edu/archive/oresources/cspeakers/index.html|title=Oberlin College Archives - Commencement Speakers|website=www2.oberlin.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-01-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Romulus Linney lives on at ASU |url=https://www.wataugademocrat.com/news/romulus-linney-lives-on-at-asu/article_d3180f4a-aa8d-5f4b-9102-ec8c7bfeb167.html |work=[[Watauga Democrat]] |date=September 21, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Griffing |first1=Kimberly |title=Six to Receive Honorary Degrees During Commencement |url=https://news.wfu.edu/1998/03/24/six-to-receive-honorary-degrees-during-commencement/ |website=Wake Forest News |publisher=[[Wake Forest University]] |date=March 24, 1998}}</ref>

He was a member of the [[Ensemble Studio Theatre]], the [[Fellowship of Southern Writers]], [[National Theatre Conference]], [[College of Fellows of the American Theatre]], [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]], the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Corporation of [[Yaddo]].  Linney had been chair of the MFA Playwriting program at [[Columbia University]]’s School of the Arts and Professor of Playwriting in the Actors Studio MFA Program at [[The New School]] in New York. He also taught over the years at Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, Connecticut College, and the Sewanee Writers Conference among others.

Linney was the founding playwright of Signature Theatre Company, which named a theater in his honor in the new Signature Center, which opened in 2012.<ref name="NYT Arts">{{cite news|last=Itzkoff|first=Dave|title=Signature Center Will Have Theater Named for Romulus Linney|url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/signature-center-will-have-theater-named-for-romulus-linney/|access-date=24 September 2011|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=22 September 2011}}</ref>  On his birthday September 21, 2012, the University of North Carolina at its [[Appalachian State University]] campus in Boone, NC opened his archives for researchers and scholars.