Editing Ron Milner

{{Short description|American playwright (1938–2004)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Ronald Milner
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|mf=yes|1938|05|29}}
| birth_place      = [[Detroit]], [[Michigan]], USA
| death_date       = {{death date and age|mf=yes|2004|07|09|1938|05|29}}
| death_place      = Detroit, Michigan, USA
| occupation       = Playwright
| nationality      = American
}}
'''Ronald Milner''' (May 29, 1938 – July 9, 2004)<ref>{{cite web |title=Sad farewell to famous playwright |url=https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/sad-farewell-to-famous-playwright/Content?oid=2179208 |website=.metrotimes.com |date=July 21, 2004 |access-date= January 19, 2019}}</ref> was an American playwright. His play ''Checkmates'', starring [[Paul Winfield]] and [[Denzel Washington]], ran on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] in 1988.<ref name="Playbill obituary">{{cite web|url=https://www.playbill.com/article/ron-milner-detroit-playwright-of-dont-get-god-started-and-broadways-checkmates-dead-at-66-com-120810|title=Ron Milner, Detroit Playwright of Don't Get God Started and Broadway's Checkmates, Dead at 66|first=Kenneth|last=Jones|date=July 12, 2004|access-date=September 10, 2022}}</ref> Milner also taught creative writing at the [[University of Southern California]], [[Wayne State University]], and [[Michigan State University]].<ref name="Playbill obituary" />

==Early life==
Ronald Milner was born on May 29, 1938, in [[Detroit, Michigan|Detroit]], [[Michigan]], where he grew up on [[Hastings Street (Detroit)|Hastings Street]], also known as "Black Bottom". It had "muslims on corner, hustlers and pimps on another, winos on one, and [[Aretha Franklin]] singing from her father's church on the other", said [[Geneva Smitherman]], author of ''Black World''. Milner would tell David Richards in a ''[[Washington Star]]'' interview: "The more I read in high school, the more I realized that some tremendous, phenomenal things were happening around me. What happened in a [[William Faulkner|Faulkner]] novel happened four times a day on Hastings Street. I thought why should these crazy people Faulkner writes about seem more important than my mother or my father or the dude down the street. Only because they had someone to write about them. So I became a writer."<ref name=Gale>{{cite book |title=[[Contemporary Authors Online]]|year=2007|publisher=Gale|location=Detroit, Michigan |isbn=978-0-7876-3995-2}}</ref> He attended [[Northeastern High School (Michigan)|Northeastern High School]]. He also briefly attended Highland Park Junior College and [[Detroit Institute of Technology]].<ref name=AfroAm>{{cite book|last=Cunningham|first=Beunyce Rayford|title=Afro-American Writers After 1955: Dramatists and Prose Writers|year=1985|publisher=Gale|location=Detroit, Michigan|isbn=978-0-8103-1716-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/afroamericanwrit0038unse}}</ref>

In 1962, he won the [[John Hay Whitney]] Foundation fellowship to help aid him to complete a novel, ''Life With Father Brown'', which remains unpublished. He went to [[New York City]] to join [[Harvey Swados]]'s writing workshop at [[Columbia University]]. Under the mentorship of [[Langston Hughes]], Milner was able to get a [[Rockefeller Foundation]] grant.<ref name=AfroAm />

His first break came in 1966 with ''Who's Got His Own''. The play begins with the funeral of a harsh father, Tim Bronson, and ends with a tentative rebirth for his long-suffering widow and his embittered son and daughter, Tim, Jr., and Clara. The unsuspected truths that Mrs. Bronson is driven to reveal about their father ultimately enable Tim and Clara to see the real lives of their parents, as painful as it is. The expression that has historically been thwarted, which is primarily at the core in the play, is the question of black manhood. The protagonist is a highly combative and alienated son, torn by despair over ever being able to respect or love a father he has long since written off as a fierce tyrant at home and a coward at work. The show toured colleges in New York before going to the [[Lafayette Theatre (Harlem)|Lafayette Theatre]] in 1967.<ref name=AfroAm />

''The Warning—A Theme for Linda'' was part of the ''A Black Quartet'' with four plays by [[Amiri Baraka]], [[Ed Bullins]], Ben Caldwell, and Milner, produced by [[Woodie King, Jr.]] It was put up at [[Brooklyn Academy of Music]]'s [[Chelsea Theater Center]] on April 25, 1969.<ref name=AfroAm />

He met [[Woodie King, Jr.]] when he was 19. He would inspire Milner to write, and from that came ''Life Agony''. His second work, ''Who's Got His Own'', became a smash hit [[off-Broadway]]. These two worked together for more than forty years.<ref name=Gale />

Milner was the artist-in-residence at [[Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)|Lincoln University]] in 1966–1967. He taught at Michigan State University from 1971 to 1972. Founder and director of Spirit of Shango theatre company. He also led play writing classes at [[Wayne State University]].<ref name=Gale />

Milner's works included ''Who's Got His Own'' (inspired by [[Billie Holiday]]'s "[[God Bless the Child (Billie Holiday song)|God Bless the Child]]"), ''What the Wine-Sellers Buy'' (the first play by an African American produced by [[Joseph Papp]] at the [[New York Shakespeare Festival]] at [[Lincoln Center]]), and ''Roads to the Mountaintop'' (a tribute to [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]).

Milner served as a mentor to writer and journalist [[J. Samuel Cook]], whom he met at a conference in [[Toledo, Ohio]]. Cook attributes the success of his award-winning play ''Barren Fields'' to Milner's direction. In 2003, Milner directed a play at the Hope Repertory Theatre.<ref name=Gale />

Milner died in Detroit of complications from [[Hepatocellular carcinoma|liver cancer]]. He is survived by five children and eight grandchildren.

==Works==
* ''Who's Got His Own'' (1966)
* ''The Monster'' (1968)
* ''The Warning—A Theme for Linda'' (1969)
* ''[[Black Drama Anthology]]'' (with [[Woodie King Jr.]]) (1971)
* ''M(ego) and the Green Ball of Freedom'' (1971)
* ''What the Wine Sellers Buy'' (1973)
* ''These Three'' (1974)
* ''Season's Reasons'' (1976)
* ''Work'' (1978)
* ''Jazz-set'' (1980)
* ''Crack Steppin''' (1981)
* ''Checkmates'' (1987)
* ''Don't Get God Started'' (1987)
* ''Defending the Light'' (2000)
* ''Urban Transition: Loose Blossoms'' (2002)
* ''Life Agony''
* ''The Greatest Gift''

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.michigancitizen.com/print_this_story.asp?sdetail=913/ Michigancitizen.com], ''The Michigan Citizen'' obituary on Ron Milner

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Milner, Ron}}
[[Category:1938 births]]
[[Category:2004 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:21st-century African-American writers]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in Michigan]]
[[Category:Deaths from liver cancer in the United States]]
[[Category:Detroit Institute of Technology alumni]]
[[Category:Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) faculty]]
[[Category:Michigan State University faculty]]
[[Category:Northeastern High School (Michigan) alumni]]
[[Category:University of Southern California faculty]]
[[Category:Wayne State University faculty]]
[[Category:Writers from Detroit]]