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Arthur Kopit’s repertoire includes: Oh
Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s Hung You in the
Closet and I’m Feelin’ So Sad (Vernon
Rice Award, Outer Circle Award);
Indians (Tony Nominee); Wings (Tony
Nominee, Prix Italia for radio version
of play); End of the World with
Symposium to Follow; a new translation
of Ibsen’s Ghosts; Road to Nirvana; the
book for the musical Nine (Tony Award
for Best Musical, 1982); the book for
the musical Phantom, based on Gaston
Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera
(music and lyrics by Maury Yeston);
and, most recently, the book for High
Society, a musical based on Philip
Barry’s The Philadelphia Story, with
music by Cole Porter. Phantom, written
prior to the Lloyd Webber version, is
currently playing in theaters around
the country, and has had long-running
successful tours in Germany and
Scandinavia. Also, various one act
plays, including Chamber Music, The Day
the Whores Came Out to Play Tennis,
Conquest of Everest, The Questioning of
Nick, The Hero, Success, and Good Help
is Hard to Find. Television films
include the NBC mini-series Hands of a
Stranger, the NBC mini-series of his
Phantom of the Opera, the CBS mini-
series In a Child’s Name, and Roswell.
His current projects include: a new
play, BecauseHeCan (formerly entitled
Y2K), which had its premiere as part of
Actors Theatre of Louisville’s annual
Humana Festival and was presented in
New York by Manhattan Theatre Club and
recently at the McCarter Theatre
(upcoming productions in Germany and
Scandinavia); an original musical, Tom
Swift and the Secrets of the Universe,
for which he is writing the book, and
Maury Yeston the music and lyrics; and
a new play, Discovery of America, based
on the journals of the Spanish
explorer, Cabeza de Vaca. Mr. Kopit is
the recipient of numerous awards,
including: Shaw Traveling Fellowship,
Harvard, 1959; Guggenheim Fellow 1967;
Rockefeller grantee 1968; Award for
Literature, American Institute of Arts
and Letters, 1971; N.E.H. grantee,
1974. From 1974 to 1975 he was a Fellow
at the Center for Humanities at
Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and
from 1975-1976, Wesleyan’s Playwright-
in-Residence. He has also taught
playwriting at the Yale School of Drama
(from 1976-1980), where he was a CBS
Fellow; at Columbia University; at NYU;
and, from 1981-1994, at CCNY. He is a
member of the Dramatist Guild, the
Dramatists Guild Council, the Writers
Guild of America, and PEN. Mr. Kopit is
married to the writer, Leslie Garis.
They live in New York City and have
three children: Alex, Ben, and Kathleen.
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