Mark Medoff (March 18, 1940 – April 23, 2019) was an American playwright, screenwriter, film and theatre director, actor, and professor. His play Children of a Lesser God received both the Tony Award and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Play. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Writers Guild of America Award in the same category for the 1985 film adaptation of the same name. He also received an Obie Award for his play When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? Medoff's feature film Refuge was released in 2010.

When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? was adapted into a film with a screenplay by Medoff in 1979.

Early life and education Medoff was born on March 18, 1940, in Mount Carmel, Illinois, to a Jewish family, the son of Thelma Irene (Butt), a psychologist, and Lawrence R. Medoff, a physician. He was raised in Miami Beach, Florida, and graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School.

Medoff received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Miami and his Master's from Stanford University. Medoff also received an honorary degree in 1981 from Gallaudet University.

Career In 1967, while working as an instructor at the Capitol Radio Engineering Institute in Washington, D.C., he wrote his first play, The Wager. His first play to be staged in New York City was When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?, which won him the 1974 Drama Desk and Obie Awards for Outstanding New Playwright.

Awards and nominations Medoff's big breakthrough and most famous work was 1979's Children of a Lesser God, which won him the Tony, Drama Desk, and Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Play. Medoff was back on Broadway again with the staging of his play PrymateTalkin' Broadway Review: Prymate in 2005.

Medoff's screen credits include adaptations of his plays Red Ryder and Children of a Lesser God, for which he was nominated for an Oscar, BAFTA, and Writers Guild of America Award, Clara's Heart (for which he cast, and subsequently "discovered", Neil Patrick Harris), and City of Joy. In 2000, he produced and directed the documentary Who Fly on Angels’ Wings, about a mobile pediatric unit traveling through the under-served regions of southern New Mexico, and the following year he directed the feature film Children on Their Birthdays, based on the short story by Truman Capote.

Teaching Medoff was co-founder of the American Southwest Theatre Company and head of the Department of Theatre Arts for nine years at New Mexico State University, where he was a professor for a total of twenty-seven years and taught Screenwriting and Acting for Film, Short Film Production, and Film Directing and Producing. He was also the Creative Director of the Creative Media Institute at NMSU, the film department at the university. The theater department is still the American Southwest Theater Company.

For one semester a year between 2003 and 2006, he worked at Florida State University as a Reynolds Eminent Scholar in the School of Theatre. In the spring semester of 2008 he joined the faculty of the University of Houston School of Theatre and Dance as Distinguished Lecturer."Tony Award Winner Mark Medoff Joining UH School of Theatre & Dance." Houston Alumline, Winter 2007. He was the winner of the Kennedy Center Medallion for Excellence in Education and Artistic Achievement, given periodically to professionals in theater who also teach and mentor students.

Personal life Medoff was married to second wife Stephanie Thorne from 1972 until his death in 2019; they had three daughters.

Death In April 2019, he entered hospice care after battling cancer in his later years and suffering a fall. He died on April 23, 2019, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, from complications at age 79.Dramatist and educator Mark Medoff, author of 'Children of a Lesser God,' dies at 79

Bibliography

Plays The Wager, 1966 The Odyssey of Jeremy Jack, (w/ Carleene Johnson, 1973) The Kramer, 1973 When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?, 1974 The Halloween Bandit, 1978 The Conversion of Aaron Weiss, 1978 Firekeeper, 1978 The Last Chance Saloon, 1979 The Froegle Dictum, 1980 Children of a Lesser God, 1980 The Majestic Kid, 1981 The Hands of Its Enemy, 1984 Kringle's Window, 1985. The Heart Outright, 1986 The Homage That Follows, 1995 Showdown on Rio Road (with Ross Marks, 1998). Crunch Time, (with Phil Treon, 1998). Gila, 1996. Gunfighter - A Gulf War Chronicle, 1997 A Christmas Carousel, 1997. Tommy J and Sally, 2000. The Same Life Over, 2002. Prymate, 2003. The Dramaturgy of Mark Medoff, 2004. Marilee and Baby Lamb: Assassination of an American Goddess, 2015.

Radio plays The Disintegration of Aaron Weiss, 1979 The Last Chance Saloon, 1980

Screenplays Good Guys Wear Black, 1978 When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder, 1979 Off Beat, 1986 Apology, 1986 Children of a Lesser God, 1986 Clara's Heart, 1987 City of Joy, 1992 Showdown on Rio Road, 1993 Homage, 1995 Santa Fe, 1997 100 MPG, 2006 Refuge, 2010 Walking with Herb, 2021

Acting and directing Medoff's theatre directing credits include Waiting for Godot, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Equus, and Hot L Baltimore. As an actor, he has appeared in the plays Marat/Sade, Black Comedy/White Lies, and Old Times, among others, and the films The Twilight of the Golds, Santa Fe, Homage, Red Ryder, and Clara's Heart.

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