Tom Griffin (playwright)

Thomas E. Griffin Jr. (February 14, 1946^[1] – March 20, 2018) was a playwright, best known for The Boys Next Door.^[2] Other plays include Amateurs,^[3] Pasta,^[4] and Mrs. Sedgewick's Head.^[5]

Career

Griffin was born in Providence, Rhode Island and grew up there and in Warwick, Rhode Island.^[2][6] He graduated with a B.A. in theater from the University of Rhode Island in 1969.^[2] He then acted with Trinity Repertory Company in Providence,^[7][8] and taught playwriting at the University of Rhode Island.^[7]

His play The Taking Away of Little Willie was performed at the 1979 Mark Taper Forum Playworks Festival, and then at Theatre Three in Dallas.^[9][10] The characters were a child with disability, "a caring, self-sacrificing mother", "an intelligent, bitter father" and "a self-appointed community guardian".^[9] A reviewer in Dallas wrote, "The development is predictable here and there, but the play nonetheless crackles with tension."^[9] In 1980, Griffin's play Einstein and the Polar Bear was selected for the National Playwrights Conference.^[11] The main characters are a reclusive novelist living in a small New England town and a woman from Manhattan who arrives claiming that her car has broken down.^[12][13] It was picked up by Mark Lamos for the Hartford Stage Company,^[10][14] and then transferred to the Cort Theater on Broadway.^[12] Reviewers were highly critical, particularly about what they considered "achingly artificial dialogue",^[12][13] and the play closed after four performances.^[12]