I was sadden to read this… When I was in college at Tufts we were mad for Lanford Wilson. One of his plays, the Rimers of Eldritch or Balm in Gilead, had a ‘legendary’ production before my arrival but was still talked about on campus and in the drama department with awe. Around 1969 or 1970, the college brought him to give a talk. Afterwards, several of us ended up back in his rooms that campus housing had provided talking about the theatre, life, his and our ambitions (mostly just admiring him and basking in the light of his presence). And we drank a lot. As he left for his train back to New York the next morning he seemed fine but I ended up with blood-shot eyes and my first ever hangover! … Later that year or the next, I directed his play, Ludlow Fair and over at Harvard’s Loeb Experimental Theatre I was cast as Leslie Bright in The Madness of Lady Bright (a role I was much too young for but I played with enthusiasm).
For a long time afterwards I followed Wilson’s career with interest. Later when my old college chums, William Hurt and Roy Steinberg, acted in or directed his plays, I was thrilled… As my life began to focus more on dance and choreography, I lost the connection to plays and the literary theater but I never forgot Lanford Wilson.