Plays
About
Tracy Letts is an American actor and dramatist best known for his award-winning play August: Osage County. Letts has been a Steppenwolf ensemble member since 2002. He was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for August: Osage County, which played on Broadway for over a year, following a sold-out run at Steppenwolf in 2007. August also enjoyed a sold-out engagement at London’s National Theatre and a U.S. National Tour in summer 2009. Other accolades include five Tony Awards (including Best Play), an Olivier Award and six Jeff Awards (including Best Play).
In 1991, Letts wrote the play Killer Joe, about a Texas family that enlists the titular murderer-for-hire to kill a relative with a sizable life insurance policy. The script was so graphic and violent, however, that no theatre company would agree to produce it. Two years later, Letts and a few other actors produced the play themselves. Mixed reviews did not prevent it from being a hit. A later successful staging at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe resulted in well-received productions in New York City and London. Next came Bug, a love story about a woman who is a cocaine addict and a man who thinks his body is infested with insects. It premiered in London in 1996 and later ran in New York. His other words include Man from Nebraska, Superior Donuts, Mary Page Marlowe, The Minutes, and more.