This Goodly Land

Rebecca Gilman (1965–present)

Other Names Used

• Rebecca Claire Gilman: full name

Alabama Connections

• Trussville, Jefferson County: birthplace, childhood residence
• Birmingham, Jefferson County: education

Selected Works

• Gilman, Rebecca. Spinning Into Butter: A Play. New York: Faber and Faber, 2000.
• Gilman, Rebecca. Boy Gets Girl: A Play. New York: Faber and Faber, 2000.
• Gilman, Rebecca. The Glory of Living: A Play. New York: Faber and Faber, 2001.
• Gilman, Rebecca. Blue Surge: A Play. New York: Faber and Faber, 2001.
• Gilman, Rebecca. The Sweetest Swing in Baseball. London: Faber and Faber, 2004.
• Gilman, Rebecca. The Crowd You're In With: A Play. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 2009.

Literary Awards

• M. Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award for an Emerging Playwright, American Theatre Critics Association, 1998, for The Glory of Living
• Roger L. Stevens Award, Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, 1998, for Spinning Into Butter
• London Evening Standard Theatre Award, Most Promising Playwright, 1999, for The Glory of Living
• George Devine Award, Royal Court Theatre, London, 1999, for The Glory of Living
• Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer, 2008, awarded by the Alabama Writers' Forum and the Alabama Writers Symposium

Biographical Information

Rebecca Gilman was born and raised in Trussville, Ala. She enjoyed reading plays as a child, especially those of George Bernard Shaw, whom she admired for his willingness to take a stand on controversial issues. Gilman attended Middlebury College and graduated from Birmingham-Southern College in 1987. She also earned an MA from the University of Virginia and an MFA from the University of Iowa. Gilman began writing plays while still in college. After completing her education, she moved to Chicago, where she supported herself by working temporary clerical jobs while writing in her spare time.

Gilman became a member of the Chicago Dramatists group, whose artistic director persuaded the Circle Theatre to produce her play The Glory of Living in 1997. This play went on to win several awards and prompted the Goodman Theatre to give her its Scott McPherson Award as a commission to create a new play, which became Spinning Into Butter. Since then, her plays have been produced in New York and London, as well as Chicago. Gilman and the Goodman Theatre have jointly received a Prince Prize for Commissioning Original Work. This money was used to write and produce her play Blue Surge. Gilman received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2001. In 2002, Gilman moved to Columbus, Ohio, but she recently returned to Chicago, where she is on the faculty of the School of Communication at Northwestern University. A recent production is an adaptation for the stage of Carson McCullers' novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.

Interests and Themes

Rebecca Gilman's plays feature powerful characters who find themselves in difficult, sometimes horrific, circumstances. Her work tackles controversial themes and displays human behavior in an honest manner.

For More Information

Please check your local library for these materials. If items are not available locally, your librarian can help you borrow them through the InterLibrary Loan program. Your librarian can also help you find other information about this author.

There may be more information available through the databases in the Alabama Virtual Library. If you are an Alabama citizen, AVL can be used at your public library or school library media center. You can also get a username and password from your librarian to use AVL at home.

Reference Articles

• "twenty QUESTIONS". American Theatre Feb. 2002: 88.
• Jones, Chris. "A Beginner's Guide to Rebecca Gilman". American Theatre Apr. 2000: 26-29.

Photo by Joan Marcus; courtesy of the Alabama Writers' Forum.

Last updated on May 30, 2008.