Mark Dunn
{{Short description|American author & playwright (b.1956)}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Mark Dunn
| image =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1956|07|12}}
| birth_place = Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
| occupation = Author, playwright
| nationality = American
| alma_mater = Memphis State University
University of Texas at Austin
}}
Mark Dunn (born July 12, 1956, in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American author and playwright. He studied film at Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis) followed by post-graduate work in screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin moving to New York in 1987 where he worked in the New York Public Library while writing plays in his free time.
Among the 35 plays Dunn has written (as of 2023), Belles and Five Tellers Dancing in the Rain have been produced over one 150 times. Dunn served as playwright-in-residence with the New Jersey Repertory Company and the Community Theatre League in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.{{Cite web |title=Mark Dunn {{!}} Penguin Random House |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/35392/mark-dunn |access-date=2023-04-29 |website=PenguinRandomhouse.com |language=en-US}}
Dunn is the author of the popular "progressively lipogrammatic" novel Ella Minnow Pea (2001).
In 1998, Dunn sued the writers, distributors and producers of The Truman Show, claiming that the story was based on a play he had written and performed Off-Broadway in 1992, Frank's Life.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/17/nyregion/writer-accuses-the-producers-of-truman.html|title=Writer Accuses The Producers Of 'Truman'|newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 17, 1998|last1=Rohde |first1=David }}[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/hollywood-stole-my-life-1201232.html Hollywood stole my life], independent.co.uk; accessed March 25, 2015.
Personal life
Originally from Memphis, Dunn now resides with his wife, Mary, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Published full-length plays
- Belles (1989){{Cite book |last=Dunn |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pybTlIzUtwAC |title=Belles: A Play in Two Acts and Thirty-nine Phone Calls |date=1989 |publisher=Samuel French, Inc. |isbn=978-0-573-69141-6 |language=en}}
- Minus Some Buttons (1991){{Cite book |last=Dunn |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Iw66aln-PbcC |title=Minus Some Buttons: A Play in Two Acts |date=1991 |publisher=Samuel French, Inc. |isbn=978-0-573-69278-9 |language=en}}
- Sand Pies and Scissorlegs (1992){{Cite web |title=Sand Pies and Scissorlegs |url=https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/780/sand-pies-and-scissorlegs |access-date=2023-04-29 |website=Concord Theatricals |language=en}}
- Five Tellers Dancing in the Rain (1994){{Cite book |last=Dunn |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CgWsFsYGEKsC |title=Five Tellers Dancing in the Rain: A Play in Two Acts |date=1994 |publisher=Samuel French, Inc. |isbn=978-0-573-69443-1 |language=en}}
- Judge and Jury (1994){{Cite web |title=Judge and Jury |url=https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/731/judge-and-jury |access-date=2023-04-29 |website=Concord Theatricals |language=en}}
- Frank's Life (1998){{Cite book |last=Dunn |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0EqY-c9-vPUC |title=Frank's Life: A Play in Two Acts |date=1998 |publisher=Dramatic Publishing |isbn=978-0-87129-858-4 |language=en}}
- Cabin Fever: A Texas Tragicomedy (2000){{Cite web |title=Cabin Fever: A Texas Tragicomedy |url=https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/691/cabin-fever-a-texas-tragicomedy |access-date=2023-04-29 |website=Concord Theatricals |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Dunn |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wd6xHclACXcC |title=Cabin Fever: A Texas Tragicomedy |date=2000 |publisher=Samuel French, Inc. |isbn=978-0-573-62746-0 |language=en}}
- The Deer and the Antelope Play (2001){{Cite web |title=Dramatists Play Service, Inc. |url=https://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=2979 |access-date=2023-04-29 |website=www.dramatists.com}}
- Helen's Most Favorite Day (2005){{Cite web |title=Helen's Most Favorite Day |url=https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/722/helens-most-favorite-day |access-date=2023-04-29 |website=Concord Theatricals |language=en}}
- Dix Tableaux (2007){{Cite web |title=Dix Tableaux |url=https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/655/dix-tableaux |access-date=2023-04-29 |website=Concord Theatricals |language=en}}
- A Delightful Quarantine (2007){{Cite book |last=Dunn |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FmjZ0Tzg2N8C |title=A Delightful Quarantine: A Play about a Homebound Town |date=2007 |publisher=Samuel French, Inc. |isbn=978-0-573-65067-3 |language=en}}
- PIGmalion (2010){{Cite web |title=PIGmalion |url=https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/861/pigmalion |access-date=2023-04-29 |website=Concord Theatricals |language=en}}
- Seven Interviews (2014){{Cite web |title=Seven Interviews |url=https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/12722/seven-interviews |access-date=2023-04-29 |website=Concord Theatricals |language=en}}
- LMNOP (2015){{Cite web |title=LMNOP |url=https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/63101/lmnop |access-date=2023-04-29 |website=Concord Theatricals |language=en}}
- Belles: The Reunion (2016){{Cite web |title=Perform Catalog {{!}} Samuel French |url=https://www.concordtheatricals.com/perform/catalog |access-date=2023-04-29 |website=Concord Theatricals |language=en}}
- Happily Ever After: A Wedding Comedy (2016)
- The Glitter Girls (2018){{Cite web |title=The Glitter Girls |url=https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/64257/the-glitter-girls |access-date=2023-04-29 |website=Concord Theatricals |language=en}}
- The Puzzle with the Piazza (2022){{Cite web |title=The Puzzle With The Piazza |url=https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/94639/the-puzzle-with-the-piazza |access-date=2023-04-29 |website=Concord Theatricals |language=en}}
Books
- Ella Minnow Pea (2001){{Cite book |last=Dunn |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aTEMOQAACAAJ |title=Ella Minnow Pea: A Progressively Lipogrammatic Epistolary Fable |date=2001 |publisher=RB Large Print |isbn=978-1-4025-6617-2 |language=en}}
- Welcome to Higby (2002){{Cite web |last=Lodge {{!}} |first=Sally |title=MacAdam/Cage Introduces Its Inaugural Children's Series |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/6536-macadam-cage-introduces-its-inaugural-children-s-series.html |access-date=2023-04-29 |website=PublishersWeekly.com |language=en}}
- Ibid: A Life (2004){{Cite book |last=Dunn |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YLNaAAAAMAAJ |title=Ibid: A Life : a Novel in Footnotes |date=2004 |publisher=MacAdam/Cage Pub. |isbn=978-1-931561-65-5 |language=en}}
- Zounds! A Browser's Dictionary of Interjections (2005)
- The Calamitous Adventures of Rodney And Wayne (2009)
- Under the Harrow (2012){{Cite book |last=Dunn |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rRb_pwAACAAJ |title=Under the Harrow |date=2012 |publisher=MacAdam/Cage Publishing, Incorporated |isbn=978-1-59692-377-5 |language=en}}
- American Decameron (2012)
- We Five (2015)
- Pentaptych (2018)
- Quizzing America: Television Game Shows and Popular Culture in the 1950s (2018)
- Texas People's Court: The Fascinating World of the Texas Justice of the Peace (2022)
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunn, Mark}}
Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
Category:21st-century American novelists
Category:Writers from Memphis, Tennessee
Category:University of Memphis alumni
Category:Moody College of Communication alumni
Category:Writers from Albuquerque, New Mexico
Category:American male novelists
Category:American male dramatists and playwrights
Category:20th-century American male writers