Doric Wilson


Doric Wilson was an American playwright, director, producer, critic and gay rights activist.
He was born Alan Doric Wilson in Los Angeles, California, where his family was temporarily located. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, he was raised on his grandfather's ranch at Plymouth, Washington on the Columbia River. He wrote his first play at Kennewick High School, but was accused of plagiarism when a teacher informed him that no student of hers would ever be able to write such a play.

Training

Wilson received his early theater training under Lorraine Larson, apprenticed with Dorothy Seeburger and the Richland Players, and studied briefly at the Drama Department of the University of Washington until he was forced to leave after he initiated a one-person protest against anti-gay sniper attacks at a nearby park.

New York career

Wilson moved to NYC in 1959 where he had a brief acting career playing such roles as Valère to the Mariane of Dawn Wells in Molière's Tartuffe and Older Patrick to Nancy Wilder's Auntie Mame in various stock productions. In 1961, he became one of the first resident playwrights at NYC's legendary Caffe Cino, his comedy, And He Made a Her, opened there with Jane Lowry and Larry Neil Clayton leading the cast and Paxton Whitehead directing.
The success of his four plays at Caffe Cino helped, in the words of playwright Robert Patrick, "establish the Cino as a venue for new plays, and materially contributed to the then-emerging concept of Off-Off-Broadway." His Now She Dances!, a fantasia on the trial of Oscar Wilde, was the first Off-Off-Broadway play to deal positively with gay people.
Under the mentorship of producer Richard Barr, Wilson became a pioneer of the alternative theatre movement, dedicating his career to writing, directing, producing and/or designing hundreds productions. He was one of the first playwrights invited to join the Barr/Wilder/Albee Playwright's Unit and later became a founding member of Circle Repertory Company.

Gay activism

A veteran of the anti-war and civil rights demonstrations of the early 1960s-mid 1970s, Wilson was a participant in the Stonewall Riots and became active in the early days of the New York Gay Liberation movement as a member of GAA. He supported his theatrical endeavors by becoming a "star" bartender and manager of the post-Stonewall gay bar scene, opening such landmark institutions as The Spike, TY's and Brothers & Sisters Cabaret. In 2004, Wilson was named a Grand Marshal of the 35th Anniversary Pride Day Parade in New York City. He was featured in the documentary Stonewall Uprising by Kate Davis and David Heilbroner.

Gay theater

In 1974, Wilson formed TOSOS, the first professional theatre company to deal openly and honestly with the gay experience. The company featured new plays and revivals by such writers as Brendan Behan, Noël Coward, Christopher Hampton, Joe Orton, Terrence McNally, Robert Patrick, Martin Sherman and Lanford Wilson. Theatre scholar Jordan Schildcrout writes that TOSOS "combined the non-commercial and experimental ethos of the Caffe Cino with the politics and community activism of the gay liberation movement."
In June 2001, Wilson, and directors Mark Finley and Barry Childs resurrected the company as . The original TOSOS and its production of Doric Wilson's play The West Street Gang are featured in "Perform", the new permanent exhibit on theatre at The Museum of New York City.

Death

Wilson died on May 7, 2011, aged 72, from natural causes at his home in Manhattan.

Reviewer

Over the years Wilson reviewed theater for Other Stages, The Villager in NYC and various publications in Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland, Oregon. Selected reviews are posted on the .

Principal plays

has published Now She Dances!; Street Theatre; and And He Made a Her. Earlier versions of Street Theater and A Perfect Relationship are published by TNT Press; Street Theater is also included in the Don Shewey edited anthology Out Front.

Awards and honors

There are two theater awards named for Doric Wilson.
The has presented the Doric Wilson Award for International Cultural Dialogue Through Theater every year since 2011. The award is presented each year at the Festival Gala to an artist or company whose work has created new or innovative dialogue about LGBTQ issues.
The New York Innovative Theater Foundation has presented the since 2012. The award is given to a playwright whose writing "honors the innovation, uncompromising vision, heart, and spirit that was Doric Wilson and his work."