Robert Patrick

Robert Patrick (center) with Dale Merchant (left) and Jack Wrangler (right) in T-Shirts, 1980. Photo courtesy Mr. Robert Patrick. From Outcyclopedia, the free and queer encyclopedia. Robert Patrick is a playwright, poet, lyricist, and short story writer and novelist. He was born Robert Patrick O'Connor in Kilgore, Texas on 27 September, 1937. Robert Patrick is the author of over 60 plays. The first of these, The Haunted Host, was produced in 1964 and premeired at the Caffe Cino. Mr. Patrick was actually forced to appear in the play himself with fellow playwright William M. Hoffman because he could find no actors willing to appear in a gay-themed drama. During the 1960s Mr. Patrick was a pioneer in the Off-Off Broadway movement and gay theatre, with over 300 productions of his plays being held during this decade in Manhattan alone. He won the "Show Business" Award in 1969 for Joyce Dynel, Salvation Army, and Fog. That same year his play, Camera Obscura was produced on PBS, starring Marge Champion. A 1974 production of Haunted Host marked the debut of Harvey Feirstein. Years later, Feirstein included a recording of Patrick's monologue, Pouf Positive on his CD, This Isn't Going to Be Pretty. Positive was also filmed by Dov Hechtman in 1989. The year 1974 also saw international success for the play Kennedy's Children, earning actress Shirley Knight a Tony award, and also the first season of gay theatre in the UK, to which Mr. Patrick contributed three plays. My Cup Ranneth Over (1976) was commissioned by Marlo Thomas, who co-starred in the play with Lily Tomlin. It became the most produced of his plays. T-Shirts, first produced in 1979 and starring Jack Wrangler, was later chosen as the opening piece for William M. Hoffman's Gay Plays: A First Anthology. Blue Is For Boys (1983) was the first play about gay teenagers, and weekends in honor of the play were declared by Manhattan borough presidents in 1983 and 1986. The Trial of Socrates was the first gay play presented by the City of New York. Hello Bob is an account of Mr. Patrick's experiences with the production of Kennedy's Children. It was the last play he directed before leaving New York. Other works by Robert Patrick include Untold Decades (1988), a history of gay male life in the US told in a humorous vein, and Temple Slave, about the early days of Off-Off Broadway and gay theatre. He has also ghostwritten several screen- and television plays, contributed poems and reviews to Playbill, FirstHand, and Adult Video News, and had his short stories included in numerous anthologies. He has also appeared in the documentary Resident Alien with Quentin Crisp and also in the videos O is for Orgy: The Sequel, and O Boys: Parties, Porn, and Politics, both produced by the O Boys Network. He has most recently written his memoirs, Film Moi. Robert Patrick currently resides and works in Los Angeles, where he has lived since 1993. Selected Works Plays The Haunted Host Joyce Dynel Salvation Army Fog Camera Obscura Pouf Positive Kennedy's Children One Man, One Woman Play-By-Play The Golden Circle Tools Not Rules My Cup Ranneth Over T-Shirts Mutual Benefit Life Mercy Drop Blue Is For Boys Untold Decades Michelangelo's Models Bread Alone The Trial of Socrates Judas The Last Stroke Hello, Bob Evan on Earth All at Sea (book and score) Hollywood at Sunset Collections and Anthologies Robert Patrick's Cheap Theatricks Mercy Drop and Other Plays Gay Plays: A First Anthology (edited by William M. Hoffman, includes play, T-Shirts) Contra/Dictions The Mammoth Book of Gay Short Stories Flesh & the Word 2 & 3 Poetry "Benedicktion," published in RFD magazine #104 Screen- and Television Plays Ghost Story (TV) (1972) High-Tide (TV) (1990) Robin's Hoods (TV) (1994) Plus numerous ghost-written works Film and video roles Resident Alien O Is for Orgy: The Sequel O Boys: Parties, Porn, and Politics Awards Show Business Magazine Best Play Award, 1969 Glasgow Citizens Theatre Best World Playwrighting Award, 1973 International Thespian Society Founders Award For Services To Theatre And To Youth, 1980 (first openly gay recipient) Blue is for Boys Weekends in Borough of Manhattan, 1983 and 1986 Robert Chesley Foundation Award For Lifetime Achievement In Gay Playwrighting, 1996 The Outcyclopedia thanks Mr. Robert Patrick for his kind assistance with this article. External links: Personal page IMDB Entry Entry revised 7 November, 2004. All text is available for use under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (see Copyrights for details).