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Greg Kotis

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Three people stand in a gray lobby area; on the left, a man in a black sweater and pink button down shirt, to his right, a woman in a black tank top that reads "THEATER OF THE APES", and to her right, a man with glasses in a black and white plaid shirt.
Kotis, right, with Ayun Halliday and David Carl at the opening of The Truth About Santa at The Tank

Greg Kotis (born 1965/1966)[1] is an American playwright, best known for writing the book and co-writing the lyrics for the musical Urinetown.

Biography

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Career

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Kotis studied political science at the University of Chicago, where he was a member of the improvisational and sketch comedy group Off-Off Campus. He dropped out when he took a course on the Short Comic Scene, realizing that he wanted to be part of the theatre industry instead. Kotis became a member of the Cardiff Giant Theatre Company and the Neo-Futurists. He moved to New York City in 1995 where he established a branch of the Neo-Futurists together with his wife Ayun Halliday.[2] While moonlighting in fringe theater, Kotis worked as a location scout for the show Law & Order.[3]

Urinetown

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By 1998, Kotis had a daughter with his wife, and thus the responsibility of supporting a family. Kotis began writing Urinetown: The Musical, deciding it would be his last work:

"I told myself, I tried to find a life in the theater and we had some fun...it was time to move on. The theater life, particularly our theater life, wasn't making us any money. I would just stick to location scouting and apply myself to making money. With 'Urinetown,' I thought, 'Let's just have one last big laugh.' "[4]

Kotis had gotten the idea for Urinetown when, on an ill-budgeted visit to Paris in 1995, he had to limit his trips to the city's prevalent pay toilets.[5] Urinetown the Musical received ten Tony Award nominations: Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Book of a Musical, Best Musical, Best Actor in a Musical, two nominations for Best Actress in a Musical (Nancy Opel and Jennifer Laura Thompson), Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Best Choreography, and Best Orchestration. Urinetown has been performed around the world and in hundreds of American cities.

Other works

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He produced the play Pig Farm, which premiered at The Roundabout Theatre in New York City in June 2006.[6][7]

He wrote a prequel to Urinetown with his theatrical partner Mark Hollmann titled “Yeast Nation (The Triumph of Life).” He is also working on a sequel to Urinetown called “Good Luck In Space” meant to close off the "Urinetown Trilogy.”

Personal life

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Kotis married his wife, writer and actor Ayun Halliday, in 1995. They have two children, India (born 1997) and Milo (born 2000). They reside in East Harlem.

References

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  1. ^ "Ayun Halliday and Greg Kotis", November 12, 1995, The New York Times
  2. ^ "Greg Kotis". The Neo-Futurist Theater. 2012-12-04. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  3. ^ Brady, Lois Smith (21 May 2006). "Ayun Halliday and Greg Kotis". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  4. ^ Brady, Lois Smith (21 May 2006). "Ayun Halliday and Greg Kotis". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  5. ^ Fisher, Philip."Greg Kotis Interview" Archived 2011-06-09 at the Wayback Machine, britishtheatreguide.info, date unknown, accessed February 3, 2010
  6. ^ Hernandez, Ernio.New Kotis Comedy Pig Farm Nabs Tony Winners and Marshall-Green to Star", playbill.com, December 20, 2005
  7. ^ Gross, Christofer."Theater Review: Greg Kotis' Pig Farm - South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California" Archived 2011-06-05 at the Wayback Machine, blogcritics.org, January 25, 2007
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