Emerging playwrights get a boost in Terrence McNally’s honor

By MARK KENNEDY
AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — If it was show time at any of the city’s myriad off-Broadway theaters, audience members could likely expect to see a theatrical giant in their midst — playwright Terrence McNally. He had a five-night-a-week habit of stopping into small theaters far from the bright lights of Broadway to support emerging playwrights, recalled his husband, producer Tom Kirdahy. In McNally’s honor, Kirdahy on Thursday unveiled the creation of the Terrence McNally Foundation, a nonprofit which hopes to support “bold new voices in the American theater by providing financial and institutional support to emerging playwrights.” The announcement comes on what would have been McNally’s 84th birthday.