John Guare received the Award of Merit from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for his plays THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES, RICH AND FAMOUS, MARCO POLO SINGS A SOLO, LANDSCAPE OF THE BODY, and BOSOMS AND NEGLECT. THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES, which won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award as Best American Play of 1971, received four Tony awards in its triumphant revival in 1986 at Lincoln Center. He wrote the lyrics and won a Tony for his book of TWO GENTLEMAN OF VERONA, produced by the New York Shakespeare Festival, which also won the Tony for Best Musical of 1972. He collaborated with Milos Forman on the screenplay of the Czech director's first American film, "Taking Off," which won the jury prize at the Cannes festival in 1971. His screenplay for Louis Malle's "Atlantic City" won the New York, Los Angeles, and National Film Critics Circle Award as well as an Oscar nomination. His series of plays on nineteenth century America, WOMEN AND WATER, GARDENIA, and LYDIE BREEZE, have been performed in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., London, and Australia. Yale Repertory produced MOON OVER MIAMI in their 1988 – 1989 season. SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION won the 1990 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, the Hull Warriner Award, and the Obie Award, and is published by Vintage/Random House. In London, SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION opened at the Royal Court Theatre and transferred to the West End and was nominated for two Olivier Awards. SIX DEGREES has been produced in Australia, South Africa, Istanbul, Japan, Germany, Sweden, and Israel. The film version of the play, directed by Fred Schepisi, was released in December 1993. Mr. Guare's play FOUR BABOONS ADORING THE SUN, directed by Sir Peter Hall and produced by Lincoln Center at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in 1992, was nominated for four Tony Awards, including Best Play, and is published by Random House/Vintage. Mr. Guare is a council member of the Dramatists Guild, the organization representing more than seven thousand playwrights, lyricists, and composers in America and Great Britain. He is co-editor of The Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts. In 1989, the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters elected him a member.

Widely considered one of the world's greatest writers, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born on January 29, 1860, in Taganrog, Russia. In 1879 he entered the University of Moscow to study medicine and graduated in 1884. He kept a strict writing schedule and continued to practice medicine for the rest of his life. In addition to his numerous short stories, many considered masterpieces of the form, Chekhov wrote over a dozen plays, among them the classics of Western dramatic literature UNCLE VANYA, THE CHERRY ORCHARD, THE THREE SISTERS, and THE SEAGULL.