Paul Roose-Evans Foster (October 15, 1931 – March 5, 2021)[1] was an American playwright, theater director, and producer.[2] He was a founding member and the first president of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club.[3][4]Queer Places:
Rutgers University, 77 Hamilton St, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
New York University, 70 Washington Square S, New York, NY 10012
74a E 4th St, New York, NY 10003
Paul Roose-Evans Foster (October 15, 1931 – March 5, 2021)[1] was an American playwright, theater director, and producer.[2] He was a founding member and the first president of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club.[3][4]
Paul Roose-Evans Foster was born in Penns Grove, New Jersey, the son of Elderidge M. Foster and Mary Manning. Foster studied journalism at Rutgers University then moved to Manhattan at the age of 21 to study law at New York University School of Law. After serving in the Navy for two years, Foster developed an interest in theatre. While living in New York, he met Ellen Stewart, a fashion designer planning to open her own boutique. In 1962, Foster agreed to help Stewart with her boutique in exchange for using the basement space as a theater in the evenings. "...Stewart's enthusiasm for the theater project quickly eclipsed her own initial idea for the boutique", and La MaMa was born.[5] The theater moved around Manhattan's East Village multiple times before settling into its current space at 74A East Fourth Street in 1969.
Foster wrote eighteen plays, including Elizabeth I and Satyricon (1972), as well as the libretto and lyrics for the musical Silver Queen Saloon (1978). Fourteen books of his plays were published. Foster won numerous awards, including Rockefeller and Guggenheim Fellowships, National Endowment for the Arts, and a British Arts Council Award.
My published books:
