Spalding Gray's (1941-2004) career in the theatre spanned one of the
most dynamic periods of American history and culture. From the 1960s and
into the 21st century, Gray took the stage and mesmerized his audiences
with twisted and often hilarious tales about life in America and abroad.
Spalding Gray's America traces Gray's life from his work with the famous
Performance and Wooster Groups to his career as a storyteller famously
presenting captivating monologues in his signature plaid shirt while
sitting behind a desk on an otherwise bare stage. His monologues include
Sex and Death to the Age 14, Swimming to Cambodia, Gray's Anatomy,
Monster in a Box, It's a Slippery Slope, and Morning, Noon and Night.
Successful as these monologues were on the stage, many of them have also
been converted to feature films, including Swimming to Cambodia,
directed by Jonathan Demme, and Gray's Anatomy, directed by Steven
Soderbergh. Gray's stories provide a quirky, full-color portrait of
America in the last half of what has been famously labeled "the American
century." They are poignant, touching, and often troubling, but they're
also vividly insightful and invariably funny. Spalding Gray's America
captures the essence of Spalding Gray's theatre and storytelling. And it
reveals Gray's deep but conflicted passion for the homeland that gave
him the opportunity to be a true American original.
