Terrence McNally

Playwright • Receiving "The Justice in the Arts Award" (Posthumously)

(This award is being accepted by McNally's husband, Tom Kirdahy.) Terrence McNally was an American playwright, librettist, and LGBTQ+ trailblazer, described by the New York Times as “the bard of the American Theater.” One of the few playwrights of his generation to successfully pass from the avant-garde to mainstream acclaim, McNally redefined American playwriting for six decades and was the recipient of five Tony Awards (LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION!; MASTER CLASS; KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN; RAGTIME, and the 2019 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement). He received the 2011 Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award (where he was Vice President from 1981 to 2001), the 2015 Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award, and a 1996 induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame. In 2018, McNally was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. McNally was an alumnus of Columbia University and received numerous honorary degrees, including from NYU and Juilliard, where he helped create the playwriting program in 1993. The Terrence McNally Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization created by McNally to support early-career playwrights and LGBTQ+ causes, continues the work McNally was dedicated to throughout his life. McNally proudly lived as an out gay man, even when the majority of his peers remained closeted. He was the Grand Marshal of the 2003 NYC Pride Parade and in 2019, to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Queerty named McNally one of the Pride50 “trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people.” He was a champion of gay marriage and a close friend and confidant of LGBTQ+ rights activist Edith Windsor throughout her quest to overturn the homophobic Defense of Marriage Act. McNally was proudly married to the Broadway producer and activist Tom Kirdahy.