Mark Dunn Explained

Mark Dunn
Birth Date:	12 July 1956
Birth Place:	Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Occupation:	Author, playwright
Nationality:	American
Alma Mater:	Memphis State University University of Texas at Austin

Mark Dunn (born July 12, 1956, in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American author and playwright. He studied film at Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis) followed by post-graduate work in screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin moving to New York in 1987 where he worked in the New York Public Library while writing plays in his free time.

Among the 35 plays Dunn has written (as of 2023), Belles and Five Tellers Dancing in the Rain have been produced over one 150 times. Dunn served as playwright-in-residence with the New Jersey Repertory Company and the Community Theatre League in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.^[1]

Dunn is the author of the popular "progressively lipogrammatic" novel Ella Minnow Pea (2001).

In 1998, Dunn sued the writers, distributors and producers of The Truman Show, claiming that the story was based on a play he had written and performed Off-Broadway in 1992, Frank's Life.^{[2] [3]}

Personal life

Originally from Memphis, Dunn now resides with his wife, Mary, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Published full-length plays

• Belles (1989)^[4]
• Minus Some Buttons (1991)^[5]
• Sand Pies and Scissorlegs (1992)^[6]
• Five Tellers Dancing in the Rain (1994)^[7]
• Judge and Jury (1994)^[8]
• Frank's Life (1998)^[9]
• Cabin Fever: A Texas Tragicomedy (2000)^{[10] [11]}
• The Deer and the Antelope Play (2001)^[12]
• Helen's Most Favorite Day (2005)^[13]
• Dix Tableaux (2007)^[14]
• A Delightful Quarantine (2007)^[15]
• PIGmalion (2010)^[16]
• Seven Interviews (2014)^[17]
• LMNOP (2015)^[18]
• Belles: The Reunion (2016)^[19]
• Happily Ever After: A Wedding Comedy (2016)
• The Glitter Girls (2018)^[20]
• The Puzzle with the Piazza (2022)^[21]

Books

• Ella Minnow Pea (2001)^[22]
• Welcome to Higby (2002)^[23]
• (2004)^[24]
• Zounds! A Browser's Dictionary of Interjections (2005)
• The Calamitous Adventures of Rodney And Wayne (2009)
• Under the Harrow (2012)^[25]
• American Decameron (2012)
• We Five (2015)
• Pentaptych (2018)
• Quizzing America: Television Game Shows and Popular Culture in the 1950s (2018)
• Texas People's Court: The Fascinating World of the Texas Justice of the Peace (2022)

External links

• 2002 interview
• Random House interview
• Ella Minnow Pea interview

Notes and References

1. Web site: Mark Dunn Penguin Random House . 2023-04-29 . PenguinRandomhouse.com . en-US.
2. News: Writer Accuses The Producers Of 'Truman'. The New York Times . June 17, 1998. Rohde . David .
3. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/hollywood-stole-my-life-1201232.html Hollywood stole my life
4. Book: Dunn, Mark . Belles: A Play in Two Acts and Thirty-nine Phone Calls . 1989 . Samuel French, Inc. . 978-0-573-69141-6 . en.
5. Book: Dunn, Mark . Minus Some Buttons: A Play in Two Acts . 1991 . Samuel French, Inc. . 978-0-573-69278-9 . en.
6. Web site: Sand Pies and Scissorlegs . 2023-04-29 . Concord Theatricals . en.
7. Book: Dunn, Mark . Five Tellers Dancing in the Rain: A Play in Two Acts . 1994 . Samuel French, Inc. . 978-0-573-69443-1 . en.
8. Web site: Judge and Jury . 2023-04-29 . Concord Theatricals . en.
9. Book: Dunn, Mark . Frank's Life: A Play in Two Acts . 1998 . Dramatic Publishing . 978-0-87129-858-4 . en.
10. Web site: Cabin Fever: A Texas Tragicomedy . 2023-04-29 . Concord Theatricals . en.
11. Book: Dunn, Mark . Cabin Fever: A Texas Tragicomedy . 2000 . Samuel French, Inc. . 978-0-573-62746-0 . en.
12. Web site: Dramatists Play Service, Inc. . 2023-04-29 . www.dramatists.com.
13. Web site: Helen's Most Favorite Day . 2023-04-29 . Concord Theatricals . en.
14. Web site: Dix Tableaux . 2023-04-29 . Concord Theatricals . en.
15. Book: Dunn, Mark . A Delightful Quarantine: A Play about a Homebound Town . 2007 . Samuel French, Inc. . 978-0-573-65067-3 . en.
16. Web site: PIGmalion . 2023-04-29 . Concord Theatricals . en.
17. Web site: Seven Interviews . 2023-04-29 . Concord Theatricals . en.
18. Web site: LMNOP . 2023-04-29 . Concord Theatricals . en.
19. Web site: Perform Catalog Samuel French . 2023-04-29 . Concord Theatricals . en.
20. Web site: The Glitter Girls . 2023-04-29 . Concord Theatricals . en.
21. Web site: The Puzzle With The Piazza . 2023-04-29 . Concord Theatricals . en.
22. Book: Dunn, Mark . Ella Minnow Pea: A Progressively Lipogrammatic Epistolary Fable . 2001 . RB Large Print . 978-1-4025-6617-2 . en.
23. Web site: Lodge . Sally . MacAdam/Cage Introduces Its Inaugural Children's Series . 2023-04-29 . PublishersWeekly.com . en.
24. Book: Dunn, Mark . Ibid: A Life : a Novel in Footnotes . 2004 . MacAdam/Cage Pub. . 978-1-931561-65-5 . en.
25. Book: Dunn, Mark . Under the Harrow . 2012 . MacAdam/Cage Publishing, Incorporated . 978-1-59692-377-5 . en.