Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire was born David Lindsay in South Boston in 1969. He grew up at the Southie home in which his mother had been born. He grew up in a working class family with his parents--both Southie natives--his mother working in an electronics factory and his father selling fruit. When he was 12, he earned a scholarship to the prestigious Milton Academy. From there he attended Sarah Lawrence, graduating in 1992, and then studied playwriting at Julliard under Marsha Norman and Christopher Durang.
His 1999 play Fuddy Meers, an absurd dark comedy in the style of Durang, put him on the critical map when it premiered at the Manhattan Theatre Club. Seven years later, his heartrending drama about a couple trying to cope with the death of a child, Rabbit Hole premiered at The Manhattan Theatre Club with Cynthia Nixon. This tragedy is more like the work of his other teacher, Marsha Norman, who once told him to write about what scares him most in the world. By the time he wrote Rabbit Hole, he and his wife, Christine Abaire, had a small son. He says that that fear of loss, paired with his desire to prove he could write a naturalistic play, inspired the piece that would earn him his the 2007 Pulitzer Prize and several Tony nominations. In 2010, the film adapation premiered with Nicole Kidman and Aaron Ekhart and earned Kidman an Oscar nomination.
Good People opened at the Manhattan Theatre Club 2011 with Frances McDormand as Margie. She went on to win the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for Best Actress for her performance.
Recently, Lindsay-Abaire replaced Christopher Durang as Co-Chair of Playwriting at Julliard. He lives in Brooklyn with his family.
Some of Lindsay-Abaire's other works include: A Devil Inside, Kimberly Akimbo, Shrek: The Musical, the book for the musical version of High Fidelity, and Wonders of the World.
His 1999 play Fuddy Meers, an absurd dark comedy in the style of Durang, put him on the critical map when it premiered at the Manhattan Theatre Club. Seven years later, his heartrending drama about a couple trying to cope with the death of a child, Rabbit Hole premiered at The Manhattan Theatre Club with Cynthia Nixon. This tragedy is more like the work of his other teacher, Marsha Norman, who once told him to write about what scares him most in the world. By the time he wrote Rabbit Hole, he and his wife, Christine Abaire, had a small son. He says that that fear of loss, paired with his desire to prove he could write a naturalistic play, inspired the piece that would earn him his the 2007 Pulitzer Prize and several Tony nominations. In 2010, the film adapation premiered with Nicole Kidman and Aaron Ekhart and earned Kidman an Oscar nomination.
Good People opened at the Manhattan Theatre Club 2011 with Frances McDormand as Margie. She went on to win the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for Best Actress for her performance.
Recently, Lindsay-Abaire replaced Christopher Durang as Co-Chair of Playwriting at Julliard. He lives in Brooklyn with his family.
Some of Lindsay-Abaire's other works include: A Devil Inside, Kimberly Akimbo, Shrek: The Musical, the book for the musical version of High Fidelity, and Wonders of the World.