Biography of a Playwright

Kyonna Mcfarlane THEA 1090:600 Prof. Salvatore October 13th, 2018 Playwright, Martin McDonagh, was born Martin Faranan McDonagh on March 26th, 1970, in Camberwell, United Kingdom. McDonagh is the second of two children; his older brother being John Michael McDonagh. McDonagh’s mother was a housekeeper and his father was a construction worker; they were both originally from Ireland before they moved to London to find jobs. McDonagh’s parents sent him and his brother to Roman Catholic schools. Once both turned 16, they both went off to school; his brother wanted to become a writer, and McDonagh not exactly sure what he wanted to do. McDonagh later moved out from his parents and after many jobs, he began to focus his time on writing short stories. He started off by sending the short stories to film companies; desiring that one of them would turn a story of his into a film. After not exactly being successful with the films, a couple of the companies turned the stories into radio plays. McDonagh then began to start turning his short stories into plays. After finishing his first play, he started to send them into theater companies. The first company to contact him, after many rejections, was Druid Theater, a theater company in Galway, Ireland. After the play premiered in 1996, it began to boost McDonaghs career as a playwright. The play was moved to broadway and McDonagh started to get nominated for awards. By fall of 1996, McDonagh won an award as, “Most Promising Playwright”. After writing a series of trilogies, and turning them into plays, McDonagh was one of the first playwright to have four plays running at the same time since William Shakespeare. After being on and off of writing plays. McDonagh decided in 2005 that he would stop writing plays, and switch over to making films. McDonagh currently has produced four films since 2005. His latest film is, “Three Billboards Outside of Missouri”, which aired in 2017. The film has been nominated and has also won many awards including: Golden Globe Best Picture, BAFTA for Best Film, and Best Screenplay Award. It is currently not said as to what McDonagh is working on for 2019 but I can imagine that he is preparing another great film to come. Works Cited “Martin McDonagh Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2007. “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri: Nominations and Awards.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles.