Ron Cowen
Ron Cowen wrote his first play, SUMMERTREE, when he was twenty-two years old and a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School of Communications. The play was given its initial... Read more
Ron Cowen wrote his first play, SUMMERTREE, when he was twenty-two years old and a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School of Communications. The play was given its initial performance during the 1967 Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Memorial Theatre Center in Waterford, Connecticut. It was subsequently produced at the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center, where it won the Drama Desk Award for Best Play of 1967-68 and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His other writings include adaptations of Willa Cather’s "Paul's Case" and Sherwood Anderson’s "I'm a Fool" for PBS’ American Short Story on Film series - for which he received a Peabody Award. Along with his partner, Daniel Lipman, he wrote and co-produced "An Early Frost," the first movie about AIDS, winning both an Emmy and a Peabody Award; created, executive-produced and wrote the Emmy Award-winning series "Sisters;" and created for American television the ground-breaking and controversial series "Queer as Folk," which they also wrote for and executive produced.