Playwright David Mamet: Glengarry Glenn Ross, Oleanna, American Buffalo, etc

Oleanna by David Mamet
Originally uploaded by Lakeside Arts Centre

Best known as a playwright, Mamet has won a Pulitzer Prize and Tony nominations for Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988).

As a screenwriter, he received Oscar nominations for The Verdict (1982) and Wag the Dog (1997).

Speed-the-Plow (1988) is a satirical dissection of the American movie business, a theme Mamet would revisit in his later films Wag the Dog (1997) and State and Main (2000).

Oleanna is a two-character play about the power struggle between a university professor and one of his female students, who accuses him of sexual exploitation and, by doing so, spoils his chances of being accorded tenure.

The award-winning play American Buffalo concerns a team of men who are conspiring to steal a coin collection from a wealthy man. Don, who owns a junk shop, sold a nickel to a man for much less than what it was worth. Out of revenge, he and his young gofer, Bob, plan to steal the man's coin collection after suspecting that he went away for the weekend.