1974

"My most important moments go by, and I don't even know it until they are gone."

Peter Parnell directed the 12:30 Repertory Theater in Hanover in the summer of '73, and those were the showstopping lines. Now Peter is in the midst of his most important moments. An acclaimed playwright, Peter was recently awarded the highly sought John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship Award for 1986.

Peter has written several notable plays, including Scooter Thomas Makes It To TheTap af The World, The Sorrows of Stephen,The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket, and Romance Language.

Scootter Thomas Makes It To The Top ofThe World was presented by the National Playwright Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Memorial Center. This production marked Peter's professional playwright debut at the age of 23. The Sorrows of Stephen was his first full-length play and was originally produced by Joseph Papp at the New York Shakespeare Festival where it ran for six months from December 1979 to May 1980. Daniel Rocket was produced by Playwrights Horizon in 1982.

You may have seen Peter's play TheRise and Rise of Daniel Rocket, which was taped by PBS for the 1986 American Playhouse season and aired in early spring. Anyone who lives in L.A. or San Diego may have seen Peter's play Romance Language which ran at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego this past year.

Peter was playwright-in-residence in The Denver Center Theatre Company from 1983 to 1984 where his newest work "Hyde in Hollywood" was commissioned. He is currently getting it ready for a New York production.

Peter is single and currently lives in New York City but is at the moment on location in London and involved in filming a movie. In addition to the Guggenheim, Peter has been honored with receiving playwright commissions from the New York Theatre Workshop, The Denver Center Theatre Company, and the Nicholas Gagarin Fellowship from Playwrights Horizon in 1984. He also received a National Endowment for the Arts grant in play writing in 1984 and 1985.

Peter Parnell has made great achievements in his love of the arts. Dartmouth has been known for fostering careers in the theater, and Peter is a sterling example of Dartmouth's influence on the theatre and in the arts.

My memories of the rehearsal for 12:30 Rep in the summer of 1973 reveal a director who was a lighthearted, happy person who made it great fun to be part of his cast. I am proud to have been a part of his career, and our class is proud of his continuing accomplishments in drama. It is the arts, of course, that seem to make life good. We applaud him.

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