About the Playwright
Dramaturgy by Rachel Lane

Playwright Scott McPherson was born in 1958 and raised in Columbus, Ohio. Writer and friend, Mark Schoofs tells us that during his adult years, McPherson never made more than $10,000.00 a year. In Chicago, McPherson wrote for television, including the local "Bozo the Clown" show. He also worked at the Chicago Historical Society. Marvin's Room, recipient of numerous awards, including the 1991 Dramatists Guild Award, and the 1991-2 Drama Desk award for best play, was McPherson first hit play.

Marvin's Room draws from McPherson's experiences growing up with a widowed mother who was a caregiver for his sibling and a grandmother suffering from cancer. Speaking of his mother, McPherson wrote, "My mother was to be grandmother's chief caregiver, raise three children, keep house, and work part time as a sales clerk at Lazarus department store. My mother studied dance in college and married a race car driver against her parents wishes, threw herself at her responsibilities with a terrifying determination." By 1990, McPherson discovered that he was dying of AIDS. Following the success of Marvin's Room, Mc Pherson wrote, "By most, we are thought of as 'dying.' But as dying becomes a way of life, the meaning of the word blurs."