Christopher Durang has run the Juilliard playwrights program since its inception, in 1994, with Marsha Norman. A New Jersey native, he attended Harvard College and the Yale School of Drama, where he studied English and playwriting, respectively. He has also taught at Yale and Princeton, but most of his energy goes toward his award-winning playwriting career.

His plays include Why Torture Is Wrong And The People Who Love Them, Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike, A History of the American Film (Tony nomination), Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, Baby with the Bathwater,  Laughing Wild, Betty’s Summer Vacation, Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge, Miss Witherspoon, and a musical, Adrift in Macao, with book and lyrics by Durang and music by Peter Melnick.