{{Short description|American playwright and actor (1956–2024)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}} '''Keith Curran''' (February 29, 1956 – September 18, 2024) was an American playwright and actor.<ref name="CCTimes">{{cite news |title=Keith Curran |url=https://www.capecodtimes.com/obituaries/pneo0957846 |access-date=October 6, 2024 |newspaper=Cape Cod Times |date=October 2, 2024}}</ref>

==Life and career== Curran grew up in Boston.<ref name="NYM1989">{{cite book|last=Kelli Pryor|title=''New York Magazine'' Growing Pains|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xecCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA30|access-date=July 20, 2015|date=February 20, 1989|publisher=New York Media, LLC|pages=30–}}</ref> He had nightmares as a child and used that experience, as well as his desire to have a child, as a basis for his 1989 stage play ''Dalton's Back''.<ref name="NYM1989"/> The play juxtaposes scenes about a boy's relationship with his mother with scenes of the boy as an adult who thinks he wants to have a child.<ref name="NYM1989"/> ''The New York Times'' said that while Curran's approach is earnest, it is not "particularly revelatory or theatrical to draw straight lines between related events from childhood and adulthood".<ref name="NYTreview">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/10/theater/review-theater-sloughing-off-scars-of-a-bad-childhood.html|title=Review/Theater; Sloughing Off Scars Of a Bad Childhood|last=FRANK RICH|date=February 10, 1989|work=The New York Times|access-date=July 20, 2015}}</ref> Critic John Simon called the play boring.<ref name="NYM1991">{{cite book|last=John Simon|title=''New York Magazine'' Theater Review: Walking the Dead|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VekCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA72|access-date=July 20, 2015|date=May 27, 1991|publisher=New York Media, LLC|pages=72–}}</ref> ''Dalton's Back'' ran from February 9 to March 5, 1989, at the Circle Rep.<ref name="GuernseySweet1989">{{cite book|last1=Guernsey|first1=Otis L.|last2=Sweet|first2=Jeffrey|title=The Best Plays of 1988-1989|url=https://archive.org/details/theateryearbook100hall_0|url-access=registration|access-date=July 20, 2015|year=1989|publisher=Applause|isbn=9781557830579}}</ref>

Curran's next play, ''Walking the Dead'', follows a lesbian who has a sex change to become a man and is murdered by homophobes.<ref name="NYM1991"/> Simon commented that the purpose of the play, also performed by the Circle Rep, was to "irritate the hell" out of the audience, and that it spewed bile equally at heterosexuals and bisexuals.<ref name="NYM1991"/> Two selections from ''Walking the Dead'' were included in ''The Best Men's Stage Monologues of 1991''.<ref name="Beard1991">{{cite book|last=Beard|first=Jocelyn|title=The Best Men's Stage Monologues of ...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KtANAQAAMAAJ|access-date=July 20, 2015|year=1991|publisher=Smith and Kraus, Inc.|isbn=9781880399026}}</ref>

His play ''The Stand In'' was included in ''The Actor's Book of Gay and Lesbian Plays''.<ref name="LaneShengold1995">{{cite book|last1=Lane|first1=Eric|last2=Shengold|first2=Nina|title=The actor's book of gay and lesbian plays|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FxtaAAAAMAAJ|access-date=July 20, 2015|date=November 21, 1995|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=9780140245523}}</ref> ''Variety'' said the play "epitomizes the best in small theater: A sharp, funny script ... [which] skewers nearly anything that moves, including filmmakers, publicists, talkshows, award shows, religions, gay activists, journalists and musician Yanni".<ref name="variety">{{cite news|url=https://variety.com/1995/legit/reviews/the-stand-in-1200441064/|title=The Stand-in|date=March 13, 1995|work=Variety|access-date=July 20, 2015}}</ref>

Curran's on-stage work included the musicals ''Just So'' (as the Giraffe) and ''Mayor''. While Simon panned the production of ''Just So'', calling it insipid, he singled out Curran and Teresa Burrell stating that their performances were "flavorous" and overcame the poor material.<ref name="NYM just so">{{cite book|last=John Scott|first=New York Media|title=''New York Magazine'' Review: Just So|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8skBAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA101|access-date=July 20, 2015|date=December 16, 1985|publisher=New York Media, LLC|pages=101–}}</ref>

Curren was gay.<ref>"States of Schlock". ''New York'', May 27, 1991.</ref> He died on September 18, 2024, at the age of 68.<ref name="CCTimes"/>

==References== {{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Curran, Keith}} Category:1956 births Category:2024 deaths Category:American dramatists and playwrights Category:American gay actors Category:American gay writers Category:American LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights Category:American male dramatists and playwrights Category:American male stage actors Category:LGBTQ people from Massachusetts Category:Writers from Boston