John Belluso
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Belluso (13 November 1969 – 10 February 2006) was an American playwright best known for his works focussing on the lives of disabled people. He also directed a writing program for disabled people.
Belluso was born in Warwick, Rhode Island. He was in a wheelchair at the age of 13 due to a bone disease called Engleman-Camurdrie syndrome. He completed a bachelor's and master's degree at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Dramatic Writing program.
In 2001, he wrote The Body of Bourne, based on the life of Randolph Bourne, a World War I pacifist and author. It was produced in Los Angeles by the Mark Taper Forum. He also directed the Forum's Other Voices program for writers with a disability.
He followed that play in 2002 with Pyretown, which criticises America's managed care health system through a romance between a divorced mother and a young man in a wheelchair.
His other works include:
- Gretty Good Time, about a 32-year-old disabled woman living in a nursing home;
- Travelling Skin, about a waitress with cerebral palsy; and
- Henry Flamethrowa, about a comatose woman who is believed to cause miracles.
He died in February 2006 in New York City, where he was writing a play for New York's Public Theater about a disabled veteran returning from Iraq.
Series 1, episode 17, of Ghost Whisperer is dedicated to his memory.
[edit] References
- Associated Press Ohmynews "Disabled LA Playwright and Activist John Belluso dies" 15 February 2006
- New dramatists John Belluso
