Arthur Laurents chronology.

1917 - Born on July 14th in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Irving Laurents and Ada (Robbins) Laurents.

1933 - Graduates from Erasmus Hall High School.

1993-37 - Attends Cornell University. Graduates with a major in English.

1937 - Takes a radio writing class with Bill Robson, a CBS director-producer, who persuades CBS to buy Laurents's play Now Playing Tomorrow for a Sunday night series. It is also published in Short Plays for Stage and Radio.

1939 - Develops a nightclub act with five others, "the Nitewits", for which Laurents writes and performs sketches. The group performs at various clubs, including Leon and Eddie's later to serve as a model for the setting of The Bird Cage.

1939-40 - Writes for a variety of radio series, including Hollywood Playhouse, Dr. Christian, The Thin Man, and Manhattan at Midnight.

1940-45 - Enlists in U.S. Army. Initially assigned to a photographic unit at Fort Benning, Georgia, he eventually is reassigned to work on military training films. First Army training film, Resistance and Ohm's Law. Writes for a variety of series, including The Man Behind the Gun, Army Service Forces Present, and Assignment Home. Three scripts -- Western Electric Communicade, The Face, and The Last Day of the War -- were published and Assignment Home won a Variety Radio Award as one of the outstanding shows of 1945. Also writes The Knife, a play about racism which receives a citation from the Secretary of War. Also asked to write the first program for This is Your FBI. Leaves Army with rank of Sergeant.

1945 - Home of the Brave opens at the Belasco Theatre on December 27th, directed by Michael Gordon and starring Joseph Pevney and Alan Baxter. Receives a grant from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a share in the Sidney Howard Memorial Award for new playwrights.

1946 - Home of the Brave published by Random House. Laurents closes his second play, Heartsong, after a three city pre-Broadway tryout.

1948 - Home of the Brave opens in London as The Way Back Laurents goes to Hollywood to write The Snake Pit for Anatole Lirvak; his contribution is substantial but uncredited. Adapts Rope for Alfred Hitchcock.

1949 - Film version of Home of the Brave, produced by Stanley Kramer and directed by Mark Robson. Writes script for Caught (Max Ophuls) and co-authors Anna Lucasta (Irving Rapper).

1950 - The Bird Cage opens at the Coronet Theatre on February 22, directed by Harold Clurman and starring Melvyn Douglas, Sanford Meisner, and Maureen Stapleton. Published by Dramatists Play Service. Laurents is blacklisted and goes to Europe. Works on an unrealized film for Sam Spiegel that is to star Marlon Brando and Ingrid Bergman.

1952 - Returns to New York. The Time of the Cuckoo opens at the Empire Theatre on October 15th, directed by Harold Clurman and starring Shirley Booth, who wins a Tony Award for her performance.

1953 - The Time of the Cuckoo published by Random House. and in the November issue Theatre Arts.

1955 - Summertime, the film version of The Time of the Cuckoo, directed by David Lean and starring Katharine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi. Laurents contributes (uncredited) to the script.

1956 - Writes the script for Anastasia (Anatole Litvak).

1957 - A Clearing in the Woods opens at the Belasco Theatre on January 10th, directed by Joseph Anthony and starring Kim Stanley, published by Random House. Uncredited contribution to the script of The Seventh Sin (Ronald Neame). West Side Story opens at the Winter Garden Theater on September 26th, with a book by Laurents, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, music by Leonard Bernstein, and directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins. It stars Carol Lawrence and Larry Kert and Chita Rivera.

1958 - Writes the script for Bon]our Tristesse (Otto Preminger). West Side Story published by Random House (and in England by Heineman in 1959.) The Time of the Cuckoo revived at the Sheridan Square Playhouse with Kathleen Maguire.

1959 - Gypsy opens at the Broadway Theatre on May 21st, with a book by Laurents, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, music by Jule Styne, and directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins. It stars Ethel Merman. A Clearing in the Woods revived at the Sheridan Square Playhouse with Nancy Wickwire. The script of West Side Story published in the October issue of Theatre Arts.

1960 - Invitation to a March opens at the Music Box Theatre on October 29th, directed by Laurents and starring Celeste Holm, Eileen Heckert, and Jane Fonda. Gypsy published by Random House. West Side Story returns to the Winter Garden Theatre with Carol Lawrence, Larry Kert, and Chita Rivera.

1961 - Invitation to a March published by Random House. Film of West Side Story, directed by Robert Wise. A Clearing in the Woods presented on television on The Play of the Week, starring Celeste Holm.

1962 - Directs the musical, I Can Get it for You Wholesale by Jerome Weidman, which features Barbra Streisand in her Broadway debut. Film of Gypsy, directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Script of Invitation to a March published in Theatre Arts in January.

1964 - Anyone Can Whistle opens at the Majestic Theatre on April 4th, with a book by Laurents, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and directed by Laurents. It stars Angela Lansbury, Lee Remick, and Harry Guardino.

1965 - Do I Hear a Waltz? opens at the Forty-sixth Street Theatre, with a book by Laurents, based on The Time of the Cuckoo, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, music by Richard Rodgers, and directed by John Dexter. It stars Elizabeth Allen and Sergio Franchi. Anyone Can Whistle published by Random House.

1966 - Do 1 Hear a Waltz? published by Random House.

1967 - Hallelujah, Baby! opens at the Martin Beck Theatre on April 26th, with a book by Laurents, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, music by Jule Styne, and directed by Burt Shevelove, starring Leslie Uggams and Robert Hooks. Laurents's book awarded the Tony, as was Leslie Uggams's performance. Hallelujah, Baby! published by Random House. Writes the TV special The Light Fantastic or How to Tell the Past, Present, and Future through the History of Social Dancing for ABC's Stage 67, starring Lauren Bacall.

1968 - Lincoln Center presents a new production of West Side Story at the New York State Theater.

1972 - The Way We Were, Laurents's first novel, published by Harper & Row (and in England by W.H. Allen in 1973).

1973 - The Enclave opens at Theatre Four in New York City after previewing in Washington D.C. Laurents directs. Revival of Gypsy in London with Angela Lansbury, which Laurents directs. Lansbury wins Plays and Player's Drama Critics Award as Best Actress. The Way We Were, with an original screenplay by Laurents, directed by Sydney Pollack, and starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford.

1974 - Gypsy, with Angela Lansbury and directed by Laurents, opens in New York. Lansbury wins a Tony for her performance. The Enclave published by Dramatists Play Service.

1976 - Collectors edition of Anyone Can Whistle published by Leon Amiel Publishers.

1977 - The Turning Point, Laurents's second original screenplay opens, starring Anne Bancroft and Shirley MacLame, directed by Herbert Ross and co-produced by Laurents. Laurents's script wins the Writer Guild Award for "Best Written Drama--Written Directly for the Screen" as well as a Golden Globe Award and is nominated for an Academy Award. The novel is published by Signet (and in London by Corgi).

1978 - Scream opens at the Alley Theatre in Houston, directed by Laurents, starring Viveca Lindfors and Albert Paulson. Laurents directs and collaborates with Phyllis Newman on My Mother Was a Fortune Teller, a one woman show, starring Newman at the Hudson Guild Theatre.

1979 - The Madwoman of Central Park (new title of My Mother Was a Whore) at the 22 Steps Theatre in New York City.

1980 - Broadway revival of West Side Story, directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins and starring Debbie Allen and Ken Marshall.

1982 - Directs So What are We Going to do Now? by Juliet Garson for the Young Dramatists Festival.

1983 - Directs the musical La Cage Aux Folles, with a book by Harvey Fierstein and a score by Jerry Herman. Wins the Tony as Best Director. "A Loss of Memory" published in The Best Short Plays 1983.

1987 - Directs Birds of Paradise by David Evans and Winnie Holtzman, which opens off-Broadway at the Promenade Theatre.

1989 - Directs a revival of Gypsy with Tyne Daly, who wins a Tony for her performance.

1991 - Nick and Nora opens at the Marquis Theater on December 8th with a book by Laurents, music by Charles Strause, lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr. Laurents also directs. It stars Barry Bostwick, Joanna Gleason, and Christine Baranski.

1993 - TV production of Gypsy, starring Bette Midler.

1995 - The Radical Mystique opens at the Manhattan Theatre Club on May 18th. Laurents directs. Jolson Sings Again premieres at the Seattle Repertory Workshop, directed by Daniel Sullivan.

1996 - My Good Name presented at the Seattle Repertory Theatre. The Radical Mystique published by Samuel French.

1997 - My Good Name premieres on the East Coast at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, Long Island.

1998 - Directs London revival of West Side Story.

1999 - Jolson Sings Again has its East Coast premiere at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in March, directed by David Saint.

2000 - The Jewish Repertory Theatre presents the East Coast premiere of Big Potato (formerly Scream) on November 1st. Laurents disassociates himself from the production. The Jewish Repertory Theatre also revives Home of the Brave. Revises Do I Hear a Waltz? The Time of the Cuckoo revived at Lincoln Center, directed by Nicolas Martin and starring Debra Monk. Original Story By A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood by Laurents is published by Knopf.

2001 - Claudia Lazlo premieres at the George Street Playhouse, directed by David Saint and starring Cigdem Onat. Laurents adapts and directs Jorge Accame's Venecia at George Street in February.

2002 - Writes Attacks on the Heart, a play about 9/11 and The Closing Bell, a play about the ravages of alcoholism. The fiftieth anniversary of The Time of the Cuckoo is celebrated at the Library of Performing Arts at Lincoln Center with a three day event featuring a talk by Laurents and a reading of the play.

2003 - After previewing in Boston, 2 Lives premieres at Lincoln Center, directed by Nicolas Martin. Premiere of one-act play, "The Vibrator" at the George Street Playhouse in January. Revival of Gypsy, starring Bernadette Peters, directed by Sam Mendes.

GABRIEL MILLER is Professor of English at Rutgers University in Newark, NJ. His book The Films of The Martin Ritt: Fanfare for the Common Man was published in 2000. His conversations with Martin Ritt was published in January of 2002.