MAMET, DAVID

born Nov. 30, 1947, Chicago, Ill., U.S. in full David Alan Mamet American playwright, director, and screenwriter noted for his often desperate working-class characters and for his distinctive and colloquial dialogue that is frequently profane. Mamet's use of the rhythms and rhetoric of everyday speech to delineate character and to describe intricate relationships is also the chief motor of dramatic development. Mamet began writing plays while attending Goddard College, Plainfield, Vermont (B.A. 1969). Returning to Chicago, where most of his plays were first staged, he worked at various factory jobs, at a real-estate agency, and as a taxi driver; all these experiences provided background for his plays. In 1973 he cofounded a theatre company in Chicago. He also taught drama at several American colleges and universities. Mamet's plays include Duck Variations (produced 1972), in which two old Jewish men sit on a park bench and trade misinformation on many subjects. In Sexual Perversity in Chicago (produced 1974; filmed as About Last Night . . . ), a couple's budding sexual and emotional relationship is destroyed by their friends' interference. American Buffalo (1976; filmed 1996) concerns dishonest business practices; A Life in the Theatre (1977) explores the teacher-student relationship; and Speed-the-Plow (1987) concerns scriptwriters. Glengarry Glen Ross (1983; filmed 1992) won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for drama. Mamet wrote fiction, plays for children, and screenplays for a number of motion pictures, including The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), The Verdict (1982), Rising Sun (1993), and Wag the Dog (1998), all adaptations of novels. He both wrote and directed the motion pictures House of Games (1987), Homicide (1991), Oleanna (1994), and The Spanish Prisoner (1998).