Interview with Alfred Uhry by Jack Gilpin, Live + In-Person!
Friday, July 7 at 7:30 pm
We are thrilled to host a live, in-person interview with Academy Award winning screenwriter Alfred Uhry by actor Jack Gilpin on Friday, July 7 at 7:30 pm before the screening of Uhry’s 1989 Oscar-winning film, “Driving Miss Daisy.”
Uhry is distinguished as the only American playwright to have won a Pulitzer Prize, an Academy Award and two Tony Awards. A 1958 graduate of Brown University, he began his professional career as a lyric writer under contract to the late Frank Loesser. His first play, “Driving Miss Daisy” ran for three years and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. The film version, starring Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy, won the Academy Award as best film of 1989 and earned Uhry an Oscar for best screenplay.
“Driving Miss Daisy” is a fictional film chronicling the evolution of the relationship between an elderly Jewish woman (Tandy) and her African-American chauffeur (Freeman) in Atlanta beginning in 1948 and spanning the course of 25 years. Uhry himself was born and raised in Atlanta and drew on his own experiences of being Jewish in the American South in the mid-twentieth century when writing the screenplay for this film.
Gilpin is an accomplished stage and screen actor with numerous appearances on film, television and stage productions. He has been in over 30 movies and currently plays Church the Butler in HBO's historical drama series “The Gilded Age.” He also held a recurring role as defense attorney Jeff Axtell on “Law & Order” from 1995 to 2001.
Uhry and Gilpin are longtime friends from the theater community, and both now reside in Litchfield County. “I’m really looking forward to this event!” says Giplin of his upcoming interview with Uhry.
At the 2023 Tony Awards ceremony, Uhry also won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical for “Parade.”
The film screening will follow the interview. BYO blankets, chairs, food and beverages. Leashed pets only.
These events are free and open to the public and will take place at the park rain or shine. In case of inclement weather, the interview and screening will take place inside the park building.