A writer of highly experimental, nightmarish fiction since 1949, John Hawkes turned to playwriting in 1964. Awarded a Ford Foundation fellowship for work in drama, Hawkes became the writer-in-residence at The Actor's Workshop in San Francisco under the direction of Jules Irving and Herbert Blau. During his sojourn in 1964-1965 with The Actor's Workshop, he wrote his first plays, The Innocent Party (1968) and The Wax Museum (1966). Two more followed, The Undertaker (1967) and The Questions (1966). Published in a collection entitled The Innocent Party (1967), the four plays established Hawkes as a significant avant-garde dramatist.

Born in Stamford, Connecticut, on 17 August 1925, Hawkes grew up in New England but spent six years (1935-1940) of his childhood in frontier Alaska. Toward the end of World War II after a disappointing semester at Harvard, he drove an American Field Service ambulance in Italy and Germany. Following his return to the United States, Hawkes married Sophie Goode...