Terrence McNally was born on November 3, 1939, in St. Petersburg, Florida, though he grew up farther west in Corpus Christi, Texas. It was in this setting that McNally was introduced to his life's work: the professional theatre. As a boy, he attended a private school where one of his teachers, an Ursuline nun, brought opera records to play to her class. Twice in McNally's youth, his parents, a wholesale-beverage distributor and a bookkeeper, took him to New York to see stars such as Ethel Merman in Annie Get Your Gun. Perhaps most important to McNally was one of his high school English teachers who, McNally told an interviewer for Biography magazine, "was truly blessed with that gift of inspiration and of helping young people to realize their potential."

It was this teacher who helped convince McNally to set his sights on an education outside of Texas. He...