Bio: Playwright Charles Ludlam
CHARLES LUDLAM (1943-1987) was a multi-talented, off-the-wall and out-of-the-closet actor, playwright, director, and producer whose Ridiculous Theatrical Company broke boundaries and helped define the avant-garde Off-Off-Broadway movement. He was born in New York and educated at Hofstra University. He first acted professionally in New York in 1967, and later that year he founded his own troupe and was busy for the next twenty years, the company going from obscurity to campy cult interest to citywide admiration. Ludlam and his longtime companion Everett Quinton usually played the leading roles (male or female) in his outrageous spoofs, although as time went by he employed less camp and more of a highly theatrical style. His Marguerite Gautier in Camille (1974) was perhaps the role most identified with Ludlam, and his play The Mystery of Irma Vep (1984) is his most revived in theatres across the country.
