# RIP A.R. "Pete" Gurney **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 16, 2017, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-a-r-pete-gurney/789075 "2017-06-16T00:30:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2017, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-a-r-pete-gurney/789075/1 "2017-06-16T00:30:09Z")
There’s mention of it in the Celebrity Death Pool thread ( [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=812514&page=27&highlight=Gurney](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=812514&page=27&highlight=Gurney) ), but it’s pretty minor. Gurney deserves a bit more. > **[A.R. Gurney, Playwright Who Explored Upper-Crust Anxieties, Dies at 86...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/theater/playwright-a-r-gurney-dead.html)** > > Mr. Gurney, whose plays included “The Cocktail Hour,” “Love Letters” and “The Middle Ages,” leavened his astute social analysis with tart humor. Unless you were into the New York theater scene, probably the only play of his you know is **Love Letters** , because it was so very widely produced, and with so many actors, famous and not. It required no costumes, scenery, or blocking, or even memorization, when you come down to it – just a male and female actor, sitting at a table, looking at the audience, reading from letters they wrote to each other over the years. Its ease of production probably contributed to its success, but quite a few “name” actors performed in it. I knew him because he was one of my professors, during his brief stint at teaching. He put on a play that I wrote (not for his class), and several of us produced his plays, or went to see them off-Broadway. He specialized, as articles about him said (and now his obituaries observe) in chronicling the lives of a tribe I’m not really familiar with – the Upper-Class American WASP. In _The Dining Room_ and _The Cocktail Hour_ and his many other plays, they’re front and center. His obituary answered a question I’ve had for years, and which he refused to answer – Why, with a name like _Albert Ramsdell Gurney_ did he have the nickname “Pete”? I thought it must have some deep and significant origin, but it turns out to be that his mother liked the sound of it. His later plays had more success, and he graduated from Off-off Broadway and Off-Broadway to Broadway itself with _Love Letters_ and _Sylvia_. The latter had Sarah Jessica Parker in it during its original run, and Matthew Broderick on its revival. Weird that this comes less than a week after my class reunion. I’d been hearing about him for years, but I hadn’t contacted him in quite a long time. I should’ve sent him a copy of the publication I finally got out of that play I wrote. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2017, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-a-r-pete-gurney/789075/2 "2017-06-16T03:08:02Z")
Oh that’s a shame! I’ve seen four of his plays, three at Signature Center ( **Love & Money** , **The Wayside Motor Inn** , and **What I Did Last Summer** ) as well as **Love Letters** when it was on Broadway in 2014. I really enjoyed\*\* The Wayside Motor Inn\*\*, it was three separate stories in three different timelines happening simultaneously in the same room, which I found fascinating to watch. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2017, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-a-r-pete-gurney/789075/3 "2017-06-16T04:35:22Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > …to Broadway itself with _Love Letters_ and _Sylvia_. The latter had Sarah Jessica Parker in it during its original run, and Matthew Broderick on its revival. I actually met him (and Julie White) because my dog was being considered for a “part” in that revival of _Sylvia_. At the end of the play–not a spoiler–they showed a picture of a real dog on a big screen, and his likeness was also carved into the set, so they were looking for a model dog. Not sure why my dog made it that far, since he’s brown and looks nothing like Annaleigh Ashford, haha, but hey, I got to meet those two charming people. RIP Mr. Gurney.