ABSTRACT

Wolfe initially entered Pomona College in California as an actor and

designer but soon focused on directing and writing. (“So, by the time I left college I had sort of done all the disciplines.”) Following college he worked in Los Angeles and then New York teaching and holding various

theatre jobs before entering New York University’s musical theatre program as a book writer. “I didn’t go to NYU to learn anything; I went to NYU to buy time so I could be an artist full-time and write full-time [and] to

make a connection with various artists, with various professionals who were working. And that happened.” He points to such professionals as book writer Peter Stone, director-writer Arthur Laurents, and director-

lyricist Richard Maltby Jr., as being particularly helpful in getting him “into the room” where people could see his work. “I like to break rules a lot. Each of them in their very specific ways taught me a lot of rules.