George Birimisa

rdf:langString George Birimisa

rdf:langString George Birimisa (February 21, 1924 – May 10, 2012) was an American playwright, actor, and theater director who contributed to gay theater during the 1960s, the early years of the Off-Off-Broadway movement. His works feature sexually explicit, emotionally charged depictions of working-class homosexual men, often closeted, in the years before the 1969 Stonewall riots prompted the gay rights movement. Contemporary Authors stated that "Birmisa's plays feature themes of human isolation, frustrated idealism, and rage against needless suffering, usually centered around homosexual characters." According to theatre critic and playwright Michael Smith, Birimisa's writing "links the pain of human isolation to economic and social roots." Birimisa remained an active playwright, author, editor, and teacher until the end of his life.