Playwrights, Composers, Lyricists and Authors

Thomas Hischak was born in 1951 in Rochester, New York, and started writing plays when he was 13 years old.  He went to high school in Dayton, Ohio, where he was active in theatre and wrote scripts, one of which won a playwriting award when he attended St. Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri.

After graduating with degrees in English and Theatre, Hischak taught high school for three years, writing plays for students his school.  He then attended Southern Illinois University where he received a Master of Fine Arts in Playwriting from the Theatre Department and where some of his one act plays were produced.

Hischak’s first play was published in 1977 and to date there are 33 of his plays in print, from adaptations of classics to original mystery plays to contemporary comedies, including The Last Leaf and The Gift of the Magi, based on O. Henry's short stories, Mr. Scrooge’s Christmas, an adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol and an adaptation of Moliere’s Tartuffe, all published by Pioneer Drama Service, Inc.  His plays receive hundreds of productions each year in schools and community theatres around the world.  In 1996, Hischak's play Cold War Comedy won first prize in the distinguished Stanley Drama Award in New York City.

Professor of Theatre at the State University of New York College at Cortland, Hischak has directed the original productions of many of the plays he has published.  He received the Chancellor’s Award for Scholarship and Creative Activity from SUNY in 2003.  Hischak is also the author of 17 books on theatre and film, including the prize-winning The American Musical Theatre Song Encyclopedia and The Oxford Companion to Theatre, third edition.

Thomas Hischak lives in Cortland, New York, with his wife and two children.