Background
Glines, John was born on October 11, 1933 in Santa Maria, California, United States. Son of Denzil Cassius and Ellen Antoinette (Lanza) Glines.
Glines, John was born on October 11, 1933 in Santa Maria, California, United States. Son of Denzil Cassius and Ellen Antoinette (Lanza) Glines.
Glines graduated from Yale in 1955 with a Bachelor in drama.
As a writer in children's television, he worked for seven years on Captain Kangaroo and for four years on Sesame Street. His play In The Desert Of My Soul was anthologized in Best Short Plays Of 1976. His musical Gulp!, written with Stephen Greco and Robin Jones, had a lengthy off-off-Broadway run in 1977.
His plays written for, and originally produced by The Glines, the non-profit organization for gay arts which he co-founded in 1976 with Barry Laine and Jerry Tobin, include On Tina Tuna Walk, In Her Own Words (A Biography of Jane Chambers), Men Of Manhattan (also made into a film directed by Anthony Marsellis), Chicken Delight, Body And Soul Murder In Disguise, Key West, and Heavenly Days.
His last play, Butterflies And Tigers, based on stories of the Chinese people during the Cultural Revolution, had an extended run in New York City in 1998. In his acceptance speech for the Tony, he was the first person ever to acknowledge his same-sex lover on a major awards show.
Concurrently with his theatre work, Glines was a founding trustee of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, which grew out of Stamp Out Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, the non-profit organization he founded in 1985 as a result of his work on As Is.
Founding trustee Broadway Cares. Member American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (East region), League American Theatres and Prodrs., DramatistsGuild, Writers Guild American.