World Without End
I’m happy to announce that World Without End, the sequel to Pillars of the Earth, airs on REELZ in October 2012. Check your local listings.
09/30/12
08/17/12
To Be Born Is To Be Wrecked on an Island…
J.M. Barrie, who is perhaps (along with Thornton Wilder) the most theatrical of English-speaking playwrights, made this observation, and it has more than a purely metaphorical application to my own life. Altoona, Pennsylvania was a railroad-repair town beginning to shut down its shops in 1949, the year I was born, and it wasn’t until 1987 that it was connected to the rest of the country by a four-lane highway, the last town of its size in America to do so. Nestled in the arms of the Allegheny Mountains, it was very much an island when I was growing up, and islands have defined my life ever since. 
My first sojourn at an artists’ colony was on Ossabaw Island off the coast of Georgia, and it was there that I familiarized myself with Mr. Barrie and found my mentor. Robert Louis Stevenson, another writer I admire, spent the last years of his life in Samoa, and in celebration of my fiftieth birthday I made a pilgrimage to his gravesite. Scotland itself is arguably an island (or part of one) and I have never felt more at home than on my visits there. The tiny island of Iona is something of my spirit’s home. Manhattan, of course, is an island, quite the opposite of Ossabaw, and it has for better or worse defined so much of my writing life. So it is in this spirit that I thank you for visiting my own little web-island.
In the pages and posts you’ll find here (I can’t help but look upon this as the book of my creative life) I want to tell you a little bit about my work: the stories in it, of it, behind it, and by default a little bit about me.
Welcome.
07/5/12
“The Exorcist” Takes the Stage at Geffen Playhouse
The debut of the first stage adaptation of The Exorcist took the stage earlier this week and I’m thrilled to see my work as the playwright come to life. I wanted to share a few images with you so you could see what all of the fuss is about! It’s a remarkable cast and John Doyle’s direction is superb. You can secure tickets on the Geffen Playhouse site here.
Manoel Felciano, Brooke Shields, Harry Groener and Emily Yetter in the world premier of John Pielmeier’s “The Exorcist” at the Geffen Playhouse, directed by John Doyle. Photo by Michael Lamont.
Richard Chamberlain, Emily Yetter and Brooke Shields. Photo by Michael Lamont.
Harry Groener. Photo by Michael Lamont.
Richard Chamberlain. Photo by Michael Lamont.
Emily Yetter and Harry Groener. Photo by Michael Lamont.
Roslyn Ruff, David Wilson Barnes and Brooke Shields. Photo by Michael Lamont.
Richard Chamberlain and Brooke Shields. Photo by Michael Lamont.
David Wilson Barnes and Brooke Shields. Photo by Michael Lamont.
Manoel Felciano and David Wilson Barnes. Photo by Michael Lamont.
Emily Yetter and Brooke Shields. Photo by Michael Lamont.
For tickets, visit the Geffen Playhouse site.
06/30/12
The Exorcist Comes to the Stage
My latest effort, the stage adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist, debuts in less than a week in Los Angeles. To see the cast and information about buying tickets, visit the Geffen Playhouse web site.
Mr. Blatty is quoted by The New York Times as saying, “he was happy to have chosen Mr. Pielmeier to write the play, and that Mr. Pielmeier had ‘done a wonderful job of capturing the true essence of the novel, the mystery of faith.’” Given the talent involved in the production, I’m looking forward to the moment an audience experiences this play.