Two for the Seesaw (play)
Two for the Seesaw is a three-act, two-person play written William Gibson. The play opened on Broadway on January 16, 1958, at the Booth Theatre in New York and ran for 750 performances, closing on October 31, 1959. With the opening cast of Henry Fonda and Anne Bancroft, the play was directed by Arthur Penn and produced by Fred Coe. A surprise hit, Two for the Seesaw earned Anne Bancroft, making her Broadway debut, her first Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. The play was adapted into a film of the same name in 1962, directed by Robert Wise and starring Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine, and was later adapted into the musical Seesaw in 1973. The play marked the Broadway debut of writer William Gibson, who would later collaborate with Penn and Coe on the play and film adaptations of The Miracle Worker, which also featured Bancroft in the lead role.
Anne Bancroft and Henry Fonda rehearsing for the Broadway play, Two for the Seesaw, c. 1957. Photographed by Arthur Cantor.
William Gibson (playwright)
William Gibson was an American playwright and novelist. He won the Tony Award for Best Play for The Miracle Worker in 1959, which he later adapted for the film version in 1962.
Gibson in 1964