In 1967, while working as an instructor at the Capitol Radio Engineering Institute in
Washington, D.C., he wrote his first play,
The Wager. His first play to be staged in
New York City was ''
When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?'', which won him the 1974
Drama Desk and
Obie Awards for Outstanding New Playwright.
Awards and nominations Medoff's big breakthrough and most famous work was 1979's
Children of a Lesser God, which won him the
Tony, Drama Desk, and
Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Play. Medoff was back on Broadway again with the staging of his play
Prymate in 2005. Medoff's screen credits include adaptations of his plays
Red Ryder and
Children of a Lesser God, for which he was nominated for an
Oscar,
BAFTA, and
Writers Guild of America Award, ''
Clara's Heart (for which he cast, and subsequently "discovered", Neil Patrick Harris), and City of Joy. In 2000, he produced and directed the documentary Who Fly on Angels’ Wings
, about a mobile pediatric unit traveling through the under-served regions of southern New Mexico, and the following year he directed the feature film Children on Their Birthdays'', based on the
short story by
Truman Capote.
Teaching Medoff was co-founder of the American Southwest Theatre Company and head of the Department of Theatre Arts for nine years at
New Mexico State University, where he was a professor for a total of twenty-seven years and taught Screenwriting and Acting for Film, Short Film Production, and Film Directing and Producing. He was also the Creative Director of the Creative Media Institute at NMSU, the film department at the university. The theater department is still the American Southwest Theater Company. For one semester a year between 2003 and 2006, he worked at
Florida State University as a Reynolds Eminent Scholar in the School of Theatre. In the spring semester of 2008 he joined the faculty of the
University of Houston School of Theatre and Dance as Distinguished Lecturer. He was the winner of the
Kennedy Center Medallion for Excellence in Education and Artistic Achievement, given periodically to professionals in theater who also teach and mentor students.
Personal life Medoff was married to second wife Stephanie Thorne from 1972 until his death in 2019; they had three daughters. ==Death==