In later life, Kate had become eccentric and then disturbed, vandalizing Hart's home, writing threatening letters and setting fires backstage during rehearsals for Jubilee, yet his relationship with her had been formative.

He learned that the theater made possible "the art of being somebody else … not a scrawny boy with bad teeth, a funny name … and a mother who was a distant drudge.

He later recounted exiting the subway at Times Square and standing agog at the urban tableau before him: "A swirling mob of shouting happy people... confetti and paper streamers... soldiers and sailors climbed happily onto the tops of taxis, grabbing girls up to dance with them.

The play was written in collaboration with Broadway veteran George S. Kaufman, who regularly wrote with others, notably Marc Connelly and Edna Ferber.

(Kaufman also performed in the play's original Broadway cast in the role of a frustrated playwright hired by Hollywood) and produced by Sam Harris.

[7][8] During the next decade, Kaufman and Hart teamed on a string of successes, including You Can't Take It with You (1936) and The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939).

The Man Who Came To Dinner is about the caustic Sheridan Whiteside who, after injuring himself slipping on ice, must stay in a Midwestern family's house.

Hart continued to write plays after parting with Kaufman, such as Christopher Blake (1946) and Light Up the Sky (1948), as well as the book for the musical Lady In The Dark (1941), with songs by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin.

[10] Hart also wrote some screenplays, including Gentleman's Agreement (1947) (for which he received an Oscar nomination), Hans Christian Andersen (1952) and A Star Is Born (1954).

[citation needed] Hart was the tenth president of the Dramatists Guild of America, from 1947 until 1956, when Oscar Hammerstein II became his successor.

The GTC New Play Initiative is the brainchild of producers Charles Johanson and Kevin Cochran (founders of Grove Theater Center) and its expansion to a truly bi-coastal program with the focus on the author and their vision for their work.