Stephen DiLauro aka Uke Jackson (a nom de plume he assumed in 2000) is an American playwright, novelist, newspaper reporter, art writer, and ukulele player.
DiLauro has written for Smithsonian [1] , American Artist , [2] the Village Sun, [3] [4] The Fortune Society, [5] and Cigar Aficionado . [6] DiLauro was at one time the chief art critic for the Manhattan periodical Downtown. [7]
As a ukulele player and afficinado, DiLauro (aka Uke Jackson) is best known for founding and leading the New York Ukulele Ensemble and for "Ukefest", at its height attended by thousands. [8]
On March 10, 1992 a televised adaptation of DiLauro's one-act play Avenue Z Afternoon, about a Puerto Rican burglar who breaks into a Jewish matron's Brooklyn apartment, appeared on General Motors Playwrights Theater on the A&E Network; it starred Anne Meara and Lou Diamond Phillips. [9] [10] Carole Kucharwicz in Variety said: it was "All in all a productive afternoon". [11]
In 2008 DiLauro combined his love for ukeleles with his role as a playwright, creating the book for the musical Sex Drugs and Ukeleles staged at the Theater for the New City in the East Village, Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. [12] [13] DiLauro's play Monster Time was listed as one of the top ten dramatic works of the year in The Burns Mantle Theater Yearbook of 1989-1990 Featuring the Ten Best Plays of the Season. New York magazine described it as a "Prison drama heightened by the setting being death row". [14] [15]
DiLauro is the co-author of Perillo Artist of the American West (Alpine Fine Arts Collection 1981). [16] He is also the co-author, with Roy Moyer (ed.) and Gilbert Lascault, of the 1986 monograph Doğançay, focusing on the Turkish American artist Burhan Doğançay. [17]
DiLauro's 1996 CD audio collection River Tales first broadcast on WBAI IN New York City was covered in Newsweek , as well as other news outlets. [18] [19] [20]
He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius Ferrin DiLauro and grew up in Clinton Township, New Jersey. His father was a United Airlines pilot and real estate investor.
DiLauro was formerly married to the actress Sara Jackson, who played Dolly on the daytime television soap opera One Life to Live . This marriage and his previous one both ended in divorce. [7]