Clarice Taylor (September 20, 1917 – May 30, 2011) was an American stage, film and television actress. She is best known for playing Cousin Emma on Sanford and Son and the mother of Cliff Huxtable, Anna Huxtable on The Cosby Show. and Mrs. Brooks in Five on the Black Hand Side (1973).
Christopher Ferdinand Durang (born January 2, 1949) is an American playwright known for works of outrageous and often absurd comedy. His work was especially popular in the 1980s, though his career seemed to get a second wind in the late 1990s.
Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You was Durang's watershed play as it brought him to national prominence when it won him—at the age of 32—the Obie Award for Best Playwright (1980). His play Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike won the Tony Award for Best Play in 2013. The production was directed by Nicholas Martin, and featured Sigourney Weaver, David Hyde Pierce, Kristine Nielsen, Billy Magnussen, Shalita Grant and Genevieve Angelson. Durang is a former co-director of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at Juilliard.