John Guare was born in New York City, on February 5, 1938. He was the only child of Edward and Helen Claire Guare. Raised in a strict Catholic household, Guare attended mass daily with his mother. His father, Edward, worked in the Wall Street stock exchange as a clerk.

Guare was a voracious reader. He also went to the theater quite often and was fascinated by Broadway musicals. His mother's brother, Billy Grady, was a casting director at MGM studios. In the mid-1940s, Grady was casting a new version of Huckleberry Finn. Guare put on a show for him similar to the one described in The House of Blue Leaves.

Guare began writing plays at age eleven. After graduating from St. John's Preparatory School in Brooklyn, Guare earned his B.A. from Georgetown in 1960, then his M.F.A. in drama from Yale in 1963. His first play...