Allan Havis
Encyclopedia
Allan Havis is a playwright
with pronounced political themes and probes on colliding cultures. His works range from minimal language texts to ambiguous, ironic narratives that delineate the genesis, paradoxes, and seduction of evil. Several of his dramas involve Jewish identity, cultural alienation, and universal problems of racism. His literary influences come, in part, from August Strindberg
http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9C0CE6DE173BF930A1575AC0A966958260 and Harold Pinter
.http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?_r=1&res=940DE2DC143FF932A25754C0A96E948260&oref=slogin In addition to his plays, Havis wrote a novel for children, Albert the Astronomer (Harper & Row, 1979; ISBN 0-06-022242-5). He edited an anthology for University of Illinois Press- American Political Plays (2001; ISBN 0-252-07000-3). Fifteen Havis plays are published in editions by Broadway Play Publishing Inc.
, Theatre Communications Group, Penguin/Mentor, and University of Illinois. His book Cult Films: Taboo and Transgression ( University Press of America, 2008; ISBN 0-7618-3967-4) covers ninety years of cinema. Southern Illinois University Press published his next edited anthology 2010, "American Political Plays after 9/11". His first opera libretto, "Lilith" (music by Anthony Davis
) had its world premiere at the Conrad Prebys Music Center in UC San Diego December 4, 2009. The chamber opera, based on his play, highlights Adam's first wife of supernatural proportion and partly staged in a modern era.
He has an MFA from Yale Drama School (1980), has headed for many years the MFA playwriting program at University of California, San Diego
, and became Provost of Thurgood Marshall College
, UC San Diego in 2006. His wife, Julia Fulton, is an actor and college professor. They have two children.
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
with pronounced political themes and probes on colliding cultures. His works range from minimal language texts to ambiguous, ironic narratives that delineate the genesis, paradoxes, and seduction of evil. Several of his dramas involve Jewish identity, cultural alienation, and universal problems of racism. His literary influences come, in part, from August Strindberg
August Strindberg
Johan August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg's career spanned four decades, during which time he wrote over 60 plays and more than 30 works of fiction, autobiography,...
http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9C0CE6DE173BF930A1575AC0A966958260 and Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
.http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?_r=1&res=940DE2DC143FF932A25754C0A96E948260&oref=slogin In addition to his plays, Havis wrote a novel for children, Albert the Astronomer (Harper & Row, 1979; ISBN 0-06-022242-5). He edited an anthology for University of Illinois Press- American Political Plays (2001; ISBN 0-252-07000-3). Fifteen Havis plays are published in editions by Broadway Play Publishing Inc.
Broadway Play Publishing Inc.
Broadway Play Publishing Inc, along with Dramatists Play Service, Playscripts, Inc., and Samuel French Inc., is one of the four major New York play publishers and licensors of stage rights...
, Theatre Communications Group, Penguin/Mentor, and University of Illinois. His book Cult Films: Taboo and Transgression ( University Press of America, 2008; ISBN 0-7618-3967-4) covers ninety years of cinema. Southern Illinois University Press published his next edited anthology 2010, "American Political Plays after 9/11". His first opera libretto, "Lilith" (music by Anthony Davis
Anthony Davis (composer)
Anthony Davis, better known as Tony Davis , is an American composer, jazz pianist, and student of gamelan music.-Biography:...
) had its world premiere at the Conrad Prebys Music Center in UC San Diego December 4, 2009. The chamber opera, based on his play, highlights Adam's first wife of supernatural proportion and partly staged in a modern era.
He has an MFA from Yale Drama School (1980), has headed for many years the MFA playwriting program at University of California, San Diego
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...
, and became Provost of Thurgood Marshall College
Thurgood Marshall College
Thurgood Marshall College is one of the six undergraduate colleges at the University of California, San Diego. The college, named after Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice and lawyer for the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v...
, UC San Diego in 2006. His wife, Julia Fulton, is an actor and college professor. They have two children.
Dramatic Works
- Arrow to the Heart (2010)
- LilithLilithLilith is a character in Jewish mythology, found earliest in the Babylonian Talmud, who is generally thought to be related to a class of female demons Līlīṯu in Mesopotamian texts. However, Lowell K. Handy notes, "Very little information has been found relating to the Akkadian and Babylonian view...
(opera 2009) - The Tutor (2008)
- Restless Spirits (2006)
- The Haunting of Jim Crow (2005)
- Three Nights in Prague (2004)
- Private Parties (2003)
- Nuevo California (with Bernardo Solano 2003)
- Misjudgment of Paris (2002)
- A Jew on Ethiopia Street (2001)
- The Gift (1999)
- Sainte Simone (1996)
- A Vow of Silence (1994)
- Ladies of Fisher Cove (1993)
- A Daring Bride (1990)
- LilithLilithLilith is a character in Jewish mythology, found earliest in the Babylonian Talmud, who is generally thought to be related to a class of female demons Līlīṯu in Mesopotamian texts. However, Lowell K. Handy notes, "Very little information has been found relating to the Akkadian and Babylonian view...
(1990) - Hospitality (1988)
- Haut Gout (1987)
- Morocco (1986)
- Mink Sonata (1985)
- Holy Wars (1984)
- Family Rites (1980)
- Interludes (1978)
Awards
- 2008 San Diego Patté Award for Outstanding New Play
- 2003 San Diego Theatre Critics Award
- McKnight Fellowship
- Kennedy Center Award for New Plays
- Guggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
- Rockefeller Fellowship
- National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
- California State Arts Fellowship
- New York State Arts Fellowship
- HBO’s Playwrights USA Award
- Foundation of the Dramatist Guild/CBS Award