Donald Margulies
Encyclopedia
Donald Margulies (MARG-yoo-leez) is an American playwright and a professor of English and Theater Studies at Yale University. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
in 2000 for his play, Dinner With Friends
.
Other notable works include Time Stands Still
(2009); Shipwrecked! An Entertainment — The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told by Himself) (2007), Brooklyn Boy
(2004), Sight Unseen
(1991) and Collected Stories
(1996), the last three of which were commissioned and originally produced by South Coast Repertory
. "Sight Unseen" (which won a 1992 OBIE Award
for Best American Play and the Dramatists' Guild/Hull-Warriner Award) and "Collected Stories" were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, in 1992 and 1997, respectively.
"Dinner With Friends" was commissioned by Actors Theatre of Louisville
[KY], where it had its world premiere at the 1998 Humana Festival of New American Plays
. It was produced later that year at South Coast Repertory [Costa Mesa, CA], and opened November 4, 1999 at the Variety Arts Theatre [New York] where it played 654 performances. In addition to the Pulitzer, "Dinner with Friends" received an American Theatre Critics’ Association New Play Citation, The Dramatists’ Guild/Hull-Warriner Award
, the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play
, the Outer Critics Circle Award
, a Drama Desk Award
nomination, and was selected a Burns Mantle
Best Play of 1999-2000). It went on to have a long run in Paris
at the Comedie des Champs-Elysees, and productions in cities all over the world including London
, Berlin
, Vienna
, Stockholm
, Tokyo
, Mumbai
, Seoul
, Tel Aviv
and Istanbul
. In 2001 it was an Emmy Award
-nominated film for HBO.
"Time Stands Still" opened on Broadway
on January 28, 2010 at the Manhattan Theatre Club
's Friedman Theatre for a limited engagement. It resumed performances on September 23, 2010 at the Cort Theatre
, where it ran until January 30, 2011; between its two runs, it played a total of 24 previews and 194 performances. It starred Laura Linney
, Brian d'Arcy James
, Eric Bogosian
and Alicia Silverstone
(later succeeded at the Cort by Christina Ricci
), and was directed by Daniel Sullivan. The play was nominated for a 2010 Tony Award for Best Play and was selected a Burns Mantle Best Play of 2009-2010. Linney was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. In 2009, "Time Stands Still" had its world premiere at the Geffen Playhouse
[Los Angeles], which had commissioned it. Directed by Sullivan, the Geffen premiere featured Silverstone, Anna Gunn
, David Harbour
and Robin Thomas
. Its foreign premiere took place In Stockholm in 2009, and productions are planned in many cities across the country and around the world.
After its world premiere in the 2007 Pacific Playwrights Festival
at South Coast Repertory where it starred Gregory Itzin
and was directed by Bart DeLorenzo
, "Shipwrecked! An Entertainment" went on to productions at the Geffen Playhouse (where it again was directed by DeLorenzo and starred Itzin), Long Wharf Theatre
in New Haven, CT (directed by Evan Cabnet); Primary Stages [New York] (directed by Lisa Peterson; both featuring Michael Countryman); and in theaters all over the United States. It received an Outer Critics’ Circle Award nomination for Outstanding New Play in 2009.
"Brooklyn Boy" also began life at the Pacific Playwrights Festival, in 2003, and was produced at South Coast Repertory, on Broadway by Manhattan Theatre Club at the Biltmore Theatre
, and in Paris at the Comedie des Champs-Elysees. It was an American Theatre Critics’ Association New Play Award finalist, an Outer Critics’ Circle nominee, and a Burns Mantle Best Play of 2004-2005. The play was directed by Daniel Sullivan and its original cast was Adam Arkin
, Arye Gross
, Allan Miller
, Ari Graynor
, Mimi Lieber, Kevin Isola and Dana Reeve
(whose role was played on Broadway by Polly Draper
).
"Sight Unseen" was given its New York premiere by Manhattan Theatre Club at City Center II on January 27, 1992; it later moved to the Orpheum Theatre where it ran for a combined total of 293 performances. It was directed by Michael Bloom and starred Dennis Boutsikaris
, Deborah Hedwall, Jon DeVries and, in the supporting role of a German art critic, Laura Linney. In 2005, Linney played the female lead in the play's Broadway premiere at Manhattan Theatre Club's Biltmore Theatre, with Ben Shenkman
, Byron Jennings and Ana Reeder, directed by Sullivan. Linney received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress for her performance.
"Collected Stories" has had three New York productions: its premiere at Manhattan Theatre Club's City Center Stage I, in 1997, with Maria Tucci and Debra Messing
, directed by Lisa Peterson; the following year at the Lucille Lortel Theatre with Uta Hagen
and Lorca Simons, directed by William Carden; and, on Broadway, in 2010, at Manhattan Theatre Club's Friedman (formerly Biltmore) Theatre, starring Linda Lavin
and Sarah Paulson
, directed by Lynne Meadow
. Lavin received a 2010 Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play for her performance. She had previously played the role of Ruth Steiner in 1999 at the Geffen Playhouse in a production co-starring Samantha Mathis
, directed by Gilbert Cates
, which was later re-produced for PBS Hollywood Presents in 2002. The play has had dozens of productions all over the country and around the world, perhaps most notably in London
in 1999, at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, with Helen Mirren
and Anne-Marie Duff
, directed by Howard Davies.
"The Model Apartment" premiered at Los Angeles Theatre Center in 1988 (directed by Roberta Levitow) but wasn't produced in New York until 1995, by Primary Stages, directed by Lisa Peterson. Margulies won the OBIE Award for Playwriting and the play was a Dramatists’ Guild/Hull-Warriner Award finalist and a Drama Desk nominee.
"The Loman Family Picnic" was first produced by Manhattan Theatre Club at City Center Stage II in 1989, with Marcia Jean Kurtz and Larry Block
, directed by Barnet Kellman
. MTC revived it on Stage I in 1993, with Christine Baranski
and Peter Friedman
, directed by Lynne Meadow. It was a Drama Desk nominee and a Burns Mantle Best Play of 1988-1989.
"What's Wrong With This Picture?" was first produced by Manhattan Theatre Club in 1985, by Jewish Repertory Theatre [New York] in 1990, and at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre
on Broadway in 1994.
Other plays include "God of Vengeance", based on the Yiddish classic by Sholem Asch
, which premiered at ACT Theatre
[Seattle] in 2000, and in 2002 at Williamstown Theatre Festival
, in productions directed by Gordon Edelstein
; "Two Days" (Long Wharf Theatre); "Broken Sleep: Three Plays" (Williamstown Theatre Festival); "July 7, 1994" (Actors Theatre of Louisville); "Found a Peanut" (Joseph Papp/New York Shakespeare Festival
); "Pitching to the Star" (West Bank Café); "Resting Place" (Theatre for the New City); "Gifted Children" and "Zimmer" (Jewish Repertory Theatre). In 1982, "Luna Park", a one-act play inspired by the short story "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities" by Delmore Schwartz
and produced by Jewish Rep, was his New York debut as playwright.
Margulies has developed numerous scripts for film and television. Currently, he is adapting the novel MIDDLESEX
by Jeffrey Eugenides
into an HBO miniseries.
Margulies has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts
, The New York Foundation for the Arts
, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
. He was the recipient of the 2000 Sidney Kingsley Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Theatre by a playwright. In 2005 he was honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters with an Award in Literature and by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture
with its Award in Literary Arts. Margulies is an alumnus of New Dramatists and serves on the council of The Dramatists Guild of America
.
He attended John Dewey High School
in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Purchase College where he received a BFA in visual arts. Margulies lives with his wife, Lynn Street, a physician, and their son, Miles, in New Haven, Connecticut
, where he is an adjunct professor of English and Theatre Studies at Yale University
.
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918.From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway 'season' rather than the calendar year...
in 2000 for his play, Dinner With Friends
Dinner with Friends
Dinner with Friends is a 2000 play written by Donald Margulies. It premiered at the 1998 Humana Festival of New American Plays and opened Off-Broadway in New York on November 4, 1999.-Plot summary:...
.
Other notable works include Time Stands Still
Time Stands Still (play)
Time Stands Still is a play written by the Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies and directed by Tony Award winner Daniel Sullivan about changing relationships and developing social issues...
(2009); Shipwrecked! An Entertainment — The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told by Himself) (2007), Brooklyn Boy
Brooklyn Boy
Brooklyn Boy is a play by American playwright Donald Margulies.Novelist Eric Weiss, critically celebrated but unsuccessful, "arrives" when his new, autobiographical novel becomes a best-seller. An outsider all his life, he is suddenly on the inside of everything: town cars, television studios, the...
(2004), Sight Unseen
Sight Unseen (play)
Sight Unseen is a play by Donald Margulies. At its center is Jonathan Waxman, a Brooklyn Jew who has become a very wealthy critically acclaimed artist. Happily married, with a baby on the way, he travels to London for a retrospective of his work...
(1991) and Collected Stories
Collected Stories (play)
Collected Stories is a play by Donald Margulies which premiered at South Coast Repertory in 1996.It premiered on Broadway in a limited engagement production by the Manhattan Theatre Club with previews having started April 9, 2010, opening April 28, 2010, through June 2010...
(1996), the last three of which were commissioned and originally produced by South Coast Repertory
South Coast Repertory
South Coast Repertory is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California.Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Paula Tomei, is widely...
. "Sight Unseen" (which won a 1992 OBIE Award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
for Best American Play and the Dramatists' Guild/Hull-Warriner Award) and "Collected Stories" were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, in 1992 and 1997, respectively.
"Dinner With Friends" was commissioned by Actors Theatre of Louisville
Actors Theatre of Louisville
Actors Theatre of Louisville is a performing arts theater located in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. It was founded in 1964 by Louisville native Ewel Cornett, local producer Richard Block and actor Ken Jenkins of Scrubs fame, and was designated the "State Theater of Kentucky" in 1974. It is run as a...
[KY], where it had its world premiere at the 1998 Humana Festival of New American Plays
Humana Festival of New American Plays
Humana Festival of New American Plays is an internationally renowned festival that celebrates the contemporary American playwright. Produced annually in Louisville, Kentucky by Actors Theatre of Louisville, this prestigious event showcases new theatrical works and draws producers, critics,...
. It was produced later that year at South Coast Repertory [Costa Mesa, CA], and opened November 4, 1999 at the Variety Arts Theatre [New York] where it played 654 performances. In addition to the Pulitzer, "Dinner with Friends" received an American Theatre Critics’ Association New Play Citation, The Dramatists’ Guild/Hull-Warriner Award
Hull-Warriner Award
The Hull-Warriner Award is an award bestowed by the Dramatists Guild of America. The award is unique in that it is given by dramatists to dramatists...
, the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play
Lucille Lortel Awards
The Lucille Lortel Awards recognize excellence in New York Off-Broadway theatre. The Awards are named for Lucille Lortel, an actress and theater producer, and have been awarded since 1986...
, the Outer Critics Circle Award
Outer Critics Circle Award
The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on and Off-Broadway and were begun during the 1949-1950 theater season. The awards are decided upon by theater critics who review for out-of-town newspapers, national publications, and other media outlets...
, a Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
nomination, and was selected a Burns Mantle
Burns Mantle
Robert Burns Mantle was a well-known American drama critic. He founded the Best Plays annual publication in 1920.. , The New York Times...
Best Play of 1999-2000). It went on to have a long run in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
at the Comedie des Champs-Elysees, and productions in cities all over the world including London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
, Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
and Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
. In 2001 it was an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
-nominated film for HBO.
"Time Stands Still" opened on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
on January 28, 2010 at the Manhattan Theatre Club
Manhattan Theatre Club
Manhattan Theatre Club is a theater company located in New York City. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, Manhattan Theatre Club has grown since its founding in 1970 from an Off-Off Broadway showcase into one of the country’s most acclaimed...
's Friedman Theatre for a limited engagement. It resumed performances on September 23, 2010 at the Cort Theatre
Cort Theatre
The Cort Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 138 West 48th Street in the Theatre District of midtown Manhattan in New York City...
, where it ran until January 30, 2011; between its two runs, it played a total of 24 previews and 194 performances. It starred Laura Linney
Laura Linney
Laura Leggett Linney is an American actress of film, television, and theatre. Linney has won three Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She has been nominated for three times for an Academy Award and once for a BAFTA Award...
, Brian d'Arcy James
Brian d'Arcy James
Brian d'Arcy James is an American actor and musician.-Personal life:James was born in Saginaw, Michigan, the son of Mary , a seller of children's books, and a lawyer father, Thomas F. James. Brian's maternal grandfather was Harry F. Kelly, former Governor of the state of Michigan...
, Eric Bogosian
Eric Bogosian
Eric Bogosian is an American actor, playwright, monologist, and novelist of Armenian descent.-Personal life:Bogosian, an Armenian-American, was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, the son of Edwina, a hairdresser and instructor, and Henry Bogosian, an accountant. After graduating from Oberlin College,...
and Alicia Silverstone
Alicia Silverstone
Alicia Silverstone is an American actress, author, and former fashion model. She first came to widespread attention in music videos for Aerosmith, and is perhaps best known for her roles in Hollywood films such as Clueless and her portrayal of Batgirl in Batman & Robin .-Early life:Silverstone...
(later succeeded at the Cort by Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci is an American actress. Ricci received initial recognition and praise as a child star for her performance as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values , and her role as Kat Harvey in Casper...
), and was directed by Daniel Sullivan. The play was nominated for a 2010 Tony Award for Best Play and was selected a Burns Mantle Best Play of 2009-2010. Linney was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. In 2009, "Time Stands Still" had its world premiere at the Geffen Playhouse
Geffen Playhouse
The Geffen Playhouse is a not for profit performing arts theater in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Originally named the Westwood Playhouse, UCLA purchased the property in 1993. UCLA's then chancellor, Charles E. Young, appointed Gil Cates Producing Director...
[Los Angeles], which had commissioned it. Directed by Sullivan, the Geffen premiere featured Silverstone, Anna Gunn
Anna Gunn
Anna Gunn is an American actress, best known for her roles as Assistant District Attorney Jean Ward on The Practice, Martha Bullock on Deadwood, and, currently, Skyler White on Breaking Bad. She appeared on Seinfeld in the episode "The Glasses" and on the first season of Murder One...
, David Harbour
David Harbour
David Harbour is an American actor who has performed in film, television and in the theater. He is known for his role as villain Gregg Beam in Quantum of Solace, as Shep Campbell in Revolutionary Road, and as Russell Crowe's source in State of Play...
and Robin Thomas
Robin Thomas
Robin Thomas is an American film and television actor.He was born Robin Thomas Grossman in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His best-known television roles are as Mark Singleton in the soap opera Another World , and as Geoffrey Wells on the 1980s series Who's the Boss?...
. Its foreign premiere took place In Stockholm in 2009, and productions are planned in many cities across the country and around the world.
After its world premiere in the 2007 Pacific Playwrights Festival
Pacific Playwrights Festival
The Pacific Playwrights Festival , a national forum for playwrights and theatre leaders, is dedicated to developing and producing new American plays. It is held every summer at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California....
at South Coast Repertory where it starred Gregory Itzin
Gregory Itzin
Gregory Martin Itzin is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his role as disgraced U.S. President Charles Logan in the television series 24.-Early life:...
and was directed by Bart DeLorenzo
Bart DeLorenzo
Bart DeLorenzo is a Los Angeles-based theater director and producer. He is the founding artistic director of the Evidence Room theater, a 14-year-old company renowned in Los Angeles for contemporary theater productions....
, "Shipwrecked! An Entertainment" went on to productions at the Geffen Playhouse (where it again was directed by DeLorenzo and starred Itzin), Long Wharf Theatre
Long Wharf Theatre
Long Wharf Theatre is a nonprofit institution in New Haven, Connecticut, a pioneer in the not-for-profit regional theatre movement, the originator of several prominent plays, and a venue where many internationally known actors have appeared....
in New Haven, CT (directed by Evan Cabnet); Primary Stages [New York] (directed by Lisa Peterson; both featuring Michael Countryman); and in theaters all over the United States. It received an Outer Critics’ Circle Award nomination for Outstanding New Play in 2009.
"Brooklyn Boy" also began life at the Pacific Playwrights Festival, in 2003, and was produced at South Coast Repertory, on Broadway by Manhattan Theatre Club at the Biltmore Theatre
Biltmore Theatre
The Samuel J. Friedman Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 261 West 47th Street in midtown-Manhattan.-History:...
, and in Paris at the Comedie des Champs-Elysees. It was an American Theatre Critics’ Association New Play Award finalist, an Outer Critics’ Circle nominee, and a Burns Mantle Best Play of 2004-2005. The play was directed by Daniel Sullivan and its original cast was Adam Arkin
Adam Arkin
Adam Arkin is an American television, film and stage actor and director. He played the role of Aaron Shutt on Chicago Hope. He has been nominated for numerous awards, including a Tony as well as 3 primetime Emmys, 4 SAG Awards , and a DGA Award...
, Arye Gross
Arye Gross
-Biography:Gross was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Sheri and Joseph Gross, who was an aerospace engineer and later worked in business....
, Allan Miller
Allan Miller
Allan Miller is an American actor, best known for the role of Harland Richards in Santa Barbara.Miller was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Anna and Benedict Miller....
, Ari Graynor
Ari Graynor
Ariel Geltman Graynor, better known as Ari Graynor, is an American actress.-Life and career:Graynor was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She was raised in a Jewish family and attended Buckingham Browne & Nichols, a private school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Trinity College, in Hartford,...
, Mimi Lieber, Kevin Isola and Dana Reeve
Dana Reeve
Dana Reeve was an American actress, singer, and activist for disability causes. She was the widow of actor Christopher Reeve.-Early life and family:...
(whose role was played on Broadway by Polly Draper
Polly Draper
Polly Carey Draper is an American actress, screenwriter, playwright, producer and director. She is renowned for her ensemble role in ABC's hit series Thirtysomething. In 1998, Draper starred in her screenwriting debut The Tic Code, featuring Gregory Hines which was inspired by her husband Michael...
).
"Sight Unseen" was given its New York premiere by Manhattan Theatre Club at City Center II on January 27, 1992; it later moved to the Orpheum Theatre where it ran for a combined total of 293 performances. It was directed by Michael Bloom and starred Dennis Boutsikaris
Dennis Boutsikaris
Dennis Boutsikaris is an American two-time Obie-Award winning character actor. He is a Broadway Actor and frequent television guest star and leading man in made-for-TV movies...
, Deborah Hedwall, Jon DeVries and, in the supporting role of a German art critic, Laura Linney. In 2005, Linney played the female lead in the play's Broadway premiere at Manhattan Theatre Club's Biltmore Theatre, with Ben Shenkman
Ben Shenkman
Benjamin Shenkman is an American television, film and stage actor.-Life and career:Shenkman was born in New York City and raised in what he described as "the secular Eastern European Jewish tradition". He graduated from Brown University, and obtained a Masters of Fine Arts in 1993 from New York...
, Byron Jennings and Ana Reeder, directed by Sullivan. Linney received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress for her performance.
"Collected Stories" has had three New York productions: its premiere at Manhattan Theatre Club's City Center Stage I, in 1997, with Maria Tucci and Debra Messing
Debra Messing
Debra Lynn Messing is an American actress, voice artist, and comedienne. She is perhaps best known for her role as Grace Adler in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace and as Molly Kagan in the mini-series The Starter Wife....
, directed by Lisa Peterson; the following year at the Lucille Lortel Theatre with Uta Hagen
Uta Hagen
Uta Thyra Hagen was a German-born American actress and drama teacher. She originated the role of Martha in the 1963 Broadway premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee...
and Lorca Simons, directed by William Carden; and, on Broadway, in 2010, at Manhattan Theatre Club's Friedman (formerly Biltmore) Theatre, starring Linda Lavin
Linda Lavin
Linda Lavin is an American singer and actress. She is best known for playing the title character in the sitcom Alice and for her Broadway performances.After acting as a child, Lavin joined the Compass Players in the late 1950s...
and Sarah Paulson
Sarah Paulson
-Career:She was a series regular on the cult television show American Gothic and the WB series Jack & Jill , playing the character "Elisa Cronkite"...
, directed by Lynne Meadow
Lynne Meadow
Lynne Meadow is an American theatre producer and director and a college professor.A cum laude graduate of Bryn Mawr, Meadow attended the Yale School of Drama...
. Lavin received a 2010 Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play for her performance. She had previously played the role of Ruth Steiner in 1999 at the Geffen Playhouse in a production co-starring Samantha Mathis
Samantha Mathis
Samantha Mathis is an American actress. The daughter of actress Bibi Besch, Mathis made her film debut in Pump Up the Volume , opposite Christian Slater...
, directed by Gilbert Cates
Gilbert Cates
Gilbert “Gil” Cates was an Award winning American film director and television producer, director of the Geffen Playhouse, and founding dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television...
, which was later re-produced for PBS Hollywood Presents in 2002. The play has had dozens of productions all over the country and around the world, perhaps most notably in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1999, at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, with Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
and Anne-Marie Duff
Anne-Marie Duff
Anne-Marie Duff is an English actress best known for playing Fiona Gallagher in Shameless, and Elizabeth I in The Virgin Queen.-Early life:...
, directed by Howard Davies.
"The Model Apartment" premiered at Los Angeles Theatre Center in 1988 (directed by Roberta Levitow) but wasn't produced in New York until 1995, by Primary Stages, directed by Lisa Peterson. Margulies won the OBIE Award for Playwriting and the play was a Dramatists’ Guild/Hull-Warriner Award finalist and a Drama Desk nominee.
"The Loman Family Picnic" was first produced by Manhattan Theatre Club at City Center Stage II in 1989, with Marcia Jean Kurtz and Larry Block
Larry Block
Lawrence Joel "Larry" Block is an American radio, TV, film and theater actor. In 1971, Block appeared on Sesame Street as Tom, who worked at Hooper's Store....
, directed by Barnet Kellman
Barnet Kellman
Barnet Kellman is a television and film director, television producer and film actor.- Director:* Samantha Who?* Notes from the Underbelly* Four Kings* Living with Fran* George Lopez* Alias* Mary and Rhoda* Felicity...
. MTC revived it on Stage I in 1993, with Christine Baranski
Christine Baranski
Christine Jane Baranski is an American stage and screen actress, and is perhaps best known for her Emmy Award winning portrayal as "Maryanne Thorpe" in the sitcom Cybill, and her Emmy nominated portrayal of "Diane Lockhart" in The Good Wife...
and Peter Friedman
Peter Friedman
Peter Friedman is an American stage, film and television actor.Born in New York City, Friedman graduated from Hofstra University before making his Broadway debut in The Great God Brown in 1972...
, directed by Lynne Meadow. It was a Drama Desk nominee and a Burns Mantle Best Play of 1988-1989.
"What's Wrong With This Picture?" was first produced by Manhattan Theatre Club in 1985, by Jewish Repertory Theatre [New York] in 1990, and at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre
Brooks Atkinson Theatre
The Brooks Atkinson Theatre is a Broadway theater located at 256 West 47th Street in Manhattan.Designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp, it was constructed as the Mansfield Theatre by the Chanin brothers in 1926. After 1933, the theatre fell into relative disuse until 1945, when Michael Myerberg...
on Broadway in 1994.
Other plays include "God of Vengeance", based on the Yiddish classic by Sholem Asch
Sholem Asch
Sholem Asch, born Szalom Asz , also written Shalom Asch was a Polish-born American Jewish novelist, dramatist, and essayist in the Yiddish language.-Life and work:...
, which premiered at ACT Theatre
ACT Theatre
ACT Theatre is a regional, non-profit theatre organization in Seattle, Washington, USA. Gregory A. Falls founded ACT in 1965 and served as its first Artistic director; at the time ACT was founded he was also head of the Drama Department at the University of Washington...
[Seattle] in 2000, and in 2002 at Williamstown Theatre Festival
Williamstown Theatre Festival
The Williamstown Theatre Festival is a regional summer stock theatre on the campus of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, founded in 1954 by Williams College news director, Ralph Renzi, and drama program chairman, David C. Bryant. The theatre was conceived as a way to use the Adams...
, in productions directed by Gordon Edelstein
Gordon Edelstein
Gordon Edelstein is in his eighth season as Long Wharf Theatre’s Artistic Director. In addition to his work on the world premiere of Athol Fugard’s Have You Seen Us?, Mr. Edelstein will also direct and adapt Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House later in Long Wharf Theatre’s 2009-10 season. In addition, Mr...
; "Two Days" (Long Wharf Theatre); "Broken Sleep: Three Plays" (Williamstown Theatre Festival); "July 7, 1994" (Actors Theatre of Louisville); "Found a Peanut" (Joseph Papp/New York Shakespeare Festival
New York Shakespeare Festival
New York Shakespeare Festival is the previous name of the New York City theatrical producing organization now known as the Public Theater. The Festival produced shows at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, as part of its free Shakespeare in the Park series, at the Public Theatre near Astor Place...
); "Pitching to the Star" (West Bank Café); "Resting Place" (Theatre for the New City); "Gifted Children" and "Zimmer" (Jewish Repertory Theatre). In 1982, "Luna Park", a one-act play inspired by the short story "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities" by Delmore Schwartz
Delmore Schwartz
Delmore Schwartz was an American poet and short story writer from Brooklyn, New York.-Biography:Schwartz was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. His parents, Harry and Rose, both Romanian Jews, separated when Schwartz was nine, and their divorce had a profound effect on him. Later, in 1930,...
and produced by Jewish Rep, was his New York debut as playwright.
Margulies has developed numerous scripts for film and television. Currently, he is adapting the novel MIDDLESEX
Middlesex (novel)
Middlesex is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Jeffrey Eugenides published in 2002. The book is a bestseller, with more than three million copies sold as of May 2011. Its characters and events are loosely based on aspects of Eugenides' life and observations of his Greek heritage. It is...
by Jeffrey Eugenides
Jeffrey Eugenides
Jeffrey Kent Eugenides is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and short story writer. Eugenides is most known for his first two novels, The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex . His novel The Marriage Plot was published in October, 2011.-Life and career:Eugenides was born in Detroit, Michigan,...
into an HBO miniseries.
Margulies has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
, The New York Foundation for the Arts
New York Foundation for the Arts
The New York Foundation for the Arts was created in conjunction the in 1971. The organization gives grants to individual artists and writers and developing arts organizations with a mission to '.'-NYFA's Programs:...
, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Mr. and Mrs. Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died April 26, 1922...
. He was the recipient of the 2000 Sidney Kingsley Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Theatre by a playwright. In 2005 he was honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters with an Award in Literature and by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture
National Foundation for Jewish Culture
The Foundation for Jewish Culture is the leading advocate for Jewish cultural life and creativity in the United States....
with its Award in Literary Arts. Margulies is an alumnus of New Dramatists and serves on the council of The Dramatists Guild of America
Dramatists Guild of America
The Dramatists Guild of America is a professional organization for playwrights, composers, and lyricists working in the U.S. theatre market.Membership as an Associate Member is open to any person having written at least one stage play. Active Members are playwrights who have had at least one play...
.
He attended John Dewey High School
John Dewey High School
John Dewey High School, commonly referred to as JDHS or just Dewey is a public school in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, founded and based on the educational principles of John Dewey. It opened in the Fall of 1969 and is located at 50 Avenue X at the Gravesend/Bensonhurst-Bath Beach border of...
in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Purchase College where he received a BFA in visual arts. Margulies lives with his wife, Lynn Street, a physician, and their son, Miles, in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, where he is an adjunct professor of English and Theatre Studies at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
.
Notable Works
- Found a Peanut
- The Loman Family Picnic
- The Model Apartment
- Sight UnseenSight Unseen (play)Sight Unseen is a play by Donald Margulies. At its center is Jonathan Waxman, a Brooklyn Jew who has become a very wealthy critically acclaimed artist. Happily married, with a baby on the way, he travels to London for a retrospective of his work...
- What's Wrong with This Picture?
- Shipwrecked! An Entertainment
- Luna Park
- July 7, 1994
- Nocturne
- Pitching to the Star
- God of Vengeance
- Dinner with FriendsDinner with FriendsDinner with Friends is a 2000 play written by Donald Margulies. It premiered at the 1998 Humana Festival of New American Plays and opened Off-Broadway in New York on November 4, 1999.-Plot summary:...
- Collected StoriesCollected Stories (play)Collected Stories is a play by Donald Margulies which premiered at South Coast Repertory in 1996.It premiered on Broadway in a limited engagement production by the Manhattan Theatre Club with previews having started April 9, 2010, opening April 28, 2010, through June 2010...
- Brooklyn BoyBrooklyn BoyBrooklyn Boy is a play by American playwright Donald Margulies.Novelist Eric Weiss, critically celebrated but unsuccessful, "arrives" when his new, autobiographical novel becomes a best-seller. An outsider all his life, he is suddenly on the inside of everything: town cars, television studios, the...
- Time Stands StillTime Stands Still (play)Time Stands Still is a play written by the Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies and directed by Tony Award winner Daniel Sullivan about changing relationships and developing social issues...
External links
- Program from the world premiere of Shipwrecked! at South Coast RepertorySouth Coast RepertorySouth Coast Repertory is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California.Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Paula Tomei, is widely...
- Program from the world premiere of Brooklyn Boy at South Coast RepertorySouth Coast RepertorySouth Coast Repertory is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California.Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Paula Tomei, is widely...
- Donald Margulies - Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.orgAmerican Theatre WingThe American Theatre Wing is a New York City-based organization "dedicated to supporting excellence and education in theatre," according to its mission statement...