Steve Moore (Playwright)
Encyclopedia
Steve Moore is a playwright
born in Chicago, Illinois. He attended the University of Chicago
where he majored in Classics
, and recently received an MFA
in Playwrighting from the University of Texas at Austin
. He has received wide critical acclaim for his vibrant, creative, and contemplative stage plays.
After graduating, he moved to Austin, Texas
and, along with a few fellow theatre-savvy friends, created the Physical Plant Theatre Company. Since its beginnings, Moore has written the majority of the company's plays, receiving vast praise from Austin theatre and arts critics.
In 2006, one of his arguably best plays, Not Clown enjoyed an Off-Broadway
run to positive reviews from The New York Times
.
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...
born in Chicago, Illinois. He attended the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
where he majored in Classics
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
, and recently received an MFA
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
in Playwrighting from the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
. He has received wide critical acclaim for his vibrant, creative, and contemplative stage plays.
After graduating, he moved to Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
and, along with a few fellow theatre-savvy friends, created the Physical Plant Theatre Company. Since its beginnings, Moore has written the majority of the company's plays, receiving vast praise from Austin theatre and arts critics.
In 2006, one of his arguably best plays, Not Clown enjoyed an Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
run to positive reviews from The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
.
Stage plays
- Plant Number One (1994) - An imagistic, highly choreographed comedy set in a Draconian office of the future. Inadvertently, one afternoon Employee #16 drops a staple that by morning has come to life and learned to type. The play tracks the staple's meteoric rise to power in the corporate world.
- Digi-glo (1994) - A single actor moves between three "spheres" onstage to recount a mysterious car trip to Seattle. In one sphere, a driver picks up a hitchhiker who is the incarnation of the driver's failed romantic relationship; in another, a lecturer postulates about that relationship's history and future; and in the third, a miniature clown version of the driver panics, rambles, and represents a variety of inner upheaval.
- Tiller (1995) - Two fates hang in swings above a doomed ship whose captain has steered it into a sea of dreams. The oarsmen pound out language like a heart pounding blood, as the navigator frets and sings. With this play we discovered a space between what is visible and invisible, possible and impossible, and the fates are seized and made to answer for the unearned ill-luck of the ship and her crew.
- barber, tallman, Cora, clown (1995) - In this joyfully obscure and bizarre mass-collaboration, the tallest man in the world goes for a haircut at a barber shop whose blue barbicide fluide serves as a portal to an invisible, unsteady circus world. An echo chamber of symbols and language as pure and complete as a dream.
- (once.) (1996) - Alfred's love of the playpus leads him toward and away from a gazebo (which is ever on fire), where he meets and falls in love with Agnes—who gathers up the fallen pieces of the sky in her wheelbarrow. In an old Hyde Park toolshed for seven weeks, never for more than fourteen people each night, and always for free, we performed this strange, quiet, lyrical play.
- The Whimsy (1998) - A puppet-and-human play with live music where the artifacts of dreams arrive in the pockets of the wide-awake, where hearts attached on the outside of the body, where the yard-bird spoke and the Moon sang. A love story in the middle of the sea.
- The Kindermann Depiction (2002) - From eight feet above the action, the audience observed characters who never spoke but sometimes sang, whose currencies were ice, blood, books, and grieving, and whose engine was the death of a nameless child.
- Not Clown (2004) - In a time when clowns are tortured and circuses banned, a renegade troupe enacts the story of a girl who longs for their outlawed life—even as her father commits atrocities on the State's behalf. Limbs rebel against the body. The cram car bolts for the border. And a round, red nose is a dark souvenir.
- Nightswim (2004) - Tells the story of Roy BedichekRoy BedichekRoy Bedichek was a Texan writer, naturalist and educator.-Early life and education:Roy Bedichek was born on June 27, 1878 in Cass County, Illinois to parents James Madison Bedichek and Lucretia Ellen Craven. The family relocated to Falls County, Texas in 1884...
, J. Frank DobieJ. Frank DobieJames Frank Dobie was an American folklorist, writer, and newspaper columnist best known for many books depicting the richness and traditions of life in rural Texas during the days of the open range...
and Walter Prescott WebbWalter Prescott WebbWalter Prescott Webb was a 20th century U.S. historian and author noted for his groundbreaking historical work on the American West. As president of the Texas State Historical Association, he launched the project that produced the Handbook of Texas...
-- the inspirations behind the Philosophers' Rock sculpture at Barton SpringsBarton SpringsBarton Springs is a set of four natural water springs located on the grounds of Zilker Park in Austin, Texas resulting from water flowing through the Edwards Aquifer. The largest spring, Main Barton Spring supplies water to Barton Springs Pool, a popular recreational destination in Austin...
. A naturalistNatural historyNatural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
, a storytellerStorytellingStorytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to instill moral values...
and a historianHistorianA historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, the trio once defined popular literature in AustinAustin, TexasAustin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
. Moore animates the friends at their beloved Barton Springs on the demise of Bedichek, who negotiates with a post-mortem gatekeeperGatekeeperGatekeeper or gatekeeping may refer to:* Gatekeeper , a professional boxer who is considered a test for aspiring boxers* Gatekeeping , a person or organization who manages or constrains a flow of knowledge...
("X") to spend more time in the place he loved the most.
- Kneeling Down At Noon (2006) - Physical Plant teams up with St. Edward's UniversitySt. Edward's UniversitySt. Edward's University is a private Roman Catholic institution of higher learning located south of Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas. The university offers a liberal arts education and its campus is located on a hill overlooking the city of Austin. The campus's most notable landmark is Main...
to present this original play about IslamIslamIslam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
-- or, more particularly, about the lives of a handful of Muslims struggling to find, share, and live their daily faith. From the devout wife of a Syrian atheist activist, to the doubting son struggling with prejudice in America, to the secret policeman twisting Islam to his own ends, each character is a lens onto this complex and much-maligned religion. But more than that, the play folds these characters into remarkable stories that undermine, amplify, and invigorate the ways they understand God—and the will of God on earth.
- Petite-Petite, or Bright Misgivings (2008) - A puppet show in which ParisParisParis 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...
reaches accidental perfection while the world beyond unravels. GodGodGod is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
and VoltaireVoltaireFrançois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
share a flat and fight about the dishes. Teams of identical HemingwaysErnest HemingwayErnest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
play water poloWater poloWater polo is a team water sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The winner of the game is the team that scores more goals. Game play involves swimming, treading water , players passing the ball while being defended by opponents, and scoring by throwing into a...
in the SeineSeineThe Seine is a -long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Saint-Seine near Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre . It is navigable by ocean-going vessels...
. Joan of ArcJoan of ArcSaint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
is giving up smoking. Baudelaire runs an opium denOpium denAn opium den was an establishment where opium was sold and smoked. Opium dens were prevalent in many parts of the world in the 19th century, most notably China, Southeast Asia, North America and France...
. And a wide-eyed walrusWalrusThe walrus is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic...
arrives in the middle of the night.