Steven Dietz
Encyclopedia
Steven Dietz is an American
playwright whose work is largely performed regionally, i.e. outside of New York City
. In 2010, Dietz was once again named one of the most produced playwrights in America (excluding Shakespeare), placing eighth on the list of the Top Ten Most Produced Playwrights in America, tied with Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee for number of productions. Dietz was recently awarded the 2011-12 Ingram New Works Fellowship (following previous winners David Auburn and John Patrick Shanley) by the Tennessee Repertory Theatre.
, Dietz graduated in 1980 with a B.A. in Theatre Arts from the University of Northern Colorado
, after which he moved to Minneapolis and began his career as a director of new plays at The Playwrights' Center
and other local theaters. During these years he also formed a small theatre company (Quicksilver Stage) and began to write plays of his own. A commission from ACT Theatre
to write "God's Country" brought him to Seattle, Washington
in 1988, and he lived and worked in Seattle from 1991 to 2006. He now divides his time between Seattle and Austin, Texas
where he teaches playwriting and directing at the University of Texas at Austin
.
He is the recipient of the PEN
U.S.A. Award in Drama (for Lonely Planet
), perhaps his most widely-performed work; the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award (Fiction and Still Life With Iris); the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest
Award (The Rememberer); the Yomiuri Shinbun Award for his adaptation of Shusaku Endo
's Silence; and the 2007 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Mystery for his adaptation of William Gillette
's and Arthur Conan Doyle
's 1899 play Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure. Dietz is also a two-time finalist for the prestigious Steinberg New Play Award (for "Last of the Boys" and "Becky's New Car"), given by the American Theatre Critics Association.
Dietz's plays range from the political ("Last of the Boys", "God's Country", "Halcyon Days", "Lonely Planet") to the comedic ("Becky's New Car", "More Fun than Bowling", "Over the Moon"). Many of them, (e.g. "Trust", "Private Eyes", "Fiction", "Force of Nature") have as a central theme the effects of personal betrayal and deception. The majority of the plays are published (in acting editions) by either Dramatists Play Service (New York), or Samuel French, Inc., (New York). Many of the short plays are anthologized.
Dietz's work as a director has been seen at many of America's leading regional theatres. He has directed premiere productions of new plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville
's Humana Festival, Seattle Repertory Theatre
, Denver Center Theatre Company, Northlight Theatre (Chicago), ACT Theatre
(Seattle), San Jose Repertory Theatre
, City Theatre
(Pittsburgh), Westside Arts (Off-Broadway), and the Sundance Institute
, among many others. He was a resident director for ten years at the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, where he also served as Artistic Director of Midwest PlayLabs.
Dietz's articles on new play development—most first seen in American Theatre Magazine—have been widely discussed and re-printed.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
playwright whose work is largely performed regionally, i.e. outside of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In 2010, Dietz was once again named one of the most produced playwrights in America (excluding Shakespeare), placing eighth on the list of the Top Ten Most Produced Playwrights in America, tied with Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee for number of productions. Dietz was recently awarded the 2011-12 Ingram New Works Fellowship (following previous winners David Auburn and John Patrick Shanley) by the Tennessee Repertory Theatre.
Life and career
Born and raised in Denver, ColoradoColorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, Dietz graduated in 1980 with a B.A. in Theatre Arts from the University of Northern Colorado
University of Northern Colorado
-Organization:The University of Northern Colorado offers 100 undergraduate programs and more than 100 graduate programs. The university has a satellite campus in Denver, Colorado...
, after which he moved to Minneapolis and began his career as a director of new plays at The Playwrights' Center
The Playwrights' Center
The Playwrights' Center is a theater organization established in 1971 in Minneapolis, Minnesota with the aim of furthering the careers of both new and established individuals in the field. Five playwrights formed the organization in the hopes of providing/obtaining support for new play development...
and other local theaters. During these years he also formed a small theatre company (Quicksilver Stage) and began to write plays of his own. A commission from 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...
to write "God's Country" brought him to Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
in 1988, and he lived and worked in Seattle from 1991 to 2006. He now divides his time between Seattle and 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...
where he teaches playwriting and directing at 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 is the recipient of the PEN
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
U.S.A. Award in Drama (for Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet (play)
Lonely Planet is a two character play written by Steven Dietz. The play tells the story of Jody and Carl, two gay men who live in an unnamed American city...
), perhaps his most widely-performed work; the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award (Fiction and Still Life With Iris); the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
Award (The Rememberer); the Yomiuri Shinbun Award for his adaptation of Shusaku Endo
Shusaku Endo
Shūsaku Endō was a 20th-century Japanese author who wrote from the unusual perspective of being both Japanese and Catholic...
's Silence; and the 2007 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Mystery for his adaptation of William Gillette
William Gillette
William Hooker Gillette was an American actor, playwright and stage-manager in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who is best remembered today for portraying Sherlock Holmes....
's and Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
's 1899 play Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure. Dietz is also a two-time finalist for the prestigious Steinberg New Play Award (for "Last of the Boys" and "Becky's New Car"), given by the American Theatre Critics Association.
Dietz's plays range from the political ("Last of the Boys", "God's Country", "Halcyon Days", "Lonely Planet") to the comedic ("Becky's New Car", "More Fun than Bowling", "Over the Moon"). Many of them, (e.g. "Trust", "Private Eyes", "Fiction", "Force of Nature") have as a central theme the effects of personal betrayal and deception. The majority of the plays are published (in acting editions) by either Dramatists Play Service (New York), or Samuel French, Inc., (New York). Many of the short plays are anthologized.
Dietz's work as a director has been seen at many of America's leading regional theatres. He has directed premiere productions of new plays at 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...
's Humana Festival, Seattle Repertory Theatre
Seattle Repertory Theatre
Seattle Repertory Theatre is a major regional theatre located in Seattle, Washington, at the Seattle Center. It is a member of Theatre Puget Sound and Theatre Communications Group. Founded in 1963, it is led by Artistic Director Jerry Manning and Managing Director Benjamin Moore...
, Denver Center Theatre Company, Northlight Theatre (Chicago), 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), San Jose Repertory Theatre
San Jose Repertory Theatre
The San Jose Repertory Theatre was founded in 1980 by James P. Reber as the first resident professional theatre company in San Jose, California, and is currently the largest non-profit, professional theatre company in the South Bay...
, City Theatre
City Theatre (Pittsburgh)
City Theatre is a professional theatre company located in Pittsburgh's South Side. It specializes in productions of new plays and has commissioned new works by playwrights on the national theatre scene, including Christopher Durang, Adam Rapp, and Jeffrey Hatcher...
(Pittsburgh), Westside Arts (Off-Broadway), and the Sundance Institute
Sundance Institute
Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981 that actively advances the work of filmmakers and storytellers worldwide...
, among many others. He was a resident director for ten years at the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, where he also served as Artistic Director of Midwest PlayLabs.
Dietz's articles on new play development—most first seen in American Theatre Magazine—have been widely discussed and re-printed.
Original plays (by year of first production)
- Brothers and Sisters (1981)
- Railroad Tales (1983)
- Random Acts (1983)
- Wanderlust (1984)
- More Fun Than Bowling (1986)
- Painting It Red (1986) (music by Gary Rue and Leslie Ball)
- Burning Desire (1987) (short play)
- Foolin' Around with Infinity (1987)
- Ten November (1987) (music by Eric Bain Peltoniemi)
- God's Country (1988)
- Happenstance (1989) (music by Eric Bain Peltoniemi)
- After You (1990) (short play)
- Halcyon DaysHalcyon Days (play)Halcyon Days is a play written by Steven Dietz that satirizes the 1983 American invasion of Grenada.The play had its world premiere October 24, 1991 at the ACT Theatre in Seattle, Washington.-Characters:*Eddie, a Senator, forties...
(1991) - To The Nines (1991) (short play)
- Trust (1992)
- Lonely PlanetLonely Planet (play)Lonely Planet is a two character play written by Steven Dietz. The play tells the story of Jody and Carl, two gay men who live in an unnamed American city...
(1993) - Handing Down the Names (1994)
- The Nina Variations (1996) (variations on the last scene of ChekhovAnton ChekhovAnton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
's The SeagullThe SeagullThe Seagull is the first of what are generally considered to be the four major plays by the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. The Seagull was written in 1895 and first produced in 1896...
) - Private EyesPrivate Eyes (play)Private Eyes is a 1996 drama by Steven Dietz about deception and broken trust, labeled by the author as a "comedy of suspicion", as the story is brought in multiple layers and the audience is repeatedly tricked to believe that the current situation is real...
(1996) - Still Life with Iris (1997)
- Rocket Man (1998)
- Fiction (2002)
- Left to Right (2002) (short)
- Inventing van Gogh (2004)
- Last of the Boys (2004)
- The Spot (2004) (short)
- September Call-Up (2006) (short)
- Yankee Tavern (2007)http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-oddities-about-911-we-cant-explain-away/Content?oid=4643289
- Shooting Star(2008)
- Becky's New Car (2008)
Plays adapted from other sources
- The Rememberer (1994) (from the unpublished memoirs of Joyce Simmons Cheeka)
- Silence (1995) (from Shusaku EndoShusaku EndoShūsaku Endō was a 20th-century Japanese author who wrote from the unusual perspective of being both Japanese and Catholic...
's novelSilence (novel)is a 1966 novel of historical fiction by Japanese author Shusaku Endo. It is the story of a Jesuit missionary sent to seventeenth century Japan, who endured persecution in the time of Kakure Kirishitan that followed the defeat of the Shimabara Rebellion...
) - DraculaDracula (1996)Dracula is an adaptation, first published in 1996, by American playwright by Steven Dietz of Bram Stoker's novel by the same name. Though it has never run on Broadway, the author lists it among his most financially successful works, and it is frequently performed near Halloween in regional and...
(1996) (from Bram StokerBram StokerAbraham "Bram" Stoker was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula...
) - Force of Nature (1999) (after Elective AffinitiesElective AffinitiesElective Affinities , also translated under the title Kindred by Choice, is the third novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, published in 1809. The title is taken from a scientific term once used to describe the tendency of chemical species to combine with certain substances or species in preference...
by Goethe) - Go, Dog. Go!Go, Dog. Go!Go, Dog. Go! is a 1961 children's book written and illustrated by P. D. Eastman.The book describes the actions and interactions of a group of highly mobile dogs, who operate cars and other conveyances in pursuit of work, play, and a final mysterious goal: a dog party.The book introduces concepts...
(2003) (from P.D. Eastman) - a musical adaptation co-written with his wife, Allison Gregory. - Over The Moon (2003) (after "The Small Bachelor" by P.G. Wodehouse)http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2003-10-23/culture/so-farce-so-good/
- Paragon Springs (2004) (from "An Enemy of the People" by Ibsen)
- Honus and Me (2005) (from Dan GutmanDan GutmanDan Gutman is an American author from New Jersey. A prolific writer, Gutman has written 80 books, both fictional and non-fictional, under publishers including Penguin Books, Macmillan, Scholastic Press, and HarperCollins...
) - Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure (2006) (from William GilletteWilliam GilletteWilliam Hooker Gillette was an American actor, playwright and stage-manager in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who is best remembered today for portraying Sherlock Holmes....
and Arthur Conan DoyleArthur Conan DoyleSir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
) - Jackie and Me (from Dan Gutman) http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/the_theater_loop/2011/02/jackie-and-me-by-chicago-childrens-theatre-powerful-baseball-play-wins-over-the-audience.html
- 360 (round dance) http://texasperformingarts.org/event/rounddance (from Arthur SchnitzlerArthur SchnitzlerDr. Arthur Schnitzler was an Austrian author and dramatist.- Biography :Arthur Schnitzler, son of a prominent Hungarian-Jewish laryngologist Johann Schnitzler and Luise Markbreiter , was born in Praterstraße 16, Leopoldstadt, Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian...
's 1900 play, "Reigen", or "La Ronde"La Ronde (play)La Ronde (play)La Ronde is a 1900 play by Arthur Schnitzler. It scrutinizes the sexual morals and class ideology of its day through a series of encounters between pairs of characters . By choosing characters across all levels of society, the play offers social commentary on how sexual contact transgresses...
)
Sources
- "Being Prolific Has Its Own Rewards" - Austin American Statesman profile
- "Working Playwright" - Austin Chronicle article by Robert Faires
- "Brick Solid" - Seattle Weekly article by John Longenbaugh
- Faculty page at University of Texas
- March 2003 Interview with Steven Dietz from Theatrescene.net
- Playbill's Brief Encounter with Steven Dietz
- Information on Steven Dietz by doollee.com
- Bibliography at goodreads.com
- Michael D. Mitchell Bio and discussion of Sherlock Holmes adaptation in "Understudy" , a guide to plays at Fulton, 2007.