- David Grimm (playwright)
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David Grimm File:Davidgrimm.jpg Born 1965 - Present
Oberlin, OhioOccupation Playwright, Screenwriter Nationality American Notable work(s) Measure for Pleasure
Kit MarloweNotable award(s) Bug 'n Bub Award, Panowski Award, GLAAD Media Awards (nom.), Drama League (nom.) David Grimm is an American playwright and screenwriter, residing in Brooklyn, New York.
Contents
Early years
Grimm was born October 18, 1965, in Oberlin, Ohio, and raised in Israel. In Junior High, David Grimm produced, directed, and starred in an 1890’s melodrama which was presented to the entire Oberlin Middle School. In High School, where he was an active member of the National Thespian Society, he wrote and directed several one act plays, exploring a range of topics and styles from vampirism to the Theatre of the Absurd.
Grimm attended Sarah Lawrence College (BA, '87) and New York University (MFA, '92). In college, Grimm concentrated in literature and pursued acting, studying in London. He wrote and directed an epic retelling of the life and death of King Edward II which starred a young Julianna Margulies and the soon-to-be writer-producer Scott King. For a few years after college, Grimm worked on creating theatre with writer/performance artist David Drake. After Graduate School at NYU, Grimm was literary manager at Williamstown Theatre Festival for one season where a short play of his, “Enough Rope,” was given a special presentation starring Elaine Stritch.
His Work
Simultaneously utilizing and subverting classical dramatic structures and various historical settings, Grimm's plays speak to contemporary issues and audiences with "an authentically sharp wit" (The New York Times).
Grimm's plays have received premieres at theatres such as The Public Theater, Hartford Stage, The Huntington Theatre Company, and La Jolla Playhouse, among others. Grimm's plays have been developed at the Sundance Institute's Sundance Theatre Lab and the Sundance Writers Retreat at Ucross, the Old Vic New Voices series, New York Stage & Film, and through an NEA/TCG Residency Grant. He has taught playwriting and screenwriting at Columbia University, Brown University, and Yale School of Drama.
Grimm is a member of the Writers Guild, the Dramatists Guild, the PEN American Center, and is an alumnus of New Dramatists and has written screenplays for Disney/Bruckheimer.
Latest Plays
The Miracle at Naples
The Miracle at Naples received its world premiere at The Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, MA in April, 2009. The production was directed by Huntington artistic director Peter Dubois, starring Dick Latessa, Alma Cuervo, Lucy Devitto.
The Story: A band of traveling commedia players in Renaissance Italy ignites the passions of the locals when they arrive to perform at the Feast of San Gennaro. A series of lovers romp through the town piazza seeking pleasure and finding love in this outrageously smart and bawdy comedy [1]Steve & Idi
Steve & Idi was developed at the Sundance Theatre Lab and is the first play from Rattlestick's "DirtyWorks" reading series to have a full production. The play received its world premiere at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in New York, NY in April, 2008 in which David Grimm played Steve to the Idi of Evan Parke.
The Story: Steve's life is spinning out of control. His work is going nowhere, his lover dumps him, his friendships are strained and, as if that's not enough, the ghost of General Idi Amin, the Ugandan dictator, bursts through his window with a very strange demand.[2]Chick
Chick is based on the book Magician of the Modern by Eugene R. Gaddis and was commissioned by Hartford Stage as part of the Hartford Heritage Project, and developed in a workshop during the 2006 Brand:NEW Fall Festival of New Work.. The play received its world premiere at Hartford Stage in 2007 starring Robbie Sella and his wife, Enid Graham.[3]
The Story: In 1927, a passionate and rebellious young man, A. Everett ("Chick") Austin, was made director of America's oldest public art museum, the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut. What followed was a career that shook up the city and reinvigorated the arts in America. But what is the cost—both personal and professional—of blazing such a trail? A play in three monologues based on the life and career of "Chick" Austin and his marriage to Helen Goodwin.[4]Measure for Pleasure
Measure for Pleasure was developed at the Sundance Theatre Lab, as well as at the Old Vic New Voices program. It received its world premiere in March, 2006 at The Public Theater in New York, NY. The production was directed by Peter DuBois, starring Wayne Knight, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Euan Morton and Suzanne Bertish.[5]
The Story: Will Blunt is in love with Molly, a young transvestite prostitute. But when Blunt rescues him from a life on the streets, he doesn't count on Molly falling in love with Dashwood, the handsome womanizing rake. Restoration comedy meets modern sex farce in this romantic adventure, exploring the elusive nature of happiness and featuring mistaken identities, duels and double-dealings, gay marriage and the obligatory sex cave.[6]The Learned Ladies of Park Avenue
The Learned Ladies of Park Avenue received its world premiere at Hartford Stage in September, 2005 directed by artistic director Michael Wilson.
The Story: A jazz-age screwball comedy riff on Molière's biting satire of pretense and learning. Betty wants to marry Dicky. Her mother Phyllis, a self-proclaimed intellectual and political activist, has another man in mind—namely, the hack poet and scheming opportunist Upton Gabbitt. Set in 1936 Manhattan against the backdrop of the Great Depression and impending war, this romantic comedy skewers those who wear their so-cial conscience on their sleeve and affirms that love conquers all.[7]The Savages of Hartford
The Savages of Hartford was commissioned by The Public Theater/NY Shakespeare Festival. Developed at Hartford Stage with the support from the NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights, and the Vivendi Universal Residency Award.[8]
The Story: Family secrets, political ambition, monstrous acts. Firmly rooted in the tradition of Jacobean revenge tragedies, the play presents a searing family portrait set in modern-day Hartford, CT. Two brothers—one returning from war, one thrown out onto the streets—search for the meaning in a world that threatens to destroy all they hold dear. [9]Kit Marlowe
Kit Marlowe received its world premiere at The Public Theater in November, 2000 starring Christian Camargo, Sam Trammell and Keith David.
The Story: Hungry for adventure and a way to make his mark, poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe becomes a spy for a dark wing of the British government and seals his hero Sir Walter Raleigh's fate and his own. Set in the seedy underworld of Elizabethan England, this story of the meteoric rise and fall of Kit Marlowe—playwright, poet, spy and sexual outlaw—charts the ambitions of youth in a cold and unforgiving world. [10]Sheridan, or Schooled in Scandal
Sheridan, or Schooled in Scandal received its world premiere at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, CA in July, 2000. The production was directed by Mark Brokaw.[11]
The Story: Set in a London rife with gossip, blackmail and political intrigue during the reign of mad King George III, this darkly comic tale follows the development of the friendship between famed playwright, theatre manager and politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan and young poet Lord Byron. In this complicated world where everybody seems to be doing the wrong thing for the wrong reason, Sheridan comes to con-front the classic choice between doing the right thing and suffering personally, or betraying his conscience and profiting from it. [12]Enough Rope
Enough Rope was done at Williamstown Theatre Festival, starring Elaine Stritch.
edgar
edgar was the winner of the 1996 Julie Harris Playwright’s Award; the 1996 Panowski Award; University of Northern Michigan (1996).[13]
The Story: Born in a madhouse a hundred years ago, Edgar, a 21-year-old hunchback, longs to discover the wonders of the world that lie beyond the asylum walls. With the help of his tutor, a man imprisoned for brutally murdering his wife, Edgar confronts the pains of youth and price of dreams.[13]Killing Hilda
Killing Hilda was Produced by Blue Moon Productions, NYC in 1999 and Stage Q, Madison, WI in 2001.
The Story: A gay, mass-murdering Gynecologist discovers the pain of true love in this fast-paced black comedy. [14]Theatrophy
Theatrophy
many of Grimm's plays are published by Dramatists Play Service.
Awards and honors
Grimm's work has received the Julie Harris Playwright Award, the Bug 'n Bub Award, the Panowski Award, and has been nominated for GLAAD Media Awards (twice), as well as a Drama League Award nomination.
Appearances
Originally taped in December 2007, Grimm joined a panel of playwrights on American Theatre Wing's Working in the Theatre. Grimm, Carlyle Brown, Quiara Alegría Hudes and Lucy Thurber talked about their differing styles of playwriting, what inspired them to start writing, how the world of the playwright has evolved and changed and what influences their writing and the challenges in getting their work produced. [15]
Sources
- ^ Huntington Theatre Company – Miracle at Naples
- ^ Smarttix.com - Steve & Idi
- ^ Hartford Stage - Chick
- ^ Dramatists - David Grimm/Chick
- ^ NY Times - News and Features
- ^ Dramatists.com - David Grimm/Measure for Pleasure
- ^ Dramatists.com - David Grimm/Learned Ladies of Park Avenue
- ^ NewDramatists.org - David Grimm
- ^ NewDramatists.org - David Grimm
- ^ Dramatists.com - David Grimm/Kit Marlowe
- ^ La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego, CA
- ^ Dramatists.org - David Grimm/Sheridan
- ^ a b Dramatists.org - David Grimm/edgar
- ^ Dramatists.com - David Grimm/Killing Hilda
- ^ American Theare Wing TV Appearance
References
http://americantheatrewing.org/wit/detail/new_dramatists_12_07
http://www.newdramatists.org/david_grimm.htm
http://rorschachtheatre.blogspot.com/2007/10/get-to-know-david-grimm.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/07/theater/newsandfeatures/07grim.html
http://broadwayworld.com/people/David_Grimm/
http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2009/04/10/all_for_naughty/
http://www.rattlestick.org/news/
http://books.google.com/books?id=ULVJTgm10gsC&dq=David+Grimm+playwright&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=a36_9rgzN-&sig=kYtWiIbDy6JYfhgxgZoBFdahHd4&hl=en&ei=lXhcSvimDoyOtAPs7OCsCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8 http://www.playbill.com/news/article/116267-Playwright_Grimm_Cast_in_His_Amin_Fantasy_Steve_&_Idi_Off-Broadway
http://americantheatrewing.org/biography/detail/david_grimm
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2006/03/09/theater/reviews/09meas.html?pagewanted=printCategories:- 1965 births
- Living people
- American dramatists and playwrights
- American writers
- People from Oberlin, Ohio
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