J. T. Rogers

J. T. Rogers is an American playwright who lives in Brooklyn, New York. He is a graduate of the professional actor-training program of the North Carolina School of the Arts.

He was selected as one of ten playwrights in the United States to receive a NEA/TCG Theatre Residency for 2004-2005, through which he was playwright in residence at the Salt Lake Acting Company (Salt Lake City). His play "Madagascar" received the American Theatre Critics Association's 2004 M. Elizabeth Osborne Aware and the 2005 Pinter Review Prize for Drama, which included its first publication by the University of Tampa Press and a related public dramatic reading. It was also a finalist for the ATCA's Steinberg New Play Award and performed at the New Play Festival in New York City in July 2005. In 2004 Rogers was awarded a playwriting fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts (PlayPenn & other press releases).

Rogers is the author of "White People", which had its world première at the Philadelphia Theatre Company and then received the L.A. Drama Critics Circle and John Barrymore Award nominations for "Best Play of the Year." His play "Seeing the Elephant" was nominated for the Kesserlring Prize for "Best New American Play," and his play "Murmuring in a Dead Tongue" was produced by Epic Rep, in New York City, where he is a company member, in its 2003-2004 season. His works have been seen at the Williamstown Theater Festival, New Theatre of Coral Gables, Florida, New Actors Union Theatre (Moscow), Road Theatre (Los Angeles), and often at the Salt Lake Acting Company. He is a founding member of The Next Stage, in New York City, which produced his plays "Bob Comes to Life", "Above the Beasts", and "Frankfurt". In September 2004, he was artist-in-residence at the Eugene O'Neill Center. He has also been a guest artist at Truman State University (Missouri), and lectured at the schools of drama at the [North Carolina School of the Arts] and the University of Utah and at the Claremont McKenna College economics school (PlayPenn & other press releases; inside book jacket of "Madagascar").

J. T. Rogers' most recent play "The Overwhelming", in which an American family who arrive in Kigali, Rwanda, in early 1994, must confront life-and-death realities of the Rwandan Genocide, had its world première at the Cottesloe Theatre, Royal National Theatre, London, in association with Out of Joint, in May 2006. It is on tour throughout the UK during the summer of 2006. Rogers received the prestigious Otis Guernsey New Voices Playwriting Award at the 2007 [William Inge Theatre Festival] in Independence, KS.

Plays

* "The Overwhelming" (2004)
* "Madagascar" (2004)
* "Murmuring in a Dead Tongue" (1998; 2003)
* "Seeing the Elephant"
* "White People" (2000)
* "Above the Beasts"
* "Bob Comes to Life"
* "Frankfurt"
* "Penetrating Malaysia"
* "Guy Talk"
* "Lionel's Blue"
* "Chicks 'N Beer"
* "The Saddest Lines"

References

External links

* [http://www.americantheatrecritics.org/ATCAPR_ATCAOsborn-05.asp American Theatre Critics Association press release] . Online posting. 11 Feb. 2005.
* [http://www.playpenn.org/rogers.html Play Penn Press Release] . 29 June 2006.
* "The Overwhelming", by J. T. Rogers. Production information. Online posting. [http://www.outofjoint.co.uk/prods/overwhelming.html "The Overwhelming" (Out of Joint)] produced in association with the [http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/?lid=17183 Royal National Theatre] . World première, London. May 2006.
* Rogers, J. T. "Madagascar". Tampa: U of Tampa Press, 2005. [http://www.new-theatre.org/rogers.php New Theatre (Florida) press release

ee also

* Rwandan Genocide
* Bibliography of the Rwandan Genocide