- Oren Safdie
-
Oren Safdie is a Canadian-American-Israeli playwright and screenwriter, and the son of architect Moshe Safdie.
Prior to embarking on a career in writing, he graduated with a Master's in Architecture from Columbia University. He also received an MFA from Columbia University in Fiction Writing. While at Columbia he studied with playwright Romulus Linney.
His plays include The Bilbao Effect, West Bank, UK, The Last Word..., Jews & Jesus, Fiddler Sub-Terrain, Hyper-Allergenic, Broken Places, Laughing Dogs, La Compagnie and Private Jokes, Public Places which debuted at the Malibu Stage Co. and went on to play in New York at La MaMa ETC, before transferring to the Center of Architecture for a 5 month run. It also received productions at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, Welfleet Harbor Actor's Theatre in Boston, the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley, California, The New End Theatre in London, England, and the National Theatre of Romania in Timisoara.
He currently[when?] holds the position of the Artistic Director of the Malibu Stage Co. and is married to actress/playwright M. J. Kang. They have a daughter born in 2008, and divide their time between Santa Monica and Montreal where he is originally from.
Works
Private Jokes, Public Places was a critical off-Broadway hit and was singled out as one of the top 6 new plays of the decade 2000/10 by the Wall Street Journal.,[1][2] The play is regularly performed by students at architecture schools to mark the beginning of the year.
The Last Word..., debuted Off-Broadway in 2007 in New York City, starring Daniel J. Travanti in the title role.[3] Ed Asner did the first reading at The Malibu Stage Co.
West Bank, UK - a musical comedy about a Palestinian and Israeli forced to share a rundown rent-controlled apartment - debuted at La MaMa in 2007/08, and was a co-production with the Malibu Stage Co.</ref> http://theater.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/theater/reviews/12west.html</ref>
The Bilbao Effect - the second in a trilogy on contemporary architecture - played at the Center for Architecture in New York in May/June 2010.[4]
Private Jokes, Public Places, The Last Word... and "The Bilbao Effect" are published by Dramatists Play Service. Private Jokes, Public Places is also published by Playwrights Canada Press along with excerpts that appear in several books about design, and is also translated into Romanian and Japanese.
La Compagnie was later turned into Fashion Avenue, a pilot for Castle Rock and CBS.
Safdie wrote the 1998 film You Can Thank Me Later, based on his play Hyper-Allergenic. It stars Ellen Burstyn, Amanda Plummer, Ted Levine, Mark Blum, Mary McDonnell and Geneviève Bujold. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the Newport Film Festival. It was subsequently premiered on Showtime in the United States.
Safdie also co-wrote the 2007 Israeli film Bittersweet, directed by Doron Benvenisti, which played at the Jerusalem and Montreal World Film Festivals.
He is also a contributor to Metropolis Magazine,[5] and has also written for Dwell[6], The Forward</ref>http://forward.com/articles/140871/</ref>, and The New Republic.[7]
Reception
Safdie is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships including The Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, and the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles.
References
- ^ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703745904575248221974792644.html
- ^ http://theater.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?_r=1&res=9D02E2D6103FF930A25756C0A9659C8B63&scp=8&sq=oren%20safdie&st=cse
- ^ http://www.artsjournal.com/aboutlastnight/archives20070211.shtml
- ^ http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/goingson/2010/06/architects-onstage.html
- ^ http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/mag_subsection.php?secid=5&subsecid=66
- ^ www.dwell.com/articles/a-complex-story.html
- ^ http://www.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2009/03/27/israel-critics-take-center-stage.aspx
Categories:- Canadian dramatists and playwrights
- Canadian screenwriters
- Jewish Canadian writers
- People from Montreal
- Living people
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