Annie Dorsen
{{Short description|American theater director}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{infobox person
|name = Annie Dorsen
|image = Annie Dorsen in 2010.jpg
|birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1973}}
|birth_place = New York City
|caption = Dorsen in 2010
|nationality = American
|occupation = Playwright, director
|education = Yale University,
Yale School of Drama
|awards = {{plainlist|
}}
|father = Norman Dorsen
}}
Annie Dorsen (born 1973) is an American theater director. She is the co-creator and director of the Broadway musical Passing Strange, and her work in "algorithmic theater" includes the plays Hello Hi There, A Piece of Work, and Yesterday Tomorrow. Dorsen has received an Alpert Award in the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship.
Early life and education
Dorsen was born in 1973 in New York City to Harriette and Norman Dorsen.{{cite web|url=https://www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org/recipients/annie-dorsen|title=Grants to Artists: Annie Dorsen|publisher=Foundation for Contemporary Arts|access-date=October 2, 2019}}{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/02/us/norman-dorsen-obituary-aclu.html|title=Norman Dorsen, Tenacious Civil Rights Advocate, Dies at 86|work=The New York Times|first=Jonah Engel|last=Bromwich|date=July 2, 2017|access-date=October 2, 2019}} She has two sisters. Caroline Dorsen is a professor at NYU and Jennfer Dorsen is an educator in Boston. She graduated with a BA degree from Yale University in 1996, and received an MFA degree from Yale School of Drama in 2000.{{cite web|url=https://news.yale.edu/2019/09/25/six-yale-affiliates-are-winners-unrestricted-macarthur-genius-grants|title=Six Yale affiliates are winners of unrestricted MacArthur 'genius' grants|website=YaleNews|publisher=Yale University|first=Susan|last=Gonzalez|date=September 25, 2019|access-date=October 2, 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://www.macfound.org/fellows/1034/|title=Annie Dorsen|publisher=MacArthur Foundation|access-date=October 2, 2019}} She attended the Brearley School in NYC and Milton Academy.
Career
In collaboration with Heidi Rodewald and Stew, Dorsen created and directed the rock musical Passing Strange, a semi-fictional story about Stew's life that was co-commissioned by Berkeley Repertory Theatre and The Public Theater.{{cite news|url=https://variety.com/2007/legit/reviews/passing-strange-4-1200559401/|title=Passing Strange|work=Variety|first=Mark|last=Blankenship|date=May 14, 2007|access-date=October 2, 2019}} The show opened Off-Broadway at The Public Theater in 2007, and had its Broadway premiere at the Belasco Theatre in 2008.{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87764153|publisher=National Public Radio|title='Passing Strange' a Real Rock Musical|first=Jeff|last=Lunden|date=February 28, 2008|access-date=October 2, 2019}}{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/theater/reviews/29stra.html|title=It's a Hard Rock Life|work=The New York Times|first=Charles|last=Isherwood|date=February 29, 2008|access-date=October 2, 2019}} While Passing Strange was running on Broadway, Dorsen also created Democracy in America, an Off-Broadway satire of American politics and polling, in which anyone could pay a fee to add their own material to the script being performed.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/05/theater/reviews/05demo.html|title=Performance Art for Sale, Like Elections|work=The New York Times|first=Jason|last=Zinoman|date=April 5, 2008|access-date=October 2, 2019}}
Dorsen has collaborated with computer programmers to produce "algorithmic theater" in which custom algorithms process source material to generate live scripts and scores that are performed by chatbots and human actors.{{Cite web|url=http://www.playbill.com/article/theatre-director-annie-dorsen-among-2019-macarthur-genius-grant-recipients|title=Theatre Director Annie Dorsen Among 2019 MacArthur 'Genius' Grant Recipients|first=Olivia|last=Clement|date=September 25, 2019|website=Playbill|access-date=September 27, 2019}}
Her first piece of "algorithmic theater" was Hello Hi There, in which chatbots use text from the Chomsky–Foucault debate, the works of William Shakespeare, the Bible, and YouTube comments to create unique dialogue for each performance.{{cite web|url=https://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/coil-festival-5-questions-about-hello-hi-there/|title=Coil Festival: 5 Questions About 'Hello Hi There'|website=ArtsBeat Blog|publisher=The New York Times|first=Erik|last=Piepenburg|date=January 10, 2011|access-date=October 2, 2019}} In the five-act play A Piece of Work, chatbots and a human actor perform a script created in real-time by processing the text of Hamlet.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/16/theater/annie-dorsens-a-piece-of-work-at-bam.html|title=To Thine Own Algorithm Be True|work=The New York Times|first=Claudia|last=La Rocco|date=December 15, 2013|access-date=October 2, 2019}} Yesterday Tomorrow, the final piece in Dorsen's trilogy of algorithmic performances, uses custom algorithms to produce a live score, performed by three singers, that transitions from the Beatles song "Yesterday" to the song "Tomorrow" from the musical Annie.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/15/theater/review-yesterday-tomorrow-a-meeting-of-songs-about-time.html|title=Review: 'Yesterday Tomorrow,' a Meeting of Songs About Time|work=The New York Times|first=Charles|last=Isherwood|date=January 14, 2016|access-date=October 2, 2019}}
In 2017, Dorsen received a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts to support her play The Great Outdoors, in which audience members lie down inside an inflatable planetarium and listen to a human performer read recent Internet comments selected and processed by an algorithm.{{cite web|url=http://exeuntmagazine.com/reviews/review-great-outdoors-fiaf-florence-gould-hall/|title=Review: The Great Outdoors at FIAF Florence Gould Hall|work=Exeunt Magazine|first=Molly|last=Grogan|date=September 29, 2017|access-date=October 2, 2019}} A year later, Dorsen received the Spalding Gray Award, which provided funds to produce her play The Slow Room.{{cite news|url=https://www.artforum.com/news/annie-dorsen-receives-the-spalding-gray-award-76418|title=Annie Dorsen Receives the Spalding Gray Award|work=Artforum|date=August 23, 2018|access-date=October 2, 2019}} The play, a human performance of a fixed script assembled from virtual sex chat room messages, premiered later that year at Performance Space New York.{{cite journal|journal=PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art|publisher=MIT Press|title=Posthuman Visions|first=Sarah|last=Lucie|volume=41|issue=2|pages=75–79|doi=10.1162/pajj_a_00473|date=May 2019|s2cid=141505766}}
Recognition
Dorsen received one of the 2014 Alpert Awards in the Arts, which recognize the work of experimental artists by providing a US$75,000 prize to each recipient.{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-herb-alpert-awards-calarts-theater-film-dance-art-music-20140407-story.html|title=A $75,000 Herb Alpert arts award goes to Daniel Joseph Martinez|work=Los Angeles Times|first=Mike|last=Boehm|date=April 8, 2014|access-date=October 2, 2019}} In 2018, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship.{{Cite web|url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/annie-dorsen/|title=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Annie Dorsen|access-date=Sep 27, 2019}} The following year she received a MacArthur Fellowship.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/arts/macarthur-genius-grant-winners-list.html|title=MacArthur 'Genius' Grant Winners for 2019: The Full List|work=The New York Times|first=Jennifer|last=Schuessler|date=September 25, 2019|access-date=September 27, 2019}} She was one of six MacArthur fellows from New York City.{{cite news|url=https://www.newsday.com/long-island/zachary-lippman-macarthur-genius-1.36816141|title=LIer a 2019 MacArthur 'genius' grant recipient|work=Newsday|first=Joan|last=Gralla|date=September 25, 2019|access-date=September 29, 2019}}
References
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Category:American theatre directors
Category:American women theatre directors
Category:David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University alumni