David Adjmi
{{short description|American playwright|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{Infobox person
|name = David Adjmi
|birth_date = {{birth year and age|1973}}
|birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S.
|death_date =
|death_place =
|occupation = Playwright
|education = Sarah Lawrence College {{small|(BA)}}
University of Iowa {{small|(MFA)}}
Juilliard School {{small|(GrDip)}}
}}
David Adjmi (born 1973) is an American playwright. He is the recipient of a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship,{{cite web | url = http://www.gf.org/fellows/17048-david-r-adjmi | title = Fellows: David Adjmi | publisher = John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation | accessdate = April 18, 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111015061556/http://www.gf.org/fellows/17048-david-r-adjmi | archive-date = October 15, 2011 | url-status = dead }} a Whiting Award,{{cite web | url = http://www.playbill.com/news/article/144462-Stunning-Playwright-David-Adjmi-Wins-2010-Whiting-Award | title = Stunning Playwright David Adjmi Wins 2010 Whiting Award | publisher = Playbill.com | first = Kenneth | last = Jones | date = October 28, 2010}} the inaugural Steinberg Playwright Award,{{cite news | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/theater/18award.html | title = Trust Tussles Over Playwright Award Eligibility | work = The New York Times | first = Patricia | last = Cohen | date = September 17, 2009}} a Bush Artists Fellowship, and the Kesselring Prize for Drama.{{cite web | url = http://www.playbill.com/news/article/126310-Joseph-Adjmi-Schwartz-and-McCraney-to-Receive-Kesselring-Awards | title = Joseph, Adjmi, Schwartz and McCraney to Receive Kesselring Awards | publisher = Playbill.com | first = Andrew | last = Gans | date = February 13, 2009}} In 2020, he released a memoir about the struggle to become an artist, titled Lot Six.{{cite web | url=https://www.davidadjmi.com/lot-six | title=Lot Six | David Adjmi }} His plays include Stunning (2008) and Stereophonic (2023), the latter winning the Tony Award for Best Play.
Life
Adjmi grew up in a Syrian Jewish family in Midwood, Brooklyn[https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/theater/17stunning.html New York Times: "Once a Boyhood Outsider, Now Reflecting on His Tribe" By FELICIA R. LEE] June 16, 2009 He is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College (1995),{{cite web | url = http://www.slc.edu/news-events/news/2011-04-29-alumni-awarded-prestigious-guggenheim-fellowships-nr.html | title = Alumni Awarded Prestigious Guggenheim Fellowships | publisher = Sarah Lawrence College | date = April 29, 2011 | access-date = April 18, 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110811041852/http://www.slc.edu/news-events/news/2011-04-29-alumni-awarded-prestigious-guggenheim-fellowships-nr.html | archive-date = August 11, 2011 | url-status = dead }} the Playwrights Workshop at the University of Iowa (MFA 2001),{{cite web | url = http://theatre.uiowa.edu/alumni | title = Theatre Arts: Alumni | publisher = University of Iowa | accessdate = April 18, 2012}} and the Juilliard School's American Playwrights Program (2003).{{cite web | url = http://www.juilliard.edu/alumni/news/qa/archive/2009-10/200910.php | title = Q&A With David Adjmi | work = Alumni News | publisher = The Juilliard School | date = October 2009}} As of 2010, he resides in Brooklyn Heights.{{cite web | url = http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/23753 |title=Brooklyn Heights People: David Adjmi | publisher = Brooklyn Heights Blog | first = Julie | last = Kanfer | date = October 28, 2010}}
Career
Adjmi's play The Evildoers was developed at the Sundance Institute and the Royal Court Theatre in London. It premiered in January 2008 at the Yale Repertory Theatre. Variety called it "an anxiety attack of a play" and, of Adjmi, noted that he is "clearly a writer with a distinct voice, ambition and style."{{cite news | url = https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117935952.html?categoryid=1265&cs=1 | title = Review: The Evildoers | work = Variety | first = Frank | last = Rizzo | date = January 27, 2008}} His play Stunning opened a month later at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington DC where it was selected as one of the top ten plays of the year by The Washington Post and was published in American Theatre magazine. Stunning premiered in New York at Lincoln Center Theater in June 2009 where it played an extended run to sold-out houses. Adjmi's play Marie Antoinette was developed at the Goodman Theatre's New Stages Series and the Sundance Institute's Residency at the Public Theatre. It will premiere in a coproduction between the American Repertory Theater and Yale Repertory Theatre in Fall 2012. His play 3C premieres at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre in June 2012. His monologue Elective Affinities was commissioned by the Royal Court Theatre and later premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the United Kingdom.{{cite journal|last=Schreck|first=Heidi|title=In Dialogue: suffer little children: The Sturm und Drang of David Adjmi|journal=The Brooklyn Rail|date=October 2005|url=http://brooklynrail.org/2005/10/theater/in-dialogue-suffer-little-children-the-sturm-und-drang-of-david-adjmi}} In November 2011 it received its U.S. Premiere at Soho Repertory Theatre, featuring Tony Award-winning actress Zoe Caldwell, and directed by OBIE winner Sarah Benson. His play Marie Antoinette, which was presented at Yale Rep. in 2012 and received three Connecticut Critics Circle Awards including Best Play, opened the 2013–2014 season at Soho Rep. under the direction of Rebecca Taichman and with many members of the original cast. The New Yorker named Adjmi as one of the Top Ten in Culture for 2011, and described him as an artist who is part of "a new trend in the American theatre."{{cite magazine | url = https://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/theatre/2009/01/26/090126crth_theatre_als | title = By the Skin of Our Teeth | magazine = The New Yorker | first = Hilton |last = Als | date = January 26, 2009}}
Other plays include Strange Attractors, Caligula and the controversial hit 3C which put Adjmi in the center of a media firestorm and a legal battle with DLT Entertainment, the rights holders of the television series Three's Company which Adjmi satirized in his play. DLT issued a Cease and Desist to the playwright on Adjmi's opening night. In 2014, Adjmi sued for a declaratory judgment that he had not infringed DLT's copyright. On March 31, 2015, three years after its premiere, United States District Judge Loretta Preska ruled in a 56-page decision that the play deconstructed rather than repeated the sitcom, turning it into “a nightmarish version of itself” and was protected as a fair use.{{cite news | url =https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/judge-rules-threes-company-parody-785689 | title = Judge Rules 'Three's Company' Parody Play to Be Fair Use | work = The Hollywood Reporter | first = Eriq |last = Gardner | date = March 31, 2015}} 3C made Year's Best lists in Time Out New York, the New York Post and The Advocate.
Adjmi is the recipient of numerous awards for his work, including the Helen Merrill Award, the Marian Seldes-Garson Kanin Fellowship, and McKnight and Jerome Fellowships from The Playwrights' Center. A collection of his work, Stunning and Other Plays, was published by Theatre Communications Group in 2011, and a second collection, 1789/1978, was published in October 2017. Adjmi is currently at work on The Stumble, a commission for Lincoln Center Theatre.
Adjmi's play Stereophonic, a co-commission for Second Stage Theatre and Center Theater Group, had its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons in 2023. On January 17, 2024, it was announced that Stereophonic would transfer to the John Golden Theatre for a limited run on Broadway, marking Adjmi's Broadway debut. Previews began on April 3, 2024, with opening night on April 19.{{Cite web |last=Culwell-Block |first=Logan |date=January 17, 2024 |title=Stereophonic is Coming to Broadway |url=https://www.playbill.com/article/stereophonic-is-coming-to-broadway |access-date=January 17, 2024 |website=Playbill}}{{Cite news |last=Paulson |first=Michael |date=2024-01-17 |title='Stereophonic,' a New Play About Making Music, to Open on Broadway |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/17/theater/stereophonic-moving-to-broadway.html |access-date=2024-01-17 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} The production received acclaim from critics, earning 13 nominations and 5 wins at the 77th Tony Awards, including Best Play.{{cite news |last1=Nordyke |first1=Kimberly |title=Tony Awards: Winners List |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/arts/2024-tony-awards-winners-list-1235923964/ |access-date=June 17, 2024 |work=The Hollywood Reporter |date=June 16, 2024 |archive-date=June 16, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240616233854/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/arts/2024-tony-awards-winners-list-1235923964/ |url-status=live }} Stereophonic holds the record for the most Tony nominations by a play, surpassing the record previously held by Slave Play.{{cite news |last1=Grein |first1=Paul |title='Hell's Kitchen' & 'Stereophonic' Lead 2024 Tony Nominations: Full List |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/awards/2024-tony-nominations-full-list-hells-kitchen-stereophonic-1235669656/ |access-date=30 April 2024 |archive-date=30 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240430171031/https://www.billboard.com/music/awards/2024-tony-nominations-full-list-hells-kitchen-stereophonic-1235669656/ |url-status=live }}
Works
- 2003: Strange Attractors (Empty Space Theatre, Seattle)
- 2005: Elective Affinities (Royal Court Theatre, London, RSC/Stratford)
- 2008: Caligula (Soho Rep Studio Series)
- 2008: The Evildoers (Yale Rep)
- 2008: Stunning (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, DC)
- 2009: Stunning (Lincoln Center Theater){{cite web | url = http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsA/adjmi-david.html | title = David Adjmi | publisher = Doollee.com | accessdate = April 18, 2012}}
- 2011: Elective Affinities (Soho Repertory Theatre, NY)
- 2012: 3C (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater)
- 2012: Marie Antoinette (American Repertory Theatre/Yale Repertory Theatre)
- 2013: Marie Antoinette (Soho Repertory Theatre, NY)
- 2015: Marie Antoinette (Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago){{Cite web|url=https://www.steppenwolf.org/tickets--events/seasons/201415/marie-antoinette/|title = Marie Antoinette}}
- 2018: The Stumble (Lincoln Center Theater, NY)
- 2018: Stereophonic (Sundance Theatre Lab, Mass Moca, North Adams, MA)
- 2019: The Blind King (Sundance Theatre Lab, Sundance, UT)
- 2023: Stereophonic (Playwrights Horizons, NY)
- 2024: Stereophonic (John Golden Theatre, NY)
References
{{Portal|Theatre}}
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://aszym.blogspot.com/2009/06/i-interview-playwrights-part-5-david.html "I Interview Playwrights, Part 5: David Adjmi"]. Adam Szymkowicz. June 6, 2009.
- [https://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2011/12/my-year-in-culture.html "My Year In Culture": David Adjmi]. The New Yorker. Hilton Als. December 28, 2011.
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110714113502/http://www.woollymammoth.net/performances/show_stunning.php Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Stunning]
- [http://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/david-adjmi#/ Profile and Production History at The Whiting Foundation]
=Reviews=
- [http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/theater/39465/david-adjmi "Stunning"]. Time Out New York. June 10, 2009.
- [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/theater/17stunning.html "Stunning"]. The New York Times. June 16, 2009.
- [https://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/theatre/2009/06/29/090629crth_theatre_als "Stunning"]. The New Yorker. June 29, 2009.
- [http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/12/03/theater/reviews/elective-affinities-with-zoe-caldwell-review.html "Elective Affinities"]. The New York Times. December 3, 2011.
- [https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/garden/elective-affinities-a-play-that-unfolds-in-a-real-town-house.html "Elective Affinities"]. The New York Times. December 15, 2011.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adjmi, David}}
Category:21st-century American dramatists and playwrights
Category:Sarah Lawrence College alumni
Category:University of Iowa alumni
Category:American people of Syrian descent
Category:American people of Syrian-Jewish descent
Category:Juilliard School alumni
Category:American male dramatists and playwrights
Category:Writers from Brooklyn
Category:21st-century American male writers