Aaron Posner

Last updated

Aaron Posner is an American playwright and theatre director. He was co-founder of the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia and was the artistic director of Two River Theater from 2006 to 2010. He has directed over 100 productions at major regional theater companies across the country. He has won six Helen Hayes Awards, two Barrymore Awards, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the John Gassner Prize, a Joseph Jefferson Award, a Bay Area Theatre Award, and an Eliot Norton Award.

Contents

Biography

Born in Madison, Wisconsin, and raised in Eugene, Oregon, [1] Posner is the child of Michael Posner (psychologist). He is married to actress Erin Weaver, whom he met while she was a student of his at the University of the Arts. They have one daughter.

Posner has adapted novels as plays, and later created new variations of classic plays, including some by William Shakespeare and Anton Chekhov. Among Posner's best-known adaptions are The Chosen (1999), based on Chaim Potok's 1967 novel of the same name, and My Name Is Asher Lev (2009), based on Potok's 1972 novel of the same name.

With composer James Sugg, Posner created A Murder, A Mystery & A Marriage: A Mark Twain Musical (2006), adapted from a short story of the same name by Mark Twain that was published in 2001. Posner wrote the book and lyrics. The work premiered in Wilmington, Delaware, in a co-production of the Round House Theatre and the Delaware Theatre Company. [2] [3]

Posner's variation of Chekhov's 1896 play The Seagull , under the title of Stupid Fucking Bird , premiered in 2013 by the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. It was a very different type of work, his own answer to Chekhov, rather than a classical adaptation. The play has since been produced more than 200 times by theatre companies and universities in the United States, Australia, Canada, Estonia, and Sweden.

Posner has adapted Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and Three Sisters as well. His Life Sucks: Or the Present Ridiculous (2015) was premiered by Theater J in Washington, D.C. [4] No Sisters (2017), which premiered by the Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C., ran as a companion play to their production of Three Sisters. [5]

For the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Posner co-directed The Tempest with magician Teller. The production made use of the songs of Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan. [6] [7] Posner re-imagined Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice , in a variation called District Merchants: An Uneasy Comedy (2016) commissioned by Folger Theatre. It is set in Washington, D.C., during the Reconstruction era, after the end of the Civil War. Exploring relations between Jewish and African-American businessmen and other residents in the city, including people of color free before the war and newly emancipated freedmen, it premiered at the Folger Shakespeare Library on May 31, 2016. [8]

Posner is an associate professor of acting and directing at American University in Washington, D.C. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Folger Shakespeare Library</span> Independent research library in Washington, D.C.

The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare materials from the early modern period (1500–1750) in Britain and Europe. The library was established by Henry Clay Folger in association with his wife, Emily Jordan Folger. It opened in 1932, two years after his death.

<i>The Seagull</i> 1896 play by Anton Chekhov

The Seagull is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 and first produced in 1896. The Seagull is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramatizes the romantic and artistic conflicts between four characters: the famous middlebrow story writer Boris Trigorin, the ingenue Nina, the fading actress Irina Arkadina, and her son the symbolist playwright Konstantin Treplev.

<i>Uncle Vanya</i> 1899 Play by Anton Chekhov

Uncle Vanya is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1897, and first produced in 1899 by the Moscow Art Theatre, directed by Konstantin Stanislavski.

David Ives is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. He is perhaps best known for his comic one-act plays; The New York Times in 1997 referred to him as the "maestro of the short form". Ives has also written dramatic plays, narrative stories, and screenplays, has adapted French 17th and 18th-century classical comedies, and adapted 33 musicals for New York City's Encores! series.

Craig Wright is a playwright, screenwriter and television producer. He is known for writing for shows including Six Feet Under and Lost and creating the television series Dirty Sexy Money and Greenleaf. He also was the screenwriter for the movie Mr. Peabody & Sherman, released March 7, 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regina Taylor</span> American actress (born 1960)

Regina Taylor is an American actress and playwright. She has won several awards throughout her career, including a Golden Globe Award and NAACP Image Award. In July 2017, Taylor was announced as the new Denzel Washington Endowed Chair in Theater at Fordham University.

The Shakespeare Theatre Company is a regional theatre company located in Washington, D.C. The theatre company focuses primarily on plays from the Shakespeare canon, but its seasons include works by other classic playwrights such as Euripides, Ibsen, Wilde, Shaw, Schiller, Coward and Tennessee Williams. The company manages and performs in two spaces: The Michael R. Klein Theatre and Sidney Harman Hall. In cooperation with George Washington University, they run the STC Academy.

Michael Kahn CBE is an American theater director and drama educator. He was the artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. from 1986 until his retirement in 2019. He held the position of Richard Rodgers Director of the Drama Division of the Juilliard School from 1992 to 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Mann (director)</span> American stage director and dramatist

Emily Betsy Mann is an American director, playwright and screenwriter. She served as the artistic director and resident playwright of the McCarter Theatre Center from 1990 to 2020.

Richard John Nelson is an American playwright and librettist. He wrote the book for the 2000 Broadway musical James Joyce's The Dead, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical, as well as the book for the 1988 Broadway production of Chess. He is also the writer of the critically acclaimed play cycle The Rhinebeck Panorama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Libby Appel</span> 4th artistic director, Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Libby Appel served as the fourth artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) from 1995 to June 2007. Appel directed more than 25 productions at OSF, and her artistic vision influenced the 11 plays presented each year during her tenure. Despite the festival's name, she placed increased emphasis on new works. “We have made major connections with world playwrights, artists whose voices we’re particularly interested in.” Appel said. “We commission playwrights, we develop plays here; we have playwrights in residence. We’re a world force now, and I’m really proud of that.”

Theater J is a professional theater company located in Washington, DC, founded to present works that "celebrate the distinctive urban voice and social vision that are part of the Jewish cultural legacy".

The Guthrie Theater is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The following is a chronological list of the plays and performances that it has produced or presented. Production information from 1963 through the 2005–06 season is sourced primarily from The Guthrie Theater: Images, History, and Inside Stories and The Guthrie Theater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artists Repertory Theatre</span> Theatrical troupe in the United States

Artists Repertory Theatre is a professional non-profit theatre located in Portland, Oregon, United States. The longest-running professional theatre company in Portland, since 1982 the company has focused on presenting the works of contemporary playwrights, including world premieres.

Alexandre Marine is a Russian-born actor-director-playwright currently based in Montreal. On April 23, 1993, he was recognized by the Russian government as a Distinguished Artist of the Russian Federation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karolyn Nelke</span> American dramatist

Karolyn Ann Nelke is an American stage actor, playwright and author. She is best known for her 1982 play The Keeper: A Play About Lord Byron.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Witmore</span>

Michael Witmore is a Shakespearean, scholar of rhetoric, digital humanist, and director of a library and cultural institution. In 2011, he was appointed the director of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., where he continues to serve.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karin Coonrod</span> American theater director and writer

Karin Coonrod is an American theater director and writer who teaches at Yale School of Drama. Coonrod is known for her modern adaptations of classic plays by William Shakespeare and other playwrights. She often chooses to direct plays produced from unusual sources such as lesser-known works by notable playwrights, adaptations from non-dramatic sources, and the writings of notable figures in history.

Stupid Fucking Bird is a contemporary adaptation of Anton Chekhov's 1896 play The Seagull, written by American playwright Aaron Posner, co-founder of the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia. Posner has written multiple adaptations of Chekhov and Shakespeare's works. In 2013, Stupid Fucking Bird premiered at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. According to Howard Shalwitz, the play takes a satirical spin on a theatrical classic, but has the essence of Chekhov's original intent for the piece—what it means to create art.

References

  1. ↑ Aaron Posner, American Players Theatre
  2. ↑ Harris, Paul (June 11, 2006). "'A Murder, A Mystery & A Marriage: A Mark Twain Musical Melodrama'". Variety. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
  3. ↑ Sydney-Chanele Dawkins, "The Playwright's Playground: Playwright Aaron Posner Talks About Inspiration, Adaptations and That 'Stupid Fucking Bird'", DC Metro Theater Arts, 31 July 2014; accessed 8 February 2019
  4. ↑ John Stoltenberg, "Review: Life Sucks at Theater J", DC Metro Theater Arts, 20 January 2015
  5. ↑ Barbara McKay, "Review": No Sisters, TheaterMania, 27 March 2017
  6. ↑ "Chicago Shakespeare Theater: The Tempest".
  7. ↑ Fraley, Jason (November 29, 2022). "'Tempest' mixes Shakespeare with Tom Waits and magic".
  8. ↑ District Merchants, Folger Shakespeare Library, n.d., 2016
  9. ↑ "Faculty Profile: Aaron Posner | American University, Washington, D.C." American University. Archived from the original on 2018-02-06. Retrieved 2019-11-30.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.