Daniel Therriault

Last updated

Daniel Therriault
Born1953 (age 7071)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
OccupationPlaywright, screenwriter, actor
Period1977–present
GenreFiction
Notable worksBattery (1981)
First Time Felon (1997)
Witness Protection (1999)
SpouseAlison Mackenzie
Children Devin Therriault
Quinn Therriault

Daniel Therriault (born 1953) [1] [2] is an American playwright, screenwriter and actor. He wrote the stage play Battery and the HBO films First Time Felon and Witness Protection .

Contents

Early life

Therriault was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. [1] Since 1978, he has been based in New York City. [3]

Career

Theatre

As an actor in Chicago's off-Loop theatre movement in the 1970s, Therriault was nominated for a 1977 Jeff Award for Best Actor in a Principal Role for Who's Happy Now? at the Body Politic Theatre. [4] [5] [6] He portrayed Mercutio in the Oak Park Festival Theatre's open-air production of Romeo and Juliet in 1977, [7] and did seasons at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas, in 1976–77, [8] and at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater in 1977–78. [9] After relocating to New York City, he performed in The Mad Dog Blues at Shep in Rep Rock N' Roll Theatre in 1979. [10]

Around 1980, Therriault started writing. [1] His first effort was the three-character stage play Battery, a black comedy set in Chicago that would go on to win six Drama-Logue Awards. [1] [11] The play depicts domineering electrician Rip, who manipulates the lives of his girlfriend Brandy and manic-depressive apprentice Stan. [12] [13] Its off-Broadway run at St. Clements in Manhattan in 1981 [11] was the professional stage debut of actress Holly Hunter, who would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Piano . [12] [14] The play was also produced by The Actors' Gang at Second Stage in Los Angeles in 1986 and 1989, directed by Richard Olivier and produced by Tim Robbins and Meg Ryan. [15] Other productions include the Cast Theatre in Los Angeles starring LeVar Burton in 1983, [1] [16] Minnesota in 1986, [2] Staatstheater Braunschweig in Germany in 1988–89, [17] the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland in 1989, [18] and Red Bones Theatre in Chicago in 1991. [12] It was developed for the screen by Tony Richardson and Richard Olivier, but was never produced as a film. A 1986 Los Angeles Times review called Therriault's dialogue "a ripe blend of primitive slang and advanced metaphor." [19]

His second full-length play, The White Death, premiered at Kawaiahao Hall Theatre in Hawaii in 1986, [2] and opened at the Cast Theatre in Los Angeles in 1987. [1] Based in Hawaii, The White Death is a murder mystery in which a priest is sent to Hawaii to investigate a murder connected with his church. [2] The Honolulu Advertiser deemed it "a controversial play dealing with sex, violence and God." [2]

Therriault's one-act Floor Above the Roof was completed in 1981 [3] and premiered in Chicago in 1987 as part of the Great Chicago Playwrights Exposition at the Body Politic Theatre. [20] It was performed in 1989 as one of four one-act plays in the Working Theatre's Working One-Acts '89 at the Henry Street Settlement Arts for Living Center in New York City. Revolving around four laborers in a Manhattan warehouse, the play is concerned with "how men deal with their hunger for women." [21]

Therriault is an alumnus of New Dramatists, [22] and received a 1991 McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowship and residency at the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. [23]

Radio

Therriault's 1992 radio play The Hitch, "a darkly comic road adventure," was chosen to initiate Marjorie Van Halteren's new Radio Stage series on WNYC. [24] [25] It is a re-telling of an autobiographical event where Therriault was hitchhiking with a female friend, and a driver tried to kill him and rape her. In 2002, it was translated and broadcast on the German public-broadcasting radio station Westdeutscher Rundfunk. [26] His radio play Romance Concerto, about a concert violinist haunted by the memory of lost love, was performed on WNYC in April 1995. [27]

Television

Therriault wrote the script for the 1997 HBO film First Time Felon , starring Omar Epps and Delroy Lindo, and directed by Charles S. Dutton. [28] It tells the story of a young African-American's trials as a first-time convict. [28] He wrote the screenplay for the 1999 HBO film Witness Protection , starring Tom Sizemore as a mobster who tries to save himself by confessing to the FBI, with Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as his wife and Forest Whitaker as a US Marshal, and directed by Richard Pearce. [29] [30] Witness Protection was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or Television Film, and Sizemore was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film. [31]

Personal life

Therriault is married to Alison Mackenzie, a former stage director. They met in the late 1970s when she cast him as the writer Euripides in the play October 12, 410 B.C., which she was directing at SoHo Rep in New York City. [2]

From 2013 to 2017, he was an adjunct professor in film and television at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts. [32] [33]

Bibliography

Works

Theatre

YearTitleCredit
1981BatteryPlaywright
1984Floor Above the RoofPlaywright
1987The White DeathPlaywright
1991TheresaPlaywright

Radio

YearTitleCredit
1992The HitchWriter
1995Romance ConcertoWriter

Television

YearTitleCredited asNotes
1997 First Time Felon Writer HBO film
1999 Witness Protection WriterHBO film

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessica Tandy</span> British actress (1909–1994)

Jessie Alice Tandy was a British actress. She appeared in over 100 stage productions and had more than 60 roles in film and TV, receiving an Academy Award, four Tony Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. She won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for playing Blanche DuBois in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948, also winning for The Gin Game and Foxfire. Her films included Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, Cocoon, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Nobody's Fool. At 80, she became the oldest actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Driving Miss Daisy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geraldine Page</span> American actress (1924–1987)

Geraldine Sue Page was an American actress. With a career which spanned four decades across film, stage, and television, Page was the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards, as well as nominations for four Tony Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marsha Mason</span> American actress

Marsha Mason is an American actress and theatre director. She has been nominated four times for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in Cinderella Liberty (1973), The Goodbye Girl (1977), Chapter Two (1979), and Only When I Laugh (1981). The first two also won her Golden Globe Awards. She was married for ten years (1973–1983) to the playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon, who was the writer of three of these films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Bogosian</span> American actor, playwright, and author (b. 1953)

Eric Michael Bogosian is an American actor, playwright, monologuist, novelist, and historian. Descended from Armenian-American immigrants, he grew up in Watertown and Woburn, Massachusetts, and attended the University of Chicago and Oberlin College. His play Talk Radio, was a finalist for the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Bogosian also wrote and starred in the 1988 film adaptation, for which he won a Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keir Dullea</span> American actor (born 1936)

Keir Atwood Dullea is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of astronaut David Bowman in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey and its 1984 sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact. His other film roles include David and Lisa (1962), Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) and Black Christmas (1974). Dullea studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City. He has also performed on stage in New York City and in regional theaters; he has said that, despite being more recognized for his film work, he prefers the stage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethan Phillips</span> American actor

Ethan Phillips is an American actor. He is best known for his television roles as Neelix on Star Trek: Voyager and PR man Pete Downey on Benson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Dall</span> American actor (1920–1971)

John Dall was an American actor. Primarily a stage actor, he is best remembered today for portraying the cool-minded intellectual killer in Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948), and the companion of trigger-happy femme fatale Peggy Cummins in the 1950 film noir Gun Crazy. He also had a substantial role in Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus (1960). He first came to fame as the young Welsh mining prodigy who comes alive under the tutelage of Bette Davis in The Corn Is Green (1945), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Strasberg</span> American actress and author (1938–1999)

Susan Elizabeth Strasberg was an American stage, film, and television actress. Thought to be the next Hepburn-type ingenue, she was nominated for a Tony Award at age 18, playing the title role in The Diary of Anne Frank. She appeared on the covers of LIFE and Newsweek in 1955. A close friend of Marilyn Monroe and Richard Burton, she wrote two best-selling tell-all books. Her later career primarily consisted of slasher and horror films, followed by TV roles, by the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Patrick (playwright)</span> American playwright (1937–2023)

Robert Patrick was an American playwright, poet, lyricist, short story writer, and novelist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dolores Gray</span> American actress

Dolores Gray was an American actress and singer. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical twice, winning once.

Daniel Hugh Kelly is an American stage, film and television actor. He is best known for his role on the 1980s ABC TV series Hardcastle and McCormick (1983–1986) as the ex-con Mark "Skid" McCormick, co-starring with actor Brian Keith.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Earl Jones</span> American actor and boxer (1910–2006)

Robert Earl Jones, sometimes credited as Earl Jones, was an American actor. One of the first prominent black film stars, Jones was a living link with the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, having worked with Langston Hughes early in his career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">L. Scott Caldwell</span> American actress

L. Scott Caldwell is an American actress perhaps best known for her roles as Deputy U.S. Marshall Erin Poole in The Fugitive (1993) and Rose on the television series Lost.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theater in Chicago</span> Theater performed in Chicago, Illinois

Theater in Chicago describes not only theater performed in Chicago, Illinois, but also to the movement in Chicago that saw a number of small, meagerly funded companies grow to institutions of national and international significance. Chicago had long been a popular destination for touring productions, as well as original productions that transfer to Broadway and other cities. According to Variety editor Gordon Cox, beside New York City, Chicago has one of the most lively theater scenes in the United States. As many as 100 shows could be seen any given night from 200 companies as of 2018, some with national reputations and many in creative "storefront" theaters, demonstrating a vibrant theater scene "from the ground up". According to American Theatre magazine, Chicago's theater is "justly legendary".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Andes</span> American actor (1920–2005)

Keith Andes was an American film, radio, musical theater, stage and television actor. He is known for films such as Blackbeard the Pirate (1952) and Clash by Night (1952).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lenny Baker</span> American actor (1945–1982)

Leonard Joel Baker was an American actor of stage, film, and television, best known for his Golden-Globe-nominated performance in the 1976 Paul Mazursky film Next Stop, Greenwich Village and his 1977 Tony Award-winning performance in the stage play I Love My Wife.

Sarah Lucie Cunningham was an American film, stage and television actress.

Richard Dresser is an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and teacher whose work has been performed in New York, leading regional theaters, and all over Europe. His first dystopian fiction novel, It Happened Here, was released in October 2020. The novel is an oral history of an American family from the years 2019 to 2035, dealing with life in a totalitarian state when you still have Netflix and two-day free shipping and all you've lost is your freedom. He is co-producing a documentary about Daniel and Phillip Berrigan, antiwar priests and lifelong activists.

Caroline Kava is an American actress and playwright of the 1986 Off-Broadway play, The Early Girl.

David Cale is an English-American playwright, actor, and songwriter, best known for his solo performance works.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Janice Arkatov, "Therriault's Dark Side of Paradise Is 'White Death'," Los Angeles Times , November 21, 1987.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Wayne Harada, "New play: universal ideas, Isle-style," Honolulu Advertiser , January 23, 1986.
  3. 1 2 R.C. Morgan-Wilde, "Playwright visits to charge ETC production of his 'Battery'," Tallahassee Democrat , October 25, 1984.
  4. Scott Fosdick, "Chicago theater waiting for Jeff," Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL), October 14, 1977.
  5. Linda Winer, "Jeff set for an awarding evening of achievement," Chicago Tribune , October 16, 1977.
  6. Linda Winer, "Body Politic changes are paying off 'Now'," Chicago Tribune, September 17, 1976.
  7. Larry Kart, "Oak Park's 'Romeo and Juliet': The better half carries the rest," Chicago Tribune, July 12, 1977.
  8. "Lunchtime Theatre," La Marque Times, April 29, 1976.
  9. 1977–1978: Friends, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, 1978.
  10. Fried Balzac, "Energetic, energizing festival of Sam Shepard," Columbia Spectator , August 8, 1979.
  11. 1 2 Alvin Klein, "'Battery,' Tale Of an Outcast Reborn," New York Times , May 5, 1991.
  12. 1 2 3 Lawrence Bommer, "Offbeat 'Battery' A Bolt Of Energizing, Eclectic Comedy," Chicago Tribune, July 26, 1991.
  13. Julio Martinez, "Battery," Variety , April 11, 1996.
  14. Sheila Devaney, "Holly Hunter (b. 1958)," New Georgia Encyclopedia, September 25, 2005.
  15. Production History, The Actors' Gang. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
  16. Battery (Cast Theatre, Los Angeles), October 27, 1983.
  17. "Boulevard aus dem Rinnstein," Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung , September 21, 1988.
  18. "Halloween Spirit Scares Up 6 Spooky, Shivery Shows," Deseret News , October 13, 1991.
  19. Don Shirley, "Therriault's 'Battery' Strikes Sparks," Los Angeles Times, April 7, 1986.
  20. Richard Christiansen, "Playwright Series Ends, But Where Was The Bang?" Chicago Tribune, June 26, 1987.
  21. D.J.R. Bruckner, "Angst and Romance in 4 One-Acters," New York Times, June 25, 1989.
  22. Alumni Playwrights, New Dramatists. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
  23. Past McKnight Artist Fellows, mcknight.org. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
  24. "Playing with Radio," New York , January 6, 1992.
  25. James Barron, "Radio Drama Isn't Dead, Nor the Scary Sound Effects," New York Times, January 4, 1992.
  26. "Hitchhiking," TTX, March 27, 2002.
  27. WNYC Program Guide, April 1995.
  28. 1 2 Tony Scott, "First-Time Felon," Variety, September 5, 1997.
  29. Ron Wertheimer, "Protector or Protected: Which Is Worse?" New York Times, December 10, 1999.
  30. Christopher Noxon, "Life Inside the Witness Protection Program," Los Angeles Times, December 10, 1999.
  31. Witness Protection, goldenglobes.com, 2000.
  32. Daniel Therriault, NYU. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
  33. Daniel Therriault, Broadway Play Publishing. Retrieved March 7, 2018.