 |
Deborah Brevoort is an American playwright, librettist and lyricist best known for her play The Women of Lockerbie. She teaches Creative Writing at several universities.
|
Deborah Brevoort is an American playwright, librettist and lyricist best known for her play The Women of Lockerbie. She teaches Creative Writing at several universities.
Brevoort was born in Columbus, Ohio to Virginia and Gordon Brevoort. She is the oldest of three children. She graduated from Ridgewood High School in Ridgewood, NJ. She attended Kent State University where she received a BA in English and Political Science, and an MA in Political Science.
Deborah moved to Juneau, Alaska in 1979. She worked in Alaskan politics serving as a special assistant to Lt. Governor Terry Miller and Alaska State Senator Frank Ferguson. In 1983 she became the Producing Director of Perseverance Theatre and an actor in the company. Her first two plays were produced at Perseverance: The Last Frontier Club and Signs of Life.Signs of Life was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation playwriting grant and was later published by Samuel French.
Brevoort left Alaska to attend Brown University in Providence RI, where she received her MFA in Playwriting. She moved to New York City to attend New York University's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program where she received an MFA.
Brevoort is best known for her play The Women of Lockerbie, a story about the aftermath of the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, told in the form of a Greek tragedy. It was inspired by the laundry project undertaken by Lockerbie women, who washed the clothes of the victims and returned them to the families. In 2001 it won the silver medal in the Onassis International Playwriting Competition and the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award. [1] It premiered Off-Broadway in 2003 by the New Group and Women's Project. It was produced in London at the Orange Tree Theatre in 2005, at the Theater Royal in Dumfries, [2] at the Actor's Gang in Los Angeles in 2007 and the Will Geer Theater in Santa Monica in 2012. [3] It is published by Dramatists Play Service and has been translated into nine languages. There have been over 800 productions of the play worldwide.
Brevoort's plays and musicals often use theatrical conventions and forms from around the world to explore contemporary American subjects.[4] She wrote a Japanese Noh Drama about Elvis Presley titled "Blue Moon Over Memphis"; a musical comedy inspired by world mythology and Saturday morning cartoons titled "Coyote Goes Salmon Fishing," with composer Scott Davenport Richards; and a holiday musical written in the form of an oratorio, titled "King Island Christmas," with composer David Friedman, based on the Alaskan children's book of the same title. She used the methods of magic realism from Latin American novels to dramatize life in an Alaskan fishing town in her play Into the Fire.
Deborah's other plays include:
"My Lord, What a Night," about the friendship between Marian Anderson and Albert Einstein. It is optioned for West End and Broadway productions after being produced at the historic Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC to critical acclaim. It was developed through a rolling world premiere at Contemporary American Theatre Festival (CATF), Florida Studio Theatre, and Orlando Shakespeare Theatre. It was originally commissioned as a one act play through the Liberty Live program at Premiere Stages.
The Poetry of Pizza which uses the conventions of farce and romantic comedy to explore Arab/American relations and love across cultures. It was developed in the Centenary Stage Women's Playwright's Festival and was subsequently produced at the Purple Rose Theatre, Virginia Stage, Mixed Blood Theatre, California Rep, Theatre in the Square and Stage 3.
The Blue-Sky Boys, about NASA's Apollo engineers and the intersection of creativity and science, with a commission from the EST/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology project. It premiered at the Barter Theatre in Virginia and was subsequently produced by Capital Rep in Albany, NY and was the winner of the Galileo Prize from EST.
The Velvet Weapon, using the back stage farce to dramatize populist democracy movements in the US. The play was written with a grant from CEC Arts Link and is inspired by the Velvet Revolution of Czechoslovakia.
The Comfort Team, a play about military spouses, with a commission from Virginia Stage. It received an artistic excellence grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the first-ever theatre grant from the Harpo Marx Foundation.
"Blue Moon Over Memphis," a Noh Drama about Elvis Presley, was published by Applause Books in The Best American Short Plays of 2004 and in the Journal of the Noh Research Archives, Musashino University, Tokyo, Japan (in Japanese and English). It has been touring internationally since 2015 in a traditional Noh production by Theatre Nohgaku of Tokyo. In 2024 it will tour Japan.
"Into the Fire" won the Weissberger Award in 1999 and was published by Samuel French in 2000. It was developed at the National Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill and the Australian National Playwright’s Conference.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Deborah was commissioned by the Florida Studio Theatre to write a full length comedy called "The Drolls" about the outlaw actors and blackamoors who kept the theatre alive during the Puritan crackdown in England in the 1600's.
She was also commissioned to write "The Gorn Galaxy," a 10-minute zoom play, for the Flash Acts Festival, produced by Arena Stage, Georgetown University, the Center for Global Engagement and the American Embassy in Moscow. It was produced in both the US and Russia and is available to view online at FlashActsFestival.org.
Deborah writes opera librettos and the book and lyrics for musicals. Her musical works include:
Embedded, a one-act opera inspired by Edgar Allan Poe stories with composer Patrick Soluri for the American Lyric Theater. "Embedded won the inaugural Frontiers Competition at Ft. Worth Opera where it was subsequently produced in 2016. It was also produced at Fargo Moorhead Opera in 2014.
Steal a Pencil for Me, a full-length opera about Holocaust survivors, based on the book of the same title, with composer Gerald Cohen, which won the Frontiers Competition at Ft. Worth Opera in 2016. It premiered at Opera Colorado in 2018. It has been recorded into a CD which will be released in 2024.
"Albert Nobbs" with composer Patrick Soluri. It was a finalist for the Dominic Pellicciotti Prize in Opera Composition. It was also the winner of the Frontiers competition in 2019 at Ft. Worth Opera.
"Murasaki's Moon" an opera with composer Michi Wiancko, commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, On Site Opera and American Lyric Theater. It was produced at the Met museum in 2019. It will be produced at Hub City Opera in 2024.
"The Knock," an opera about military wives during the surge of Iraq, was written with composer Aleksandra Vrebalov and co-commissioned by Cincinnati Opera and the Glimmerglass Opera Festival, where it was produced as a film in 2021 that can be viewed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE1zZDD2_2s&t=83s. It premiered on stage at Cincinnati Opera in 2023 to critical and audience acclaim. It was a finalist for the "Digital Excellence in Opera Award" in 2023 from Opera America.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Deborah was commissioned by Fargo Moorhead Opera and the Decameron Opera Coalition to write Dinner 4 3, a 10-minute opera with composer Michael Ching, inspired by a story from The Decameron, as part of a new opera web series called Tales from a Safe Distance.
She was also commissioned by the Chicago Opera Theatre to write "Quamino's Map" with Belizean British composer Errollyn Wallen for a 2022 premiere
Deborah was commissioned by the Anchorage Opera to write "The Polar Bat," a new adaptation of "Die Fledermaus" which was produced there in 2014. In 2015, the Anchorage Opera commissioned and produced her new libretto for Mozart's "The Impresario."
Deborah wrote the book and lyrics for "Coyote Goes Salmon Fishing" with composer Scott Davenport Richards which won the Frederick Lowe Award. It was produced at Perseverance Theatre in Alaska, directed by Molly Smith and at the University of Houston, produced by Broadway producer Stuart Ostrow.
Deborah also wrote "King Island Christmas", based on the Alaskan children's book by Jean Rogers, with composer David Friedman. It also won the Frederick Lowe Award. A cast album featuring Tony winner Chuck Cooper and the late Marin Mazzie was produced by 12-time Grammy winner Thomas Z. Shepard. There have been over 50 productions of the musical in the US, Australia and Canada.
She is a member of ASCAP, The Dramatists Guild, Opera America, TCG and the National Theatre Conference. She was invited to join the Playwright's Collective at Florida Studio Theatre in 2020.
In 2023 Brevoort was awarded the Campbell Opera Librettists Prize from Opera America.
Brevoort serves as the Librettist Mentor for the Washington National Opera's "American Opera Initiative" at the Kennedy Center. She is also an artistic mentor to the NBO Musical Theatre Initiative in Nairobi, Kenya. She teaches at Columbia University and New York University. She taught for many years at Goddard College. [4]
Brevoort is married [5] to the actor Chuck Cooper.
"The Knock" with Aleksandra Vrebalov (2020)
David Henry Hwang is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor at Columbia University in New York City. He has won three Obie Awards for his plays FOB, Golden Child, and Yellow Face. Three of his works—M. Butterfly, Yellow Face, and Soft Power—have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Terrence McNally was an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. Described as "the bard of American theater" and "one of the greatest contemporary playwrights the theater world has yet produced," McNally was the recipient of five Tony Awards. He won the Tony Award for Best Play for Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class and the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime, and received the 2019 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1996, and he also received the Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 and the Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2018, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the highest recognition of artistic merit in the United States. His other accolades included an Emmy Award, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, four Drama Desk Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, two Obie Awards, and three Hull-Warriner Awards.
Paula Vogel is an American playwright who received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play How I Learned to Drive. A longtime teacher, Vogel spent the bulk of her academic career – from 1984 to 2008 – at Brown University, where she served as Adele Kellenberg Seaver Professor in Creative Writing, oversaw its playwriting program, and helped found the Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium. From 2008 to 2012, Vogel was Eugene O'Neill Professor of Playwriting and department chair at the Yale School of Drama, as well as playwright in residence at the Yale Repertory Theatre.
Douglas Wright is an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play in 2004 for his play I Am My Own Wife. He also wrote the books to the Broadway musicals Grey Gardens in 2006, The Little Mermaid in 2007, Hands on a Hard Body in 2012, and War Paint in 2017. His play Good Night, Oscar made its Broadway debut in 2023.
Reverend Alvin Allison "Al" Carmines Jr. was a key figure in the expansion of Off-Off-Broadway theatre in the 1960s.
Lynn Nottage is an American playwright whose work often focuses on the experience of working-class people, particularly working-class people who are Black. She has received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice: in 2009 for her play Ruined, and in 2017 for her play Sweat. She was the first woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama two times.
James Valcq is an American musical theatre composer, lyricist, and librettist, as well as an actor and arts administrator. He contributed to various theatrical works.
Alana Valentine is an Australian playwright, dramatist, librettist and director working in theatre, film, opera and television.
Chuck Cooper is an American actor. He won the 1997 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance as the pimp Memphis in The Life.
Philip Kan Gotanda is an American playwright and filmmaker and a third generation Japanese American. Much of his work deals with Asian American issues and experiences.
Lisa Loomer is an American playwright and screenwriter who has also worked as an actress and stand-up comic. She is best known for her play The Waiting Room (1994), in which three women from different time periods meet in a modern doctor's waiting room, each suffering from the effects of their various societies' cosmetic body modification practices. She also co-wrote the screenplay for the film Girl Interrupted. Many of her plays deal with the experiences of Latinas and immigrant characters. Others deal with social and political issues through the lens of contemporary family life. Beyond that, Loomer's play The Waiting Room discusses issues such as body image, breast cancer, and non-Western medicine.
Dan O’Brien is an American playwright, poet, essayist, and librettist. His most prominent works have been the play The Body of an American and the poetry collection War Reporter. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for 2015–16. His play The House in Scarsdale: A Memoir for the Stage was the winner of the 2018 PEN America Award for Drama.
American Lyric Theater (ALT) is an opera company based in New York City and they specialize in the development of new works. It was founded by Lawrence Edelson in 2005.
Jean Anderson Sterrett is an Australian-American pianist, actor, playwright and composer with careers in music and the dramatic arts.
Migdalia Cruz is a writer of plays, musical theatre and opera in the U.S. and has been translated into Spanish, French, Arabic, Greek, and Turkish.
Constance S. Congdon is an American playwright and librettist. She has won grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the W. Alton Jones Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation, and is the recipient of a 2019 Lilly Award, which recognizes extraordinary women in theatre. In 2021 she was honored with the Legacy Playwrights Initiative Award by the Dramatists Guild Foundation, for her sustained achievement, enduring excellence and influence on the American theater. Congdon was described by Tony Kushner as "one of the best playwrights our country, and our language, has produced."
Karen Zacarías is a Latina playwright who was born in Mexico in 1969. She is known for her play Mariela in the Desert. It was the winner of the National Latino Playwriting Award and a finalist for other prizes. Mariela in the Desert was debuted at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Zacarías is the founder of the Young Playwrights' Theater located in Washington, D.C.
Karen Hartman is a Senior Artist in Residence at University of Washington School of Drama in Seattle. She completed her bachelor's degree in Literature at Yale University and received Master of Fine Arts in Playwriting from Yale School of Drama. Hartman held the Playwright Center's McKnight Residency and Commission for a nationally recognized playwright in 2014 and 2015.
Mark Campbell is a New York-based librettist and lyricist whose operas have received both a Pulitzer Prize in Music and a GRAMMY Award. Mark began writing for the stage as a musical theatre lyricist, but turned to libretto-writing after he premiered Volpone, his first full-length opera in 2004 at Wolf Trap Opera Company.
Jacqueline Goldfinger (she/they) is an American playwright, librettist, and dramaturg who is known for her plays Bottle Fly and Backwards Forward Back. She grew up in rural North Florida with a love of music and storytelling. Today, she is a playwright-librettist who seeks out unique collaborations, working across disciplines to create singular works of theater and opera. She works nationally and internationally on performative texts which speak to our shared humanity while honoring the nuanced identities of each character and culture.
