Drew Denbaum | |
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 Denbaum in 2005 | |
| Born | Drew Steven Denbaum December 12, 1949 |
| Education | Yale University (BA) Sacred Heart University (MA) |
Drew Denbaum (born December 12, 1949, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American writer, actor, director, and educator, with credits in theater, film, and television.
Denbaum graduated cum laude with honors from The Lawrenceville School (1967) and Yale University (1971), where he was awarded the Saybrook Fellows' Prize [1] and was close friends with the author and critic, William A. Henry III, and the poet and psychologist, Steve Benson.
Denbaum's playwriting credits include Ways of Loving and Secrets, both based on stories by Brendan Gill and produced in New York City at West Park Theater [2] and Stage 73. [3] Denbaum's play, The Last of Wilhelm Reich was developed at Theatre Artists Workshop after more than a decade of research on the controversial psychoanalyst, scientist, and social activist, Wilhelm Reich. [4] [5] [6]
Denbaum's directing credits in the theater include Hatful of Rain by Michael V. Gazzo at the Samuel Beckett Theatre, The Poet and the Rent by David Mamet at the Henry Street Settlement Theatre, and Secrets at Stage 73, all in New York City. Notable theater performances by Denbaum include Marat in Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss, directed by Lynne Meadow; Uriah in Mann ist Mann by Bertolt Brecht, directed by Evangeline Morphos; Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night , directed by Leland Starnes; Wilhelm Reich in The Last of Wilhelm Reich, directed by Denbaum; and August Strindberg in Strindberg's Dollhouse by Vivian Sorvall, directed by Mark Graham.
Denbaum began his film career as a story analyst at Columbia Pictures and joined Cannon Films as assistant to the President in Charge of Production, Christopher C. Dewey. Denbaum was Associate Producer of the feature films, Jump!, directed by Joe Manduke, and Who Killed Mary What'sername?, directed by Ernest Pintoff. [7] While attending the Institute of Film and Television at New York University, Denbaum won First Prize in the 20th Century Fox Screenwriting Competition in 1975 for his original screenplay, Caught in the Act, about the Bay of Pigs invasion by the Central Intelligence Agency. [8] Denbaum's next screenplay was the science fiction dark comedy, The Sky is Falling, developed by director John G. Avildsen for Universal Pictures.
In 1983, Denbaum adapted and directed John Gardner's novel Nickel Mountain as a feature film, which was released by Warner Bros./Lorimar. [9] His short films, Lovesick (starring Austin Pendleton) and The Last Straw (based on the play by Charles Dizenzo), were featured in the New York Museum of Modern Art's Cineprobe Series [10] and won awards in numerous film festivals, including the Silver Plaque at the Chicago Film Festival [11] and the Grand Prize at the Virgin Islands International Film Festival. [12]
Denbaum wrote the scripts for two television movies, I-75 (CBS) and The Westport Women's Bank Heist & Frolic (NBC). As an actor, he appeared in Barnaby Jones as Stan Nesbit in the episode Dangerous Gambit and in Cannon as Bill in the episode The Quasar Kill. Denbaum also appeared on Saturday Night Live as the husband of Gilda Radner in the classic commercial spoof, Royal Deluxe II, which also featured Dan Aykroyd and Garrett Morris, and was written by Al Franken and Tom Davis.
After decades of practicing Jain meditation, Denbaum co-authored the nonfiction book, Chi Fitness, with his wife, the dancer/choreographer, Sue S. Benton. Their book, influenced by the works of Moshé Feldenkrais, Gary Zukav, Carolyn Myss, and studies of the chakra energy system, was published by HarperCollins in 2001. [13] [14] [15]
In 2007, Denbaum earned a Master of Teaching degree and Connecticut certification (English, Grades 7-12) from Sacred Heart University and began teaching high school students in English, Film Studies, and Dramatic Literature and Performance, heavily influenced by the progressive education theories of Ken Robinson and Native American Circle of Courage principles. In 2010, he began teaching Literature and Composition at Housatonic Community College, [16] where he was elected to the College Senate in 2014. In 2015, Denbaum joined the English Department of Westhill High School in Stamford, Connecticut. In 2017, Denbaum was named Director of the Stamford YMCA LEAD College and Career Readiness Summer Institute, [17] [18] [19] an enrichment program for teenagers that includes classroom sessions at the Stamford campus of the University of Connecticut and briefings at corporate, cultural, and educational institutions, as well as trips to New York City and Washington, D.C. In keeping with his pedagogical focus on higher-order critical thinking, Denbaum expanded the LEAD After-School Program at Westhill High School [20] by creating the first high school curriculum based on Thinking, Fast and Slow by the noted psychologist Daniel Kahneman, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. In 2019, Denbaum received the Stamford Public Education Foundation Spotlight Award for Excellence in Teaching. [21] In 2020, he received the CT Board of Regents Adjunct Faculty Teaching Award, and in 2022, he was a Stamford Public Schools Teacher of the Year Finalist. [22] In 2023, Denbaum conducted academic research in Kyoto, Japan as the recipient of a Fund for Teachers Fellowship, [23] and in 2024, he taught a series of seminars on solving human rights problems to students from China, India, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, and Chile in the Eduexplora program at Yale University. [24]
Timothy Blake Nelson is an American actor and playwright. Described as a "modern character actor", his roles include Delmar O'Donnell in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Gideon in Minority Report (2002), Doctor Steve Pendanski in Holes (2003), Doctor Jonathan Jacobo in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), Danny Dalton Jr. in Syriana (2005), Samuel Sterns in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Richard Schell in Lincoln (2012), the titular character of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) and Henry McCarty in Old Henry (2021). He portrayed Wade Tillman / Looking Glass in the HBO limited series Watchmen (2019), for which he received a Critics' Choice Television Awards nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2020.
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, 34 miles outside of New York City. It is the sixth-most populous city in New England. Stamford is also the largest city in the Western Connecticut Planning Region, and Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 census. It is in the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk-Danbury metropolitan statistical area, which is part of the New York City metropolitan area.
Donald Margulies is an American playwright and academic. In 2000, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Dinner with Friends.
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Westhill High School is a high school located in Stamford, Connecticut, United States. It is located on Roxbury Road, in the northern section of Stamford. Westhill is one of three large public high schools in Stamford, CT, the others being AITE and Stamford High School, the latter being a notable sports rival. A number of public middle schools pool into Westhill High School. Westhill is a diverse high school, representing more than thirty-five distinct nationalities amongst its student body.
Joshua Thomas Radnor is an American actor, filmmaker, author, and musician. He is best known for portraying Ted Mosby on the Emmy Award–winning CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother (2005–2014). He made his writing and directorial debut with the 2010 comedy drama film Happythankyoumoreplease, for which he won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize.
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Kseniya Aleksandrovna Rappoport is a Russian actress. She graduated in 2000 from Saint Petersburg Academy of Theatrical Arts and was immediately invited to join the Maly Drama Theatre. She played Nina Zarechnaya in The Seagull, Elena in Uncle Vania, and Sonia in La doppia ora.
Jon Robin Baitz is an American playwright, screenwriter and television producer. He is a two time Pulitzer Prize finalist, as well as a Guggenheim, American Academy of Arts and Letters, and National Endowment for the Arts Fellow.
Stephen Adly Guirgis is an American playwright, screenwriter, director, and actor. He is a member and a former co-artistic director of New York City's LAByrinth Theater Company. His plays have been produced both Off-Broadway and on Broadway, as well as in the UK. His play Between Riverside and Crazy won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Lenka Pichlíková – Burke is an American actress of Czech descent, the seventh generation of her family to appear onstage since the 18th century. Her great-uncle was the noted national actor, Ladislav Pešek. While in Czechoslovakia, she performed on stage in many theatres, played in twelve films, and created over 40 television roles, rising to the rank of Advanced Master Artist. In addition to performing as a speaking actress, she was also involved professionally in classic pantomime. Since the 1980s she has resided in the United States. In the United States, she has performed onstage in speaking roles as well as in pantomime productions for more than 25 years. Since 1988, she has been a member of the Actors' Equity Association, the union which represents professional actors. In 2006 she was named the "Best Mime" of Fairfield County, Connecticut. She teaches performing arts, dramatic literature, and cultural history, and translates plays.
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