John Cariani

Last updated
John Cariani
John Cariani Enfermo Amor Premiere.jpg
Cariani in 2022 at the premiere of Enfermo Amor in Mexico City
Born (1969-07-22) July 22, 1969 (age 55)
Brockton, Massachusetts, United States
Education Amherst College
Occupation(s)Actor, playwright
Known for Law & Order , Almost, Maine , Fiddler on the Roof , Something Rotten! , The Band's Visit
SpouseJohn Lloyd

John Edward Cariani (born July 22, 1969) is an American actor and playwright. Cariani is best known as the forensic expert Julian Beck in Law & Order . On stage, he earned a Tony Award nomination for his role as Motel the Tailor in the 2004 Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof. He is also known for his roles in Broadway shows Something Rotten! and The Band's Visit, and for writing Almost, Maine , one of the most produced plays in American high schools. [1]

Contents

Early life

Born in Brockton, Massachusetts, Cariani was eight when his family moved to Presque Isle, Maine.

He attended Presque Isle High School where he was active in the music and theater programs. After graduating in 1987, he attended Amherst College, [2] where he was a member of the Zumbyes, [3] Amherst's oldest a-cappella group, and the Glee Club. After graduating from Amherst College in 1991 with a B.A. in history, he studied acting and directing at now defunct StageWest in Springfield, Massachusetts. [4] He then moved to New York at age 27 to pursue acting.

Career

Cariani spent his early years in New York working with the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, and acting in Off-Broadway plays, television commercials, and films.

His first break came in 1999 when he was cast in the Off-Broadway play It's My Party (and I'll Die If I Want To), starring F. Murray Abraham and Joyce Van Patten. [5]

Cariani broke into film and TV in 2000 when he was cast in the independent film, Scotland, PA , [6] opposite Christopher Walken and guest-starred on the TV series Ed [7]

In 2001, he landed his first major film role opposite Robert De Niro in the Warner Brothers film Showtime (2002) [6]

In 2002, he joined the cast of Law & Order , playing the role of forensic expert Julian Beck from 2002 to 2007. [8]

Since then, he has appeared in several TV shows, films, plays and musicals, both on and off-Broadway, and in regional theaters across the country.

Playwriting

As playwright, Cariani is best known for his first play, Almost, Maine , which was developed at the Cape Cod Theatre Project in 2002. [9] It premiered at Portland Stage Company (in Portland, Maine) in 2004. [10] Almost, Maine opened Off-Broadway in 2006 [11] and was featured in Smith and Kraus' New Playwrights: Best Plays of 2006.[ citation needed ]

The play was published by Dramatists Play Service in 2007 [12] and has since become one of the most popular plays in the United States with nearly 100 professional productions and over 5000 community, university, and high school productions to date. [13]

Over the past decade, it has become one of the most frequently produced plays in North American high schools. [10] [14] [15]

In 2014, Transport Group revived Almost, Maine Off-Broadway to critical acclaim. [16] The Advocate named the production to its "Best Theatre of 2014" list, [17] and Lincoln Center recorded the production for its Theatre on Film and Tape Archive. [18]

Dramatists Play Service recently published its 80th Anniversary Edition, a boxed set of 8 definitive titles representing each decade of the Play Service's history. Almost, Maine was selected to represent DPS' eighth decade. [19]

In 2020, Cariani adapted Almost, Maine into a novel, Almost, Maine: A Novel, published by Macmillan. [20]

Cariani's second play, cul-de-sac premiered Off-Broadway in April 2006 in a Transport Group production. [21] The New York Times described cul-de-sac as "charming, witty and macabre." [22] The play was reworked and presented at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (New York City) and at High Point University (High Point, NC) in 2016 and received further development at the Cape Cod Theatre Project. [23] It received a professional production at Half Theatre in Poughkeepsie in 2016.

Cariani's third play, Last Gas premiered at Portland Stage Company (Portland, Maine) in 2010. [24] Cariani noted that "Almost, Maine is almost a love letter to northern Maine and Last Gas is a more realistic look at that part of the world." [25] It has been described as "a bittersweet romance about two people who lack the courage to admit they love one another ... it's an undeniable winner despite its predictable twist." [26] The play ran at Opera House Arts, Stonington Opera House, Maine, in 2013 [27] and at Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, New York in the winter of 2014. It was published by Dramatists Play Service in 2014.

LOVE/SICK is Cariani's most recent play. It premiered at High Point University in the fall of 2010, then was presented at the Portland Stage Company in the spring of 2013, [28] and was produced by Hartford TheaterWorks in 2014. The play ran Off-Broadway in February 2015 at the Royal Family Performing Arts Space. [29] The Huffington Post gave the Off Broadway production a positive review: "Sometimes playwright John Cariani looks at the world — actually the worlds of love and relationships — through rose-colored glasses. Just as often he views those worlds through lenses tinted a middling-to-dark-gray or maybe a jaundiced yellow. … While poking fun at the happily-ever-after notion by means of a strong dose of happily-never-after, Cariani shoots his cockeyed valentines with a quiver full of funny lines. He knows how to keep audiences laughing while passing along disappointing news." [30]

LOVE/SICK has been performed in Riga, Latvia [31] and Mexico City and was recently made into a Spanish language feature called Enfermo Amor on Vix+. [32]

Two new vignettes from LOVE/SICK premiered at Stonehill College in Easton, MA for a filmed version of the play, directed by Cariani.

Personal life

Cariani and his husband John Lloyd, a retired NYPD detective, have been together since 1999 and live in the Bronx. [33] [34]

Filmography

Film roles

YearFilmRoleNotes
2001 Kissing Jessica Stein Chuck
2001 Scotland, PA Ed the 'not-too-bright' Cop
2001 The Shaft Security Guard Gary
2002 Showtime Charlie Hertz
2003 Robot Stories Salesman
2004The ReunionScottShort
2004MessengersDerek the Cop
2008High Street PlumbingBig BoyShort
2011 Certainty Odd Interviewer
2011HenryHenryShort
2012Elephant SighsJoel
2013Sleeping With The FishesLouis Belsky
2014Deliver us from EvilZookeeper
2014Child of GraceOllie
2015Paper DreamsEthan
2018Thrasher RoadTSA Supervisor
2019Nasa SealsJosh Peters

Television

YearTitleRoleNotes
2000 Ed Howard PissleNBC, episode 1.2: "The World of Possibility"
2001 Big Apple ER DoctorCBS, Episode 1.7
2001–2003 Law & Order: Criminal Intent PerryNBC, 2 episodes
2004The 58th Annual Tony AwardsHimself - NomineeCBS
2002–2007 Law & Order CSU Tech BeckNBC, 26 episodes
2006 Six Degrees BloggerABC
2009–2010 Numb3rs Otto BahnoffCBS, 3 episodes
2011 The Onion News Network Michael FalkIFC, 5 episodes
2012 Homeland Jeff RickerShowtime, episode "The Choice"
2014 The Good Wife StuartCBS
2015 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Himself - Nigel BottomNBC
2016 The Blacklist Aaron MulgrewNBC, episode "Drexel"
Broadway.com #LiveatFiveHimself - GuestBroadway.com
2018Theater TalkHimself - GuestPBS
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel HankAmazon Prime Video

Stage appearances

Theatre
Start yearProductionRoleNotes
1997 As You Like It SylviusHudson Valley Shakespeare Festival
1998 The Winter's Tale The Clown
Much Ado About Nothing Verges
1999 Twelfth Night Andrew Aguecheek
It's My PartyTedArclight Theatre Company
2003The UnrepeatableRobertThe Lark
2004 Fiddler on the Roof MotelBroadway
2005Modern OrthodoxHershelArs Nova
Two Gentlemen of Verona SpeedOff-Broadway
2006 Cul-de-sac JoeTransport Group
2007The Front PageMr. PincusWilliamstown Theatre Festival
2009 Minsky's JasonThe Ahmanson
The Mystery of Irma Vep Lord Edgar The Old Globe Theatre
2011 Much Ado About Nothing Dogberry
The Tempest Trinculo
2015Love/SickVariousOff-Broadway
Something Rotten! Nigel BottomBroadway
2016 Picnic HowardTransport Group
Come Back, Little Sheba Postman/Milkman/MessengerTransport Group
The Band's Visit ItzikAtlantic Theater Company
2017 The Band's Visit ItzikBroadway
2019 The Music Man Marcellus WashburnThe Kennedy Center
2021 Caroline, or Change Stuart GellmanBroadway

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryNominated WorkResult
2004 Tony Awards Best Featured Actor in a Musical Fiddler on the Roof Nominated
Outer Critics Circle Awards Best Featured Actor in a MusicalWon
2015 Something Rotten! Nominated
Grammy Awards Best Musical Theater Album Nominated
2019 Daytime Emmy Awards Outstanding Musical Performance in a Daytime Program The Band's Visit Won
2022 Grammy Awards Best Musical Theater Album Caroline, or Change Nominated

Playwriting bibliography

Bibliography
YearTitle
2004 Almost, Maine
2006 cul-de-sac
2010Last Gas
2012Love/Sick

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrence McNally</span> American playwright (1938–2020)

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.

David Auburn is an American playwright, screenwriter and theatre director. He is best known for his 2000 play Proof, which won the 2001 Tony Award for Best Play and Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He also wrote the screenplays for the 2005 film version of Proof, The Lake House (2006), The Girl in the Park (2007), and Georgetown (2019).

Will Eno is an American playwright based in Brooklyn, New York. His play, Thom Pain was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 2005. His play The Realistic Joneses appeared on Broadway in 2014, where it received a Drama Desk Special Award and was named Best Play on Broadway by USA Today, and best American play of 2014 by The Guardian. His play The Open House was presented Off-Broadway at the Signature Theatre in 2014 and won the Obie Award for Playwriting as well as other awards, and was on both TIME Magazine and Time Out New York 's Top Ten Plays of 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Guare</span> American playwright and screenwriter (born 1938)

John Guare is an American playwright and screenwriter. He is best known as the author of The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation.

Douglas Wright is an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. Known for his extensive work in the American theatre in both plays and musicals, he has received numerous accolades including the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award.

Theresa Rebeck is an American playwright, television writer, and novelist. Her work has appeared on the Broadway and Off-Broadway stage, in film, and on television. Among her awards are the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award. In 2012, she received the Athena Film Festival Award for Excellence as a Playwright and Author of Films, Books, and Television. She is a 2009 recipient of the Alex Awards. Her works have influenced American playwrights by bringing a feminist edge in her old works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Fitzgerald (actor)</span> American actor and singer (born 1972)

Christopher Cantwell Fitzgerald is an American actor and singer. He is known for his role as Boq in the musical Wicked, Igor in the musical Young Frankenstein, and Ogie Anhorn in the musical Waitress. He earned Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk Award, and Tony Award nominations for his performances in Waitress and Young Frankenstein and won the Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for his performance in Waitress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quiara Alegría Hudes</span> American playwright and composer (born 1977)

Quiara Alegría Hudes is an American playwright, producer, lyricist and essayist. She is best known for writing the book for the musical In the Heights (2007), and screenplay for its film adaptation. Hudes' first play in her Elliot Trilogy, Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. She received the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Water by the Spoonful, her second play in that trilogy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annie Baker</span> American playwright and teacher

Annie Baker is an American playwright, film director, and teacher who won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for her play The Flick. Among her works are the Shirley, Vermont plays, which take place in the fictional town of Shirley: Circle Mirror Transformation, Nocturama, Body Awareness, and The Aliens. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2017. Her debut film Janet Planet released in 2023 to critical acclaim.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tanya Barfield</span> American playwright

Tanya Barfield is an American playwright whose works have been presented both nationally and internationally.

<i>Almost, Maine</i> 2004 play by John Cariani

Almost, Maine is a 2004 American play written by John Cariani, comprising nine short plays that explore love and loss in a remote, mythical almost-town called Almost, Maine. It premiered at the Portland Stage Company in Portland, Maine, in 2004, where it broke box office records and garnered critical acclaim. The play was published by Dramatists Play Service in 2007 and has since become one of the most popular plays in the United States with nearly 100 professional productions and over 5000 community, university, and high school productions to date. It has become one of the most frequently produced plays in North American high schools. It has also received over twenty international productions and has been translated into over a dozen languages.

Transport Group Theatre Company is a non-profit, off-Broadway theatre company in New York City that stages new works and revivals of plays and musicals, with a focus on American stories told in a visually progressive way.

William Aubert Luce was an American writer, primarily for the stage and television. He wrote several plays which starred Julie Harris, and specialized in one-person plays.

The Flick is a play by Annie Baker that received the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and won the 2013 Obie Award for Playwriting. The Flick premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Branden Jacobs-Jenkins</span> American playwright (born 1984)

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is an American playwright. His plays Gloria and Everybody were finalists for the 2016 and 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. His play Appropriate made his Broadway debut as a playwright in 2023 and earned him his first Tony Award. His additional plays include An Octoroon and The Comeuppance. He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucas Hnath</span> American playwright

Lucas Hnath is an American playwright. He won the 2016 Obie Award for excellence in playwriting for his plays Red Speedo and The Christians. He also won a Whiting Award.

Cul-de-sac is a play by American playwright John Cariani. Cul-de-sac premiered off-Broadway in April 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martyna Majok</span> Polish-American playwright (born 1985)

Martyna Majok is a Polish-born American playwright who received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Cost of Living. She emigrated to the United States as a child and grew up in New Jersey. Majok studied playwriting at the Yale School of Drama and Juilliard School. Her plays are often politically engaged, feature dark humor, and experiment with structure and time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabriel Barre</span> American director and actor

Gabriel Barre is an American director and actor. Best known for creating original musicals, his work has been seen on Broadway, throughout the United States, and across four continents internationally.

Small Engine Repair is a play written by playwright-actor John Pollono. The play centers on three friends who gather one night under a mysterious premise at a repair shop in Manchester, New Hampshire, exploring the themes of regret, fraternity, and masculinity.

References

  1. ↑ Considine, Basil (30 September 2017). "Actor-playwright John Cariani on The Band's Visit, The Final Frontier, and more". Interview. Twin Cities Arts Reader. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
  2. ↑ Williams, Roger M. (Winter 2012). "One Up on Shakespeare". Amheart Magazine. Amherst College. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Zumbyes alumni". thezumbyes.com. September 28, 2014.
  4. ↑ Burns-Fusaro, Nancy (February 2, 2015). "10 questions with playwright John Cariani". The Westerly Sun.
  5. ↑ Jones, Kenneth; Lefkowitz, David (August 4, 1999). "Abraham and van Patten are couple with no time to lose in It's My Party ...". Playbill.
  6. 1 2 "John Cariani Credits" rottentomatoes.com, retrieved June 23, 2019
  7. ↑ "Cariani Film and TV" imdb.com, retrieved June 23, 2019
  8. ↑ "A Romantic Comedy for Guys" The New York Times, March 23, 2008
  9. ↑ "Cape Cod Theatre Project History 1995-2021"
  10. 1 2 "Almost, Maine Awards-Accolades-Honors"
  11. ↑ "Almost, Maine Off-Broadway"
  12. ↑ "Almost, Maine John Cariani"
  13. ↑ "Almost, Maine About The Play"
  14. ↑ "Official Site, Almost, Maine". almostmaine.com. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  15. ↑ Rampell, Catherine (October 27, 2014). "Theater censorship is alive and well". Washington Post.
  16. ↑ "Almost, Maine". Transport Group.
  17. ↑ "New York Theater 2014". The Advocate.
  18. ↑ Gans, Andrew (February 25, 2014). "Transport Group's Almost, Maine will be taped for archives; One scene will be filmed two ways". Playbill.
  19. ↑ "The 80th Anniversary Collection"
  20. ↑ "Almost, Maine A Novel"
  21. ↑ "cul-de-sac". transportgroup. 20 April 2006.
  22. ↑ Horn, Miriam (May 3, 2006). "cul-de-sac: A study in suburban doldrums". Review. The New York Times .
  23. ↑ Considine, Basil (30 September 2017). "Actor-playwright John Cariani on The Band's Visit, The Final Frontier, and more". Interview. Twin Cities Arts Reader. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
  24. ↑ Feeney, Steve (November 7, 2010). "Last Gas a full tank of unfulfilled desires". Theater Review. Portland Press Herald.
  25. ↑ Considine, Basil (March 26, 2014). "Playwright John Cariani talks Almost, Maine and Love/Sick". tcdailyplanet.net.
  26. ↑ Morphy, Marcia (January 13, 2014). "Geva's Last Gas an everyday love story". Review. Democrat and Chronicle.
  27. ↑ "Talk back to Maine playwright John Cariani". themaineedge.com. February 6, 2013.
  28. ↑ "That Thing Called Love". Press Herald. 2013-03-31.
  29. ↑ Clement, Olivia (February 6, 2015). "John Cariani's Love/Sick, co-starring the playwright, begins tonight off-Broadway". Playbill.
  30. ↑ "First Nighter: John Cariani's Love/Sick"
  31. ↑ "Chekhov Theatre"
  32. ↑ "Tráiler: Enfermo amor"
  33. ↑ Gates, Anita (May 29, 2014). "Love Is Out of This World. Far Out". Interview. New York Times. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  34. ↑ Rudetsky, Seth (April 17, 2017). "StarsInTheHouse #59 Friday 4/17 at 2PM: Broadway Cast Reunion: Caroline, or Change". Interview. youtube. Event occurs at 23:40. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
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.