External links
- Stephen Adly Guirgis at IMDb
- Stephen Adly Guirgis at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Profile and photo at LAByrinth Theater Company
- Profile and Production History at The Whiting Foundation
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
Stephen Adly Guirgis | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1965 (age 58–59) Kearny, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Education | University at Albany, SUNY (BA) |
| Occupation(s) | Playwright, screenwriter, director, actor |
| Notable work | Between Riverside and Crazy |
| Awards | Pulitzer Prize for Drama (2015) |
Stephen Adly Guirgis (born 1965) 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. [1] 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.
Born in 1965 in Kearny, New Jersey, [2] Guirgis is the son of an Egyptian father and an Irish American mother. [3] He was raised on New York City's Upper West Side. He attended school in nearby Harlem and graduated from the University at Albany, SUNY in 1992. [1] [3] He studied theatre at HB Studio. [4]
Guirgis' play Between Riverside and Crazy premiered Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company in July 2014 and closed on August 23, 2014. [5] It then was produced by Second Stage Theatre, opening in previews on January 16, 2015, officially on February 11, 2015. Directed by Austin Pendleton, the play featured Stephen McKinley Henderson. [6] The play received a nomination for the 2015 Drama League Award, Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play. [7] The play won the 2015 Outer Critics Circle Award, Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play. [8] The play won the 2015 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. [9] The play won the 2015 Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Play. [10] Artists Repertory Theatre, located in Portland, Oregon, staged Between Riverside and Crazy from March 4 to April 1, 2018. [11] The show had its Broadway debut with previews beginning December 1, 2022, and opening on December 19, 2022.
His play The Motherfucker With the Hat was nominated for seven Tony Awards and premiered on Broadway in 2011 and featured Bobby Cannavale, Chris Rock, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Annabella Sciorra and Yul Vazquez. [12] It was also performed in San Francisco at San Francisco Playhouse in January 2013 where it received positive reviews. [13]
His award-winning recent play Halfway Bitches Go Straight To Heaven , directed by John Ortiz in 2019 in a LAByrinth Theater/Atlantic Theater co-production, features a cast of 18 plus a goat, and garnered Obie Awards for its two stars, LLiza Colón-Zayas and Elizabeth Rodriguez.
The Little Flower of East Orange, starring Ellen Burstyn and directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, was produced Off-Broadway by the LAByrinth Theater Company at The Public Theater, opening on April 6, 2008, and closing on May 4, 2008. [14] [15] The play was developed at the Manhattan Theatre Club's "6 @ 7" series. [16]
His play Our Lady of 121st Street ran originally in an Off-Broadway production by the LAByrinth Theater at Center Stage/NY and then transferred to the Union Square Theatre from March 6, 2003, to July 27, 2003. The play was directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. [17] The play received: 10 best plays of 2003; Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Best Play nominations. [18]
Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train , premiered Off-Broadway in a production by LAByrinth Theater Company in 2000. [19] [20] It was produced in London at the Donmar Warehouse in 2002, [21] and was nominated for the Olivier Award, Best New Play for 2003, [22] as well as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe First Award.[ citation needed ]
His play In Arabia We'd All Be Kings ran Off-Broadway in 1999. [23] A production at the Elephant Theatre Company in Hollywood, California in 2007 received four LA Drama Critic's Circle Awards: Production, Writing, Scenic Design and Lighting Design. [24]
His play The Last Days of Judas Iscariot was produced Off-Broadway by LAByrinth at The Public Theatre in 2005 and was directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, [25] [26] and was named one of the year's "10 best" plays by Time magazine and Entertainment Weekly.[ citation needed ] The play completed a critically acclaimed run in London at the Almeida Theater on May 10, 2008. [27]
His one-act play, Dominica The Fat Ugly Ho, was directed by Adam Rapp as part of the 2006 E.S.T. Marathon. [28]
In film, Guirgis has contributed to the work of Halle Berry.
Television writing credits include NYPD Blue , [27] David Milch's short-lived CBS drama Big Apple , [1] and Shane Salerno's short-lived NBC series UC: Undercover . Guirgis collaborated with Academy Award nominated director Baz Luhrmann on The Get Down, a Netflix Series about the birth of hip-hop in the 1970s. [29]
He developed and directed Liza Colón-Zayas' play Sistah Supreme for Danny Hoch's Hip Hop Theater Festival in 2000 [30] Marco Greco's award-winning Behind the Counter with Mussolini at the York Theatre (1998 in New York) [31] and Los Angeles (1999 and 2002), [32] and directed Melanie Maras' Kiss Me on the Mouth for InViolet Rep in 2009. [33]
As an actor, Guirgis is currently a series regular portraying Frank Mariani on HBO's "Winning Time". He appeared in Brett C. Leonard's stage play Guinea Pig Solo, produced by LAByrinth at The Public Theater in 2004. [34] He has had supporting roles in films such as Todd Solondz's Palindromes (2004), [35] Brett C. Leonard's Jailbait (2004), and Kenneth Lonergan's Margaret (2011). [36] Other credits include the 1997 Law & Order episode "Terminal" and films such as Meet Joe Black (1998), [37] Blackbird (2007), [38] Trainwreck: My Life as an Idiot (2007), [39] Noise (2007), [40] Synecdoche, New York (2008), [41] and Philip Seymour Hoffman's directorial debut Jack Goes Boating (2010).
In 2017 Guirgis was embroiled in a publicized debate with a small theater in San Francisco which had produced an edited version of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. While Guirgis was displeased to learn that his play had been edited without his permission, in violation of the production's licensing contract, he was also sympathetic to the production's cast and crew and did not want to shut down the production as Dramatists Play Service recommended. He requested that the theater place inserts in the show programs explaining that the show was edited without his permission and against his wishes. When Guirgis saw a copy of the program insert he requested, he deemed the insert unsuitable and had the production shut down. [42] [43]
Guirgis has used improvisational theater to "teach HIV/AIDS prevention, conflict resolution, and leadership" in prisons, schools, shelters, and hospitals. [44] Guirgis was close professional and personal friends with late actor Philip Seymour Hoffman [42] with whom he was a frequent collaborator.
Guirgis was awarded a 2006 PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award for a playwright in mid-career, [45] a 2006 Whiting Award, [46] and a 2004 TCG fellowship. He attended the 2006 Sundance Screenwriter's Lab, [47] and was named one of 2004's 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine .
In 2014, Guirgis was awarded the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award.
Guirgis is the recipient of new play commissions from Manhattan Theatre Club, Center Theater Group, and South Coast Repertory. He is a member of New Dramatists, MCC's Playwright's Coalition, New River Dramatists, Primary Stages, and the Actors Studio Playwright/Directors Unit.
He received the 2013 Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. [48]
He received the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Between Riverside and Crazy [49]
Our Lady of 121st Street received the Lucille Lortel Award nomination, Outstanding Play, Outstanding Director (Hoffman); 2003 Outer Critics Circle Award nomination, John Glassner Award; Drama Desk Award nomination, Director (Hoffman) and Outstanding Play [50]
He received a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in May 2016.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
Eric 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 numerous plays include Talk Radio (1987) and subUrbia (1994), which were adapted to film by Oliver Stone and Richard Linklater, respectively, with Bogosian starring in the former.
Donald Margulies is an American playwright and academic. In 2000, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Dinner with Friends.
Paula Vogel is an American playwright. She is known for her provocative explorations of complex social and political issues. Much of her work delves into themes of psychological trauma, abuse, and the complexities of human relationships. She has received the Pulitzer Prize as well as nominations for two Tony Awards. In 2013 she was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.
John Patrick Shanley is an American playwright, screenwriter, and director. He won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film Moonstruck. His play, Doubt: A Parable, won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2005 Tony Award for Best Play; he wrote and directed the film adaptation and earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Stephen McKinley Henderson is an American actor. Henderson trained at Juilliard School for acting and later became a resident member of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis from 1976 to 1981. He came to prominence as a character actor often performing the plays of August Wilson. He has received nominations for two Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Vulture named Henderson as one of "The 32 Greatest Character Actors Working Today".
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.
The Ojai Playwrights Conference is a new play development program based in Ojai, California. The mission of the organization is to develop unproduced plays of artistic excellence that focus on the compelling social, political and cultural issues of our era from diverse playwrights both emerging and established, and to nurture a new generation of playwrights and theatre artists.
John Augustin Ortiz is an American actor. He is known for his antagonist role as Arturo Braga in Fast & Furious (2009) and Fast & Furious 6 (2013), and Clyde in Jack Goes Boating (2010), which earned him a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor. He is also an artistic director/co-founder of the LAByrinth Theater Company.
The Lucille Lortel Awards recognize excellence in New York Off-Broadway theatre. The Awards are named for Lucille Lortel, an actress and theater producer, and have been awarded since 1986. They are produced by the League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers by special arrangement with the Lucille Lortel Foundation, with additional support from the Theatre Development Fund.
Liza Colón-Zayas is an American actress and playwright. She is best known for playing Tina Marrero on the comedy-drama series The Bear.
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is a play by American playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis first staged Off-Broadway at The Public Theater on March 2, 2005, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Jesus Hopped The 'A' Train is a play written by Stephen Adly Guirgis.
In Arabia We'd All Be Kings is a dramatic play set in New York City, written by Stephen Adly Guirgis. It chronicles the demise of a group of individuals living in New York's Hell's Kitchen around the time before Rudy Giuliani's efforts to clean up the city. Out of work and strapped for money, the lives of these individuals revolve around a local bar and their misguided hopes and dreams. The play deals primarily with issues of commercialism, hope, and friendship.
Stephen Karam is an American playwright, screenwriter and director. His plays Sons of the Prophet, a comedy-drama about a Lebanese-American family, and The Humans were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2012 and 2016, respectively. The Humans won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Play, and Karam wrote and directed a film adaptation of the play, released in 2021.
Jordan Harrison is an American playwright. He grew up on Bainbridge Island, Washington. His play Marjorie Prime was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
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. His additional plays include An Octoroon and The Comeuppance. He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2016.
Between Riverside and Crazy is a 2014 play by playwright, screenwriter, director, and actor Stephen Adly Guirgis. The play won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the 2015 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, the 2015 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, the 2015 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play and the 2015 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Play.
Michael Louis Chernus is an American actor. He has acted on film, television, and the stage. He is perhaps best known for his role as Cal Chapman on the Netflix original comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019). Chernus played Phineas Mason / Tinkerer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Spider-Man: Homecoming, which was released on July 7, 2017.
Paola Lázaro is a Puerto Rican actress, writer, and playwright. She is best known for portraying Juanita "Princess" Sanchez on the AMC apocalyptic drama television series The Walking Dead (2020-2022) and Angela Gomez in the Netflix series Obliterated (2023).
Cost of Living is a dramatic stage play written by Polish-born American playwright Martyna Majok. It premiered in Williamstown, Massachusetts, at the Williamstown Theatre Festival on June 29, 2016, and had an Off-Broadway engagement in 2017. The play won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as two Lucille Lortel Awards, including Outstanding Play.
