David Adjmi (born 1973) is an American playwright. He is the recipient
of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, the inaugural Steinberg
Playwright Award, a Bush Artists Fellowship, and the Kesselring Prize
for Drama.Adjmi grew up in a Syrian Jewish family in Midwood, Brooklyn
He is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College (1995), the Playwrights
Workshop at the University of Iowa (MFA 2001), and the Juilliard
School's American Playwrights Program (2003). As of 2010, he resides
in Brooklyn Heights.Adjmi's play The Evildoers was developed at the
Sundance Institute and the Royal Court Theatre in London. It premiered
in January 2008 at the Yale Repertory Theatre. Variety called it "an
anxiety attack of a play" and, of Adjmi, noted that he is "clearly a
writer with a distinct voice, ambition and style." His play Stunning
opened a month later at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington
DC where it was selected as one of the top ten plays of the year by
The Washington Post and was published in American Theatre magazine.
Stunning premiered in New York at Lincoln Center Theater in June 2009
where it played an extended run to sold-out houses. Adjmi's play Marie
Antoinette was developed at the Goodman Theatre's New Stages Series
and the Sundance Institute's Residency at the Public Theatre. It will
premiere in a coproduction between the American Repertory Theater and
Yale Repertory Theatre in Fall 2012. His play "3C" premieres at
Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre in June 2012. His monologue Elective
Affinities was commissioned by the Royal Court Theatre and later
premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the United Kingdom. In
November, 2011 it received its U.S. Premiere at Soho Repertory
Theatre, featuring Tony Award-winning actress Zoe Caldwell, and
directed by OBIE winner Sarah Benson. His play Marie Antoinette, which
was presented at Yale Rep. in 2012 and received three Connecticut
Critics Circle Awards including Best Play, opened the 2013â€"2014
season at Soho Rep. under the direction of Rebecca Taichman and with
many members of the original cast. The New Yorker recently named Adjmi
at one of the Top Ten in Culture for 2011, and described him as an
artist who is part of "a new trend in the American theatre."Other
plays include Strange Attractors, Caligula and the controversial hit
3C which put Adjmi in the center of a media firestorm and a legal
battle with DLT Entertainment, the rights holders of the television
series "Three's Company" which Adjmi satirized in his play. DLT issued
a Cease and Desist to the playwright on Adjmi's opening night. In
2014, Adjmi sued for a declaratory judgment that he had not infringed
DLT's copyright. On March 31, 2015, three years after its premiere,
United States District Judge Loretta Preska ruled in a 56-page
decision that the play deconstructed rather than repeated the sitcom,
turning it into “a nightmarish version of itself†and was
protected as a fair use. 3C made Year's Best lists in Time Out New
York, the New York Post and The Advocate.
of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, the inaugural Steinberg
Playwright Award, a Bush Artists Fellowship, and the Kesselring Prize
for Drama.Adjmi grew up in a Syrian Jewish family in Midwood, Brooklyn
He is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College (1995), the Playwrights
Workshop at the University of Iowa (MFA 2001), and the Juilliard
School's American Playwrights Program (2003). As of 2010, he resides
in Brooklyn Heights.Adjmi's play The Evildoers was developed at the
Sundance Institute and the Royal Court Theatre in London. It premiered
in January 2008 at the Yale Repertory Theatre. Variety called it "an
anxiety attack of a play" and, of Adjmi, noted that he is "clearly a
writer with a distinct voice, ambition and style." His play Stunning
opened a month later at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington
DC where it was selected as one of the top ten plays of the year by
The Washington Post and was published in American Theatre magazine.
Stunning premiered in New York at Lincoln Center Theater in June 2009
where it played an extended run to sold-out houses. Adjmi's play Marie
Antoinette was developed at the Goodman Theatre's New Stages Series
and the Sundance Institute's Residency at the Public Theatre. It will
premiere in a coproduction between the American Repertory Theater and
Yale Repertory Theatre in Fall 2012. His play "3C" premieres at
Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre in June 2012. His monologue Elective
Affinities was commissioned by the Royal Court Theatre and later
premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the United Kingdom. In
November, 2011 it received its U.S. Premiere at Soho Repertory
Theatre, featuring Tony Award-winning actress Zoe Caldwell, and
directed by OBIE winner Sarah Benson. His play Marie Antoinette, which
was presented at Yale Rep. in 2012 and received three Connecticut
Critics Circle Awards including Best Play, opened the 2013â€"2014
season at Soho Rep. under the direction of Rebecca Taichman and with
many members of the original cast. The New Yorker recently named Adjmi
at one of the Top Ten in Culture for 2011, and described him as an
artist who is part of "a new trend in the American theatre."Other
plays include Strange Attractors, Caligula and the controversial hit
3C which put Adjmi in the center of a media firestorm and a legal
battle with DLT Entertainment, the rights holders of the television
series "Three's Company" which Adjmi satirized in his play. DLT issued
a Cease and Desist to the playwright on Adjmi's opening night. In
2014, Adjmi sued for a declaratory judgment that he had not infringed
DLT's copyright. On March 31, 2015, three years after its premiere,
United States District Judge Loretta Preska ruled in a 56-page
decision that the play deconstructed rather than repeated the sitcom,
turning it into “a nightmarish version of itself†and was
protected as a fair use. 3C made Year's Best lists in Time Out New
York, the New York Post and The Advocate.
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