American playwright (born 1962)
John W. Lowell |
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Born | (1962-09-09) September 9, 1962 (age 61)
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Occupation |
playwright |
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John W. Lowell is an American
playwright. He lives in the West Village in
New York City.
[1]
Lowell earned a
B.A. in
history from
Tufts University in
Medford, Massachusetts. Additionally, he studied
musical theory with Mark DeVoto and
musical composition with
T.J. Anderson.
The Letters is Lowell's most frequently performed work. Exploring themes of
censorship,
torture,
office politics, "...the playwright has said that an inspiration for his play was
the impeachment... of President
Bill Clinton. The government’s intrusion into private lives infuriated Lowell. In 2004, the U.S.’s torture of prisoners and later,
Edward Snowden’s revelations, continued to fuel the subtext of
political commentary in the drama. The Letters explores how
governments manipulate the
truth and use
fear and
mistrust as
psychological controls."
[2]
The play is a fictional account of the efforts by the
Soviets to censor and suppress the private papers of composer
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
The Letters was premiered in
Los Angeles by the Andak Stage Company on March 14, 2009, and has received subsequent productions by the Writers' Theatre (
Glencoe, IL), the
Aurora Theatre Company (
Berkeley, CA), the Cardinal Stage Company (
Bloomington, IN), and MetroStage (
Alexandria VA), among others.
[3]
A
Time review of a 2012 Writers' Theatre production in
Chicago said, "[The Letters] conveys a sense of abstract menace reminiscent of
Pinter or
Mamet Yet the menace has a specific source, and the play has a concrete sense of time and place... a nearly perfect evening of theater..."
[4]
- Autumn Canticle: The play is loosely based on the relationship between
Benjamin Britten and
Peter Pears.
[5] After a developmental production with the Eureka Theatre of
San Francisco, the play premiered in 1997 at the
Walnut Street Theater in
Philadelphia directed by
David Ogden Stiers, and was subsequently produced by the
Celebration Theatre
Los Angeles.
- Drawing Fire: When an American cartoonist becomes the target of assassins, he and his ex-wife wrestle with the concept of free expression in a world where it can cost a person literally everything.
- The Genius Of The System: Why is it that when three ambitious men work together, they can never quite work together?
- The Great Purim Adventure Of Chip Malibu: One son is everything a parent could wish for; the other is a porn star: family gatherings can be such fun! It had a reading in 2004 at the
Queens Theatre in the Park directed by
Rob Urbinati.
[6]
- Leo Tolstoy Is In The Next Room Dying: : When the most famous man in the world arrives at a railway station to die, a prudent station master's wife recognizes the profundity of the moment, and will charge a kopeck and a leg for others to share the moment. It premiered in 1997 at the San Jose Stage Company,
San Jose, CA
- Rensselaer: A Jewish family comes to grips with the failures and disappointments of an American dream that did not and could not come true.
- Sheridan Square: a modern "gay" adaptation of the
Henry James novel
Washington Square.
[7]
[1]
- The Standby Lear: What happens when the last great opportunity in an actor's life arrives, and the actor realizes that his moment may have already passed?
- Taken In: A middle-aged man tries to save a teenage hustler, but who is really saving whom? It premiered in 2001 produced by The Richmond Triangle Players, and has since been in
London and
Santa Cruz, and
Lima,
Peru.
- Two Women In A Garden (Two one-act plays): CHARLOTTE AND OLIVIA: The plight of a brilliant 19th century woman trapped in a world dominated by men; ANGELA AND GRACE: A cook-out at a Long Island home devolves into a mini-Armageddon.
Other theatrical projects and activities
Lowell composed music for
Mikhail Kuzmin's The Dangerous Precaution for
Theatre Rhinoceros in 2008.
[8]
Lowell worked as a
dramaturg on
Frank Loesser’s
Señor Discretion Himself, premiered at
Arena Stage and
Pleasures And Palaces for which he reconstructed the script and score,
[9] and also adapted
Charles Dickens's
A Christmas Carol for performance by
David Ogden Stiers.
[10]
He has also been an
archivist,
historian,
editor, rehearsal pianist,
musical director, house manager, and Broadway
music copyist. He also spent five years employing his musical and literary skills working for both
Frank Loesser Enterprises and
Jule Styne Enterprises, as well as being was head of materials at
Music Theatre International and was the first materials' manager of Theatrical Rights Worldwide.
And under the editorship of Dr. Fred Hammond, Lowell did the first complete typesetting of
Alessandro Scarlatti's opera
Il Pompeo.
Autumn Canticle was nominated for a 2004
G.L.A.A.D. Media Award in the Music & Theater category for Outstanding Play in Los Angeles.
[11]
He was also nominated Best Playwright by both the 2009 Los Angeles Stage Alliance's
Ovation Award
[12] and the
2010 Garland award
[13] both for the Andak Stage production of The Letters.
- ^
a
b Richard Dodds,
"State-censored sex drives"
Bay Area Reporter, April 17, 2014
-
^ Emily S. Mendel,
"Aurora’s ‘The Letters': Fear, mistrust make exciting drama" Berkeleyside, May 21, 2015
-
^
New Play Map newplaymap.org
-
^
Richard Zoglin,
"A Stage Triumph in Chicago: The Letters — Menacing Head Games in Stalin’s Russia" Time, January 29, 2013
-
^ Douglas J. Keating,
"The Playwright And His Play Are Both Lucky Finds" philly.com, February 21, 1997
-
^
"New Play History"
Archived 2014-12-29 at the
Wayback Machine Queens Theatre in the Park, 2004
-
^ RVA Staff,
Weekend Events 1/25/13 – Live music, dancing, and plays
Archived 2016-12-27 at the
Wayback Machine
RVA Magazine, January 25, 2013
-
^ Richard Dodds,
"100 Years of Queer Theater' at Theatre Rhino"
Bay Area Reporter, November 6, 2008
-
^
Biography Writers Theatre
-
^
"Central Oregon Coast Calendar: Holiday Events for Yachats, Waldport and Newport" December, 2007
-
^
Ryan Maldonado,
"GLAAD unveils ’04 noms"
Variety, December 7, 2003
-
^
"Ovation Nominee Profile: John W. Lowell" @THIS STAGE Magazine, November 13, 2009
-
^ Backstage Staff
"2010 Garland Awards for Excellence in Southland Theater"
Backstage, March 10, 2010