BIOS OF THE KESSELRING FELLOWS 2009:
DAVID ADJMI
David has received numerous honors, including McKnight and Jerome Fellowships, the Helen Merill Award, the Marian Seldes-Garson Kanin Award, a Royal Court International Residency, the Cherry Lane Mentor Project Fellowship, and others. His play The Evildoers its world premiere at Yale Repertory Theatre in January of 2008. Stunning premiered at Woolly Mammoth in March, was subequently published in American Theatre, and will receive a production at Lincoln Center's LCT3 in the spring. Other plays include Marie Antoinette (Soho Rep W/D Lab, Sundance/Public Theatre Residency, Goodman Theatre New Stages Series), Caligula (Soho Rep Studio Series), Elective Affinities (RSC, in London & Stratford on Avon, both dir. by Dominic Cooke), Strange Attractors (Empty Space), Woody Allen's Fall Project and 3C. David has been awarded commissions from Lincoln Center, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, and the Royal Court, and he is developing a screenplay based on A.M. Homes's Music for Torching for director Steven Shainberg and Muse Films. David attended Sarah Lawrence College, the Iowa Playwrights Workshop, and Juilliard. He is a member of New Dramatists, the Dramatists Guild and Rising Phoenix Rep.
RAJIV JOSEPH
Rajiv Joseph's play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo will be produced this May at the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. His other productions include Huck & Holden (Cherry Lane Theatre, NYC), All This Intimacy and Animals Out of Paper (2nd Stage Theatre, NYC), and The Leopard and the Fox (Alter Ego, NYC). He is a 2008 recipient of the Vineyard Theatre's Paula Vogel Award. He was educated at Miami University and NYU and served in the Peace Corps for three years in Senegal.
BIOS OF THE KESSELRING HONOREES:
JENNY SHWARTZ
Jenny Schwartz's play God's Ear was premiered by New Georges; and was subsequently produced by the Vineyard Theatre; and has been published by Faber & Faber and Samuel French. God's Ear received a Susan Smith Blackburn Special Commendation. Jenny's play Cause for Alarm was part of the New York International Fringe Festival, and PSNBC's "Best of the Fringe Festival" at HERE. Jenny received an MFA in Theatre Directing from Columbia University, and is a graduate of Juilliard's Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Program.
She is currently working on Somewhere Fun, which is a commission from Soho Theatre, London & Soho Rep, NY. She is also under commission from South Coast Repertory and True Love Productions. She was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Soho Rep Dorothy Strelsin Playwriting Fellowship and has attended Sundance/Ucross Playwright's Retreat. Jenny is an Associate Artist with The Civilians, and a member of New Dramatists.
TARELL ALVIN MCCRANEY
Plays include The Brother/Sister Plays: The Brothers Size, 2007 The Public Theater New York The Young Vic, London UK, In the Red and Brown Water (2008 Alliance Theater Atlanta, GA) Other plays: The Breach (Southern Rep. Theater New Orleans 2007, Seattle Rep Theater 2008), Wig Out! (Vineyard Theatre, New York and the Royal Court, London 2008) Tarell graduated from the New World School of the Arts High School, 1999, matriculated into The Theater School at DePaul University in Chicago with a BFA in Acting 2003. Masters Degree from the Yale School of Drama in playwriting 2007. Honored with the 2007 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award from the Vineyard Theater and a 2007 Whiting Writing Award, Tarell has been named the International Writer in Residence for the Royal Shakespeare Company 2008-2010, the Hodder Fellow at the Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University and a seven-year residency at New Dramatist center in New York, NY. He received the Most Promising Playwright Award from the Evening Standard in London 2008.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL ARTS CLUB:
Established in 1898, The National Arts Club was the first private club in Manhattan to include women in its membership. In addition to the Kesselring Prize, the National Arts Club confers Medals of Honor in all the arts categories, given to individuals and/or organizations for their lifetime contributions. The National Arts Club also awards scholarships to young artists, and has an outreach program for high schools. O. Aldon James, Jr., President of The National Arts Club, and Dianne Bernhard, the first Vice-President of The National Arts Club, are Co-Chairmen of the Club's Kesselring Committee. For information about The National Arts Club and its programs, call 212-475-3424.
ABOUT THE EXCHANGE/ORCHARD PROJECT:
The Exchange is a NYC theatre company committed to producing the classics of today and tomorrow and redefining the way new theatre is created. In 2007,
the board of the famed Jean Cocteau Rep relaunched the company with this new mission. The Exchange also runs the Orchard Project, based in the Catskill National Reserve, the nation's only development center focused on the work
of companies and innovative leading artists from the US and abroad, where pieces like this season's Off-Broadway hits The Shipment and Architecting and the upcoming Broadway production of 33 Variations were developed. For
more information, please visit www.exchangenyc.org or www.orchardproject.com
