Nicky Silver
Nicky Silver is an American playwright. Formerly of Philadelphia, he resides in London. Many of his plays have been produced off-Broadway, and also at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C.
Biography
Early life
Silver was born in 1960 in Philadelphia and as teen, attended Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in upstate New York. He graduated from the New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts.[1]
Career
Many of his early plays were originally produced off-off-Broadway at the Vortex Theatre in New York. Later, his plays premiered at Off-Broadway venues such as the Vineyard Theatre and Playwrights Horizons. Silver noted: "My first real break came when the artistic director of the Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, D.C. happened to walk in and saw, 'Fat Man in Skirts.'"[1] Several of his plays received premieres at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC, including Fat Men in Skirts (1991), Free Will and Wanton Lust (January 1993)[2] and The Food Chain (1993-94 season).[3] In her review of Fat Men in Skirts at Woolly Mammoth Theatre for The Washington Post, Lloyd Rose wrote: "Silver is a modern American absurdist in the tradition of John Guare or Harry Kondoleon, but more of a lowbrow. His go-for-the-laugh instincts are as naked as any sitcom writer's. The dizzying, rather wonderful thing about "Fat Men in Skirts" is that such a shallow technique is made to serve such a deep and anguished vision. Silver never met a pain he couldn't laugh at."[4]
His plays Pterodactyls and Raised in Captivity received back-to-back Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Play in 1994 and 1995, respectively.
His play The Food Chain ran Off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre in August 1995 to June 1996, (initially produced at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre) with direction by
Silver wrote the new
The Lyons, opened on Broadway in April 2012, after an Off-Broadway run at the Vineyard Theater in 2011. It was his first play to be produced on Broadway. The play starred Linda Lavin and Dick Latessa.[10]
His play Too Much Sun premiered Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre on May 1, 2014 in previews, officially on May 18, with direction by Mark Brokaw and starring Linda Lavin and Jennifer Westfeldt.[11]
This Day Forward premiered Off-Broadway on November 21, 2016 at the Vineyard Theatre. The play, a comedy, is directed by Mark Brokaw and features Holley Fain and Michael Crane.[12]
Original plays (select)
- Fat Men in Skirts 1989 (Vortex Theatre); 1991 (Woolly Mammoth)
- Pterodactyls - 1993
- Free Will and Wanton Lust - 1993[13]
- Raised in Captivity - 1995[14]
- The Food Chain - 1995
- Fit to be Tied - 1996
- The Maiden's Prayer - 1998
- The Eros Trilogy, consisting of Claire, Philip and Roger and Miriam - 1999[15]
- The Altruists - 2000[16]
- Beautiful Child- 2004
- The Agony and the Agony - 2006[17]
- Three Changes - 2008[18]
- The Lyons - 2011
- Too Much Sun - 2014
- This Day Forward – 2016
Critical analysis
In the preface to his interview with Silver, David Savran locates Silver's work in the tradition of dark farce created by gay playwrights such as Oscar Wilde, Joe Orton, and Christopher Durang.[19] Theatre scholar Jordan Schildcrout has noted the recurring theme of the prodigal son in Silver's plays, and sees Todd in Pterodactyls as a symbolic figure who challenges and subverts homophobic stereotypes used to vilify gay men during the AIDS crisis.[20]
Awards and honors
- 1994 - Pterodactyls - nominated for Outstanding Play, Drama Desk Awards
- 1995 - Raised in Captivity - nominated for Outstanding Play, Drama Desk Awards
- 2012 - The Lyons - nominated for Outstanding New Broadway Play; Mark Brokaw (Outstanding Director of a Play); and Linda Lavin (Outstanding Actress in a Play), Outer Critics Circle Award[21]
References
- ^ a b Horwitz, Simi. "Face to Face : Nicky Silver Answers - "The Maiden's Prayer'" backstage.com, March 13, 1998
- ^ Rose, Lloyd. "Theater;'Free Will's' Flip Sides;Frenetic Pain and Mirth At Woolly Mammoth", The Washington Post, January 19, 1993
- ^ "Wooly Mammoth History" Archived 2013-07-03 at the Wayback Machine woollymammoth.net, accessed April 5, 2012
- ^ Rose, Lloyd. " 'Fat Men': Big Laughs, Politely Spoken", The Washington Post, June 17, 1991, Style, p. C1
- ^ Brantley, Ben. "Review/Theater: Pterodactyls; Mining the Humor From the Decline of a Class" The New York Times, October 21, 1993
- ^ Brantley, Ben. "Theater Review. RAISED IN CAPTIVITY; Alienation, AIDS and Murder, But Keeping a Sense of Humor" The New York Times, March 1, 1995
- ^ Brantley, Ben. "Theater Review. Love as a Comical Fugue Of Thin, Lonely Voices" The New York Times, August 25, 1995
- ^ " The Food Chain, Westside Theatre" Archived 2012-10-16 at the Wayback Machine Internet Off-Broadway Database listing, accessed April 6, 2012
- ^ Brantley, Ben. "Theater Review. No Sobs, No Sorrows, No Sighs" The New York Times, August 19, 2001
- ^ Jones, Kenneth. " 'The Lyons', Led By Linda Lavin and Dick Latessa, Set Up Their Den on Broadway" Archived 2012-04-06 at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, April 5, 2012
- ^ Purcell, Carey. " 'Too Much Sun', Reuniting Linda Lavin With Nicky Silver, Opens Off-Broadway" playbill.com, May 18, 2014
- ^ Clement, Olivia. " 'This Day Forward' Opens at The Vineyard Tonight" Playbill, November 21, 2016
- ^ Rose, Lloyd. "Flip Sides; Frenetic Pain and Mirth At Woolly Mammoth" The Washington Post, reprint in hbmonsters.blogspot.com, January 19, 1993
- ^ Meeks, Christopher. Raised in Captivity Variety, October 23, 1995
- ^ Brantley, Ben. "Giving Mom A Break (Sort of) In a Star Turn" The New York Times, February 9, 1999
- ^ Sommer, Elyse. "A CurtainUp Review 'The Altruists'" Curtainup.com, March 2, 2000
- ^ Hernandez, Ernio. "Nicky Silver Explores 'The Agony and the Agony' in New Play Beginning Dec. 8" playbill.com, December 8, 2006
- ^ Gans, Andrew and Jones, Kenneth. "Nicky Silver's 'Three Changes' Extends Run; Hopper to Join Cast" playbill.com, September 5, 2008
- ^ Savran, David. The Playwright’s Voice: American Dramatists on Memory, Writing and the Politics of Culture. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1999.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-3418-3, pp 90ff
- ^ Gans, Andrew. "62nd Annual Outer Critics Circle Award Nominations Announced; 'Nice Work' Receives Nine Nods" Archived 2012-04-26 at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, April 23, 2012