Murray Mednick

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Murray Mednick is a playwright. Born in 1939 to a family with Jewish roots, Mednick lived in Brooklyn and the Catskills before moving to Los Angeles in 1974.

In addition to his writing, Mednick served as a teacher at La Verne College. In 1978 he established a long-running summer workshop called the Padua Hills Playwrights Workshop.

Mednick has been mentioned as influencing other playwrights including Sam Shepard, Eduardo Machado, and David Scott Milton.

[edit] Works

Mednick's works include an autobiographical series "16 Routines", "Joe and Betty" (concerning his parents' difficult marriage, performed in New York starting in June 2002), and "Mrs. Feuerstein", as well as "Sand", "The Hawk", and the Native American-inflected "The Coyote Cycles".

[edit] Awards and Recognition

Mednick's work has been recognized by the American Theater Critic's Association (Best New Play 2002 for "Joe and Betty"), Rockefeller Grants and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His work "The Deerkill" was highly regarded when it ran as an entry in The American College Theater Festival in the early seventies; Mednick provided on-site guidance for the director, Gil Lazier, and cast of Florida State University School of Theatre students.