Ethan Silverman is a writer, theatre director, filmmaker, and producer who was born on November 25, 1959 in Brooklyn, New York. He was raised in Chicago IL and Albany, New York before attending Oberlin College and The Drama Studio, London.
He has directed at many theatres around the country most notably his adaptation of Pete Townshend’s The Boy Who Heard Music at the New York Stage & Film/Powerhouse Theatre at Vassar College in 2007. He also collaborated with Mr. Townshend on a workshop production of Psychoderelict starring Peter Gallagher. He directed Ron Silver in Robert Greenfield’s Bill Graham Presents at various theatres around the country including the Berkshire Theatre Festival, The Cannon in Beverly Hills and the HBO Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen where it won Best Play. Other theatres include the Long Wharf, the Kennedy Center, the Mark Taper Forum, Naked Angels, La MaMa Etc., and MCC Theater.
As a filmmaker he wrote and directed the short Central Park with dancers Robert LaFosse and John Kelly (1996 Sundance Film Festival and 1997 PBS) and the Documentary about Russian adoption, The Waiting Children (1997 Sundance Film Festival).
As a screenwriter he has collaborated with producer Gary Foster and Barry Levinson on his original screenplay My Italian Story and with Boy George on a fantasy bio pic based on Boy George’s life. He edited and wrote the introduction for photographer Rivka Katvan’s Backstage: Broadway Behind The Curtain (Harry N. Abrams).
In 2008 he was a writer in residence at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, NY and a writer/director in residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in Manhattan on Jack From Above the one man show he is currently collaborating on with director Jack Hofsiss. Ethan began his professional career as Jack Hofsiss’s assistant on the Broadway production of The Elephant Man and the television play The Oldest Living Graduate with Henry Fonda.
He is currently an Adjunct Professor in the MFA Design & Technology Program at Parsons The New School for Design where he teaches Thesis Writing and Research and Narrative Strategies.
He is married to literary agent and producer Erica Spellman-Silverman.