Edward Einhorn

Edward Einhorn (born September 6, 1970) is an American playwright, theater director, and novelist, noted for the comic absurdism of his drama and the imaginative richness of his literary works.

A native of Westfield, New Jersey, Einhorn graduated from Westfield High School, where he was an editor of the student newspaper Hi's Eye.[1] He attended Johns Hopkins University. In 1992 he started the Untitled Theater Company #61 in New York (co-founded with his older brother David Einhorn, who has produced plays for the company). With that company, Edward Einhorn has directed T. S. Eliot's Sweeney Agonistes, Eugène Ionesco's The Bald Soprano, Dennis Potter's Brimstone and Treacle, and Richard Foreman's My Head Was a Sledgehammer among other works. He has staged a festival of the complete plays of Eugène Ionesco, a festival of the complete plays of Václav Havel, a calypso musical adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, an adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,[2] and a "NEUROfest" of plays on aspects of neurology. Off-Broadway, he directed Fairy Tales of the Absurd, a trilogy of one-act plays, two by Ionesco and one (One Head Too Many) by himself.[3]

As playwright, Einhorn has composed one-act and full-length plays, including dramas on Jewish legends[4] and a series of plays on neurological conditions — The Boy Who Wanted to be a Robot (on Asperger syndrome), The Taste of Blue, (on synesthesia), Strangers (on Korsakov's syndrome), and Linguish (on aphasia). He has adapted the Lysistrata of Aristophanes for modern audiences.[5] He has also written a few plays on Czech subjects, such as Rudolf II (based on the 16th century Emperor who lived in Prague), and The Velvet Oratorio (a Vaněk play staged at Lincoln Center and based on the events of the Velvet Revolution).[6] His most personal play, Drs. Jane and Alexander, is a found text piece about his mother and his grandfather, Alexander Wiener, who discovered the Rh factor in blood.

He has written two Oz novels, Paradox in Oz[7] and The Living House of Oz[8] (both illustrated by Eric Shanower), as well as a number of short stories. He has also written a book on probability for young readers, A Very Improbable Story,[9] illustrated by Adam Gustavson. A number of his plays have also been published, including his Hanukkah drama, Playing Dreidel with Judah Maccabee [10]

In 2011, he authored the first English language translation of Václav Havel's final play, The Pig, or Václav Havel's Hunt for a Pig,[11][12] as well as Havel's one-act, Ela, Hela, and the Hitch. Both were published, as part of Theater 61 Press' Havel Collection. Einhorn also wrote the introductions to all the books in the Havel Collection.[13]

In the year 2000, Einhorn was involved in a supposed controversy with playwright Richard Foreman over Foreman's Lava,[14] although Einhorn has stated that the reviewer mistook a joke in the play for a real controversy.[15] Four years later, Einhorn was involved in a more genuine controversy with the producers of Nancy McClernan's play Tam Lin, which resulted in legal action.[16]

References

  1. ↑ Staff. "Former Westfielder Publishes First Novel, '‘Paradox in Oz'’", The Westfield Leader, February 3, 2000. Accessed March 5, 2011.
  2. ↑ A Test for Humanity in a Postapocalyptic World, The New York Times, December 3, 2010.
  3. ↑ Lunar Voyage On Wings Of Whimsy, The New York Times, June 18, 2003,
  4. ↑ Edward Einhorn, The Golem, Methuselah, and Shylock: Plays by Edward Einhorn, New York, Theater 61 Press, 2005.
  5. ↑ Aristophanes, Lysistrata, adapted by Edward Einhorn, New York, Theater 61 Press, 2007.
  6. ↑ A Revolution Set to Music, Wall Street Journal, November 14, 2009
  7. ↑ Edward Einhorn, Paradox in Oz, San Diego, Hungry Tiger Press, 1999.
  8. ↑ Edward Einhorn, The Living House of Oz, San Diego, Hungry Tiger Press, 2005.
  9. ↑ Edward Einhorn, A Very Improbable Story, Watertown, MA, Charlesbridge Press, 2008.
  10. ↑ Midwest book review, Playing Drediel
  11. ↑ Backstage review, The Pig
  12. ↑ New York Times review, The Pig
  13. ↑ Theater 61 Press
  14. ↑ "Disobeying the Foreman," The Village Voice, 5 September 2000.
  15. ↑ Untitled Theater #61's Lava web page
  16. ↑ Jesse Green, "Exit, Pursued by a Lawyer," The New York Times, 29 January 2006.

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