Amy Freed (born 1958) is an American

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

. Her play '' Freedomland'' was a finalist for the

1998 Pulitzer Prize A listing of the Pulitzer Prize award winners for 1998: Journalism Letters * Biography or Autobiography ** ''Personal History'' by Katharine Graham (Alfred A. Knopf) * Fiction ** ''American Pastoral'' by Philip Roth (Houghton Mifflin) * Hi ...

for Drama.

Biography

Early life

Freed was born in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

and grew up in

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, and

Westchester County, New York Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...

. Her father, Richard, was an architect. Her mother is the actor, acting teacher and director Margaret Loft.Hurwitt, Robert
"Amy Freed rebuilds an Ibsen play into ‘The Monster-Builder’"
''San Francisco Chronicle'', November 2, 2015 She earned a degree in acting at

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = " The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , p ...

. She spent several years in New York and then attended the

American Conservatory Theater The American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) is a nonprofit theater company in San Francisco, California, United States, that offers both classical and contemporary theater productions. It also has an attached acting school. History The Americ ...

(ACT) in San Francisco, receiving an M.F.A.Niederkorn, William S
"Profile of Amy Freed"
''The New York Times'', November 16, 2003 While at ACT she wrote a play rather than a thesis for her degree. That play, ''Still Warm,'' is loosely based on the TV newswoman Jessica Savitch, and "became a precocious playwriting debut when it was produced at the Climate Theatre in 1991."

Career

Freed was nominated as a finalist in the drama category of the

s for her play ''Freedomland''."Drama's Amy Freed a Pulitzer finalist"
Stanford Report, April 15, 1998''Freedomland'' was produced

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...

Playwrights Horizons Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work. Under the ...

, running from December 16, 1998 to January 3, 1999. Directed by Howard Shalwitz, the cast featured

Veanne Cox Veanne Cox (born January 19, 1963) is an Emmy and Tony-nominated American stage and screen actress and former ballet dancer. Early life Cox was born in Norfolk, Virginia. She is a 1981 graduate of Manchester High School in Chesterfield, Virgin ...

Jeffrey Donovan Jeffrey Donovan (born May 11, 1968) is an American actor. He played Michael Westen in the television series ''Burn Notice'', and appeared in films such as '' Hitch'', '' Believe in Me'', '' Changeling'', and ''Come Early Morning''. He played Ro ...

, and

Heather Goldenhersh Heather Goldenhersh is an American actress. She has appeared on Broadway, on television, and in feature films. Early life Goldenhersh was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in St. Louis. She has said that she is "half-Jewish Jews ...

. The "darkly satiric comedy" premiered at the South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, California, in November 1997. The title is based on the "name of a Wild West theme park in the Bronx, where Freed grew up." Simonson, Robert and Lefkowitz, David
"Playwrights Horizons Ventures To Freed's 'Freedomland' Nov. 27"
Playbill, November 26, 1998 Her play ''The Psychic Life of Savages'' won the New York Arts Club's $10,000 Joseph Kesselring Award. The play ran at

Woolly Mammoth The woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') is an extinct species of mammoth that lived during the Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with '' Mammuthus s ...

in Washington, D. C. opening in April 1995.

Lloyd Rose Lloyd Rose is an American writer most associated with her work on various ''Doctor Who'' spin-offs. She has also written for the American television series '' Homicide: Life on the Street'' and '' Kingpin''. She often jokes in her biographies th ...

, reviewing for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'', called the play an "exultantly mean, painfully affecting comedy." That production won a 1995 Charles McArthur Award for outstanding new play. The play also ran at the Wilma Theater, Philadelphia in May 1998. Regarding this play, Freed "calls herself, 'an examiner of pathologies.'" She wrote ''

The Beard of Avon ''The Beard of Avon'' is a play by Amy Freed, originally commissioned and produced by South Coast Repertory in 2001. It is a farcical treatment of the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship, in which both Shakespeare and his wife become invol ...

'' which was commissioned and premiered by

South Coast Repertory South Coast Repertory (SCR) is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California. Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson, is led by Artistic Director David Ivers and Managing Direc ...

, opening in May 2001. The play was produced Off-Broadway by the New York Theatre Workshop, running from November 18, 2003 to December 21, 2003. Directed by

Doug Hughes Douglas Hughes is an American theatre director. Early life Hughes is the son of acting couple Barnard Hughes (1915–2006) and Helen Stenborg. He attended Harvard University, starting as a biology major and graduating with a degree in English. C ...

, the cast included

Tim Blake Nelson Timothy Blake Nelson (born May 11, 1964) is an American actor and playwright. Described as a "modern character actor", his roles include Delmar O'Donnell in '' O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' (2000), Gideon in '' Minority Report'' (2002), Dr. Pend ...

as Wiliam Shakspere ic

Mark Harelik Marcus Frank Harelik (born June 5, 1951) is an American television, film, and stage actor, and playwright. Early life Harelik was born in Hamilton, Texas. In 1909, Harelik's Russian Jewish grandfather, Haskell Harelik—upon whom Harelik's ...

as Edward De Vere, Mary Louise Wilson as Queen Elizabeth and

Kate Jennings Grant Kate Jennings Grant (born March 23, 1970) is an American actress. She has appeared in a number of Broadway productions during her career, including ''Proof'', ''An American Daughter'', and ''Guys and Dolls''. She also has appeared in films such as ...

as Anne Hathaway. Her play ''Safe in Hell'', another South Coast Repertory commission, received its premiere production in April 2004.Hernandez, Ernio
"Salem Witches Hunted in World Premiere of 'Safe in Hell' in CA, Starting April 2"
Playbill, April 2, 2004 The play received its East Coast premiere at the

Yale Repertory Theatre Yale Repertory Theatre at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut was founded by Robert Brustein, dean of Yale School of Drama, in 1966, with the goal of facilitating a meaningful collaboration between theatre professionals and talented stude ...

in November 2005. The play is "the story of real-life father and son Puritan preachers Cotton and Increase Mather. The comedy delves into the story behind the witch hunt." ''You, Nero'' premiered at South Coast Repertory in 2009 and focuses on "the effect Nero had on the theater scene in ancient Rome..." The play was produced at the Arena Stage in 2011. In 2012, Freed's play "Restoration Comedy" was performed at the Flea Theater. The production was described as "performed with insouciant wit" in a play which "celebrates a libertine spirit that’s hard to deny." ''The Monster-Builder'' premiered at Artists Repertory Theatre,

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous ...

, in February 2014. Called a "wonderfully wild and witty play" by Richard Wattenberg, it focuses on a master architect, Gregor Zubrowski, whose "single-minded pursuit of professional glory has stripped him of his humanity." She wrote ''Hell to Pay'', one of twenty works commissioned by the Berkeley Rep as part of The Food Project. She gave a lecture on the play in February 2014 at Stanford. Her work has been produced at

New York Theatre Workshop __NOTOC__ New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) is an Off-Broadway theatre noted for its productions of new works. Located at 79 East 4th Street between Second Avenue and Bowery in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, it hou ...

, Seattle Repertory, American Conservatory Theater,

Goodman Theatre Goodman Theatre is a professional theater company located in Chicago's Loop. A major part of the Chicago theatre scene, it is the city's oldest currently active nonprofit theater organization. Part of its present theater complex occupies the la ...

, Playwrights Horizons, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and other theaters around the US. She currently teaches acting and playwriting at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

, where she advised the creators of ''

The Manic Monologues ''The Manic Monologues'' is a play developed and premiered by Zachary Burton and Elisa Hofmeister at Stanford University. The play consists of autobiographical accounts of mental illness from people diagnosed with mental health disorders, the fam ...

''.

Honors and awards

She has been the recipient of the

Kesselring Prize Joseph Otto Kesselring (July 21, 1902 – November 5, 1967) was an American playwright who was best known for writing '' Arsenic and Old Lace'', a hit on Broadway from 1939 to 1944 and in other countries as well. Biography He was born in ...

, the

Charles MacArthur Charles Gordon MacArthur (November 5, 1895 – April 21, 1956) was an American playwright, screenwriter and 1935 winner of the Academy Award for Best Story. Life and career MacArthur was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the sixth of seven chi ...

Award and is a several times winner of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award. Freed received the South Coast Repertory (SCR) 2009 Steinberg Commission, which involved a grant from the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust to write a play for SCR. She was one of five playwrights in the

Arena Stage Arena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest, Washington, D.C. Established in 1950, it was the first racially integrated theater in Washington, D.C. and its founders helped start the U.S. regional theater movement. It is ...

, Washington DC, new program "American Voices New Play Institute", starting in 2010 for three years.

Personal

She is married to ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...

film critic Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-media outlets ...

Mick LaSalle Mick is a masculine given name, usually a short form ( hypocorism) of Michael. Because of its popularity in Ireland, it is often used in England as a derogatory term for an Irish person or a person of Irish descent. In Australia the meaning broad ...

Selected plays

*''Still Warm'' 1991. About the life of the television journalist Jessica Savitch. *''Claustrophilia'' 1993. About the relationship between

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

and his teen bride."Listing. Climate Theatre, San Francisco"
''Santa Cruz Sentinel'', April 9, 1993, p. 56 *''The Ghoul of Amherst'' 1993. A short comic vignette about the poet

Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massac ...

visiting the death bed of a classmate. *''The Psychic Life of Savages'' 1995. About the lives of poets

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

and

Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, '' Th ...

. *''Freedomland'' 1997 *''

'' 2001 *''Safe in Hell'' 2004 *''Restoration Comedy'' 2005. A reworking of classic Restoration-era comedies by Cibber and Vanbrugh. *''You, Nero'' 2009. A comedy about the Roman emperor Nero, co-commissioned by

and

Berkeley Rep Berkeley Repertory Theatre is a regional theater company located in Berkeley, California. It runs seven productions each season from its two stages in Downtown Berkeley. History The company was founded in 1968, as the East Bay's first resident ...

. *''Hell to Pay'' Concerning

factory farming Intensive animal farming or industrial livestock production, also known by its opponents as factory farming and macro-farms, is a type of intensive agriculture, specifically an approach to animal husbandry designed to maximize production, while ...

. *''The Monster-Builder'' 2014. A satiric play about an egotistical architect, premiered at Portland's

Artists Repertory Theatre Artists Repertory Theatre (Artists Rep) is a professional non-profit theatre located in Portland, Oregon, United States. The longest-running professional theatre company in Portland, since 1982 the company has focused on presenting the works of ...

in 2014.

References

External links

The Manic Monologues, Leadership