Don Nigro is an American playwright; his plays ''Anima Mundi'' and ''The Dark Sonnets of the Lady'' have both been nominated for the National Repertory Theatre Foundation's National Play Award. He has won a Playwright's Fellowship Grant from the National Endowment For The Arts, grants from the Mary Roberts Rinehart Foundation and the Ohio Arts Council, and twice been James Thurber Writer In Residence at the Thurber House in Columbus, Ohio.

Personal life

Don Nigro was born on September 30, 1949 and currently lives near

Malvern, Ohio Malvern ( ) is a village in northwestern Carroll County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,110 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Canton–Massillon metropolitan area. History Malvern was laid out in 1834 by Rev. William Hardesty a ...

. He grew up in Ohio and Arizona. He received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in English from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

in 1971 and a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admi ...

dramatic arts Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been c ...

from the Playwrights Workshop at

the University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 colleges offer ...

in 1979. At various times he has taught at the Ohio State University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Indiana State University, the University of Iowa, and Kent State University. Nigro has listed some of his major dramatic influences as Shakespeare and the Jacobeans,

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

, Peter Barnes,

Tom Stoppard Sir Tom Stoppard (; born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...

, and the early work of

John Arden John Arden (26 October 1930 – 28 March 2012) was an English playwright who at his death was lauded as "one of the most significant British playwrights of the late 1950s and early 60s". Career Born in Barnsley, son of the manager of a glass ...

and

Edward Bond Thomas Edward Bond (18 July 1934 – 3 March 2024) was an English playwright, theatre director, poet, dramatic theorist and screenwriter. He was the author of some 50 plays, among them '' Saved'' (1965), the production of which was instrument ...

. He lists his major non-dramatic influences as the work of

William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th century in literature, 20th-century literature. He was ...

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...

Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals ''The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review (1924), The Transatlant ...

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...

and

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo ( ; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish literature, Spanish-language and international literatur ...

. He also lists the

King James Bible The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by ...

Buster Keaton Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent films during the 1920s, in which he performed physical comedy and inventive stunts. He frequently ...

, and

the Marx Brothers The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act known for their anarchic humor, rapid-fire wordplay, and visual gags. They achieved success in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in 14 motion pictures. The core group consisted of brothers Chic ...

Career

Nigro has written more than 500 plays, 201 of which have been published by Samuel French, Inc. in 58 volumes. Also 226 of his plays in 75 volumes are available in manuscript form on the

Samuel French Samuel French (1821–1898) was an American entrepreneur who, together with British actor, playwright and theatrical manager Thomas Hailes Lacy, pioneered in the field of theatrical publishing and the licensing A license (American Englis ...

web site, and 13 of his plays in 5 volumes are published by Next Stage Press. One of his plays, ''Ravenscroft'', was adapted into the film ''The Manor'', with

Peter O'Toole Peter Seamus O'Toole (; 2 August 1932 – 14 December 2013) was an English actor known for his leading roles on stage and screen. His numerous accolades include the Academy Honorary Award, a BAFTA Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and four Golde ...

. His long cycle of Pendragon County plays, now numbering well over two dozen and still growing, traces American history from the eighteenth century to the present through the lives of several generations of interconnected families from an east Ohio town. These include ''Glamorgan'', ''Horrid Massacre In Boston'', ''Armitage'', ''Fisher King'', ''Green Man'', ''Sorceress'', ''Tristan'', ''Pendragon'', ''Chronicles'', ''Anima Mundi'', ''Beast With Two Backs'', ''Laestrygonians'', ''The Circus Animals' Desertion'', ''Dramatis Personae'', ''The Reeves Tale'' and ''November''. His cycle of Russian plays includes ''Pushkin'', ''Gogol'', ''An Angler In The Lake Of Darkness'' (about

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

), ''Emotion Memory'' (about

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

), ''A Russian Play'', ''Rasputin'', and ''Mandelstam''. His plays about art and artists include ''Hieronymus Bosch'', ''Dutch Interiors'' (about

Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , ; see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. He is considered one of the greatest painters of the Dutch ...

), ''Blood Red Roses'' (about the

Pre-Raphaelites The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti ...

), ''The Daughters of Edward D. Boit'' (based on the painting by

John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 15, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era, Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil ...

), ''Netherlands'' (about

Van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artwork ...

), ''Sphinx'' (about

Franz Von Stuck Franz Ritter von Stuck (February 23, 1863 – August 30, 1928), born Franz Stuck, was a German painter, sculptor, printmaker, and architect. Stuck was best known for his paintings of ancient mythology, receiving substantial critical acclaim with ...

), ''Madonna'' (about

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( ; ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His 1893 work ''The Scream'' has become one of Western art's most acclaimed images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dread of inher ...

), ''Europe After The Rain'' (about

Max Ernst Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...

), ''Picasso'' (about the invisible squirrel in a painting by Braque), and ''City of Dreadful Night'', (inspired by the paintings of

Edward Hopper Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American realism painter and printmaker. He is one of America's most renowned artists and known for his skill in depicting modern American life and landscapes. Born in Nyack, New York, to a ...

). His Inspector Ruffing plays include ''Mephisto'', ''Demonology'', ''The Rooky Wood'', ''Creatures Lurking In The Churchyard'', ''Ravenscroft'', ''Widdershins'', and ''Phantoms''. Other plays include ''Machiavelli'', ''Ardy Fafirsin'', ''A Lecture By Monsieur Artaud'' (about

Antonin Artaud Antoine Maria Joseph Paul Artaud (; ; 4September 18964March 1948), better known as Antonin Artaud, was a French artist who worked across a variety of media. He is best known for his writings, as well as his work in the theatre and cinema. Widely ...

), ''Grotesque Lovesongs'' (originally commissioned by producer

Saint Subber Arnold Saint-Subber (February 18, 1918 – April 19, 1994), usually known as Saint Subber, was an American theatrical producer. Early life Subber grew up in New York City, where both of his parents were theatre ticket brokers. He attended New York ...

), ''Mariner'' (about

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...

), ''Jules Verne Eats A Rhinoceros'' (about reporter

Nellie Bly Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman (born Elizabeth Jane Cochran; May 5, 1864 – January 27, 1922), better known by her pen name Nellie Bly, was an American journalist who was widely known for her record-breaking circumnavigation, trip around the world ...

), ''Punch and Judy'', ''Boar's Head'' (about the lives of the supporting characters at the Boar's Head Inn in Shakespeare's mentioned but unwritten scenes from his ''Henry IV'' plays), ''Loves Labours Wonne'' (about Shakespeare), ''Paganini'', ''Lucia Mad'' (about the daughter of

), ''Cinderella Waltz'', ''Specter'', ''Monkey Soup'', ''Don Giovanni'', ''The Count of Monte Cristo In The Chateau D'If'', ''Quint And Miss Jessel At Bly'', ''The Girlhood Of Shakespeare's Heroines'', ''Terre Haute'', ''The Transylvanian Clockworks'', ''Seascape With Sharks and Dancer'', ''Henry And Ellen'' (about

Henry Irving Sir Henry Irving (6 February 1838 – 13 October 1905), christened John Henry Brodribb, sometimes known as J. H. Irving, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility ( ...

and

Ellen Terry Dame Alice Ellen Terry (27 February 184721 July 1928) was a leading English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born into a family of actors, Terry began performing as a child, acting in Shakespeare plays in London, and toured ...

), ''The Dark Sonnets Of The Lady'' (about

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...

and his patient Dora), ''Seduction'' (inspired by

Søren Kierkegaard Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( , ; ; 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danes, Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical tex ...

's ''Diary of a Seducer''), ''Rainy Night At Lindy's'' (about the last night of gangster

Arnold Rothstein Arnold Rothstein (January 17, 1882 – November 6, 1928), nicknamed "The Brain", was an American racketeer, crime boss, businessman, and gambler who became a kingpin of the Jewish Mob in New York City. Rothstein was widely reputed to have orga ...

), ''What Shall I Do For Pretty Girls?'' (about the tangled relationship of

Maud Gonne Maud Gonne MacBride (, born Edith Maud Gonne); 21 December 1866 – 27 April 1953) was an Irish republican revolutionary, suffragette and actress. She was of Anglo-Irish descent and was won over to Irish nationalism by the plight of people evict ...

, her daughter

Iseult Gonne Iseult Lucille Germaine Gonne (6 August 1894 – 22 March 1954) was the daughter of the Irish republican revolutionary Maud Gonne and the French politician and journalist Lucien Millevoye. She married the novelist Francis Stuart in 1920. ...

, and Yeats' automatic writing wife

Georgie Hyde-Lees Bertha Georgie Yeats (; 16 October 189223 August 1968)Michael (surname)">he He ..., a given nam .... Georgie died on 23 August 1968. References Sources * Foster, R.F. ''W.B Yeats: A Life''. Oxford University Press, 1997. * Saddlemeyer, Ann ...

), ''Maelstrom'' (about

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

), ''Traitors'' (about the

Alger Hiss Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was an American government official who was accused of espionage in 1948 for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. The statute of limitations had expired for espionage, but he was convicted of perjur ...

Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer and intelligence agent. After early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), he defected from the Soviet u ...

case) and ''My Sweetheart's the Man in the Moon'' (about

Evelyn Nesbit Florence Evelyn Nesbit (December 25, 1884 or 1885 – January 17, 1967) was an American model (person), artists' model, chorus girl, and actress. She is best known for her career in New York City, as well as her husband, railroad scion Har ...

and

Stanford White Stanford White (November 9, 1853 – June 25, 1906) was an American architect and a partner in the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, one of the most significant Beaux-Arts firms at the turn of the 20th century. White designed many houses ...

). He is also known for his cult work ''The Curate Shakespeare As You Like It'', subtitled ''Being the record of one company's attempt to perform the play by

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

''. ''Martian Gothic'' was commissioned by The Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York as part of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project and developed earlier at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton. Nigro's plays have been produced at the McCarter Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the WPA Theatre, the Hudson Guild Theatre, Capital Repertory Company, the New York Fringe Festival, the Berkeley Stage Company, Manhattan Class Company, the People's Light And Theatre Company, the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Theatre X, the Secret Rose Theatre, Inertia Productions, the Hypothetical Theatre, the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, the Oldcastle Theatre, the Porthouse Theatre, the Old Creamery Theatre, the Sacramento Theatre Company, the Strain Theatre Company, the Apothecary Theatre Company, Gravity and Glass, Theatre NXS, Renaissance Theatreworks, Look At The Fish Theatre Company, at Teatr Syrena in Warsaw, Teatr Julius Slowakie in Kraków, toured in Germany by the Munich-based company SpielArt, at the First International Mystery Festival, toured in India, in London, Munich, Mexico City, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Norway, Finland, Ukraine, Belarus, Belgium, Moldova, Slovenia, South Africa, Tehran, Hong Kong and Beijing. John Clancy's production of ''Cincinnati'', with Nancy Walsh, won Fringe First and Spirit of the Fringe awards at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Best of Fringe at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in Australia, and later toured in England and Wales. His plays are frequently done by many Off Off Broadway companies in New York, and in Kyiv, Odesa, Mykolaiv, and other cities in Ukraine during the war with Russia. In 2024 three of his plays, Ravenscroft, Maddalena and Animal Tales, were being performed by the repertory company at the Chekhov Theatre in Chisinau, Moldova, in the translations of Victor Weber, directed by Iosif Shats. Nigro's plays have been translated into Italian, French, German, Spanish, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Russian, Greek, Polish, Dutch, Lithuanian and Chinese. in November 2012 a Spanish version of ''Seascape With Sharks And Dancer,'' translated by Tato Alexander and featuring

Bruno Bichir Bruno Bichir Nájera (born 6 October 1967) is a Mexican actor. Biography Bichir was born in Mexico City. He started his acting career at the age of five in several theater, film and television series. He made his film debut in a minor role fo ...

and Tato Alexander, opened at Teatro El Granero in Mexico City. This production was revived in Mexico City in 2013 and later toured in Mexico. In June 2013 ''Marina'' and ''Mata Hari'' were produced in New York by Nylon Fusion Theatre Company, both featuring actress Tatyana Kot and directed by Ivette Dumeng. In 2015 ''Gorgons'' was produced by the Drama Theatre of Petrozavodsk and the Drama Theatre of Yelets, in Russia. In 2016 ''Don Giovanni'' was produced by the Yermolova Drama Theatre in Moscow, ''Gorgons'' at the Aggelon Vima Theatre in Athens, Greece, and ''Nebuchadnezzar'' at the Vene Theatre in Tallinn, Estonia. The Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute at the Ohio State University in Columbus has archived a large collection of Nigro's scripts and related materials. See also McGhee, Jim: ''Labyrinth: The Plays Of Don Nigro'' (University Press Of America, 2004).

References

External links

*
Index of Don Nigro's Works
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nigro, Don Living people University of Iowa alumni Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences alumni 1949 births Writers from Ohio People from Malvern, Ohio Ohio State University faculty University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty Indiana State University faculty University of Iowa faculty Kent State University faculty 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights