Ike Holter (born 1985) is an American playwright."Why Ike Holter Has No Choice But To Tell Chicago Stories"
''

Playbill ''Playbill'' is an American monthly magazine for Audience, theatergoers. Although there is a subscription issue available for home delivery, most copies of ''Playbill'' are printed for particular productions and distributed at the door as the ...

'', April 30, 2016. He won a Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for drama in 2017. Holter is a resident playwright at

Victory Gardens Theater Victory Gardens Theater is a theater company in Chicago, Illinois dedicated to the development and production of new plays and playwrights. The theater company was founded in 1974 when eight Chicago artists, Cecil O'Neal, Warren Casey, Stuart Go ...

, and has been commissioned by The

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Opened on September 8, ...

, The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center,

South Coast Repertory South Coast Repertory (SCR) is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California. South Coast Repertory was founded in 1964. It has three stages and presents plays from all eras. SCR producers new plays, Theatre for Young Audiences ...

and The Playwrights' Center.

Early life

Ike Holter was born in

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

. He has said that attending a performance of

Sweeney Todd Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as the villain of the penny dreadful serial '' The String of Pearls'' (1846–1847). The original tale became a feature of 19th-century melodrama and London legend. A barber from Fleet St ...

at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis at the age of eleven inspired him to pursue a career in theater. He attended

Minneapolis South High School South High School, or simply South, is a four-year comprehensive public high school in the Corcoran neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. A member of the Minneapolis Public Schools district, it is Minneapolis' oldest and largest public hig ...

and then studied playwriting at The Theatre School at DePaul University in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. He is gay.

Career

His play ''Hit the Wall'' was produced by The Inconvenience as part of

Steppenwolf Theater Company Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Chicago theater company founded in 1974 by Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry (American actor), Jeff Perry, and Gary Sinise in the Immaculate Conception grade school in Highland Park, Illinois and is now located in Chica ...

's Garage Rep in 2012. It made the

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

's "Top Ten Plays of 2012" list. It went on to be produced off-broadway at Barrow Street and in many cities around the country, including a sold out and three times extended 2015-2016 production in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

at the LGBT Center that was nominated for many "Best of the Year" awards in LA. In 2014, he wrote
Exit Strategy
'' for Jackalope Theater. Chris Jones of the

called it "at once poetic, political, sad, funny, timely, complex and compassionate, Ike Holter's thrilling, beautiful new play
Exit Strategy
'' is the story of the desperate final days of a condemned, crumbling Chicago public school dreading its upcoming prom date with the cruel bulldozers from City Hall." The play has also been produced at Philadelphia Theater Company and Off Broadway at Primary Stages Theater in addition to regional productions in Boston, Los Angeles, Houston, and other cities. His later plays have included ''B-Side Studio'' (2013),
Exit Strategy
'' (2014),
Sender
'' (2016) ''The Light Fantastic'' (2018) and ''The Wolf at the End of the Block'' (2017). The Goodman premiered ''Lottery Day'' in the spring of 2019, the capstone to the seven-play "saga" about a fictional Chicago neighborhood called Rightlynd. He served as a staff writer for the FX series produced by

Lin-Manuel Miranda Lin-Manuel Miranda (; born January 16, 1980) is an American songwriter, actor, singer, filmmaker, rapper, and librettist. He created the Broadway musicals '' In the Heights'' and ''Hamilton'', and the soundtracks for the animated films '' Moana' ...

, "

Fosse/Verdon ''Fosse/Verdon'' is a 2019 American biographical drama miniseries, developed by Steven Levenson and Thomas Kail. Based on the biography ''Fosse'' by Sam Wasson, the series charts the troubled marriage and professional relationship of director ...

", writing "All I Care About is Love", the series 6th episode. He is a resident playwright of

. In 2021, Holter is developing a TV miniseries about the 1983 election and tenure of

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Harold Washington Harold Lee Washington (April 15, 1922 – November 25, 1987) was an American lawyer and politician who was the 51st mayor of Chicago. In April 1983, Washington became the first African American to be elected as the city’s mayor at the age of ...

, the first

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

to hold the office.

Awards

In 2017, Holter was one of eight winners of

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

's annual Windham-Campbell Literature Prizes, one of the highest awards for playwriting in the world. In 2018, the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) selected Holter as one of six finalists for the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, recognizing playwrights for the best scripts that premiered professionally outside New York City during 2017, for his play ''The Wolf at the End of the Block''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holter, Ike 1985 births Living people 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights African-American dramatists and playwrights American male dramatists and playwrights DePaul University alumni American gay writers African-American LGBTQ people American LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights LGBTQ people from Minnesota Writers from Chicago Writers from Minneapolis 21st-century American male writers South High School (Minnesota) alumni 21st-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American writers African-American male writers Writers Guild of America Award winners