José Rivera (born March 24, 1955) is a

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 ...

and the first Puerto Rican

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

to be nominated for an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology), ...

Early years

Rivera was born in the Santurce section of

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the ju ...

in 1955. He was raised in

Arecibo Arecibo (; ) is a city and municipality on the northern coast of Puerto Rico, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, located north of Utuado and Ciales; east of Hatillo; and west of Barceloneta and Florida. It is about west of San Juan, the c ...

where he lived until 1959. Rivera's family migrated from

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

when he was 5 years old, and moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. They settled down in Long Island, whose small town environment would be of an influence to him in the future. His father was a taxi driver, he said "...for a long time I just wanted to do better than him...so for years I wanted to be a bus driver." His parents were very religious and he grew up in a household whose only book was the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts o ...

. His family enjoyed telling stories and he learned a lot by hearing these stories. As a child, he also enjoyed watching ''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology series, anthology television program, television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dysto ...

'' and ''

The Outer Limits ''The Outer Limits'' or ''Outer Limits'' may refer to: Television * ''The Outer Limits'' (1963 TV series), a black-and-white science fiction series that aired from 1963 to 1965 * ''The Outer Limits'' (1995 TV series), a revival of the older series ...

T.V. Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

series. He received his primary and secondary education in the New York state public school system. In 1968, when Rivera was 12 years old, he saw a traveling company perform the play "

Rumpelstiltskin "Rumpelstiltskin" ( ; german: Rumpelstilzchen) is a German fairy tale. It was collected by the Brothers Grimm in the 1812 edition of '' Children's and Household Tales''. The story is about a little imp who spins straw into gold in exchange for ...

" at his school. Witnessing the collective reaction of the audience towards the play convinced the young Rivera that someday, he too, would like to write plays.Diction and Contradiction by Michael Feingold, ''Village Voice'', July 4, 2006
/ref>''Book Rags''
/ref>

Career

Many of his plays have been produced across the nation and even translated into several languages, including: ''The House of Ramon Iglesias'', '' Cloud Tectonics'', ''The Street of the Sun'', ''Sonnets for an Old Century'', ''Sueño'', ''Giants Have Us in Their Books'', ''References to

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarre images in ...

Make Me Hot'' and '' Adoration of the Old Woman''. In 2003, ''Cloud Tectonics'' was presented in the XLII Festival of Puerto Rican Theater, an event sponsored by the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture, in

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...

. Rivera helped found the Los Angeles-based theater company, The Wilton Project.

Television

Rivera contributed as a writer to the following shows: ‘’a.k.a.Pablo’’ (1984) (TV series), ''The House of Ramon Iglesias'' (1986) (TV), ''

Family Matters ''Family Matters'' is an American television sitcom that debuted on ABC on September 22, 1989, and ended on May 9, 1997. However it moved to CBS, where it was shown from September 19, 1997, to July 17, 1998. A spin-off of '' Perfect Stranger ...

'' (1989) (TV series), ''

Goosebumps ''Goosebumps'' is a series of children's horror fiction novels by American author R. L. Stine, published by Scholastic Corporation, Scholastic Publishing. The protagonists in these stories are tweens or young teens who find themselves in scary ...

'' (1995) (TV series), '' The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story'' (1998), ''Night Visions'' (2001) (TV series) and the "Harmony" segment of ''

Shadow Realm is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kazuki Takahashi. It was serialized in Shueisha's ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' magazine between September 1996 and March 2004. The plot follows the story of a boy named Yugi Mutou, wh ...

'' (2002). He also co-created and co-produced the NBC-TV series, ''

Eerie, Indiana ''Eerie, Indiana'' is an American horror science fiction television series that originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1991, to December 09, 1993. The series was created by José Rivera and Karl Schaefer, with Joe Dante serving as creativ ...

'' with Karl Schaefer.

TV appearances

Rivera was featured in The Dialogue interview series. In this 90 minute interview with producer Mike DeLuca, Rivera describes his transition from playwright to Oscar-nominated screenwriter.

''The Motorcycle Diaries''

In 2002, Rivera was hired to write the screenplay for the film ''Diarios de Motocicleta'' ('' The Motorcycle Diaries'') by director

Walter Salles Walter Moreira Salles Júnior (; born 12 April 1956) is a Brazilian filmmaker. Early life Salles was born on 12 April 1956 in Rio de Janeiro and attended the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. He is the son of Brazi ...

. The movie, which was released in 2004, is based on

Che Guevara Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quot ...

's diary about a motorcycle trip which he and Alberto Granado had, and how it changed their lives. In January 2005, Rivera became the first Puerto Rican to be nominated by the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...

for "Best Adapted Screenplay" for the film. His screenplay won awards from the Cinema Writers Circle (Spain) and from the Argentine Film Critics Association; it was also nominated for awards by the American Screenwriters Association, the Online Film Critics Society, and the

Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America is the joint efforts of two different US labor unions representing TV and film writers: * The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), headquartered in New York City and affiliated with the AFL–CIO * The Writers G ...

. This work with the subject of Che Guevara later led Rivera to write and perform a play entitled ''School of the Americas'' which focuses on Che's last few hours alive. The play starring John Ortiz as Che, imagines Che's final conversations, mainly with a young and fairly naive female schoolteacher, in the one-room village schoolhouse where he is imprisoned before his execution. The play was featured in

2006-2007 and later

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

2008.

Influences

In high school and later in college, he read everything that had to do with

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 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 natio ...

Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playw ...

and

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...

. His education was directed towards the Anglo-Euro Cultures, without receiving any exposure to the literature and writers of

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

. However, he was profoundly influenced later by a Latin American novel, ''One Hundred Years of Solitude'' by 1982

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfre ...

winner

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...

. Márquez later became his mentor at the

Sundance Institute Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Robert Redford committed to the growth of independent artists. The institute is driven by its programs that discover and support independent filmmakers, theatre artists and composers fr ...

. Rivera incorporates many of his life experiences into his plays. In ''The Promise'' and ''Each Day Dies With Sleep'', Rivera discusses his experiences as a Puerto Rican in a small American town, with an emphasis on family,

sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied wi ...

, spirituality and the

occult The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism ...

. ''Marisol'' was inspired by the situation of his homeless uncle.

Awards and honors

Rivera has won two Obie Awards for playwriting, a

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

Fund for New American plays Grant, a

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

Arts Fellowship in playwriting, a

Whiting Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays. The award is sponsored by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation Mrs. (American English) or Mrs (British English; standard E ...

, a McKnight Fellowship, the 2005

Norman Lear Norman Milton Lear (born July 27, 1922) is an American producer and screenwriter, who has produced, written, created, or developed over 100 shows. Lear is known for many popular 1970s sitcoms, including the multi-award winning ''All in the Famil ...

Writing Award, a 2005 Impact Award and a Berilla Kerr Playwriting Award.

Currently

His play, "''Brainpeople,''" premiered in San Francisco January 30, 2008, and was co-produced by 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 ...

. Rivera will also direct and write the screenplay for "Celestina", a film loosely adapted from his play "Cloud Tectonics", which will be produced by Walter Salles. Among his recent projects is the movie adaptation of '' On the Road'', based on the novel by

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian anc ...

Plays

* ''The House of Ramon Iglesia'' (1983) * ''The Promise'' (1988) * ''Each Day Dies With Sleep'' (1990) * '' Marisol'' (1992) * ''Tape'' (1993) * ''Flowers'' (1994) * ''Giants Have Us In Their Books'' (1997) * '' Cloud Tectonics'' (1995) * ''Maricela De La Luz Lights The World'' * ''Godstuff'' * ''Adoration of the Old Woman'' * ''The Street of the Sun'' (1996) * ''Sueno'' (1998) * ''Lovers of Long Red Hair'' (2000) * ''

References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot ''References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot'' is a play by Puerto Rican playwright and screenwriter José Rivera. It won an Obie Award for writing in 2000. Background and conception José Rivera was inspired by many events in his life to writ ...

'' (2000) * '' Sonnets for an Old Century'' (2000) * ''School of the Americas'' (2006) * ''Massacre (Sing To Your Children)'' (2007) * ''Brainpeople'' (2008) * ''Boleros for the Disinchanted'' (2008), world premiere

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 student ...

* ''Human Emotional Process'' (2008), commissioned by

McCarter Theatre McCarter Theatre Center is a not-for-profit, professional company on the campus of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. The institution is currently led by Artistic Director Sarah Rasmussen and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg. ...

* ''Pablo and Andrew at the Altar of Words'' (2010) * ''Golden'' (2010) * ''The Kiss of the Spider Woman'' (translation) (2010) * ''The Hours are Feminine'' (2011) * ''Lessons for an Unaccustomed Bride'' (2011) * ''The Book of Fishes'' (2011) * ''Another Word for Beauty'' (2012), musical, music and lyrics by

Héctor Buitrago Héctor Buitrago is the co-member of the multiple Grammy winning Colombian Latin alternative band Aterciopelados. Buitrago came from a hardcore rock background, heading a group called La Pestilencia, while co-member Andrea Echeverri had been dr ...

, book by Rivera, production of

The Civilians The Civilians is an investigative theatre company in New York City founded in 2001 by Artistic Director, Steve Cosson. The Civilians artists pursue their inquiries using interviews, community residencies, research, and other methods. Working with ...

* ''Written on my Face'' (2012) * ''Another Word for Beauty'' (2013) * ''The Last Book of Homer'' (2013) * ''The Garden of Tears and Kisses'' (2014) * ''Sermon for the Senses'' (2014) * ''Charlotte'' (2014) * ''The Untranslatable Secrets of Nikki Corona'' Many of these plays are published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc.

Bibliography of Scholarly Criticism

#Toward a Rhetoric of Sociospatial Theatre: José Rivera's ''Marisol'' By: J. Chris Westgate, ''Theatre Journal'', 2007 March; 59 (1): 21–37. #Split Personality: Random Thoughts on Writing for Theater and Film By: José Rivera, ''Cinema Journal'', 2006 Winter; 45 (2): 89–92. #''The Motorcycle Diaries'' By: Yon Motskin, ''Creative Screenwriting'', 2005 January-Feb; 12 (1): 89. #'An Urgent Voice for Our Times': An Interview with José Rivera By: Caridad Svich, ''Contemporary Theatre Review: An International Journal'', 2004 November; 14 (4): 83–89. #Die Imaginierung ethnischer Weltsicht im neueren amerikanischen Drama By: Herbert Grabes, IN: Schlote and Zenzinger, ''New Beginnings in Twentieth-Century Theatre and Drama: Essays in Honour of Armin Geraths''. Trier, Germany: Wissenschaftlicher; 2003. pp. 327–44 #José Rivera By: Miriam Chirico, IN: Wheatley, ''Twentieth-Century American Dramatists, Third Series.'' Detroit, MI: Thomson Gale; 2002. pp. 281–301 #''Marisol'', Angels, and Apocalyptic Migrations By: Jon D. Rossini, ''American Drama'', 2001 Summer; 10 (2): 1-20. #An Interview with Jose Rivera By: Norma Jenckes, ''American Drama'', 2001 Summer; 10 (2): 21–47. #Dream Editor By: Stephanie Coen, ''American Theatre'', 1996 December; 13 (10): 26. #Exile and Otherness: Examples from Three Continents By: Phyllis Zatlin, ''Hispanofila'', 1993 January; 107: 33–41. #Poverty and Magic in ''Each Day Dies with Sleep'' By: José Rivera, ''Studies in American Drama, 1945–present,'' 1992; 7 (1): 163–232. #An Interview with José Rivera By: Lynn Jacobson, ''Studies in American Drama, 1945–present,'' 1991; 6 (1): 49–58.

References

External links

*
Profile at The Whiting FoundationThe Dialogue: Learn from the Masters InterviewDiction and Contradiction
by Michael Feingold, ''Village Voice'', July 4, 2006
Jose Rivera's Che Guevara Play: "School of the Americas"
by Delfin Vigil, January 20, 2008
''Book Rags''
*http://articles.latimes.com/1995-03-02/entertainment/ca-37615_1_ramon-iglesia {{DEFAULTSORT:Rivera, Jose 1955 births Living people American male screenwriters American television producers American television writers Puerto Rican dramatists and playwrights Puerto Rican male writers Denison University alumni People from San Juan, Puerto Rico American male television writers American male dramatists and playwrights American dramatists and playwrights Hispanic and Latino American dramatists and playwrights