Jason Grote is a Brooklyn-based playwright, television writer, and librettist.
His best-known play is 1001, a deconstruction of the tales of the Arabian Nights. 1001 has received nineteen productions since 2007, at The Denver Center Theater, Page 73 Productions (New York), Theater @ Boston Court (Los Angeles), The Contemporary American Theater Festival (West Virginia), Mixed Blood Theater (Minneapolis), Collaboraction and Theater on the Lake (Chicago), Company One (Boston), Rorschach Theater (Washington DC), Just Theater (Berkeley), Brown University, New York University, UC San Diego, DePaul University, The New School, Montclair State University, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, St. Lawrence University, and Howard Community College.
1001 was also developed or read at Soho Rep, The O'Neill, New York Theater Workshop, New Dramatists, Baltimore Centerstage, and Shotgun Players, and a published version is currently available from Samuel French.
It has been honored with an SF Bay Area Critics Circle Award; an Ovation Award from The Denver Post; and "Best New Play" from Westword. 1001 has also been included in critics’ year-end top ten lists in The Huffington Post, Time Out New York, Time Out Chicago, The Rocky Mountain News, and The Boulder Daily Camera, was nominated for Best New Play of 2008 by L.A. Weekly, and was listed as the 72nd Most Important American Play in a national poll of theater professionals conducted by The Denver Post. It is currently being adapted into a musical, Scheherazade, with book and lyrics by Grote and music by Marisa Michelson, with support from New Dramatists, TheatreWorks, and Montclair State University's New Works Initiative.
He is currently a writer for the NBC/Dreamworks TV show "Smash," produced by Steven Spielberg, Theresa Rebeck, David Marshall Grant, Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank, Neil Meron, and Craig Zadan, airing Mondays at 10pm on NBC beginning February 6, 2012. "Smash" will air internationally on Diva Universal (Asia), W (Australia), Universal Channel (Brazil), CTV (Canada), Mya (Italy), RTL 5 (The Netherlands), 2nd Avenue (The Philippines), and Sky Atlantic (The UK).
Other plays include:
Maria/Stuart, produced at Woolly Mammoth Theater (Washington DC), Theater Schmeater (Seattle), and REDEYE (Minneapolis), developed/read at Portland Center Stage, Soho Rep, Dog & Pony Theater, Circle X, and The hotINK Festival, published by Samuel French, named "Best of Fringe" by The Seattle Times, and featured in American Theater.
Civilization (all you can eat), commissioned and produced by Clubbed Thumb (New York) and produced at Woolly Mammoth and Salvage Vanguard Theater (Austin), developed at The Sundance Theater Lab, Playwrights' Horizons, and The Denver Center, and presented in German translation at the Voices of Change Festival (Bielefeld, Germany).
Hamilton Township, produced at Salvage Vanguard, developed at Soho Rep and CUNY's Prelude '06, named Best Performance of 2008 by The Austin Chronicle, and presented in Slovenian translation at the Glej Theater (Ljubljana, Slovenia).
This Storm Is What We Call Progress, produced by Rorschach Theater, featured in American Theater, and developed by Soho Rep, Page 73, Manhattan Ensemble Theater, and Studio 42.
Box Americana, commissioned by The Working Theater, and developed by The O'Neill, Playwrights' Horizons, Portland Center Stage's JAW/West Festival, Woolly Mammoth, The Lark, and The Playwrights' Foundation.
Darwin's Challenge, commissioned by Ensemble Studio Theater's Sloan Science and Technology Program and developed at The Playwrights' Foundation, The Lark, and The 24/7 Lab.
He has also received commissions from The Denver Center, ACT/Seattle, and The Keen Company/Playscripts Inc., and has developed or is developing devised work with David Levine (HABIT, at The Watermill Center, Mass MoCA, and The Luminato Festival); Maureen Towey (The Foundry Theatre's NYC... JUST LIKE I PICTURED IT series and We Give Up at The Baryshnikov Arts Center); and Radiohole (Anger Nation at The Orchard Project). He has developed many projects for radio, both solo and with Karinne Keithley (So Many Important Things at The Conflux Festival, The Acousmatic Theater Hour on WFMU, and a comedic live radio play tribute to Tim Burton at The Museum of Modern Art's Poprally Series). He is also currently developing an autobiographical one-man show with the actor Daoud Heidami. He has numerous projects for film and TV in various stages of development.
Honors include The P73 Playwriting Fellowship; nominations for The Pushcart Prize, The Kesselring Prize, and The Weissberger Award; an NEA Grant via Soho Rep; a NYSCA Grant via Clubbed Thumb; multiple-year finalist for The Princess Grace Award.
He has taught or been in residence at Rutgers University, Hollins University's MFA Playwriting Program, The National Theater Institute at The O'Neill, Whitman College, The University of Rochester, LAByrinth Theater Company, DePaul University, Montclair State University, Queens College/CUNY, The New School, The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Young Playwrights Inc., and Students for a Free Tibet.
His plays have been published by Samuel French, Playscripts Inc., and in The Back Stage Book of New American Short Plays 2005 (edited by Craig Lucas), and his writing has appeared in McSweeneys.net, The Kenyon Review, American Theater, The New York Theater Review, The Brooklyn Rail, PAJ, TheatreForum, Working USA, KNOCK, Hilowbrow.com (named one of Time's best blogs of 2010), SignificantObjects.com, Cultural Resistance: A Reader, and From ACT UP to the WTO. He will be making his comics debut in 2012, with a piece in the Significant Objects anthology from Fantagraphics Books.
He is a member of New Dramatists, a graduate of NYU's MFA Dramatic Writing Program, and a contributor to Comedy Central's "Indecision 2008" blog. He was co-chair of Soho Rep's Writer/Director Lab from 2004-07, and currently serves on their Artist Advisory Committee, and is a member of The Civilians R&D Writers' Group. He is represented by Antje Oegel at AO International, Dan Halsted at manage-Ment, and Tim Philips at United Talent Agency.
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RESUME:
PLAYS
1001
* Published by Samuel French, 2009
* World Premiere at Denver Center Theater, 2007
* Produced in Contemporary American Theater Festival (Shepherdstown, West Virginia), 2007
* Produced Off-Broadway at Rose Nagelberg Theater by Page 73, 2007
* Produced by Theater @ Boston Court (Los Angeles), 2008
* Produced by Mixed Blood Theater (Minneapolis), 2008
* Produced by UC-San Diego, 2008
* Produced by The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2008
* Produced by Rorschach Theater (Washington, DC), 2009
* Produced by DePaul University (Chicago), 2009
* Produced by Just Theater (San Francisco), 2010
* Produced by Montclair State University (New Jersey), 2010
* Produced by Collaboraction (Chicago), 2010
* Produced by New York University's Gallatin School, 2010
* Produced by Howard Community College, 2010
* To be produced by St. Lawrence University (Canton, NY), 2011
* To be produced by The New School (NYC), 2011
* To be produced by Company One (Boston), 2011
* To be revived by Collaboraction for Chicago's Theatre on The Lake and for an extended run, 2011
* Developed/read at Eugene O’Neill Playwrights’ Conference; Theater @ Boston Court; P73 Productions (as part of fellowship program); Denver Center Theater’s Colorado New Play Summit; Soho Rep “Phase 2” Workshop (NYC); New Dramatists; Theater of NOTE (Los Angeles); Last Frontier Conference, 2005-07
* Written in the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, 2004-05
* Ovation Award from The Denver Post
* Bay Area Critics Circle winner for Best Script; multiple nominations
* “Best New Play,” from Denver’s alternative weekly Westword
* Critics’ year-end top ten lists in The Huffington Post, Time Out New York, Time Out Chicago, The Rocky Mountain News, and The Boulder Daily Camera.
* Nominated for Best Performance of 2008, L.A. Weekly
* Nominee, 2007 Kesselring Prize
* Finalist, 2006 Weissberger Award
* Semifinalist, Playwrights’ Center PlayLabs, 2006
* Final round, Princess Grace Award, 2006
* Published in chapbook edition by Denver Center, 2007
* Web adaptation in collaboration with P73 (1001nyc.com)
This Storm Is What We Call Progress
* World premiere at Rorschach Theater (Washington, DC), 2008
* Developed and read at/with: The Lark Play Development Center; Theater J; P73; Manhattan Ensemble Theater; The Playwrights’ Center; Theatre of NOTE; Studio 42; Manhattan Theatre Source; Another Chicago Theatre, 2004-06
* Written in Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, 2003-04
* Finalist, Bay Area Playwrights’ Festival, 2006
* Finalist, Princess Grace Award, 2005
* Finalist, PlayLabs, 2005
Box Americana
* Commissioned and developed by The Working Theater, 2005-06
* Workshop Production with The Working Theater, 2006
* Developed with The O'Neill Playwrights' Conference; Portland Center Stage JAW/West Festival; The Lark; The Playwrights' Foundation's "In The Rough" Series; Millay Colony for the Arts; read at Woolly Mammoth Theater, 2005-09
Maria/Stuart
*To be published by Samuel French, 2011
* World premiere at Woolly Mammoth Theater, 2008
* Produced at Theater Schmeater (Seattle), 2009
* Produced at REDEYE (Minneapolis), 2010
* Written in Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, 2006-07
* Developed/read at Portland Center Stage, NYU's hotINK Festival, 2007-08
Darwin’s Challenge
* Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan Commission, 2006
* Developed at The Lark and The Playwrights' Foundation, 2008-11
Hamilton Township
* World premiere at Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2008
* Developed in Soho Rep “Phase 2” Lab, 2007
* Written in Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, 2005-06
* Presented in CUNY’s Prelude ’06 Festival at the Martin E. Segal Theater Center
* Translated and presented at Glej Theater, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2006
* Published in Slovenian Literary Magazine Mentor (in English and in Slovenian), 2006
* Semifinalist, PlayLabs, 2007
* Finalist, O'Neill Playwrights Conference, 2007
Civilization (all you can eat)
* Workshop production scheduled for summer 2011
* Commission from Clubbed Thumb
* Developed at Sundance Theater Lab, The Denver Center's Colorado New Play Summit, Clubbed Thumb at Playwrights' Horizons
* Presented in German translation at The Voices of Change Festival (Bielefeld, Germany), 2010
Kawaisoo
* Produced: The Frontera Fest @ Hyde Park Theater; Motherlodge (Louisville, KY); The Bowery Electric (NYC); WBAI radio; Edmonton Fringe festival; California Insititute of the Arts; New Theatre Collective (Cincinnati, OH); Theatre of NOTE; Bowery Electric; NY Infringement Festival; American Living Room @ HERE; Le Petit Versailles; The Fall Collection @ Clemente Soto Velez; The Makor (92nd St. Y Festival of ‘Wrights); chashama; Brooklyn Lyceum; New York University, 2002-08
* Published in Back Stage Book of New American Short Plays 2005 (Craig Lucas, ed.)
* Winner, Swamp King Short Play Prize, 2003
* Finalist, VORTEX Theatre Bare Bones Festival, 2005
TRANSLATIONS:
MORE
* Adaptation of Slovenian play by Simona Semenic, from a literal English translation; developed with New Georges and WaxFactory, 2006
Balance
* Adaptation of Slovenian play by Zalka Grabnar Kogoj, from a literal English translation; developed with New York Theatre Workshop, PreGlej, and WaxFactory as part of European Dreams Festival, 2006
HONORS
2011:
SF Bay Area Critics' Circle Award for "Best Play" for 1001
Critics' Top Ten lists in The Huffington Post and Time Out Chicago for 1001
2010:
Residency at Sundance Theatre Lab
Residency in Montclair State University's New Works Initiative
2009:
Best of Fringe for Maria/Stuart from The Seattle Times
2008:
NYSCA Grant for Clubbed Thumb commission
Nomination, Pushcart Prize
O'Neill Playwrights' Conference Residency
Finalist, Bay Area Playwrights' Festival
2007:
Ovation Award, The Denver Post
Year-end Top Ten List, Time Out New York
Year-end Top Ten List, Rocky Mountain News
Year-end Top Ten List, Boulder Daily Camera
"Best New Play - Non-Local Author," from Denver's alt-weely Westword
Nominee, Kesselring Prize
NEA Grant for 2006-07 Soho Rep Lab
Selected for JAW/West Festival, Portland
Orchard Project Residency (with Radiohole)
Lark Play Development Center Residency
Selected for "In The Rough" Reading Series, Playwrights' Foundation (SF)
2006:
New Dramatists Residency
Residency at O’Neill Theater Conference
P73 Fellowship
EST/Sloan Commission
NEA Grant for 2005-06 Soho Rep Lab
Finalist, Weissberger Award
Selected for Colorado New Play Summit, Denver Center Theater
Finalist, Bay Area Playwrights’ Festival
Final Round, Princess Grace Award
Semifinalist, PlayLabs
2005:
Residency at Millay Colony for the Arts
NEA Grant for 2004-05 Soho Rep Lab
Residency at Last Frontier Conference, Valdez, Alaska
Finalist, TCG/Jerome Affiliated Writers’ Fellowship
Finalist, Princess Grace Award
Finalist, PlayLabs
Finalist, Ensemble Studio Theatre Sloan Fellowship
Finalist, VORTEX Theatre’s Bare Bones Festival
Semifinalist, New Dramatists membership
2004:
NEA Grant for 2003-04 Soho Rep Lab
Winner, Reva Shiner Award for The New Jersey Book of the Dead
Finalist, New Dramatists membership
Finalist, Bay Area Playwrights
Finalist, Seven Devils Playwrights’ Conference
Semifinalist, Princess Grace
Semifinalist, Onassis International Theatre Competition
Quarterfinalist, Slamdance Screenplay Competition
2003:
Finalist, LAByrinth Summer Intensive
Top 5%, Chesterfield Writers’ Film Project
Second Round, Austin Film Festival Prime Time Competition
2002:
Runner-up, Princess Grace Award
Winner, NYU-Tisch Screenplay Festival
Winner, Coe College Playwriting Award
Winner, DRAMARAMA Award from Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco
Winner, Swamp King Ten-Minute Play Contest
Finalist, Sanford Meisner Theater Center Playwriting Competition
Second Round, Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition
2001:
Tisch Scholarship, New York University
1998:
Winner, OOBR Award
Finalist, Nantucket Short Play Competition
1996:
Winner, New York One-Minute Play Contest
1993:
Samuel F. Gerber Playwriting Award from Montclair State University
SCREENPLAYS/TV SCRIPTS/WEB
Comedy Central's "Indecision 2008"
* Freelance contributor to Comedy Central blog.
Murray’s Wild Ride
* Children’s’ Feature; New York University MFA Thesis
* Top 5% Finalist, Chesterfield Writers’ Film Project, 2003; Quarterfinalist, Slamdance Screenplay Competition, 2004
4G
* Feature comedy
* Winner, Tisch Screenplay Festival, 2002; Top 5% Finalist, Chesterfield Writers’ Film Project, 2003 Second-Round, Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition, 2002
The First Elegy
* Spec treatment, in development with Dreamworks
Untitled romantic comedy project
*Spec treatment, in development with Man Down Productions
The Simpsons: “Send in Les Clowns”
* Spec script
* Second-round, Austin Film Festival Prime Time Competition, 2003
Oregon
* Independent Feature, produced and directed by Mario Lopez, 1996
The Organ Grinder
* Student short, Produced and directed by Michael Finn, 1993
PUBLICATIONS
* 1001 in chapbook edition by Denver Center for the Performing Arts, 2007
* Kawaisoo (The Pity of Things) in The Back Stage Book of New American Short Plays (Craig Lucas, ed.), 2005
* Kawaisoo (The Pity of Things) excerpted in Best Women’s Monologues of the Millennium, Applause Books, 2006
* Hamilton Township in English and Slovenian in Balkan Literary Magazine Mentor, 2006
* Excerpts from All You Can Eat and In His Bold Gaze My Ruin Is Writ Large in KNOCK journal, (published by Antioch University, Seattle), 2007
* The Island of Never Giving way on your Desire in KNOCK, 2005
* Article on O’Neill Playwrights’ Conference, in American Theater, 2006
* Profiles of playwrights Sheila Callaghan, Anne Washburn, and Young Jean Lee in American Theater, 2006-07
* Roundtable discussion on the future of playwriting with Anne Washburn, Caridad Svich, and Ken Urban, in Performing Arts Journal, 2006
* Profile of Wax Factory, in TheatreForum, 2006
* Book and Theater Reviews, “Best of NY” Listings in The New York Press, 2005
* “In Dialogue” and other profiles of Radiohole, Jeffrey M. Jones, Ann Marie Healy, Ken Urban, Elana Greenfield, Wax Factory, and Sanctuary: Playwrights Theatre in The Brooklyn Rail, 2004-07
* Book reviews of Electoral Guerilla Theater and New Downtown Now in The Brooklyn Rail, 2006
* “The Art of (Class) War” in How to Rule the World for Fun and Profit by Billionaires for Bush (Thunder’s Mouth/Avalon), 2004
* “Michel Auder” in Captured: A History of Film and Video on the Lower East Side (Seven Stories), 2004
* Excerpt from Moloch and Other Demons in PolyphonyMagazine (www.geocities.com/polyphonymag), 2003
* “The God That People Who Don’t Believe in God Believe In: Taking a Bust With Reverend Billy” in Cultural Resistance: A Reader (Verso), Stephen Duncombe, ed., 2002
* “We Love Bush! We Love Dick! The Students for an Undemocratic Society” in From Act Up to the WTO (Verso), Ron Hayduk and Ben Shepard, eds., 2002
* “Punditry Slam” in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency (www.mcsweeneys.net/links/gergen), 2000
* Book reviews in Working USA (www.workingusa.org), 2002
* "Vote for Me, by Al Gore” in The Indypendent: Newspaper of the NY Independent Media Center, 2000
* Record reviews in VH 1’s The Score (www.vh1.com), 1997-98
* “The Soul of the City” in The Salt Journal, 2000
* “Save CHARAS!” in Off: The Journal of Alternative Theater, 1998
* “The Fat Blue Line: Backstage at Pipe Bomb Sonata” in Propaganda: The Daily Newspaper of the New York International Fringe Festival, 1998-99
* “Enemy of the People” column in EdgeNY: The Magazine for Independent Theater, 1999
* The New York Hangover contributor (nyhangover.com): 1998-99
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
* Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ: Assistant Instructor, Department of English, teaching Screenwriting; Playwriting; Popular Culture; Science and Technical Writing; and Expository Writing, 2003-07
* Queens College, Flushing, NY: Professor of Screenwriting, Department of Media Studies, 2003-06
* Glej Theater, Ljubljana, Slovenia: conducted beginner and intermediate playwriting workshops, 2006
*Playwrights Foundation, San Francisco, CA: workshop in writing the "political" play, 2007
* Young Playwrights, Inc: Playwriting Teacher, 2005-06
* New School University, NYC: Tutor, Writing Center, 2003-04
* Hunter College, NYC: political theater workshop at Theaters Against War Teach-In, 2004
* Coe College, Cedar Rapids, IA: workshops with undergraduates during residency, 2003
* NYU, Tisch School of the Arts: Assisted with Theater Arts in Political Activism class, 2002
* 92nd Street YM/YWHA: drama therapy and acting exercises with special needs children, 2002
* NYC Public School 287: Tutor/assistant teacher with second grade and Pre-K children, 2001-02
* Students for a Free Tibet: political theater workshop at annual retreat, 2003
* Panel discussion and conference participant at Columbia University, Barnard College, New School University, Hunter College, CUNY Graduate Center, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Blue Mountain Arts Center, WBAI, National Public Radio, 1999-2007
* Writings taught at: NYU, Barnard College, Rutgers University, Brooklyn College, California State University at Northridge, Michigan State University, Indiana State University, Northampton College (PA), University of Canterbury (New Zealand)
AFFILIATIONS
* New Dramatists Resident Playwright, 2006-13
* Soho Rep Writer-Director Lab Co-Chair, 2004-07; Member,
2003-07
* The Brooklyn Rail Co-editor, theater section, 2006-07
* Young Playwrights, Inc. Dramaturg/Evaluation Committee, 2005-06
* Theaters Against War Affiliated member, 2003-Present
* PEN American Center Member, 2006-Present
* The Playwrights’ Center Member, 2004-Present
* The Dramatists’ Guild Member, 1993-Present
* New Jersey Dramatists/The Waterfront Ensemble Member Playwright, 1993-2001
* Neighborhood Playhouse Workshop Member Playwright, 1997-98
TRAINING
* NYU, Tisch School of the Arts M.F.A., Dramatic Writing, 2003
* The Flea, NYC Pataphysics Lab w/ Mac Wellman, 2006
* Hourglass Theatre, NYC DAH Theatar Master Class w/ Maja Mitic, 2005
* The Brecht Forum, NYC “Theater of the Oppressed” Lab w/ Augusto Boal, 2001
* Montclair State University, NJ B.F.A. in acting and directing, 1993
* Mercer County School of Performing Arts, NJ, H.S. Diploma, studied Strasberg/Kazan “method” with Judith Robinson, 1987-89
