| Robert Schenkkan is the author of nine full-length plays. The Kentucky Cycle had its world premiere at Seattle's Intiman Theatre and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the first time a play was so honored which had not first been presented in New York City. It won the PEN Centre West and the LA Drama Critics Circle Awards for Best Play, and was nominated for a Tony, a Drama Desk, and an Outer Critics Circle Award.
Heaven on Earth premiered Off-Broadway at the WPA Theatre, and won the Julie Harris/Beverly Hills Theatre Guild Award. Final Passages premiered at the Studio Arena Theatre in Buffalo, New York. Tachinoki premiered at The Ensemble Studio Theatre in Los Angeles. The Dream Thief, a children's play, had its premiere at Milwaukee's First Stage. The Marriage of Miss Hollywood and King Neptune was commissioned by the Pioneer Theatre Company and the 2002 Cultural Olympiad for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games of Salt Lake City, Utah. Mr. Schenkkan's version of The Devil and Daniel Webster will premiere at the Seattle Children's Theatre in the spring of 2004. Handler was first produced at Actors Express in Atlanta and then at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. His newest play, Arturo & Katherine, will premiere at OSF in 2005. Mr. Schenkkan has also written numerous one-acts, including Conversations with the Spanish Lady. His plays are published by Dramatists Play Service, Dramatic Publishing, and Playscripts, Inc.
As a screenwriter, Mr. Schenkkan adapted Graham Greene's The Quiet American, directed by Phillip Noyce and starring Michael Caine and Brendan Frasier. For television, he wrote a mini-series adaptation of Howard Fast's novel Spartacus, and a Movie of the Week for TNT, Crazy Horse. He is currently adapting Michael Crighton's The Andromeda Strain as a mini-series for USA. Mr. Schenkkan is the recipient of grants from New York State, the California Arts Council, the Vogelstein Foundation, and the Arthur Foundation. He is a New Dramatists alumnus and a member of The Ensemble Studio Theatre.
Mr. Schenkkan was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina but grew up in Austin, Texas. He graduated from the University of Texas (BA in Fine Arts) and Cornell University (MFA Acting). He is married to the writer Maria Headley, and lives in Seattle with his two children, Sarah and Joshua. |
