Job Title: Associate Professor
Email:Kenneth.Weitzman@stonybrook.edu
Office Location: Humanities 2089
Biography
Ken Weitzman is a playwright whose work has been produced and developed at theatres across the country and internationally. His current play, Halftime with Don , just received a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere, which included three different productions of the play in the 2017-18 calendar year. Previous productions include, among others, The Catch (The Denver Center Theatre Company), Fire in the Garden (Indiana Repertory Theatre), The As If Body Loop (Humana Festival of New American Plays), and Arrangements (Atlantic Theatre Company). His collaborative/ensemble-created work includes Memorabilia (Alliance Theatre), Hominid (Out of Hand Theatre/Theatre Emory/Oerol Festival Netherlands) and Stadium 360 (Out of Hand Theatre).
National awards for Ken's works include The L. Arnold Weissberger Award for Playwriting for Arrangements , a TCG Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award for The Catch , the Fratti/Newman Political Play Contest Award for Fire in the Garden , and South Coast Repertory's Elizabeth George Commission for an Outstanding Emerging Playwright.
Organizations who have commissioned Ken's work include the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Arena Stage, the Alliance Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Theatre Emory, Out of Hand Theatre, and South Coast Repertory Theatre.
Ken's plays have been published by Samuel French, Playscripts, Smith and Kraus, and Blackbird.
Ken has served in many capacities for major new play development organizations across the country, including six years on the board of the New Harmony Project chairing their script selections process.
He has taught at, among others, University of California San Diego (UCSD), Emory University, and Indiana University (Head of the MFA in Playwriting).
At SBU he received the Godfrey Teaching Excellence Award – chosen by students from across the College for faculty who they felt "demonstrate a warm spirit, a concern for society and the individual, and the ability to impart knowledge while challenging students to independent inquiry and creative thought."
For more information on his plays and teaching: www.kenweitzman.com