Biography of Mark Kemble

Mark Kemble is an award winning writer - director originally from Providence, Rhode Island. In 1995 his world premier play about the Hollywood Blacklist, the multi-award winning show Names, played to sold out audiences at the Matrix Theater and was Critic's Choice in every major newspaper, including the Los Angeles Times. In the spring of 1997 Daryl Roth (Three Tall Women, Camping With Henry And Tom) produced the New York off-Broadway offering of Names, directed by Mr. Kemble. It had an extended run at the American Jewish Theater. Notable New York critic, Clive Barnes, called names a better play than Odets' The Big Knife. The first revival of Names highlighted the celebration honoring the hundred year anniversary of the birth of Lee Strasberg. The play ran from November 2001 through several extensions, closing in March of 2002 in Los Angeles at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute, under the direction of Adam Davidson. Names is being developed as a feature film. Mark also wrote the stage adaptation of Hayam Maccoby's BBC tele-play, The Disputation, which received extended runs at the Tiffany Theater in Los Angeles and at the University Of Judaism, before running off-Broadway at the Jewish American Theater. A London production followed in November 2001. Other produced plays include, Humans From Earth, Special Delivery and In A Family Way, which were written while Mark was a member of the Mark Taper Forum Mentor Playwrights Lab. His play, A Comfortable Truth, about pedophilia in the priesthood, premiered in Los Angeles in 2004 to controversial reviews. Mark co-wrote and co-directed with James Eric, Hercules On Normandie, which enjoyed a successful run at the Greenway Court Theater in the summer of 2006. Mr. Kemble co-wrote and produced the HBO film, Race, written with Tom Musca, (Stand And Deliver, Money For Nothing). Race was nominated for the Imagen Award in 1999. Another film, Facing Fear, written by Kemble, Musca and Noel Quinones and starring Dean Cain (Lois And Clark), Talisa Soto (License To Kill) and Miguel Sandoval (Clear And Present Danger) opened in Los Angeles in January, 2001. Facing Fear won Best Family Feature at the 2000 Hollywood Film Festival. The film continues its run on SHOWTIME. Plays and films in development by Mr. Kemble are Bad Hurt On Cedar Street, A Woman Not Loved, Snow Soldiers, Joan Of L.A., Terminal Bliss, Munoz, The Halo-Effect and Floaters. Mark has appeared on panels during U.C.L.A. career week for the School Of Film And Theater, lectured at Rhode Island School Of Design, and taught writing and acting in Los Angeles. He is a member of the Actors Studio Playwright/Director Unit.