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Ariel Dorfman

ARIEL DORFMAN

  (1942 - )
Nationality:    Chilean
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    The Gersh Agency  Australian representation Cameron Creswell agency; UK representation Julia Tyrrell Management

Ariel Dorfman, born in argentina and a Chilean expatriate is the Walter Hayes Research Professor of Literature and Latin American Studies at Duke University and is a regular contributor to the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and many other papers worldwide. His is a member of the academie Universelle des Cultures in Paris and has received numerous honorary degrees. He has been a human rights activist for many years. His books have been translated into over thirty languages and his plays have been performed in over 90 countries. Previous plays include WIDOWS (New American Plays award of the Kennedy Center, Winner 1998); ReaDeR ( winner of the Roger L Stevens award of the Kennedy Center 1991); DeaTH aND the MaIDeN (Time Out award/Best London Play 1991, Winner Olivier award 1992, Best New Play); SPeaK TRUTH TO POWeR (Kennedy Center, June 2001); PURGaTORIO which will be produced on Broadway in Spring 05 (Producer Ben Mordecai). Films include  BaLMaCeDa (co-screenwriter, Winner First Prize Chile Films 1973); DeaTH aND the MaIDeN (dir. Roman Polanski, co-written and co-produced by); PRISONeRS IN TIMe (BBC teleplay co-written with Rodrigo Dorfman, tx 1995, Winner of Best Feature Film WGGB awards, 1995); MY HOUSe IS ON FIRe (short film); DeaD LINe (C4 Films, special presentation written with Rodrigo Dorfman and based on Ariel's poems from his book Last Waltz in Santiago'). He has also had published, novels, short story collections, poetry collections. Current projects include new play PICaSSO's CLOSeT which was workshopped at New York Stage and Film's Summer Programme 2002. the OtheR SIDe, originally commissioned by the National Theatre, Tokyo, 2003/4 will have its English language premiere at Manhattan Theatre Club in Winter 2005. He is currently under commission to the RSC.

Research:    Member of the Dramatists Guild of America (as at 2015)

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below is a list of Ariel Dorfman's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Dancing Shadows         Death And the Maiden         Mascara         Other Side, The         Picasso's Closet         Purgatorio         Reader         Speak Truth To Power         Who's Who         Widows

Dancing Shadows

Synopsis:
the new piece focused on being a fable dealing with the inner side of human beings rather than focusing on ideological conflicts like the original piece. Since the planning stages, the piece was created with a global audience in mind, so in order to gain as much universal consensus as possible, the background was changed from a village in the skirts of Sobaek Mountain during the Korean War to an imaginary village devastated by war in an unspecified period of time.

Notes:
book by Ariel Dorfman; music by eric Woolfson

1st Produced:
Seoul Center Opera House, Korea    2007

Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Death And the Maiden

Death And the Maiden
examines the after effects of repression on hearts and souls of people in country emerging from totalitarian dictatorship

Notes:
1st published Penguin Books, New York, 1992

1st Produced:

Organisations:
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1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
Theatre Record Volume XXXI (2011) Issue 22 Page 1172

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Mascara

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
written by Ariel And Rodrigo Dorfman. Adapted from Ariel Dorfman's novel Mascara

1st Produced:
Bonn Schauspielhaus    1998

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
gothic comedy

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  5            Other:  extras

Further Reference:
-

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Other Side, The

Synopsis:
In a country at war for many years, a man and a woman wait. they pass their days confirming the identity of dead bodies at a hut near the border of the two fighting countries. When peace and a border guard arrive, chaos ensues. This moving and strangely comic work raises potent questions about war, identity, and love in our times.

Notes:
originally commissioned by the National theatre, Tokyo, 2003/4

1st Produced:
New National Theatre In Tokyo, Japan    2004

Organisations:
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1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Picasso's Closet

Synopsis:
a counterfactual history in which the Nazis murder Picasso

Notes:
workshopped At New York Stage And Film's Summer Programme 2002

1st Produced:
Theater J In Washington, D.C    2006

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dorfman, ariel. "the Prey." Storie 52-53 (2004): 12-47. (act 1 of Picasso's Closet.)   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Purgatorio

Purgatorio
a Man and a Woman in purgatory - a soul-less white room. each is interrogated in turn by the other. each is groping for forgiveness and contrition. But one of them has done something unforgiveable. . .

Notes:

1st Produced:

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Nick Hern Books, London >>>, 2006   1854596691

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Reader

Reader
a censor banning a novel finds it is a description of his own life predicting that a terrible fate awaits his son.

Notes:

1st Produced:

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Nick Hern Books, London, 1995   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
National Library of Scotland ref: Traverse - acc.11865/15

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Speak Truth To Power

Synopsis:
In searing and uplifting interviews, veteran human rights defender Kerry Kennedy examines the quality of courage within women and men who are Dramatically changing the course of events in their communities and countries. Imprisoned, tortured, and threatened with death, they speak with eloquence on subjects to which they have devoted their lives and for which they have been willing to sacrifice. the play chronicles the struggles of fifty human rights activists including Vaclav Havel, the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, elie Wiesel, and more than 30 individuals who have devoted themselves to human rights, including Kailash Satyarthi, who has freed tens of thousands of victims of child labor in his native India and Juliana Dogbadzi, who liberates African girls bound for sexual slavery.
Press Release

Notes:
based on the book by Kerry Kennedy

1st Produced:
Kennedy Center, Washington Dc    2000

Organisations:
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1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Who's Who

Synopsis:
the world premiere of Who's Who took place at the Frankfurt Schauspielhaus, on October 18, 1998, directed by Thomas Schulte-Michels. Originally written in english with his son Rodrigo Dorfman, Who's Who is ariel's Dorfman first theatrical murder mystery farce. the play brings together five characters from the Hollywood dream factory: among them, Samantha Fox, a famous and aging casting agent who refuses to retire and Alex Martinez-Nam, a racially hybrid and fairly embittered actor whose terrorist plot will shake the foundations of Hollywood. the play deals with issues of ethnic representation in movies and authoritarian structures of power everywhere

Notes:
written by Ariel And Rodrigo Dorfman

1st Produced:
Frankfurt Schauspielhaus    1998

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Widows

Widows
In this smouldering political allegory the men have disappeared from the war-torn village leaving the women to wait.

Notes:

1st Produced:
Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, Ca    1991

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Nick Hern Books, London, 1997   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  11            Female:  13            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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