About the Author
Playwright and screenwriter Jonathan Dorf has had more than 2000 play productions, including productions in every US state, as well as in Canada, Europe, Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Australia and New Zealand. He has been a finalist for the Actors Theatre of Louisville Heideman Award, the Hyperion One Act Award, the Weinberger Playwright Residency and the Interact and Charlotte Rep New Play festivals, and he has worked with such companies as the Walnut Street Theatre, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Ensemble Studio Theatre - LA, Moving Arts and the Pittsburgh New Works Festival. He co-founded YouthPLAYS, the publisher of plays and musicals for young actors and audiences at which over two dozen of his plays reside, with more than 25 other works published by such companies as Playscripts, Brooklyn Publishers, Heuer and Original Works, and monologues published in collections published by Meriwether, Playscripts and Smith & Kraus. He has been instrumental in the development of ProduceaPlay.com, the internet's top "how to produce a play" resource site for prospective producers of theatre at all levels - schools, colleges, community and professional theatres.
He is chair emeritus of the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights, the former managing director of the Philadelphia Dramatists Center and was a longtime playwriting advisor to Final Draft (for whom he created the playwriting "Ask the Expert") and The Writers Store (creator of Playwriting101.com, for many years Google's top-ranked playwriting website, and playwriting instructor at Script University). He is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America's Education Committee, as well as a longtime Guild member. For screen, he has written a trio of produced shorts, two of which he also directed. He is the author of Young Playwrights 101, a book for young playwrights and those who teach them, and conducts workshops at schools and festivals across the US and as far away as Japan, Malaysia and Singapore. He served as Visiting Associate Professor in the M.F.A. playwriting and children's literature programs at Hollins University, and as United States Cultural Envoy to Barbados. He holds a B.A. in Dramatic Writing and Literature from Harvard University and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from UCLA.
He is chair emeritus of the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights, the former managing director of the Philadelphia Dramatists Center and was a longtime playwriting advisor to Final Draft (for whom he created the playwriting "Ask the Expert") and The Writers Store (creator of Playwriting101.com, for many years Google's top-ranked playwriting website, and playwriting instructor at Script University). He is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America's Education Committee, as well as a longtime Guild member. For screen, he has written a trio of produced shorts, two of which he also directed. He is the author of Young Playwrights 101, a book for young playwrights and those who teach them, and conducts workshops at schools and festivals across the US and as far away as Japan, Malaysia and Singapore. He served as Visiting Associate Professor in the M.F.A. playwriting and children's literature programs at Hollins University, and as United States Cultural Envoy to Barbados. He holds a B.A. in Dramatic Writing and Literature from Harvard University and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from UCLA.
Praise for Jonathan Dorf
Some years ago, Jon was my valued, highly regarded student in Playwriting at UCLA, but in the years since, I've come to recognize him as a genuine colleague. His ability to analyse scripts in detail and to work with playwrights with excruciating attention to every detail of a script is extraordinary; and the advice he can offer writers on their work is invaluable not only for the script at hand but for the further development of the writer as a professional. Jon has the genuine quality of a mentor, someone whom a novice as well as an experienced writer can trust to be supportive, exacting, and genuinely nurturing of talent. That, and his knowledge of the practical business of going about getting scripts read and accepted makes him about as terrific a resource as a writer is likely to find. I have enormous admiration for the care with which he does his mentoring, for his solid knowledge of playwriting technique, and for his thorough professionalism.
--Leon Katz, then David G. Frey Distinguished Professor of Dramatic Art at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (formerly Co-Chair of Dramaturgy at the Yale School of Dramaturgy and a professor at both Carnegie Mellon and UCLA) and considered the "preeminent teacher and practitioner of American dramaturgy."
Jon Dorf is the voice of this generation's high school student. He has captured the inner and outward struggles that confront today’s youth and brings light to those issues that we deem important but are too afraid to broach. The significance of his work is far beyond that of his writing genius. It speaks to everyone on a personal level and gives a voice to a growing population that has so much to say. His plays have proven vital, not only to the growth of our young actors but also to the development of their young minds. We continue to use Jon’s works here at Choate Rosemary Hall and look forward to his next creation.
--Paul Tines, then Executive Director of the Paul Mellon Arts Center and Head of the Choate Rosemary Hall Arts Department
Some years ago, Jon was my valued, highly regarded student in Playwriting at UCLA, but in the years since, I've come to recognize him as a genuine colleague. His ability to analyse scripts in detail and to work with playwrights with excruciating attention to every detail of a script is extraordinary; and the advice he can offer writers on their work is invaluable not only for the script at hand but for the further development of the writer as a professional. Jon has the genuine quality of a mentor, someone whom a novice as well as an experienced writer can trust to be supportive, exacting, and genuinely nurturing of talent. That, and his knowledge of the practical business of going about getting scripts read and accepted makes him about as terrific a resource as a writer is likely to find. I have enormous admiration for the care with which he does his mentoring, for his solid knowledge of playwriting technique, and for his thorough professionalism.
--Leon Katz, then David G. Frey Distinguished Professor of Dramatic Art at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (formerly Co-Chair of Dramaturgy at the Yale School of Dramaturgy and a professor at both Carnegie Mellon and UCLA) and considered the "preeminent teacher and practitioner of American dramaturgy."
Jon Dorf is the voice of this generation's high school student. He has captured the inner and outward struggles that confront today’s youth and brings light to those issues that we deem important but are too afraid to broach. The significance of his work is far beyond that of his writing genius. It speaks to everyone on a personal level and gives a voice to a growing population that has so much to say. His plays have proven vital, not only to the growth of our young actors but also to the development of their young minds. We continue to use Jon’s works here at Choate Rosemary Hall and look forward to his next creation.
--Paul Tines, then Executive Director of the Paul Mellon Arts Center and Head of the Choate Rosemary Hall Arts Department