Israel Horovitz
Israel Horovitz (1939-2020) was a playwright, director and actor. His plays have been translated and performed in as many as 30 languages worldwide. His 70+ plays include Line (which ran for 50 years of continuous performance, off-Broadway, at 13th St. Repertory Theatre), The Indian Wants The Bronx (premiered off-Broadway with Al Pacino and John Cazale), Rats, Morning, The Primary English Class (starred Diane Keaton, off-Broadway), The Wakefield Plays, The Widow's Blind Date, Today I Am A Fountain Pen, Park Your Car In Harvard Yard (Broadway: Jason Robards & Judith Ivey), North Shore Fish, Fighting Over Beverley, Lebensraum, My Old Lady (starred Sian Philips and Jan Maxwell, off-Broadway; in repertory at The Moscow Art Theatre), Free Gift, Cat-Lady, Stations of the Cross, One Under, 50 Years of Caddying, Speaking Well of the Dead, Unexpected Tenderness, Fast Hands, Security, A Mother's Love, Sins of the Mother (IRNE Best New Play 2009), Gloucester Blue, 6 Hotels (including The Audition Play, Fiddleheads and Lovers, Speaking of Tushy, 2nd Violin, Beirut Rocks and The Hotel Play), Compromise, The Secret of Mme. Bonnard's Bath and The P Word.
Screenplays include Author! Author! (starring Al Pacino and Dyan Cannon, produced by Irwin Winkler), The Strawberry Statement (Prix du Jury, Cannes Film Festival), Sunshine (European Academy Award Best Screenplay), Emmy-nominated James Dean (starring James Franco), My Old Lady (which Horovitz adapted and directed, starring Kevin Kline and Maggie Smith) and New York, I Love You.
Horovitz wrote, directed and performed the award-winning documentary 3 Weeks After Paradise, shown in the USA on Bravo, frequently on stage in Paris.
Awards include the Obie (twice), the Prix de Plaisir du Theatre, The Prix Italia (for radio plays), The Sony Radio Academy Award (for Man In Snow), The European Academy award for Sunshine, The Writers Guild of Canada Best Screenwriter Award, The Christopher Award, The Drama Desk Award, an Award in Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Elliot Norton Prize, a Lifetime Achievement Award from B'Nai Brith, The Literature Prize of Washington College, an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Salem (Massachusetts) State College, Boston Public Library's Literary Lights Award, The Walker Hancock Prize and many others.
Horovitz was Founding Artistic Director of Gloucester Stage Company (Gloucester, MA) and Founding Artistic Director of the New York Playwrights Lab, and was co-Artistic Director of Compagnia Horovitz-Paciotto in Italy. For two decades, he taught a master class in screenwriting at Columbia University and La Femis, France's national film school, and a playwriting master class at University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Horovitz frequently visited France, where he often directed French-language productions of his plays. He is the most-produced American playwright in French theatre history, and was decorated as Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France's highest decoration for foreign artists.
The 70/70 Horovitz Project, created by NYC's Barefoot Theatre, began on Horovitz's 70th birthday. During the year between 31 March 2009 and 31 March 2010, 70 of Horovitz's plays were given productions and/or readings by theatres in more than 20 countries around the globe. Horovitz was married to Gillian Adams-Horovitz, former English National Marathon Champion and record-holder, and was the father of five children.