List of Jewish American playwrights

"This is a list of famous Jewish American playwrights. For other famous Jewish Americans, see List of Jewish Americans."

*Lynn Ahrens [http://www.jinfo.org/Musicals.html Jewish-Composed Musicals ] ]
*Sholom Aleichem [ [http://www.odessaglobe.com/english/people/sholom-aleikhem.htm] "Recognized as the best Jewish writer who ever lived in Russia and wrote in Yiddish..."]
*Woody Allen (1935–) Academy Award-winning film director, writer, actor, and comediancite encyclopedia | title =Motion Pictures| encyclopedia =Encyclopaedia Judaica| volume=| pages =| publisher =Keter Publishing House| date =1971–1972| id =| accessdate =2006-11-17 ]
*George Axelrod [ [http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/031226/notable.shtml Notable Jewish deaths in 2003 ] ]
*Jeff Baron
*S. N. Behrman [ [http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Library/Archives/WAuthors/behrman/bio.html] "He was the third child of Joseph and Zelda Behrman, Jewish immigrants living on Worcester's East Side."]
*David Belasco [ [http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_list.aspx?articleGroupID=55] "It was staged by the young David Belasco, a Sephardic Jew..."]
*Saul Bellow [ [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/bellow.htm] "American author, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976, one of the major representatives of Jewish-American writers..."]
*Leo Birinski
*Mel Brooks [ [http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=538] "as the 77-year-old Brooklyn-born Jewish comedian put it unrepentantly..."]
*Paddy Chayefsky [http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/kerkhoff/ContempDrama/JewishAmThea.htm JewishAmThea ] ]
*Betty Comden & Adolph Green
*Norman Corwin [ [http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:DsEpFST3ZoAJ:www.juf.org/news_public_affairs/article.asp%3Fkey%3D3183+%22Norman+Corwin%22+Jewish&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=3] "Corwin, who is Jewish, started his journalism career sans a high school..."]
*Howard Dietz [ [http://www.jinfo.org/Songs.html Hebrew Melodies ] ]
*Edward Einhorn [ [http://www.edwardeinhorn.com Edward Einhorn - Novelist, Playwright, Director ] ]
*Eve Ensler [ [http://www.jwa.org/feminism/_html/timeline.htm] [http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/22839/format/html/displaystory.html] "The celebrated actress-playwright, born to a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother, sees herself as “a Jewish being. My mother looked like Doris Day. I was a dead ringer for Anne Frank. I came out Jewish.”"]
*Harvey Fierstein [ [http://www.gay.com/news/article.html?2003/11/26/3] "Harvey Fierstein, nice Jewish boy from Bensonhurst, dressed in holiday finery..."]
*Edna Ferber [ [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/ferber.html Edna Ferber ] ]
*Herb Gardner
*Larry Gelbart [ [http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/021108/comic.shtml] "Besides writing the Oscar-nominated screenplay "Oh, God!" the Jewish comedy screenwriter is famous..."]
*Josh Greenfeld [ [http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,903557,00.html] "He, Josh Greenfeld, was a Jewish writer from Greenwich Village."]
*Oscar Hammerstein II [ [http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2001/february28/jewishlit-228.html] "When American Jewish songwriters Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote Oklahoma!, they were, Felstiner argues, doing what all children of immigrant parents do: desiring to possess the new land."]
*Otto Harbach
*Yip Harburg [ [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/JewishComposers.html] [http://www.myjewishlearning.com/culture/Music/AmericanJewishMusicTO/AmericanJewishSongs.htm] ]
*Moss Hart [http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:yWRX6QNYgKYJ:www.highbeam.com/doc/1Y1:86465963/Show%2Bof%2Ba%2BLifetime%2B%253B%2BMoss%2BHart%2Band%2BGeorge%2BS%2BKaufmans%2BDebut%2BBroadway%2BHit%2Bis%2BComing%2BBack%2Bto%2BLondon~R~%2BAlan%2BStrachan%2BLooks%2Bat%2Bthe%2BDuo%2BWho%2BRuled%2BOver%2Ba%2BGolden%2BAge%2Bof%2BTheatre.html%3Frefid%3Dency_botnm+%22Moss+Hart%22+Jewish&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=21] (on Hart and George S. Kaufman) "Both were tall, dark and Jewish, and both had private demons..."]
*Ben Hecht [ [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/BHecht.html] "Ben Hecht was an American Jewish journalist, novelist, and playwright.]
*Lillian Hellman [ [http://www.fau.edu/library/bro91.htm] [http://coe.west.asu.edu/students/rkamper/hellman1960.htm] "She is Jewish."]
*Peretz Hirshbein [ [http://www2.jewishculture.org/awards/awards_arts_hirshbein.html National Foundation for Jewish Culture ] ]
*Israel Horovitz [ [http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/kerkhoff/ContempDrama/JewishAmThea.htm] [http://www.jbooks.com/interviews/index/IP_Horovitz_Miller.htm] ]
*Sidney Howard [ [http://www.erbzine.com/mag14/1458.html] "Sidney Howard was of course Jewish having emigrated to the United States from Germany twenty years before.]
*George Jessel [ [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1:79377579/The+History+of+Jewish+American+Comedians~C~+New+Book+Traces+Humor+from+George+Jessel+to+Jerry+Seinfeld.html?refid=SEO This article is unavailable - HighBeam Research ] ]
*George S. Kaufman
*Sidney Kingsley [ [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,11710,1478295,00.html?gusrc=rss] "second-generation American Jewish writers: Miller, Odets, Sidney Kingsley"]
*Tony Kushner [ [http://www.barclayagency.com/kushner.html] "The gay, Jewish socialist raised in Louisiana and educated at Columbia and NYU most enjoys addressing audiences that are receptive to ideas for change and progress."]
*James Lapine [ [http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/kerkhoff/ContempDrama/JewishAmThea.htm] "finest Jewish playwrights, including Elizabeth Swados, William Finn and James Lapine, Herb Gardner..." ]
*Arthur Laurents [ [http://gaytoday.badpuppy.com/garchive/reviews/091800re.htm] "...the creation of Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents, and Stephen Sondheim: four gay Jewish men, all working at the very top of their craft." [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/1557834679/] "Laurents also writes extensively on being gay, Jewish, left-wing..."]
*H. Leivick [ [http://www.met.com/golem/notes.html MET's Past Productions: The Golem - Notes on the Play ] ]
*Alan Jay Lerner [ [http://www.jinfo.org/Musicals.html] [http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/kerkhoff/ContempDrama/JewishAmThea.htm] ]
*Ira Levin [ [http://www.juf.org/tweens/new_cel.asp?id=82] "Dickens wasn’t Jewish, in case you were wondering. But Bette just did a remake of The Stepford Wives, based on the novel by Ira Levin, who is."]
*Craig Lucas [ [http://www.newhavenadvocate.com/gbase/Arts/content.html?oid=oid:95339] "Besides the mainstage premiere of a major new work by acclaimed Jewish playwright Craig Lucas..."]
*David Mamet [ [http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521894689&ss=exc] "David Mamet is a Jewish writer, though until recently few accounts of his life or work suggested as much..."]
*Donald Margulies [ [http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=12291] "he was Donald Margulies, the darling of regional theater, the state-sanctioned "Jewish American Playwright""]
*Arthur Miller [ [http://www.jbooks.com/interviews/index/IP_Horovitz_Miller.htm] "Let's have a look. Miller, like myself, (and like Ed Siegel) is a Jewish-American, meaning, simply..."]
*Itamar Moses
*Clifford Odets [ [http://yiddishbookcenter.org/story.php?n=10313] "...introduced the work of Jewish playwrights Aaron Hoffman, Clifford Odets, and Paddy Chayefsky to contemporary audiences..."]
*Jonathan Rand [ [http://www.jonathanrand.com JonathanRand.com - The official website of playwright Jonathan Rand ] ]
*Carl Reiner [ [http://www.interestingideas.com/ii/rob.htm] "But consider the milieu the show's Jewish creator, Carl Reiner, was trying to portray: the heavily Jewish New York comedy scene out of which came Your Show..."]
*Elmer Rice [ [http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=1236] "Elmer Rice, nee Reizenstein, an American/Jewish writer of the ‘20s and ‘30s, did not necessarily focus on Jewish characters and issues..."]
*Morrie Ryskind [ [http://www.sfsevents.org/juneFest05/timeline.htm] "George and Ira Gershwin team up with another Jewish team—George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind..."]
*Rod Serling [ [http://www.rodserling.com/presence.htm] "Rod was Jewish and that doesn't necessarily mean that it should have meant more..."]
*Irwin Shaw [ [http://www.jewishgen.org/JCR-UK/Community/swansea-amis.htm] "Amis and I often talked about Jewish matters, such as novels by American Jews, like Irwin Shaw – that dates it."]
*Wallace Shawn [ [http://www.juf.org/tweens/new_cel.asp?ID=64 JUF : Tweens : Celebrities : Wallace Shawn ] ]
*Sidney Sheldon [ [http://www.pbclibrary.org/story-jewishlit.htm Jewish Literature Month - Palm Beach County Library System ] ]
*Martin Sherman [ [http://citypaper.net/articles/042700/cw.critpick.martin.shtml] ""Being Jewish and being gay are the most important parts of me," he explains, "and they’re the DNA in my bones.""]
*Neil Simon [ [http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:uDX-c1JtEUgJ:www.juf.org/news_public_affairs/article.asp%3Fkey%3D4571+%22Neil+Simon%22+Jewish&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=8] "Broadway Bound is the least known play of prolific Jewish playwright Neil Simon’s trio of comical semi-autobiographical dramas."]
*Isaac Bashevis Singer [ [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Singer.html Isaac Bashevis Singer ] ]
*Jill Soloway — playwright, television writer [Soloway — [http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=16466] "One aspect of herself that Soloway reveals in her book, due out in paperback next month (published by Free Press), is that she, a self-described "Jewess," feels a sisterly solidarity with Monica Lewinsky, as well as Chandra Levy"]
*Aaron Sorkin (1961–) screenwriter, producer and playwright [Sorkin — [http://www.atlantajewish.com/content/092006/falltv-peet.html] "...says the Jewish Sorkin..."]
*Gertrude Stein
*Joseph Stein [ [http://www2.jewishculture.org/disciplines/performing_arts/theater/350th_playlist.html 350th Play List ] ]
*Jeffrey Sweet [ [http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=722 All About Jewish Theatre - The Sins of the Father, Another Holocaust Play ] ]
*Alfred Uhry [ [http://www.performink.com/Archives/stagepersonae/2000/UrhyAlfred.html] "I’ve probably come late to the party accepting, and being proud of, the fact that I’m Jewish. But I’m here. Am I an observant Jew? No. Maybe I’ll get there."]
*Wendy Wasserstein (1950–2006) playwright and an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University, also the recipient of the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama [Wasserstein — [http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/725/edition_id/4/format/html/displaystory.html] "“My father loved me dearly, but I’m not a Jewish American Princess,” playwright Wendy Wasserstein said. “I’m a Jewish mother, but I’m not Molly Goldberg.”"]
*Jerome Weidman [ [http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/GR9462.aspx Contemporary Jewish-American Novelists — www.greenwood.com ] ]
*Franz Werfel [ [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/fwerfel.htm] "Werfel was a German-speaking Jew and never forgot his Jewish background..."]
*Norman Wexler screenwriter of "Saturday Night Fever","Joe", "Serrpic", "Mandingo"
*Rory Winston Playwright, poet, comedy writer, reviewercite article | Survivor's Dictionary| date =2003]

See also

*List of Jewish American authors
*List of Jewish American poets
*Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States
*Before Columbus Foundation

Footnotes