MICHAEL

Best known for his plays Moonchildren, Loose Ends, and Fifty Words, Michael Weller made his fourth appearance at CATF with the premiere of his newest play, A Welcome Guest, commissioned by the Festival. His play, Jericho, based on Ferenc Molnar’s international hit Liliom, (known best in its musical form as Carousel) premiered in New York at the Wild Project in 2018.

He wrote the screenplays for Hair, Ragtime, Lost Angels, and In Spite of Love (from his play Spoils of War).

Based on private mentoring throughout his career, he designed the acclaimed Mentor Project of the Cherry Lane and served for its first ten years as Supervising Mentor. He has received an Academy Award nomination, an N.A.A.C.P. Outstanding Contribution Award, Critics Outer Circle Award, a Rockefeller Foundation Grant, the Dramatists Guild of America’s Flora Roberts Award for distinguished playwriting, and the Helen Merrill Award. The Broken Watch Theatre Company named their playhouse in his honor.

Upcoming: Stand Up, centering around the legacy of Lenny Bruce’s unsettling comic legacy and its effect on contemporary students, will be produced by Tony Speciale, with Vicious Circle Productions, and his newest play, Loving, Longing, Leaving is being translated for a German language premiere in Vienna in the 2022-23 season.

Also see: https://vimeo.com/252275057/96f5cf4222