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Robert O'Hara (born February 2, 1970)[1] is an African American playwright and director. He has written numerous plays, most notably Insurrection: Holding History and Bootycandy.[2] Insurrection is a time traveling play exploring racial and sexual identity.[3] Bootycandy is a series of comedic scenes primarily following the character of Sutter, a gay African American man growing from adolescence to manhood.[4] It won the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Drama.[5][6] He is currently an adjunct professor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.[7]

Early Life and Education

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O'Hara was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Growing up, he lived with his mother, who had him when she was seventeen, and his step-father, who moved in when O'Hara was twelve. In the third grade, he began attending Catholic school, where he found himself one of the few African-American students there. He later attended Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, and graduated in 1992. Initially he came to the school major in Political science and become a lawyer. However, he quickly realized he was much more interested in theatre, and changed his major to Drama.[8] At Tufts he started the Tufts Black Theatre Company, for which he directed and wrote work.[9] After graduating from Tufts, he then went on to pursue a Master's degree in Directing at Columbia University, which he completed in 1996.[10] During his time at Columbia, O'Hara interned at the Manhattan Theatre Club and the Joseph Papp Public Theater, where he was mentored by notable African-American playwright George C. Wolfe, author of The Colored Museum.[11]

Career

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Theatre

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O'Hara is known throughout the theatre world for his career as a playwright and director.

Film

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In the mid-nineties, O'Hara wrote the script to a Richard Pryor biopic called Live that was to be directed by Martin Scorsese. However, the project remained trapped in development and has yet to be made.

O'Hara also wrote the script to Micheaux, a biopic following the life of African-American filmaker Oscar Micheaux that was to be directed by Spike Lee.

In 2011, O'Hara made his film directing debut with the Horror/Thriller film The Inheritance, which he also wrote. The film follows the story of a group of cousins who meet to receive their ancestors inheritance, but discover a deadly secret instead.[12]

Notable Works

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Insurrection: Holding History

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Insurrection: Holding History follows the story of a young, gay African-American man named Ron, who travels back in time with his 189 year-old grandfather to the time of the Nat Turner Rebellion. The play deals with themes of racial identity and sexuality, as Ron comes to face his ancestors' history, and his own personal identity.[13]

Insurrection was written during O'Hara's time interning at the Public Theatre. It was selected as a part of the 1995 new work reading series at the Mark Taper Forum, and O'Hara later directed it as a part of his Master's thesis at Columbia in April of that year. His student production of the play garnered much attention, and helped to get O'Hara's work noticed by the New York theatre community. In 1996, the play won Newsday's Oppenheimer Award for Best New American Play.[14]

The play officially opened at the Public Theatre on October 11, 1996, and was produced by O'Hara's former mentor George C. Wolfe.[15]

Brave Blood

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Brave Blood takes place in the home of Ms. Anne, a psychiatrist who takes in a group of female prostitutes in order to help better their lives. However, when a murder occurs, the investigation throws the house into chaos. The play deals with themes of how exploitation affects identity.[16]

O'Hara directed the play's premiere in 2001 at the Transparent Theatre Company in Berkeley, California.[17]

-14: An American Maul

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-14: An American Maul takes place in a future America where a new form of cotton is created that requires manual labor to be grown and picked. As a result, the President repeals the Fourteenth Amendment, and effectively reinstates slavery. [18]

The play was produced during O'Hara's residence at the American Conservatory Theater.[19]

Antebellum

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Antebellum focuses on themes of social injustice as it intercuts between two alternate stories throughout the play: one which takes place in Atlanta in 1939, the other in Germany in 1936. The Atlanta plot-line centers on a young Jewish couple living in the South who dress up in Civil War era attire to attend the premiere of Gone with the Wind. In Berlin, a Third Reich officer at a Nazi death camp is in love with his prisoner, a black, male cabaret performer, yet still allows him to be tortured.[20]

The play premiered at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, D.C. on March 30, 2009.[21]

The Etiquette of Vigilance

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The Etiquette of Vigilance is a contemporary re-imagining of Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun. It follows the story of Travis, the youngest male of the Younger family original play, and his daughter Lorraine, who is about to become the first of her family to enter college, and feels the pressure of her family's longheld desire to achieve the American Dream.[22]

The play premiere at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago on Octorber 22, 2010.

Bootycandy

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The play premiered at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, D.C. on May 30, 2011.[23]

Barbeque

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Barbeque centers on around the O'Mallery's, a dysfunctional group of siblings who comes together for a park barbeque in order to stage an emergency intervention for their sister Barbara, whose drug habit has gotten out of hand. However, there are in fact two O'Mallery family, one white and one black. Each appear in different, yet similar scenes that juxtapose to create a dialogue about racial and family politics.[24]

The play premiered at the Public Theatre in New York, NY on September 22, 2015.[25]

Themes

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Critical Reception

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There seems to be quite a divide among theatre critics concerning O'Hara's work, as he is often praised for his bold and daring themes, yet critiqued in the execution of them.[26] Considering his first play Insurrection, Variety critic Greg Evans found O'Hara's work to "a fanciful study in Black history that announc[ed] O'Hara as a promising new voice," yet only "partially successful" in performance. [27] New York Times theatre critic Peter Marks had a similar reaction in his review as he stated the play was "clever" yet "all over" the map. Both reviews critique O'Hara's choice to act as his own director, which he continues to do for many of his plays.[28]

Marks also reviewed O'Hara's play Antebellum in 2009, and felt that while the show had a "rich, imaginatively expressive intelligence," overall it was "overthought" and "garish."[29] News Herald reporter Bob Abelman had a similar take on the show, which he found to be a "brilliant concept" but "by the end of the night is gone with the wind."[30]

In contrast, O'Hara's play Bootycandy received a wide variety of positive reviews. New York Times theatre critic Charles Isherwood named it a "Critic's Pick" at the time of it's New York premiere, and described it to be "as raw in its language and raucous in spirit as it is smart and provocative."[31] Isherwood also praised O'Hara's ability to alternate between moments of comedy and drama as he stated that "as funny as he can be when writing in ribald “In Living Color” sketch-comedy mode, Mr. O’Hara also reveals a more probing intelligence in the more serious scenes"[32] of the play. LA Times theatre critic Charles McNulty praised O'Hara for "grappl[ing] with the conflicts and contradictions inherent in being a member of more than one oppressed group" and "tackling the challenge of writing about this experience in a culture that expects its minority playwrights to follow paths prescribed by white institutions" within his work.[33]

Awards

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Year Award Title Category Play
1996[34] Oppenheimer Award Best New American Play Insurrection: Holding History
2006[35] Obie Award Special Citations In the Continuum
2010[36] NAACP Award Best Director Eclipsed
2010[37] Helen Hayes Award Outstanding New Play Antebellum
2014[38] P.T. Barnum Award From Ballou to Broadway N/A
2015 Lambda Literary Award LGBT Drama Bootycandy

References

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  1. ^ Nelson, Emmanuel S. (2004-10-30). African American Dramatists: An A-to-Z Guide: An A-to-Z Guide. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780313052897.
  2. ^ "Samuel French Titles by Robert O'Hara".
  3. ^ "Review: 'Insurrection: Holding History'".
  4. ^ Bootycandy, Samuel French, Inc., 2016, retrieved 16 May 2016
  5. ^ Kellogg, Carolyn (June 2, 2015). "Lambda Literary Awards Laud Best Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Books". Los Angeles Times.
  6. ^ The 27th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists, Lambda Literary Foundation, 2015, retrieved 16 May 2016
  7. ^ "Robert Ohara". tisch.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  8. ^ "Artist Interview with Robert O'Hara - Trailers + More : Playwrights Horizons". Playwrights Horizons. Retrieved 2016-10-24.
  9. ^ "Artist Interview with Robert O'Hara - Trailers + More : Playwrights Horizons". Playwrights Horizons. Retrieved 2016-10-24.
  10. ^ "THEATRE ARTS ALUMNI: Robert O'Hara ('96SOA), "Booty Candy" - 49982". arts.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2016-10-24.
  11. ^ Nelson, Emmanuel Sampath (2003-01-01). Contemporary Gay American Poets and Playwrights: An A-to-Z Guide. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313322327.
  12. ^ O'Hara, Robert (2011-04-12), The Inheritance, retrieved 2016-10-27
  13. ^ Nelson, Emmanuel Sampath (2003-01-01). Contemporary Gay American Poets and Playwrights: An A-to-Z Guide. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313322327.
  14. ^ Nelson, Emmanuel Sampath (2003-01-01). Contemporary Gay American Poets and Playwrights: An A-to-Z Guide. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313322327.
  15. ^ Evans, Greg (1996-12-22). "Review: 'Insurrection: Holding History'". Variety. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  16. ^ Nelson, Emmanuel S. (2004-10-30). African American Dramatists: An A-to-Z Guide: An A-to-Z Guide. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780313052897.
  17. ^ Nelson, Emmanuel Sampath (2003-01-01). Contemporary Gay American Poets and Playwrights: An A-to-Z Guide. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313322327.
  18. ^ Nelson, Emmanuel S. (2004-10-30). African American Dramatists: An A-to-Z Guide: An A-to-Z Guide. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780313052897.
  19. ^ ""Insurrection' writer to spend year at ACT". SFGate. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  20. ^ "Theater review: 'Antebellum' writer's concept is brilliant, but potential not quite realized". Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  21. ^ "Antebellum -- A world premiere by Robert O'Hara at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company". static.woollymammoth.net. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  22. ^ "The Etiquette of Vigilance | Steppenwolf Theatre". www.steppenwolf.org. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  23. ^ "Bootycandy, a Sex-Education Comedy That Tests Limits, Premieres May 30 in DC | Playbill". Playbill. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  24. ^ Isherwood, Charles (2015-10-08). "Review: 'Barbecue,' an Intervention With Love, Insults and Whiskey". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  25. ^ "Robert O'Hara's Barbecue, with 'Orange Is the New Black' Star, Begins Tonight | Playbill". Playbill. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  26. ^ Nelson, Emmanuel Sampath (2003-01-01). Contemporary Gay American Poets and Playwrights: An A-to-Z Guide. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313322327.
  27. ^ Evans, Greg (1996-12-22). "Review: 'Insurrection: Holding History'". Variety. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  28. ^ Marks, Peter (1996-12-13). "Of Slavery and Sex in a Time Warp". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  29. ^ Marks, Peter (1996-12-13). "Of Slavery and Sex in a Time Warp". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  30. ^ "Theater review: 'Antebellum' writer's concept is brilliant, but potential not quite realized". Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  31. ^ Isherwood, Charles (2014-09-10). "'Bootycandy' Looks at Black Attitudes Toward Gays". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  32. ^ Isherwood, Charles (2014-09-10). "'Bootycandy' Looks at Black Attitudes Toward Gays". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  33. ^ Times, Los Angeles. "'Bootycandy' adorns itself with flamboyance, ribaldry, hilarity and unsettling poignancy". latimes.com. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  34. ^ Nelson, Emmanuel Sampath (2003-01-01). Contemporary Gay American Poets and Playwrights: An A-to-Z Guide. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313322327.
  35. ^ "Robert O'Hara | Playscripts, Inc". www.playscripts.com. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  36. ^ "Meet the Artists | The Wilma Theater". www.wilmatheater.org. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  37. ^ "Robert O'Hara | Stage Directors and Choreographers Society". sdcweb.org. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  38. ^ "Robert O'Hara | Stage Directors and Choreographers Society". sdcweb.org. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
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Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights Category:American theatre directors Category:Lambda Literary Award winners Category:Living people Category:African-American dramatists and playwrights Category:21st-century American dramatists and playwrights

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