University Communications

Spring, 2008

Denison University is currently hosting world-renowned playwright Arthur Kopit. He is the seventh Jonathan R. Reynolds Playwright-in-Residence to spend a semester with the department of theatre. Kopit is teaching a playwriting course and refining a project entitled "Discovery of America," to be presented by Denison University Theatre during April as a staged reading.

The play is based on the journal of the Spanish conquistador Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, one of four out of 600 men to survive a disastrous expedition to claim Florida for Spain. For eight years, initially as slaves of the natives, Cabeza de Vaca and his three comrades traveled across the continent, followed by "several thousands of Indians who began to look upon them as gods," Kopit said.

"They had become healers and shamans, and that's one of the controversial aspects of the journal, because the men became Christ-like, god-like," Kopit explained. "But the descriptions of the flora and the fauna and native cultures they observed are impeccable, describing an America that disappeared right after they came through it; so the account is historically very important, culturally enlightening and psychologically complex."

Theatre department students began rehearsing the play in late February under the direction of former Associate Professor of Theatre John Sipes. Like Cabeza de Vaca, they are exploring new terrain each evening, while Kopit is engaged in the writing process. He will decide where to go with "Discovery of America" after finishing his residency. "Sometimes you get the play right in a draft, and sometimes it takes many drafts," Kopit said. "There's no one normal way. They say 'playwriting is about rewriting' and, more often than not, it is."

Kopit has found luxury in Denison's liberal arts classes and research capabilities. After the second play rehearsal, Jack Shuler, assistant professor of English, and Alan Shackelford, assistant professor of history, joined Kopit for a panel discussion about

Cabeza de Vaca. Kopit said it was a unique experience — "valuable to the students in helping them understand the context of the play historically before actually trying to read the play itself." He added that Denison theatre faculty have been flexible about incorporating his student playwrights into their acting courses, something that "would not happen in most other schools."

"When I'm in New York, there's a lot going on and it's more difficult to focus on one specific thing; and for me, that's what this has been about," Kopit said. "Granville is such a quiet place. There are no distractions. I'm just focused on this piece of work."

Arthur Kopit is the author of "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad"; "Indians" (Tony Nominee, Finalist for Pulitzer Prize); "Wings" (Tony Nominee, Finalist for Pulitzer Prize); a new translation of Ibsen's "Ghosts"; the book for the musical "Nine" (based on Fellini's "8½"; music and lyrics by Maury Yeston (Tony Award for Best Musical, 1982 and Tony Award for Best Musical Revival, 2003); "End of the World with Symposium to Follow"; the books for the musicals "Phantom" and "High Society"; "Road to Nirvana"; "BecauseHeCan" (originally titled "Y2K"); "Chad Curtiss, Lost Again"; and numerous one-act plays.

Current projects, in addition to "Discovery of America," include a film version of "Nine," to be directed by Rob Marshall and starring Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Marion Cotillard, and Sophia Loren; and two new plays, both about memory, one called "Autumn Light" and the other with the working title "The Incurables."

Arthur Kopit attended Harvard University (A.B. 1959), where seven of his plays were produced while he was still a student. He has taught playwriting at the Rita and Burton Goldberg Graduate Department of Dramatic Writing at NYU, Yale Drama School, Yale College, Columbia University, Harvard, CCNY, Hunter College, and Princeton. He has held residencies at Wesleyan University in Connecticut and the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point.

Mr. Kopit is a member of the Writers Guild of America, the Dramatists Guild, the Dramatists Guild Council, and the Lark Play Development Center, where he heads the Lark Playwrights' Workshop. He is praised for his ease with language, impressive theatricality and parodies of American popular culture.