Skip Navigation
Search

Ken Weitzman
Ken Weitzmann

Associate Professor
MFA, University of California, San Diego
BA, University of Michigan
Dramatic Writing
Humanities 2089
kenneth.weitzman@stonybrook.edu

http://kenweitzman.com

  • Biography

    Biography

    Ken is a playwright whose work has been produced and developed at theatres across the country and internationally.  Ken’s most recent productions include his solo play, Fire in the Garden, which has been produced online over the past two years at the Warehouse Theatre, and at NJ Rep and United Solo International Solo Theatre Festival (both starring Sean Astin).  Previous productions include, among others, Halftime with Don, which received a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere - three different productions of the play in the calendar year, The Catch  (The Denver Center Theatre Company), The As If Body Loop  (Humana Festival of New American Plays), seal boy at American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and  Arrangements  (Atlantic Theatre Company). His collaborative/ensemble-created work includes  Memorabilia (Alliance Theatre) and Hominid  (Out of Hand Theatre/Theatre Emory/Oerol Festival Netherlands).

    National awards for Ken's works include The L. Arnold Weissberger Award for Playwriting for Arrangements, a TCG Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award for The Catch, the Generations Award from BETC for seal boy, the Fratti/Newman Political Play Contest Award for Fire in the Garden, and South Coast Repertory's Elizabeth George Commission for an Outstanding Emerging Playwright.

    Organizations who have commissioned Ken's work include the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Arena Stage, the Alliance Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Theatre Emory, Out of Hand Theatre, and South Coast Repertory Theatre.

    Ken's plays have been published by Broadway Play Publishing, Samuel French, Playscripts, Smith and Kraus, and Blackbird.

    Ken has served in many capacities for major new play development organizations across the country, including six years on the board of the New Harmony Project chairing their script selection process. 

    Prior to Stony Brook University, Ken taught at, among others, University of California San Diego (UCSD), Emory University, and Indiana University (Head of the MFA in Playwriting).

    At SBU, Ken received the Godfrey Teaching Excellence Award – chosen by students from across the College for faculty who they felt "demonstrate a warm spirit, a concern for society and the individual, and the ability to impart knowledge while challenging students to independent inquiry and creative thought."

    Areas of interest: In his writing, Ken often uses sports as a lens through which to examine issues in culture, politics, history, and current events.  Additional areas of interest in his writing include explorations into acts of extreme and/or heroic self-sacrifice.

    For more information on his plays and teaching:  www.kenweitzman.com

  • CV

    View CV

  • Recent Courses Taught

    EGL328 Documentary Theatre Creation

    EGL387/THR326 Playwriting

    EGL/THR 325 Screenwriting

    EGL 582 Drama Workshop

    EGL 505 Studies in Genre

    EGL 303 Genre or Media

    EGL 284 Public Humanities

    THR 351 Topics in Performance 

    EGL 301 Authors, Periods, Topics, or Genres, with Intensive Writing 

    THR  484 Student New Works Festival

    THR 207 The Theatre of Baseball

    THR 214 Theatre in New York