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Joe Martin (author, director)

Joe Martin (born 1953) is a playwright, author and theatre director born in Norwalk Connecticut and living in Washington DC, USA. Aside from two volumes of fiction, his works for theatre have been produced and presented in North America and Europe and his essays on theatre, arts in the Middle East, and religion (In the case of the latter, sometimes publishing with the pen-name Yousef Daoud.) He received his undergraduate education at George Washington University where he studied American Literature and took the creative writing courses of Astere Claeyssens, and at the University of Bergen in Norway where he took his exams in Comparative Literature in 1979. He went on to do his MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in playwriting at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, where he also took the course of study in directing in the Theatre Department. He continued at UBC doing his doctorate in Comparative Literature, with a concentration in drama. After receiving several University Graduate Fellowships, the American-Scandinavian Foundation provided a fellowship for a year, divided between Norway (Universitetet i Oslo) and Sweden (Stockholmsuniversitet and Dramatiska Institutet), where his work ultimately culminated in a dissertation, later a book, on the Norwegian writer Jens Bjørneboe,[1] and some years later a book of translations of works by August Strindberg.

In Vancouver, he had worked for five years developing Open Theatre Projects, and co-directing classic plays, with Shakespearean actor Dermott Hennelly (Noel Burton) before leaving for Scandinavia. At this time his play The Dust Conspiracy won the Source Literary Prize in 1985. On his return from Scandinavia, he continued to write various plays produced in the Source Theatre Festival in ensuing years: including Deceit: Or Crime with Class, and Forfeit: A Play in Twelve Rounds. These plays and production credits are published in Conspiracies: Six Plays.[2]

On his return to his hometown, Washington DC in 1987, he produced the Strindberg Festival with his fresh translations, with his own production of The Ghost Sonata at Metro Stage (then American Showcase Theatre), three Strindberg one-acts at Source Theatre and Karl XII in a staged reading at the Shakespeare Theatre. He would later serve as dramaturg/consultant for Michael Kahn's production of Peer Gynt in 1998.[3]

In 1990 he met the actress Lisa Lias in a production of his play Anatole's Lover. They later married, and worked on productions of international works for Open Theatre DC in collaboration with C.I.T.E., and later with TUTA Theatre and its director Zeljko Djukic (now relocated to Chicago.)[4] They divorced in 2003. From 1990 to 2001 he taught Theatre in the Department of Performing Arts at American University and initiated regular projects for the Center for International Theatre Exchange (CITE), both productions and master classes, highlighting international artists, in collaboration with embassies in DC. In connection with CITE, he taught an interdisciplinary course with the School of International Service,[5] "International Theatre and Peace." In 2011-2014 he would be resident Fellow in Arts and Peace at SIS.

His professional directing and producing credits for Open Theatre/CITE and Open Theatre/TUTA over 15 years included his play about the guillotine, Anatole's Lover, The Receiver, Parabola: Tales of the Wise and the Idiots (with choreography by Anne Bassen, music by David Crandall), The Match Girl's SNOW QUEEN--created with DC composer Anna Larson [6]--Woyzeck, with a score for live brass by Larrance Fingerhut, Three Plays by Brecht (or "The Wedding/The ChalkCross/The Beggar")[7] , a touring production of Quartet by Heiner Mueller [8]-- both directed by Djukic--Strindberg's A Dream Play[9], and Rumi's Mathnavi.[10]

His translation (with Iona Weissberg) of Mexican playwright Juan Tovar's dream-like montage of works by the influential Mexican author Juan Rulfo, The Crossroads (Los Encuentros), in 1994 [11] (produced by Ensemble International in NYC) led to a collaboration between Tovar and Martin on a work in both English and Spanish, El Trato, concerning an ill-fated attempt at a trade treaty in the mid-19th century to enhance relations between the US and Mexico. In 1998 it was presented in Spanish by La Compañía Nacional de Teatro in Mexico City,[12] and at Gala Teatro Hispano in Washington DC. An English readers-theatre version was produced by CITE and the Mexican Cultural Institute, with a tour in the Washington area.

In 2000, as a Fulbright Scholar in Romania, he taught at University of Bucharest,[13] and directed the graduating class at the University of Theatre and Film.[14] He would continue working in Europe and the Middle East as a Fulbright Specialist in Theatre in Theatre, directing and creating college arts curriculums in Jerusalem and the West Bank in 2011 and in Bethlehem in 2014.[15]

He taught theory and criticism at Catholic University of America in 2002-2006. Since 2008 he has taught playwriting and dramatic literature as a Senior Lecturer for the Theatre Arts and Studies program at Johns Hopkins University.[16]

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Notable books and collections include:

Conspiracies: SIx Plays. (Aran Press & Press Open: Louisville, 1997.)

Foreigners: A Novel. (Davis, CA: Hi Jinx Press, 1997) [17]

Strindberg--Other Sides: Seven Plays. (New York & Bern: 1997) [18]

Semmelweis by Jens Bjorneboe. Translation with introduction. (Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Classics, 1998.) [19]

Parabola: Shorter Fictions. (Paradise CA: Asylum Arts, 2000.) [20]

Rumi's MATHNAVI: A Theatre Adaptation. Paradise CA: (Asylum Arts & LDP Media: Raleigh, 2007.) [21]

The Rose and the Lotus: Sufism and Buddhism (As Yousef Daoud. Indianapolis: Xlibris Spirituality, 2009.) [22]

Spirit Garden: Poems (With art by Enrique Castenon. PressOpen: Washington DC, 2012 [23]

SOUNDWAVES: The Passion of Noor Inayat Khan. (Press Open: washington DC 2016.) [24]

Staging Athol Fugard in Palestine: And other essays on theatre and writers in the Holy Land. (PressOpen: Washington DC, 2018) [25]

Category:BioArtists Category:Biography (arts and entertainment) articles by quality Category:Authors