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Eric Bogosian
Born in Boston Massachusetts, raised in Woburn Massachusetts.
Author of 6 produced plays. 5 of 6 became books. 2 of 6 became movies. -
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The University of Chicago
He dropped out of University and instead returned home to sell jeans. This private research university was established in 1980 and is known to be highly selective. -
Oberlin College
Enrolled in the drama program after being convinced that theatre was his calling. Backstory: He reconnected with two high school friends Nicholas Paleologos and Frederick Zollo. Together they made several plays together. -
Family
Married Jo Anne Bonney and had two sons: Travis Bogosian and Henry Wolf Bogosian. Both birthdates are unknown and there isn't much information about them. -
Author of produced plays
Eric Bogosian is the credited author of 6 playwrights. Drinking in America (1985)
Talk Radio (1988)
Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll (1991)
Pounding Nails in the Floor with my Forehead (1994)
subUrbia (1995)
Love's Fire (1998) -
Themes & Awards
In the span of 6 plays, Bogosian themes were escape and re-invention, the American dream, and the American nightmare. All of Bogosian's plays got an award of some kind. Timetoast -
Drinking in America
Drinking in America was Bogosian's first play. It is a comedy with a "touching theatrical monologue". In this play, Bogosian explores toxic masculinity and male fragility. He expresses what is needed to build a man, and how easily that same man can be broken down. Timetoast -
Award
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance. -
Talk Radio
A drama based on a Radio show. The host mocks callers and listeners and is on the edge of attracting viewers or alienating sponsors. -
Award - Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was awarded to Eric Bogosian in 1988 for his play Talk Radio. -
Awards
In 1990, Bogosian earned an Outstanding One Person Show Award for Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll as well as an Obie Award for special citations. -
Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll
One-man stage show by Eric Bogosian. Based on post-Reagan America. This play was a combination of what Eric Bogosian thought and spoke about. This 10-monologue play has "a number of references tied to the early ’90s". Premiered Theatre Off-Broadway in New York City. Timetoast -
Pounding Nails in the Floor with my Forehead
"Initially written and performed at New York's Minetta Lane Theater in 1994". Performances of the bad side of living in the city. It provokes "white, middle-class, self-satisfied audiences" to feel guilty. "A sense of consequences for negative choices and actions is given off by the end of the show." Timetoast -
Award
Winning a Drama Desk Award, Outstanding One Person Show, and an Obie Award for Playwright on Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead. -
subUrbia
Focuses on young adult angst with topics like racism, global warming, sexism, idealism, and cynicism.
Cynicism is an inclination to believe that people are motivated purely by self-interest. Shows a couple of young adults with the wishes of being someone but they remain as they are because of a lack of motivation. As they get visited by an old friend who was able to do something out of themselves the others realize that they are wasting their lives doing nothing. Based on his youth. -
Award
Drama Desk Award and Outstanding Play on subUrbia. -
Love's Fire
Inspired by Shakespeare's Sonnets. Including Eric Bogosian, there are 6 playwrights that worked on this play. This play focuses on how to define and redefine love. Timetoast -
Personal Award
Eric Bogosian won the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts. "The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation offers fellowships to exceptional individuals in pursuit of scholarship in any field of knowledge and creation in any art form, under the freest possible conditions." Timetoast -
Resources
https://secretnyc.co/drinking-in-america-play/#:~:text=Drinking%20In%20America%20is%20presented,can%20break%20a%20man%20down. https://store.bizbooks.net/sexdrugsrockandroll.aspx https://variety.com/1993/legit/reviews/pounding-nails-in-the-floor-with-my-forehead-1200434482/ https://www.rit.edu/performingarts/loves-fire https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-06-23-ca-2153-story.html -
Interesting Facts
He received the prestigious "Silver Bear" at the 1989 Berlin Film Festival for his work on Talk Radio. Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll was Bogosian's final live solo performance before going into a Hollywood career full-time. His grandparents were survivors of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-16. Timetoast
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