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. In addition to two volumes of fiction, his theatrical works were presented in North America and Europe. His essays on theatre, arts in the Middle East, and religion were also known under the pen name Yousef Daoud.

Education

Martin received his undergraduate education at George Washington University where he studied American Literature and attended Astere Claeyssens's creative writing courses. At the University of Bergen in Norway, he took 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) with his work assembled into a dissertation and later a book on the Norwegian writer Jens Bjørneboe.[1] Then, he also published a book of translations of works by August Strindberg.[2]

Career

Artistic career

In Vancouver, he worked 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.[3]

Upon returning to his hometown, Washington DC in 1987, he published the Strindberg Festival using new translations. He also produced 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.[4]

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[5]--Woyzeck, with a score for live brass by Larrance Fingerhut, Three Plays by Brecht (or "The Wedding/The ChalkCross/The Beggar"),[6] a touring production of Quartet by Heiner Mueller[7]—both directed by Djukic—and Strindberg's A Dream Play and Rumi's Mathnavi.[8]

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[9] (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[10] and at Gala Theatre in Washington DC. An English readers-theatre version was produced by CITE and the Mexican Cultural Institute, with a tour in the Washington area.

Teaching career

In 2000, as a Fulbright Scholar in Romania, he taught at University of Bucharest,[11] and directed the graduating class at the University of Theatre and Film.[12] 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. The two theatre projects culminates in a volume of essays:Staging Athol Fugard in Palestine: And other essays on theatre and writers in the Holy Land.[13] An epic play about a heroine of the French Resistance who was the daughter of a renowned Indian musician who first brought Sufism to the West, SOUNDWAVES: The Passion of Noor Inayat Khan, presented first at The Brecht Forum, later by Bridge Theatre Group at the New York International Fringe Festival in 2013 and again by EnActe Arts Theatre.[14] Other productions include his 2016 staging of Dario Fo's They Don't Pay? We Won't Pay?--revised before the Nobel prize winner's death, at Flashpoint Theatre in Washington DC.[15]

In 2002-2006, Martin taught theory and criticism and devised theatre at Catholic University of America. 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]

Works

  • Conspiracies: SIx Plays. (Aran Press & Press Open: Louisville, 1997.)
  • Foreigners: A Novel. (Davis, CA: Hi Jinx Press, 1997)
  • Strindberg--Other Sides: Seven Plays. (New York & Bern: Peter Lang Publishers, 1997)
  • Semmelweis by Jens Bjorneboe. Translation with introduction. (Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Classics, 1998.)
  • Parabola: Shorter Fictions. (Paradise CA: Asylum Arts, 2000.)
  • Rumi's MATHNAVI: A Theatre Adaptation. Paradise CA: (Asylum Arts & LDP Media: Raleigh, 2007.)
  • The Rose and the Lotus: Sufism and Buddhism (Published under the pen-name Yousef Daoud. Essays published in Sufi Journal 1995-2006. Indianapolis: Xlibris Spirituality, 2009.)
  • Spirit Garden: Poems (With art by Enrique Castenon. PressOpen: Washington DC, 2012
  • SOUNDWAVES: The Passion of Noor Inayat Khan. (PressOpen: Washington DC 2016.)
  • Staging Athol Fugard in Palestine: And other essays on theatre and writers in the Holy Land. (PressOpen: Washington DC, 2018)

Personal life

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.)[17] In 1997 Martin and Lias spent two months in India investigating different performance forms, temple art, the performance of Sanskrit drama at Benares Hindu University, and studying Buddhist philosophy at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala.[18] They divorced in 2004, and have one son, Beckett Lias Martin. From 1990 to 2001 Martin had 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 Washington. In connection with CITE, he taught an interdisciplinary course with the School of International Service,[19] "International Theatre and Peace." In 2011-2014 he would be resident Fellow in Arts and Peace at SIS.

References

  1. ↑ Martin, Joe (1996). Keeper of the Protocols: The Works of Jens Bjørneboe in the Crosscurrents of Western Literature. P. Lang. ISBN 9780820430379.
  2. ↑ "Strindberg--Other Sides. New York, Bern: Peter Lang Publishers". Retrieved 2018-06-12.
  3. ↑ results, search (1998-01-01). Conspiracies: six plays (1st ed.). Louisville, Ky.; Washington, DC: Aran Press & Press Open. ISBN 9780965671200.
  4. ↑ "Shakespeare Theatre Company | Peer Gynt 97-98 - Shakespeare Theatre Company". www.shakespearetheatre.org. Retrieved 2018-06-12.
  5. ↑ "compositions.html". annalarson.org. Retrieved 2018-06-12.
  6. ↑ "The Wedding/The Chalk Cross/The Beggar". Retrieved 2018-06-12.
  7. ↑ "Quartet". Washington City Paper. Retrieved 2018-06-12.
  8. ↑ "page5a". www.joemartin.us. Retrieved 2018-06-12.
  9. ↑ Brantley, Ben. "IN PERFORMANCE: THEATER". Retrieved 2018-06-12.
  10. ↑ Juan, Tovar,; Joe, Martin, (1998). "El trato" (in Spanish).
  11. ↑ "About Us - American Studies Department at The University of Bucharest". americanstudies.ro. Retrieved 2018-06-12.
  12. ↑ "UNATC NOUTATI". unatc.ro. Retrieved 2018-06-12.
  13. ↑ Martin, Joe. "STAGING ATHOL FUGARD IN PALESTINE And other essays on theatre and writers in the Holy Land [Proofs/draft]". (1 PressOpen Performance.
  14. ↑ "Soundwaves: The Passion of Noor Inayat Khan". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2018-06-12.
  15. ↑ "DC's Ambassador Theater Takes on Dario Fo's They Don't Pay? We Won't Pay!". HowlRound Theatre Commons. Retrieved 2018-06-12.
  16. ↑ "About | Theatre Arts & Studies". Theatre Arts & Studies. Retrieved 2018-06-12.
  17. ↑ "About Quartet". TUTA Theatre. Retrieved 2018-06-12.
  18. ↑ "Institute of Buddhist Dialectics". Institute of Buddhist Dialectics. Retrieved 2018-06-12.
  19. ↑ "School of International Service". American University. Retrieved 2018-06-12.
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