LES
HUNTER
76-10 34th
Ave. #6S
Jackson
Heights, NY 11372
(917) 584-6392
DRAMATIC
WRITING
167 Tongues (collaboratively written full length play)
-Full Production, Written
collaboratively with Alvin Eng, Stephanie Zadravec, Rehana Mirza, Jenny
Lynn
Bader, Anne Kushner, Meny Berio, Steven Fletcher, Jennifer Gibbs, Deepa
Purohit,
and
Jeffrey Solomon. Jackson
Repertory Theatre. Queens, NY. Dir. Ari Kreith. May 2010.
The Restaurateur (monologue)
-Reading, Indian-American
Up and Coming Artists Series, Nuyorican Poets Café,
NY. April, 2010
Cyrano de Bergen
County, New Jersey (one
act play)
-Published and licensed by Playscripts, Inc. 2009.
-Full Production, Cedar Park Christian School. Lake Stevens, WA.
2010.
-Reading, Center Stage. NY, NY. Dir. Les Hunter. 2009.
Biggest Break (one act play)
-Full production, Artistic
New Directions, An
Eclectic Evening of Short Works II, Shetler Studio, NYC.
Dir. Morgan Gould. April 6-15, 2009.
-Full production, Brooklyn
Playwrights Collective, 4th Annual Festival of New Plays: Confronting
Chekhov. Brecht Forum, WAH Center,
Brooklyn, NY. Dir. Dan Winerman. Dec. 2008.
To The Orchard (full length play)
-Winner
of a 2007 New Works Grant from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture.
-Staged
reading, National
Comedy Theatre, NFJC.
NY, NY. Dir. Jamie Winnick. 2008.
-Staged reading, Derek Walcott
Theatre, Boston
Playwrights’ Theatre. Boston, MA. Dir. Fran
Weinberg. 2007.
-Staged reading, ARTNY!, Brooklyn
Playwrights’ Collective. Dir. Jamie Winnick. 2006.
-Worksop reading, Building
Bridges Festival, Brooklyn College Drama Dept. Dir. Jamie Winnick.
2006.
Notes Towards a
Dialectic Deconstructed, Reconstructed, and Ultimately Discarded: A Love Story (one act play)
-Winner, 2010 Stony Brook University Ten-Minute Play Competition. Dir. Liz
Sager. May 2010.
-Full production, St. Joseph’s College Chapel Players. Dir. Tom Hoefner, Feb.
2009.
-Workshop production, Jackson Rep. Dir. Ari Laura Kreith, Feb. 2009.
-Full production, Collective:Unconscious. Eat It Festival.
Dir. Jimena Duca, 2007.
-Workshop prod, Brecht Forum/Galapagos/KEP. BPC. Dir. Jimena Duca, 2007.
Lion of the East (one act play)
-Winner, 2010 Stony Brook University Ten-Minute Play Competition. Dir.
Waylon Lenk. May 2010.
-Reading, The Meetup Group, NYC. Dir. Vanessa Cordova-Corwin. February, 2010.
-Full production, Bates College. Drama Department: Senior Director’s Lab.
November, 2007.
-Workshop production, Tribeca Performing Arts Center. Dir. Lynn M.
Thomson. 2007
-Commissioned by Lynn M. Thomson for America in Play.
Lion of the East:
A Middle Western (feature
film)
-Advance on production.
-Accepted to “Dubai Film Connection” as part of the “Dubai
International Film Festival,” 2008.
Tortuga (ten minute play)
-Full production, Impact Theater.
One Trick
Pony. Dir. Shannon Ward. 2007.
All Around The
Mulberry Bush (one
act play with music)
-Staged reading with musical
accompaniment, Theater
for a New City. Dir. Leah Bonvisutto. 2007.
In Other News…(ten minute play)
-Full production, Impact Theater.
One Trick
Pony. Dir. Shannon Ward. 2007.
A Dream Play: Of
Events Concerning the Alfred Jerry Theater (ten minute play)
-Full production, Gene Frankel Theater. Howl Festival. Dir. Jeff Menaker. 2007.
-Full production, Galapagos Performing Arts Center. Brooklyn
Playwrights’ Collective. Dir.
Andy Millon. 2006.
Breakdown at Ikea (one act play)
-Full production, Freddie’s, Siberia. Brooklyn Playwrights Collective. Dir.
Andy Millon. 2005.
Furniture that
Speaks (one act
play)
-Full production, Macalester College. Mac Players. Dir. Poppy Coleman. 2001.
REVIEWS
William Coyle, “Variety is the Spice of
Life,” Offoffonline review of 167 Tongues, May 7, 2008.
“Due in no small part to consistently
first-rate writing, acting, and direction, this production’s tasty concoction,
against all odds, manages to work much like the neighborhood it lovingly
chronicles.”.
Mike Wood, “167 Tongues Strikes Theatrical
Gold,” Queens
Buzz review of 167 Tongues, May 6, 2010.
“I just returned from experiencing something truly
wonderful…Better buy your tickets now, because this is something that could
quickly catch fire and with only 99 seats available per night, they could go
quickly.”
Chris Harcum, “Confronting
Chekhov,” Nytheatre review of Biggest Break, Dec. 6, 2008.
"There is
a lot to this little play ... A potentially great work is percolating here, one
I hope gets developed."
Kimberly del Busto, “Beyond
Brecht,” L Magazine review of Notes Towards a Dialectic…, Nov. 3, 2007.
Martin Denton, “Cruel and
Unusual,” Nytheatre review of A Dream Play, Nov. 26, 2006.
"(A Dream Play)
push(es) us outside our comfort zones of sense and order."
ARTICLES
Fernanda
Santos, “Capturing
the Vitality of Jackson Heights and Putting it on Stage,” The New
York Times
about 167
Tongues, May 4, 2010.
Eng,
Joanna, “See the
World in One Night,” article in The QNote about 167 Tongues, May 4, 2010.
Joe
Kemp, “Many
Worlds of Jackson Heights Converge in New Play,” article in New York
Daily News
about 167 Tongues, May 4, 2010.
Walsh, Jeremy, “Boro
Actors Far from ‘Tongue’-Tied,” article in YourNabe.com, May 4, 2010.
Felicia
Lee, “American Theatre,
Lost and Found,” article in The New York Times about America-in-Play,
March 24, 2007.
INTERVIEWS
GIVEN
Adam
Szymkowicz, “I
Interview Playwrights Part 146: Les Hunter” interview about developing 167
Tongues, April 16, 2010.
Robert
Ross Parker, “Do It”
interview in The
Dramatist about producing with Brooklyn Playwrights
Collective, July/Aug., 2009.
Helen Shaw in “Brooklyn
Dramatists in Da House,” interview on Confronting Chekhov and BPC with Time Out
New York, Dec 10, 2008.
Liz Coen, “Lion of the East” in America-in-Play’s
webpage about writing Lion of the East, March, 2007.
PUBLICATIONS
Play
published and licensed, Cyrano de
Bergen County, New Jersey. Playscripts, Inc. NY, NY: 2009.
Essay
published, “Women’s
Sexual Encounters with the Other in Mourning Becomes Electra and
Machinal,” Comparative
Drama Conference: Text & Presentation, 2008. MacFarland &
Company: 2009.
Review
published, “Pinter
Enters the Popular,” All About Jewish Theatre. 2007.
Play
published, “Furniture that Speaks: A Comedic ‘Tratire’” by Macalester College
Press, St. Paul,
MN.: 2001.
Poem
published, “Love Poem for D.E.” in Macalester Review. 2001.
DRAMATIC
CRITICISM
Featured Writer, American Theatre Magazine
"Queens
Mirror"
(Currents, November 2009)
Staff Writer, offoffonline.com
-Wrote 23 reviews, 2
interviews and 1 feature for popular Off-Off-Broadway publication
Reviews:
“After
the Riot” (Haymarket)
“Exposed”
(Through A
Naked Lens )
“Perchance to Dream” (What Then)
“Hard Times” (The
American Clock)
“Live, It's Greek Tragedy” (The Trojan Women)
“In Black and White” (Conversation With a Kleagle)
“Party Hardly” (Abigail's
Party)
“Memories of Moscow” (Shoot Them in the Cornfields!)
“Prophet Taking” (I Have Loved Strangers)
“Brief Encounter” (Dark Yellow)
“Brave New World” (BecauseHeCan)
“After Eden” (When
the World Was Green)
“In Memoriam” (WTC)
“Stage Magic” (Orange
Lemon Egg Canary)
“All in the Genes” (Perfect)
“¿Te Gusta Gefilte Fish?” (Hermanas)
“Onstage, For the Very First Time” (The Complete Lost Works of Samuel Beckett as Found
in an Envelope...)
“Mobster Rocker” (The Tooth of
Crime)
“Shepard Revisited” (Buried Child)
“Different Slant” (The Obstruction Plays)
“It Can't Happen Here” (Post Mortem)
“Endless Ride” (Dutchman)
“Avoiding Boredom” (Wake Up Mr. Sleepy! Your Unconscious Mind is Dead!)
Interviews:
Lynn
Thomson
Israel
Horovitz
Feature
Article:
“Theater
as Language: The Foreman-Artaud Connection”
Staff Entertainment
Writer, The
Stony Brook Statesman
Articles:
“3rd Annual John Gassner New Play Festival Held at Stony Brook”
“SB
Substance Abuse Theatrical Program Celebrates 10 Years”
“Unfortunately, I Did Not Get a "Woodie" (But Death Cab for Cutie Did)”
“’Nick
and Nora’s Speakeasy’ Raises Money for Theater Department”
Reviews:
“Bad
Boy” (Boy Gets
Girl)
“’Ghosts’
Haunts, but to What End?” (Ghosts)
“Not Quite ‘Arcadia’” (Arcadia)
“Nothing’s New” (Thom Pain)
“May the Farce Be With You” (One Man Star Wars Trilogy)
“Absurd
Abounds” (Absurd
Person Singular)
“Dead
Can Dance” (The
Gentleman Dancing-Master)
Featured Writer, The Loop
“An Interview with Boston Playwrights’ Theater’s Kate Snodgrass”
Featured Writer,
Serf City
“The Kaffiyeh and the Kids”
ADMINISTRATIVE THEATER
EXPERIENCE
Co-Founder, Brooklyn
Playwrights Collective
-Built fifty-member network of playwrights to share writing
and produce plays.
(www.brooklynplaywrights.org).
Intern, Playscripts, Inc. Feb.–May 2009.
-Edited manuscripts, read prospective scripts, assisted with costumer service.
ACADEMIC PANELS
Paper
presented, “Projecting Diff’rence: An Archive of Representation in Production Photos of
O’Neill’s Diff’rent,” New England Modern Language Association. Boston, MA. 2009.
Paper presented, “Gatsby and the Jews,” Stony Brook English Graduate Conference. New York,
NY. 2008
Paper
presented, “Women’s Sexual Encounters with the Other in Mourning Becomes Electra and
Machinal,” Comparative Drama Conference. Los Angeles, CA. 2008.
TEACHING
EXPERIENCE
Instructor, English Dept.: Intro to Poetry, (one semester). Stony Brook
Univ., Stony Brook, NY 2010.
Instructor, English Dept.: Intro to Drama, (one semester). Stony Brook
Univ., Stony Brook, NY 2009.
Instructor, Rhetoric and Writing Dept.: Expository Writing A and B, (four semesters). Stony Brook Univ.,
Stony Brook, NY. 2007-2009.
7th Grade English Teacher, Saturday School, (two semesters). Harlem Educational Activities Fund. New
York, NY. 2007-2008.
Instructor, Creative Writing Dept.: Intro to Creative Writing, (one semester). Boston Univ., Boston, MA.
2006-2007.
Adjunct Instructor, Education Department, Language Pedagogy, (three semesters). Pace Univ., NY, NY.
2005-2007.
T.A. English Dept.: Intro to Feminism, (one semester). Stony Brook Univ., Stony Brook,
NY. 2005.
T.A. English Dept.: American Literature II, (one semester). Stony Brook Univ., Stony
Brook, NY. 2006.
Teacher Trainer, Teach for America/NY Urban Teachers: Teaching in New
York (one semester). NY, NY,
2005.
High School Teacher, Spanish, (two academic years). Teachers Preparatory Academy, NYC
Board of
Education. Brownsville, Brooklyn, NY.
2003-2005.
Jr. High School Teacher, Bilingual Education, (one academic year). IS
292, NYC Board of Education.
East New York, Brooklyn, NY. 2002-2003.
AWARDS
Stony Brook University Drama Dept. Ten Minute Play Contest, Winner (two plays), 2010
Foundation for Jewish Culture New Play Development Grant recipient, 2007
FELLOWSHIPS
2005-2006, 2007-2010 Stony Brook University English Dept. Fellowship
2006-2007 Boston University Creative Writing Teaching Fellow
2002-2005 New York City Teaching Fellow
OTHER
THEATER EXPERIENCE
Student, ESPA (Primary Stages) libretto-writing class with Kait Kerrigan, 2010.
Participant, ‘Pataphysics Playwriting Workshop with and Jeff Jones, 2009.
Participant, ‘Pataphysics Playwriting Workshop with Mac Wellman, 2008.
Dramaturg, world-premiere of Leslie Epstein’s “King of the Jews” Boston Playwrights’ Theater. Boston,
MA. 2007.
OTHER
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE
Dean of Residential Life, Center for Talented Youth/Monterey-Middlebury Language Aca., Bard College at Simon’s Rock. Summer 2009, 2010
-Oversaw staff of 25 in all issues pertaining to residential life of students at language camp for 220
gifted and talented students.
OTHER
ACHIEVEMENTS
Timberman Half Iron-Man finisher, 2005, 2004
NJ Marathon 2005
NYC Marathon 2004
Tucson Marathon 2002
Semester Abroad, Seville, Spain
1999 Macalester College Student of the Year
1996 Rotary International student exchange, Chile
MEMBERSHIPS
Dramatists Guild
America-in-Play
The Greatest Screenwriting Group in the History of the World
Founding Member, Brooklyn Playwrights Collective
Modern Language Association
LANGUAGES
Spanish, non-native fluency
French, high ability
Hebrew, some ability
EDUCATION
Boston University, Boston, MA. M.F.A.
Creative Writing- Playwriting, 2007.
Stony Brook University. L.I., NY. Enrollment, Ph.D., English. Focus:
20th Century American Drama,
2005-12.
Brooklyn College. Brooklyn, NY. M.A. English Education (Secondary Education), May 2004. Thesis:
“Melville as Absence: Angels in America and
its Critics.”
Macalester
College. St. Paul,
MN. B.A.
English (honors), Spanish (honors), May 2001. P.B.K
Universidad de Sevilla. Seville, Spain, 2000, Subjects: Modernism, Cervantes. GPA 4.0.