CJ Hopkins

CJ Hopkins (born 1961) is a contemporary American playwright, author and political satirist.

CJ Hopkins, Edinburgh, 2013

Career

Hopkins' early plays and experimental theatre texts were first produced in New York City during the 1990s at Off-Off-Broadway theatres including HERE Arts Center, the Ohio Theatre, Theatre for the New City, Manhattan Theatre Source, The Present Company Theatorium and The New York International Fringe Festival. He was a 1994 Drama League of New York Developing Artist Fellow and a 1995 Resident Artist/Jerome Foundation Fellow at Mabou Mines/Suite. Since 2001, his plays have been produced, commissioned and have toured internationally.

He is best known for his 1992 play, Horse Country, which won numerous awards during its UK premiere at the 2002 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, including a Scotsman Fringe First for New Writing and the 2002 Scotsman Best of the Fringe Firsts Award,[1][2] and later went on to win the 2004 Best of The Adelaide Fringe Festival Award. Following its London premiere at Riverside Studios,[3] Horse Country toured the UK, Australia, Canada and The Netherlands.

His 2004 play screwmachine/eyecandy premiered at Assembly Rooms at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it was awarded a Scotsman Fringe First for New Writing. The US premiere was presented at 59E59 Theaters[4] in New York in 2006. Also in 2006, Hopkins was commissioned by the Freie Universität Berlin to write and direct a site-specific work, The Insurgency, the German translation of which was staged in the university's Philological Library.

His 2009 play, The Extremists, commissioned by 7 Stages and directed by Walter D. Asmus, premiered in Berlin and Atlanta.[5] The UK premiere was presented at the 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Hopkins' plays are typified by existential explorations of American culture, consumerism, capitalism, authority, and the human condition. His work is often darkly comedic, leaving the audience with more questions than answers. He has often collaborated with OBIE-winning director John Clancy, who has directed a number of Hopkins' plays since the 1990s.

Hopkins' political satire and other writings have appeared on NPR Berlin, in Counterpunch, and in various literary magazines.

Plays

Awards/Recognition

See also

References

  1. ↑ The Village Voice
  2. ↑ NOW Magazine
  3. ↑ WhatsOnStage
  4. ↑ Time Out New York
  5. ↑ Creative Loafing (Atlanta)

External links

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