Rob Handel
Alumni Playwright
2008 -- 2015Rob Handel has collaborated as a playwright or librettist with 13P, New York Stage and Film, Long Wharf, SPF, Target Margin, Rorschach Theatre (D.C.), Just Theater/Shotgun Players (Berkeley), Theatre Battery (Kent, WA), Theatre Vertigo (Portland, OR), City Lights (San Jose), Curious Theatre (Denver), Theater Ninjas (Cleveland), Half Moon (Poughkeepsie), 99 Stock (San Francisco), Actors Studio Drama School, Manhattan School of Music, NYU Steinhardt School of Music, Opera on Tap at Barbès, North American New Opera Workshop, Ithaca College Opera Workshop, and Opera Theater of Pittsburgh.
Residencies include The Civilians R&D Group, Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse, O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Soho Rep, Portland Center Stage, Todd Mountain Theater Project, American Lyric Theatre, and a 'pataphysics retreat.
With composer Kamala Sankaram: the space age bachelor pad exotica cabaret BOMBAY RICKEY in the Prototype festival at HERE, and the techno-noir opera THE PRIVACY SHOW as an Opera America showcase. Rob's comic science fiction opera THE ARTWORK OF THE FUTURE, with composer Eric Moe, has been developed at New Dramatists, where Rob was a resident playwright from 2008-2015. Honors include the Helen Merrill Award and the Whitfield Cook Award, and his plays are published by Samuel French.
Rob heads the dramatic writing program at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama and serves on the board of the MacDowell Colony. He studied at Williams College and with Paula Vogel at Brown University. He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, poet Joy Katz, and their son.
ND Activity
Playwright Buzz
The Privacy Show at Civilians R&D Group's Findings series
The Privacy Show is part of The Civilians R&D Group's Findings series, May 19 at 2pm. A collaboration with composer Kamala Sankaram, The Privacy Show has also received an Opera America Discovery Grant.
Millicent Scowlworthy in San Francisco
Millicent Scowlworthy runs August 8-30 in San Francisco in a new production by 99 Stock. http://99stockproductions.org/2014-season/millicent-scowlwor...
Enchantress, a short opera
Ada Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron, must choose between her passionate marriage and the chance to collaborate with the eccentric mathematician Charles Babbage. A scientific romance about the birth of the first computer program, Enchantress by composer Kamala Sankaram and myself will be heard at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia space at Symphony Space on Monday at 7pm. Do you think Leonard Nimoy is there every night? Wouldn't that be amazing?
tiny operas here and there
Ten-minute operas I wrote with composers Gilda Lyons and Daron Hagen were performed by Opera on Tap at Barbès and at the Art Academy of Cincinnati.
Rob Handel reading in Pittsburgh
Poet Joy Katz and playwright Rob Handel will read in conjunction with the exhibition "Behind Our Scenes" on January 19, 3-5pm at SPACE Gallery, 812 Liberty Ave. Joy and Rob met at the MacDowell Colony in 1999 and have been married since 2005, but have never read together before. So, um, there's that.
A Maze in NPR's Bay Area top ten
A Maze in WQED's list of top ten Bay Area theatre experiences. The show reopens in Berkeley on February 14. Link
A MAZE in Berkeley
A MAZE has its West Coast premiere July 12 - August 4 at Just Theater in Berkeley. Weird long comic books, etc.
Oaxaca to Arkville
Following a long stay in Oaxaca, Mexico, heading to Arkville, New York for an exploratory residency with Ken Rus Schmoll and some other suspicious characters at the fabulous Todd Mountain Theater Project.
13P, a love story
The romantic tale of 13P, and why it ended, is here: http://www.howlround.com/13p-why-implode-by-rob-handel/
Five articles about 13P
There's been a gratifying outpouring of press discussing the end of 13P, why it was needed, and what we may have achieved.
Thoughtful analysis and interviews in Time Out New York:
http://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/playwrights-collectiv...
Lovely piece in the Brooklyn Rail by playwright Ben Gassman:
http://brooklynrail.org/2012/08/theater/the-imminent-implosi...
New York Times full-page article, sidebar, and photo gallery:
Contact Info
Rob Handel
School of Drama
Carnegie Mellon University
Purnell Center for the Arts
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
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