David Ives (born David Roszkowski July 11, 1950) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. He is perhaps best known for his comic one-act plays; The New York Times in 1997 referred to him as the "maestro of the short form".Marks, Peter. "Theatre Review; Mere Mortals and Others". The New York Times. 13 May 1997 Ives has also written dramatic plays, narrative stories, and screenplays, has adapted French 17th and 18th-century classical comedies, and adapted 33 musicals for New York City's Encores! series.Wren, Celia. "Playwright David Ives updates "The Liar" for the Shakespeare Theatre Company". The Washington Post. 4 April 2010A.G. "The Q&A: David Ives; S&M on Stage." The Economist. 24 May 2012.
Early life and education Ives wrote his first play when he was nine. He attended a boys Catholic seminary. "We would-be priests were groomed for gravitas," he has said. At the end of the year the seniors could be a part of a school show called "The Senior Mock," in which the students satirized the teachers. Ives played the role of "the chain-smoking English teacher who coached the track team (while smoking)", and he wrote and performed a song. This school experience, along with seeing a production of Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance, starring Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, were two early events that inspired his interest in theatre.Ives, David. "Why Write for Theatre?" Zeotrope: All Story. Volume 4, number 4.
Ives attended Northwestern University, majoring in English. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1971. He traveled to Germany, where he taught English. Ives graduated from the Yale School of Drama with a Master of Fine Arts in 1984.Grimes, William. "David Ives's Quick-Hit Approach To Staging the Human Comedy" The New York Times. 4 January 1994 page 286
Theater
His play, Canvas, was produced in California in 1972, and then at Circle Repertory Company in New York City. In New York Ives worked as an editor for William P. Bundy, the editor at Foreign Affairs magazine. Ives wrote three full-length plays: St. Freud (1975), The Lives and Deaths of the Great Harry Houdini, and City of God. In 1983 Ives was playwright-in-residence at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts where The Lives and Deaths of the Great Harry Houdini was produced.Guernsey, Otis. Sweet, Jeffrey. editors. The Best Plays of 1993-1994. Hal Leonard Corporation (1994)
In 1987 his short play Words, Words, Words was presented at the Manhattan Punch Line Theatre, followed by Sure Thing, Variations on the Death of Trotsky, Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread (1990), and The Universal Language. A two-act play, Ancient History was produced Off-Broadway in 1989 by Primary Stages.Simon. "Laugh Trap." New York Magazine. 3 June 1996Ives, David. Script Ancient History, Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 1996, , pp2-3
Ives' All in the Timing, an evening of six one-act plays, premiered at Primary Stages in 1993, moved to the larger John Houseman Theatre, and ran for 606 performances. In a review The New York Times said "there is indeed a real heart ... There is sustenance as well as pure entertainment."Brantley, Ben. "Review/Theater: All in the Timing" The New York Times. 3 December 1993, Critic Vincent Canby wrote, "Ives [is] wizardly ... magical and funny ... a master of language. He uses words for their meanings, sounds and associations, spinning conceits of a sort I’ve not seen or heard before. He’s an original."Canby, Vincent. "Theatre; All in the Timing". The New York Times. 5 December 1993 It won the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award for Playwriting,Awards Archive, 1993-1994" outercritics.org, accessed February 6, 2014 was included in Best Plays of 1993 — 1994, and in 1995 — 1996 was the most performed play in the country after William Shakespeare’s plays.Ives, David. Time Flies and Other Short Plays. Grove Press (2001) Guernsey, Otis L. Jr. The Best Plays of 1993-1994 (Best Plays Theater Yearbook). Limelight Editions; Anniversary edition (2004)
Ives’ full-length play Don Juan in Chicago premiered off-Broadway in New York at Primary Stages, on March 25, 1995. The Red Address, a full-length drama, premiered in New York at Second Stage Theater in January 1997."Theater Review; The Red Address". New York Daily News. 13 January 1997Ives, David. The Red Address. Dramatists Play Service (1998)
An evening of one-act plays, Mere Mortals and Others, opened off-Broadway at Primary Stages in New York, May 13, 1997. Peter Marks of The New York Times described it as "a collection of six fast and ferociously funny comedies ... a madcap evening of one-acts", and noted that Ives has the "gratifying ability to unharness the intoxicating power of language and at the same time entertain."Marks, Peter. "Review: Mere Mortals and Others". The New York Times. 13 May 1997.
Polish Joke, a full-length play, has been described as loosely autobiographical. It premiered in the summer of 2001 at the Contemporary Theatre of Seattle, and then opened in New York at the Manhattan Theatre Club in February 2003, in the cast in New York was Walter Bobbie, who would later be the director of Venus in Fur.Ives, David. Polish Joke and Other Plays: Including Don Juan in Chicago, Ancient History, The Red Address. Grove Press (2004) Jacobson, Lynn. "Review: Polish Joke." Variety. 27 July 2001
The Blizzard is a short play that was written as part of a theatrical concept that began in 1995 on the lower East Side of Manhattan, in which a group of writers, actors and directors would gather together to create a play from scratch, rehearse it, and perform it — all within 24 hours. The Blizzard, and eight of Ives' other short plays, was produced on the radio by Playing On Air, directed by John Rando and starred Jesse Eisenberg.Ives, David. The Other Woman and Other Short Pieces. Dramatists Play Service Inc. (2008) Ives, David. The Blizzard. Tumbler
Primary Stages presented a revival of All in the Timing in January 2013. This new production was directed by John Rando.All in the Timing, 2013 primarystages.org, accessed February 6, 2014Ives, David. English Made Simple All in the Timing: Fourteen Plays (2010), Random House LLC,
His plays have been published in the anthologies All in the Timing, Time Flies, and Polish Joke And Other Plays.
In the mid-1990s, Ives contributed pieces to Spy Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, and The New Yorker. New York magazine named him one of the "100 Smartest New Yorkers". When asked by the magazine to comment on being so listed for the same issue, Ives’ response began, "Grocery lists. Spelling lists. Laundry lists. The very idea of lists has something inherently narrow, petty, unpoetic about it. "List, list, O list!" cried Hamlet’s father's ghost in exasperation, and I couldn't agree more..."
His translation of Georges Feydeau's farce A Flea in Her Ear was produced at Chicago Shakespeare in 2006, and won the Joseph Jefferson Award for "new adaptation". His play, Is He Dead? adapted from an "unproduced 1898 comedy" by Mark Twain, ran on Broadway from December 2007 to March 2008. New Jerusalem, concerning the excommunication of Baruch Spinoza, opened Off-Broadway in January 2008 (previews from December 2007) in a Classic Stage Company production.Jones, Kenneth. "Spinoza Clashes With Community in Premiere of Ives' New Jerusalem, Opening Jan. 13" playbill.com, January 13, 2008 New Jerusalem won a Hull-Warriner Award.
In 2010, he adapted Pierre Corneille's comedy The Liar for The Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C.Wren, Celia. "Playwright David Ives updates "The Liar" for the Shakespeare Theatre Company" The Washington Post, April 4, 2010 It won the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play at the Helen Hayes Awards in Washington the following year. In 2011 his version of Molière’s The Misanthrope premiered Off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company under the title, The School For Lies. Also in 2011 his adaptation of Jean-Francois Regnard’s Le Legataire universel premiered at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. under the title, The Heir Apparent. The Heir Apparent opened Off-Broadway in March 2014 (previews) at the Classic Stage Company, and ran through May 2014.Purcell, Carey. 'The Heir Apparent', Featuring Olivier Winner Suzanne Bertish, Begins Run at Classic Stage Company March 28" playbill.com, March 28, 2014Sommer, Elyse."Review" curtainup.com, April 4, 2014
Venus in Fur opened Off-Broadway at the Classic Stage Company in January 2010 with Nina Arianda and Wes Bentley.Healy, Patrick. "Back From the Depths, Rebuilding a Career" The New York Times, February 7, 2010Healey, Patrick. "Run Extended for 'Venus in Fur'" The New York Times, February 3, 2010Isherwood, Charles. "One Object of Desire, Delivered" The New York Times, January 28, 2010 Venus in Fur premiered on Broadway in October 2011 (previews) at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club. Nina Arianda returned to the role she created Off-Broadway and Hugh Dancy played the role originated by Bentley. Walter Bobbie once again directed. The play transferred to the Lyceum Theatre in February 2012 for an extended run with Arianda and Dancy reprising their performances.Jones, Kenneth. "Venus in Fur, in a Commercial Mood, Resumes on Broadway Feb. 7" Playbill, February 7, 2012
All in the Timing was, after Shakespeare plays, the most produced play in the United States during the 1995–1996 season, and Venus in Fur was most produced, after Shakespeare plays, during the 2013–2014 season.
His Lives of the Saints began in previews Off-Broadway at Primary Stages in February 2015, running through March 27, 2015. Directed by John Rando, Lives of the Saints consists of seven short plays."Primary Stages Announces Casting for David Ives' 'Lives of the Saints' " theatermania.com, December 9, 2014 The plays are: Enigma Variations, The Mystery at Twicknam Vicarage, Babel's in Arms, Soap Opera, Lives of the Saints, Arabian Nights, and Captive Audience. Several of the plays had been produced previously.Ives, David. Lives of the Saints books.google.com, Dramatists Play Service Inc, 2000, , p.2-5 The Lives of the Saints was produced with five of the plays at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stockbridge, Massachusetts in August and September 1999.Sommer, Elyse. " Lives of the Saints Review" curtainup.com, August 18, 1999
His play, The Liar, based on a 17th-century play by Pierre Corneille opened at the Classic Stage Company in New York January 26, 2017.Isherwood, Charles. "Review: A Revival of ‘The Liar’ Plays Alternative Facts for Laughs". The New York Times. 26 January 2017.
He has continued to base plays on 17th century French plays: in 2017, The School for Lies, based on Moliere's play The Misanthrope, opened at the Lansburgh Theatre in Washington, DC.Himes, Geoffrey. ″A Modern ‘Misanthrope’ in the Play ‘School for Lies,’ at Shakespeare Theatre.″ Washington Post. May 24, 2017.
In April 2018, Red Bull Theater presented the New York premiere The Metromaniacs, his "translaptation" of a rediscovered French farce by Alexis Piron at The Duke on 42nd Street directed by Michael Kahn.
Musical theatre In the early 1990s Ives started working in musical theatre, writing the libretto for an opera based on Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden (music by Greg Pliska). It premiered in Philadelphia in 1991 at the Pennsylvania Opera Theater.Valdes, Lesley. "'The Secret Garden,' New Opera From Tpot" articles.philly.com, February 25, 1991