DAVID IVES

(1950-)

BACKGROUND

• born in Chicago
• lives in New York
• education:
  • Northwestern U.
  • Yale (School of Drama)
  • Guggeheim Fellow (playwrighting)

BACKGROUND

• All in the Timing: Fourteen Plays (1995)
  • The Philadelphia
• Time Flies (2001)
• Polish Jokes (2003) - full-length
• Babel in Arms
• Flea in Her Ear (adaption of Georges Feydeau)
• Is He Dead? (adaption of Mark Twain)

THEMES

• absurdity
  • of life
  • "Everybody has to be someplace."
  • make the best of it
  • post-modern que sera, sera
  • comic frustration
communication
• miscommunication
• in life
• in relationships

 THEMES

• identity
  • cultural
  • racial
  • ethnic
  • stereotypes
  • nature vs. nurture

STYLE

• 1-act plays
• comedies
• Theatre of the Absurd
  • absurdity of life
  • existential
  • (though comedic)
    • see Twain
    • see miscommunication
• Mark Twain-ian
  • wit
  • word play

 STYLE

• identity
  • cultural
  • racial
  • ethnic
  • stereotypes
  • nature vs. nurture
• communication
  • miscommunication
  • in life
  • in relationships