Nicky Silver is an American playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

. Formerly of Philadelphia, he resides in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

As a teen, Silver attended Stagedoor Manor

Stagedoor Manor

Stagedoor Manor is a performing arts summer camp located in Loch Sheldrake, New York. Over the past 36 years, it has trained thousands of young actors, many of whom have gone on to success in film, television, and theatre....

 Performing Arts Training Center in upstate New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. He began writing after graduating from the New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

 (NYU) Theatre program. Many of his early plays were originally produced off-off-Broadway

Off-Off-Broadway

Off-Off-Broadway theatrical productions in New York City are those in theatres that are smaller than Broadway and Off-Broadway theatres. Off-Off-Broadway theaters are often defined as theaters that have fewer than 100 seats, though the term can be used for any show in the New York City area that...

 at the Vortex Theatre in New York. Later, his plays premiered at off-Broadway

Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

 venues such as the Vineyard Theatre

Vineyard Theatre

The Vineyard Theatre is an Off-Broadway non-profit theatre company, located at 108 East 15th Street in Manhattan, New York City, near Union Square. Its first production was in 1981...

 and Playwrights Horizons

Playwrights Horizons

Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work....

. His plays Pterodactyls and Raised in Captivity received back-to-back Drama Desk Award

Drama Desk Award

The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...

 nominations for Outstanding Play in 1994 and 1995, respectively. Pterodactyls gained additional recognition in the media because the play was produced with large dinosaurs by sculptor Jim Gary

Jim Gary

Jim Gary was an American sculptor popularly known for his large, colorful creations of dinosaurs made from discarded automobile parts...

 in its sets.

In 2002, Mr. Silver wrote the new book for the Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 revival of the Rodgers and Hart

Rodgers and Hart

Rodgers and Hart were an American songwriting partnership of composer Richard Rodgers and the lyricist Lorenz Hart...

 musical, The Boys from Syracuse

The Boys from Syracuse

The Boys from Syracuse is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart, based on William Shakespeare's play, The Comedy of Errors, as adapted by librettist George Abbott. The score includes swing and other contemporary rhythms of the 1930s. The show was the first musical...

.

Select original plays

• Three Changes
• Beautiful Child
  Beautiful Child
  Beautiful Child is a drama by American playwright Nicky Silver. It premiered at the Vineyard Theatre in New York on February 24, 2004, in a production directed by Terry Kinney and with a cast led by George Grizzard and Penny Fuller.-Plot :...
  
  
• Fat Men in Skirts
• Pterodactyls
• Raised in Captivity
• The Altruists
• The Agony and the Agony
• The Food Chain
• The Maiden's Prayer
• Philip
• Roger and Miriam
• Claire
• Free Will and Wanton Lust

Critical Analysis

In the preface to his interview with Silver, David Savran locates Silver's work in the tradition of dark farce

Farce

In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...

 created by gay playwrights such as Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...

, Joe Orton

Joe Orton

John Kingsley Orton was an English playwright.In a short but prolific career lasting from 1964 until his death, he shocked, outraged and amused audiences with his scandalous black comedies...

, and Christopher Durang

Christopher Durang

Christopher Ferdinand Durang is an American playwright known for works of outrageous and often absurd comedy. His work was especially popular in the 1980s.- Life :...

. Theatre scholar Jordan Schildcrout has noted the recurring theme of the prodigal son

Parable of the Prodigal Son

The Prodigal Son, also known as the Lost Son and the Prodigal Father, is one of the parables of Jesus. It appears in only one of the Canonical gospels of the New Testament. According to the Gospel of Luke a father extravagantly gives his sons their inheritance before he dies...

 in Silver's plays, and sees Todd in Pterodactyls as a symbolic figure who challenges and subverts homophobic

Homophobia

Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...

 stereotypes of gay men as "evil."

Awards and honors

• (1994) - Pterodactyls - nominated for Outstanding Play by the Drama Desk Awards
• (1995) - Raised in Captivity - nominated for Outstanding Play by the Drama Desk Awards

External links

• Official website
• Nicky Silver at the Internet Off-Broadway Database