Ain Gordon

AIN GORDON is a three-time Obie Award-winning writer/director/actor, a two-time NYFA recipient, a Guggenheim Fellow in Playwriting, and a Creative Capital awardee. Gordon’s work often sources forgotten/marginalized history by framing the obscured figures within. His work has been seen at BAM Next Wave Festival, New York Theatre Workshop, Soho Rep, The Public Theater, 651 ARTS, Dance Theater Workshop/NYLA, Performance Space 122/PSNY, Baryshnikov Arts, HERE Arts Center, and La MaMa (all NY); the Mark Taper Forum (CA), the George Street Playhouse (NJ), UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance, Flynn Center for the Performing Arts (VT), Krannert Center (IL), International Festival of Arts & Ideas (CT), The Yard (MA), Connecticut College, MASS MoCA, Wexner Center (OH), The Quick Center (CT), the Baltimore Museum of Art (MD), DiverseWorks (TX), VSA North Fourth Arts Center (NM), Jacob’s Pillow (MA), Arizona Arts Live, ’62 Center at Williams College(MA), Dance Space (DC), and more. Collaborations with Emily Coates presented at Dartmouth College (NH), Kaatsbaan Cultural Park (NY), SUNY Purchase, and more: with Sō Percussion presented at the Walker Art Center (MN), BAM Next Wave (NY), River To River Festival (NY), Philadelphia Fringe, and more; with Samita Sinha at American Dance Institute (MD) and PS122 COIL Festival (NY); with Emily Johnson/Catalyst Dance at Northrop (MN), NYLA, On The Boards (WA), ODC (CA), and more; with Bebe Miller at the Wexner Center (OH), Myrna Loy Center/ Helena Presents (MT), Bates Dance Festival (ME), and more; with David Gordon at American Repertory Theater (MA), American Conservatory Theater (CA) and American Music Theater Festival (PA). Gordon appeared in the original Off-Broadway cast of “Spalding Gray: Stories Left To Tell” and toured the production to venues including UCLA, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (OR), ICA Boston (Elliot Norton Award nomination), the Walker (MN), and New Territories (UK). Gordon’s “Art Life & Show-Biz; A Non- Fiction Play” is published in Palgrave Macmillan’s “Dramaturgy Of The Real On The World Stage.” Gordon also wrote for NBC’s “Will & Grace.” Gordon’s work has received support from The Jerome Foundation, Greenwall Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, Department of Cultural Affairs, AT&T, MAP (four times), ART NY, Mellon, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and the National Performance Network among many others. Gordon is a former Embedded Artist at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, former Core Writer of the Playwright’s Center (MN), former Resident Artist at the Hermitage (FL), former Visiting Artist at the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage (PA), former Artist-In-Residence at NYU Tisch School of The Arts, and a former Pabst Endowed Writer-In-Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Gordon is Co-Founder of the Urban Memory Project and has been Director of Pick Up Performance Co. since 1992.

Photo by Sally Cohn