Will Eno (born 1965) is an American playwright based in Brooklyn, New York. His play, Thom Pain (based on nothing) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 2005. His play The Realistic Joneses appeared on Broadway in 2014, where it received a Drama Desk Special Award and was named Best Play on Broadway by USA Today, and best American play of 2014 by The Guardian. His play The Open House was presented Off-Broadway at the Signature Theatre in 2014 and won the Obie Award for Playwriting as well as other awards, and was on both TIME Magazine and Time Out New York 's Top Ten Plays of 2014.
Biography
Eno grew up in Billerica, Carlisle, and Westford, Massachusetts and attended Concord-Carlisle High School. He was a competitive cyclist from the age of about 13 until his early 20s.
For three years he attended the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, but dropped out and moved to New York. He is married to actress Maria Dizzia.
Career
His plays have been produced in New York City, Off-Broadway and by regional and European theatres: the Gate Theatre, the SOHO Theatre, and BBC Radio (London); the Rude Mechanicals Theater Company, The Satori Group (Seattle); the Flea Theatre, NY Power Company and Naked Angels (NYC); Quebracho Théâtre - Monica Espina (Paris); Circle-X (Los Angeles); The Cutting Ball Theater(San Francisco). Thom Pain has been produced in Brazil, Italy, Germany, France, Norway, Denmark, Israel, Mexico and other countries.
His plays are published by Oberon Books, TCG, playscripts, and have appeared in Harper's, Antioch Review, The Quarterly, and Best Ten-Minute Plays for Two Actors.
Works
The Flu Season was produced by The Rude Mechanicals Theater Company at the Blue Heron Arts Center, New York City, from January 29, 2004, to February 22, 2004. The play won the 2004 Oppenheimer Award, presented by New York Newsday, for best debut production in the previous year in New York by an American playwright.
Although some his plays were originally mainly produced in Britain, Eno has been making headway in New York City theatre ever since the 2004 debut of Thom Pain (based on nothing). Charles Isherwood, theatre critic for The New York Times, called Eno "a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart generation". Thom Pain (based on nothing) was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Oh, the Humanity and Other Exclamations (formerly Oh, the Humanity and other good intentions), which consists of 5 short plays, premiered Off-Broadway at The Flea Theatre from November to December 2007. His play Tragedy: a tragedy had its American premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, California, in March and April 2008. The play has also been produced by The Satori Group, a Cincinnati-based theatre group, in Seattle in 2009, and is usually mentioned along with another of his plays titled, King: A Problem Play.
Middletown opened Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre in November 2010 through December 5, 2010, and Eno won the 2010 Horton Foote Prize for Promising New American Play. Middletown was produced by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2011, Dobama Theatre of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Third Rail Repertory Theatre in Portland, Oregon, and Actors' Shakespeare Project of Boston, Massachusetts in February 2013.
Title and Deed (a collaboration with the Gare St. Lazare Players of Ireland) made its American premiere Off-Broadway at the Signature Theatre Company from March 2012 to June 2012. The play premiered in Ireland in 2011. His adaptation of Ibsen's Peer Gynt titled Gnit had its world premiere at the 37th Humana Festival of New American Plays in March 2013.