Playwright and screenwriter John Patrick Shanley, winner of the Writers Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award, presents the 78th annual Hopwood Awards Lecture at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at Rackham Auditorium.
Each year, according to the bequest of American dramatist Avery Hopwood, the program awards cash prizes to U-M students for outstanding creative work. In the last year, the Hopwood Program awarded more than $187,000 to students for the encouragement of creative work in writing.
Photo by Monique Carboni.
Shanley most recently wrote and directed the film “Doubt” with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams. Based on Shanley’s play of the same title, “Doubt” was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay.
His other films include “Five Corners,” “Alive,” “Joe Versus the Volcano,” which he also directed, and “Live From Baghdad” for HBO. For his script of “Moonstruck,” he received both the Writers Guild of America Award and an Academy Award for best original screenplay.
Shanley’s theatrical work has been produced throughout the United States and around the world. His plays include “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea,” “Savage in Limbo,” “Welcome to the Moon,” “Defiance” and “Pirate.” His play “Doubt” received both the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
Jim Burnstein, screenwriting coordinator in the department of Screen Arts and Cultures, says, “How many writers have won the Oscar, the Tony and a Pulitzer Prize? I have to believe that Avery Hopwood himself would be delighted to know that John Patrick Shanley is giving this year’s Hopwood lecture.”
Burnstein notes that in 1999 Shanley was one of the screenwriting program’s first James Gindin Visiting Artists. “Former students to this day still talk about the inspiring advice he gave them. The master classes he conducted were among the best I have ever seen. Mr. Shanley’s ability to listen to a story and then immediately help a student shape it was truly remarkable.”
The event is free and open to the public.
For more information e-mail [email protected] or call 764-6296.
