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Annie Baker (born April 1981) is an American playwright and film director. She is known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Flick (2013). She has written a string of plays which are set in the fictional town of Shirley: Body Awareness (2008), Circle Mirror Transformation (2009), The Aliens (2010), and Nocturama (2014). She made her feature film directorial debut with the A24 coming-of-age drama Janet Planet (2023).
In October and November 2010, three Boston theatre companies produced Baker's three plays that are set in the fictional town of Shirley, Vermont: Circle Mirror Transformation, produced by the Huntington Theatre Company, Body Awareness, produced by SpeakEasy Stage Company, and The Aliens, produced by Company One.Dunn, Thom. "Shirley, Vt. Plays" shirleyvtplays.com, August 9, 2010, accessed April 19, 2014 "Presenting an exciting collaborative festival of Annie Baker’s 'The Shirley, VT Plays'" speakeasystage.com, accessed April 19, 2014 " Body Awareness, 2010" speakeasystage.com, accessed October 13, 2015
The Aliens, which premiered Off-Broadway at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in April 2010, was a finalist for the 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and shared the 2010 Obie Award for Best New American Play with Circle Mirror Transformation. Her adaptation of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya premiered at the Soho Repertory Theatre in June 2012, running through August 26, and was called a "funky, fresh new production" by The New York Times reviewer.Isherwood, Charles. "Theater Review. 'Uncle Vanya,' Adapted by Annie Baker, at Soho Rep" The New York Times, June 18, 2012 Directed by Sam Gold, the cast featured Reed Birney (as Vanya), Maria Dizzia, Georgia Engel, Peter Friedman, Michael Shannon (as Astrov), Rebecca Schull and Merritt Wever (as Sonya). Michael Shannon and Merritt Wever received the 2012 Joe A. Callaway Award for their performances.
John opened Off-Broadway at the Signature Theatre on July 22, 2015 (previews). It was directed by Sam Gold and starred Georgia Engel and Lois Smith. The play ran to September 6. This marked the fifth time that Baker and Gold worked together, starting with Circle Mirror Transformation in 2009.Soloski, Alexis. "Annie Baker and Sam Gold: A Writer and Director Going Steady on the Job" The New York Times, July 15, 2015 The play is set in a bed and breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Time ranked it at No. 8 on its list of Top Ten Plays and Musicals for 2015.Zoglin, Richard. "Top 10 Plays & Musicals" Time, December 1, 2015 It is No. 8 in The Hollywood Reporter's "Best New York Theater of 2015". The New York Times wrote that the play is a "...haunting and haunted meditation on topics she has made so singularly her own: the omnipresence of loneliness in human life, and the troubled search for love and lasting connection."Isherwood, Charles. "Review: In 'John,' Pondering Life’s Mysteries From Gettysburg" The New York Times, August 11, 2015
John was nominated for the 2016 Lucille Lortel Awards, Outstanding Play; Outstanding Lead Actress in a Play (Georgia Engel); Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (Lois Smith); Outstanding Scenic Design (Mimi Lien); and Outstanding Lighting Design (Mark Barton). "2016 Lucile Lortel Award Nominations Announced", Playbill, March 30, 2016 John received six 2016 Drama Desk Award nominations: Outstanding Play; Outstanding Actress in a Play (Georgia Engel); Outstanding Director of a Play; Outstanding Set Design for a Play (Mimi Lien); Outstanding Lighting Design for a Play (Mike Barton); and Outstanding Sound Design in a Play (Bray Poor).Viagas, Robert. "'She Loves Me' Leads Drama Desk Nominations", Playbill, April 28, 2016 John won the 2016 Obie Awards for Performance for Georgia Engel and a Special Citations: Collaboration, for Annie Baker, Sam Gold and the design team.Gans, Andrew. "Winners Announced for 61st Annual Obie Awards" Playbill, May 23, 2016
Baker's The Antipodes premiered Off-Broadway at the Signature Theatre Company with previews on April 4, 2017; it opened officially on April 23, directed by Lila Neugebauer.Clement, Olivia. "Signature Announces World Premieres By Annie Baker, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Will Eno" Playbill, April 12, 2016 The cast featured Phillip James Brannon, Josh Charles, Josh Hamilton, Danny Mastrogiorgio, Danny McCarthy, Emily Cass McDonnell, Brian Miskell, Will Patton, and Nicole Rodenburg.Clement, Olivia. " 'The Good Wife' ’s Josh Charles Tapped for Annie Baker World Premiere" Playbill, February 28, 2017 The engagement was extended to June 4.Clement, Olivia. "World Premiere of Annie Baker’s 'The Antipodes' Opens Off-Broadway" Playbill, April 23, 2017 John opened in the West End at the National Theatre in January 2018. It was directed by James Macdonald, and starred Marylouise Burke (Mertis) and June Watson (Genevieve).Susannah Clapp. "The week in theatre: 'John'; 'Lady Windermere’s Fan' – review" The Guardian, January 28, 2018 Andy Propst of Time Out ranked it the 40th best play ever written, and it made a 2019 list by The Independent.
In July 2017, Baker was among 60 artists who signed an open letter organized by the group Adalah-NY that called on Lincoln Center to cancel performances of a play sponsored by the Israeli government and based on a novel by David Grossman. In an open letter to President Biden in 2023, she, along with other Jewish American writers, called for a ceasefire.
Honors
2013–2019: The Flick and other plays
The Flick premiered at Playwrights Horizons in March 2013, and received the Obie Award for Playwriting in 2013.Gans, Andrew. " 'Detroit', 'Grimly Handsome', Eisa Davis, John Rando, Shuler Hensley and More Are Obie Winners" playbill.com, May 20, 2013 The Flick won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2016 Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for Best New Play.
2020–present: Directorial debut
In September 2023, Baker's "weird and great new play," Infinite Life, opened at Off-Broadway's Atlantic Theater Company directed by James Macdonald and featuring Christina Kirk, Mia Katigbak, Kristine Nielsen, Brenda Pressley, Marylouise Burke, and Pete Simpson. That same year she made her directorial film debut with the A24 coming-of-age film Janet Planet starring Julianne Nicholson, Zoe Zeigler, and Sophie Okonedo. The film premiered at the 50th Telluride Film Festival. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter declared it an "exquisite debut" adding that it was "an oddball marvel of comparable beauty". Tomris Laffly of TheWrap wrote in a mixed review that "the keeps the viewer at arm’s length from both the joys and aches of tweenhood, when all you crave is to get just a step closer." Baker earned two Independent Spirit Award nominations for Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay for her work on the film.
Teaching
Baker teaches playwriting at New York University, Barnard College, "Annie Baker Bio" Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, accessed April 20, 2014 and in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton. She is also on the faculty of the Rita and Burton Goldberg MFA in Playwriting program of Hunter College. "MFA in Playwriting" hunter.cuny.edu, accessed October 9, 2015 Additionally, Baker is an Associate Professor of Practice in the MFA Playwriting/Directing program at the University of Texas at Austin.
Personal life
She is married to Nico Baumbach, with whom she has one child. Her in-laws include Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig.
Style and recognition
Time Out New York wrote in 2008 that Baker "creates normal individuals coping with everyday issues in their small-town lives," and that her play Body Awareness "marks the arrival of a new playwright who would seem to fit the quirky bill, but aims for sincerity instead. Even though there's goofiness aplenty in her work, she sticks to straightforward narrative and simple dialogue. The writing isn't superficially clever, it's smart." The New Yorker said Baker "wants life onstage to be so vivid, natural, and emotionally precise that it bleeds into the audience’s visceral experience of time and space. Drawing on the immediacy of overheard conversation, she has pioneered a style of theatre made to seem as untheatrical as possible, while using the tools of the stage to focus audience attention...." The website The Daily Beast found that, "Baker’s skill is to make us work hard as an audience to make our own sense of her plays — the best, most enriching way to view any theatrical performance. Baker’s works are not for those who want easy, A-leads-to-B plots, and spoon-fed meanings... Baker, as all great playwrights do, is holding a mirror up to us all."
Works
Theatre
As a playwright
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (Off-Broadway) The Antipodes signaturetheatre.org, accessed August 30, 2016 The Antipodes lortel.org, retrieved October 11, 2017
Filmography
Awards and honors
In 2008 she was one of seven participant playwrights selected to write in the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab. A new play, titled The Last of the Little Hours, written by Baker was chosen for development at the Sundance Institute's 2014 Theatre Lab in Utah to be presented in July. Annie Baker directed the play herself. The play "follows the daily life of a group of Benedictine monks." Baker is part of the Signature Theatre's "Residency Five" program, which "guarantees each playwright three world-premiere productions of new plays over the course of a five-year residency." John is Baker's first play under this program. "Residency Five" signaturetheatre.org, accessed October 12, 2015 The Antipodes is her second play under this program, and premiered on April 18, 2017.
External links
Categories: 1981 Births, Postmodern Theatre, 21st-century American Dramatists And Playwrights, 21st-century American Women Writers, American Women Dramatists And Playwrights, Barnard College Faculty, Brooklyn College Alumni, Living People, Macarthur Fellows, Obie Award Recipients, Pulitzer Prize For Drama Winners, Screenwriters From Massachusetts, Stony Brook University Faculty, Tisch School Of The Arts Alumni, Writers From Amherst, Massachusetts, Writers From Cambridge, Massachusetts, Yaddo Alumni
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