Biography of Yale Udoff

Mr. Udoff is a playwright and screenwriter. The NY Times said of his A GUN PLAY, which premiered at The Hartford Stage Company, directed by Paul Weidner, "Mr. Udoff is a discovery. It is clear he has a comic vision, verbal facility and a contemporary consciousness." A new production followed @ New York's Cherry Lane Theatre with Tony Musante and Gene Troobnick, directed by Gene Frankel. He has twice been selected to participate in the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and honored with The Stanley Drama Award for his first play, THE LITTLE GENTLEMAN; he is also the recipient of a Charles MacArthur Playwrighting Award. Additionally, his work has been seen in New York @ Playwrights Horizons, the Circle Repertory, as well as at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre, Los Angeles' Melrose Theatre and theatres in Paris and London. Most recently, a pair of his one-acts (THE LITTLE GENTLEMAN and NEBRASKA) was produced under the umbrella title STATES OF MIND at Hollywood's Laurelgrove Theatre to high critical acclaim. A partial listing of his plays would include the oft-published THE LITTLE GENTLEMAN, as well as the full-lengths, BRING BACK DORIS DAY, MAGRITTE SKIES and FIRST DRAFT. SHADE, a one-act play, so impressed Samuel Beckett when it was produced in Paris that he thought of translating it into French (alas, this never happened); it also prompted a letter from Michelangelo Antonioni, who lauded the work for "its bitter abstract desperation." He currently has two new full-length plays ready for production: FAVORITE PHOTOS and THE INVITATION. Among his screen credits are EVE OF DESTRUCTION with Gregory Hines and the renowned Dutch actress, Renee Soutdenijk, THIRD DEGREE BURN for HBO with Virginia Madsen and Treat Williams directed by Roger Spottiswoode. His wrote the screenplay for Nicolas Roeg's greatly admired BAD TIMING/A SENSUAL OBSSESSON, starring Harvey Keitel, Theresa Russell and Art Garfunkel. He is a member of the WGA, the Dramatists Guild and the Playwrights Unit of the Actors Studio. Additional credits include his adaptation VERA, based on a Chekhov story, which starred Peter Weller and Madeline Stowe and received the short film fiction prize @ The Huston Film Festival. He wrote HITCHHIKE for ABC MOW, starring Cloris Leachman. His many episodic credits include TALES FROM THE CRYPT and AGAINST THE LAW. Mr. Udoff is a graduate of Michigan State University, attended Georgetown Law School and served as an officer in the United States Infantry. The playwright lives with his wife, Shula and their Siberian husky, Dmitri, in the sweltering desert known as "The Valley." Dmitri is as bad as possible, hoping to be banished to that 'white desert' known as Siberia. He's sure his lost love Sonya is waiting for him somewhere in a snowy forest.