Israel Horovitz

Israel Horovitz was an American playwright and director who acted and helped found the Gloucester Stage Company. Born in Wakefield, Massachusetts, he started writing plays as a teenager, and his first major success came with The Indian Wants the Bronx. That play premiered in 1966 and later opened off-Broadway, earning him an Obie Award for Best Play. He wrote more than 70 produced plays, many translated and performed around the world, among them Line, Park Your Car in Harvard Yard, The Primary English Class, and The Widow's Blind Date. In 1975 he founded the New York Playwrights Lab, and he spent 28 years as artistic director of the Gloucester Stage Company. His screenwriting included The Strawberry Statement (1970), which took the Prix du Jury at Cannes, Author! Author! (1982), and My Old Lady (2014), which he adapted from his play and directed. He won a European Academy Award for Best Screenplay for Sunshine and two Obies. He died in 2020.