Christopher Shinn

Christopher Shinn is an American playwright. His play Dying City (2006) was a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and Where Do We Live (2004) won the 2005 Obie Award, Playwriting.

Shinn was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1975 and lives in New York. He earned a BFA, Dramatic Writing, from New York University.

The Royal Court Theatre in London produced his first play Four and commissioned several plays from him. Shinn said: "The fifteen years I was embraced by the Court allowed me to become the artist I am today."

In an article about Shinn, Rob Weinert-Kendt observed "If playwright Christopher Shinn has a signature character, it is the manipulative victim — the half-sympathetic, half-deplorable sort of person whose suffering is real but who uses it as rationale for bad behavior." As an example, in Dying City, "Shinn conjured twin terrors: a pair of brothers, one a straight soldier shipping off to Iraq, the other a successful gay actor."

Four was produced by the Royal Court Theatre in their Young Writers' Festival in 1998. The play was produced by the Worth Street Company at the TriBeCa Playhouse, New York City in July 2001, directed by Jeff Cohen. It was produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club at Stage II in association with the Worth Street Company in January 2002. It was presented by Theaterworks in June to July 2003. Theaterworks is located in Hartford, Connecticut, where Shinn was raised and where the play is set.

Other People premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in March 2000, directed by Dominic Cooke and featuring Daniel Evans, Doraly Rosen, James Frain, and Neil Newborn. The play opened Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizonss New Theater Wing in October 2000. The play takes place in the East Village in 1997 shortly before Christmas, and involves roommates, current and former, all artists in various fields.

Where Do We Live opened Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre, running from May 11, 2004 to May 30, 2004. Directed by Shinn, the cast featured Emily Bergl, Daryl Edwards, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Luke MacFarlane, Burl Moseley, Jacob Pitts, Aaron Stanford, Liz Stauber and Aaron Yoo. The play won the 2005 Obie Award, Playwriting and was nominated for the 2005 GLAAD Media Awards, Outstanding New York Theater: Broadway and Off-Broadway. The TheatreMania reviewer wrote: "Christopher Shinn is one of the most promising young playwrights to emerge in recent years and 'Where Do We Live' is more ambitious than such previous Shinn efforts...; it demonstrates his growth as a playwright as well as his continued engagement with the complexities of race, class, and sexuality."

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