Martin Sherman
| Martin Sherman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Martin Gerald Sherman December 22, 1938 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Education |
Boston University College of Fine Arts BFA, Dramatic Arts (1960) The Actors Studio |
| Occupation | Playwright, screenwriter |
| Organization |
Playwrights Horizons Playwright-in-residence (1976-77) |
| Awards | Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award (1980) Pulitzer Prize nomination: • Bent (1980) Tony Award nominations: • Bent (1980) • The Boy from Oz (2003) Laurence Olivier Award nomination: • Rose (2000) |
Martin Gerald Sherman (born December 22, 1938) is an American dramatist and screenwriter best known for his 20 stage plays which have been produced in over 55 countries. He rose to fame in 1979 with the production of his Pulitzer Prize-nominated play Bent, which explores the persecution of homosexuals during the Holocaust. Bent was a Tony nominee for Best Play in 1980 and won the Dramatists Guild's Hull-Warriner Award. It has been produced in 35 countries and was adapted first by Sherman for a major motion picture in 1997 and later by independent sources as a ballet in Brazil. Sherman is an openly gay Jew, and many of his works dramatize "outsiders," dealing with the discrimination and marginalization of minorities whether "gay, female, foreign, disabled, different in religion, class or color." He has lived and worked in London since 1980.
Sherman was an only child, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Russian Jewish immigrants, Julia (née Shapiro) and Joseph T. Sherman, an attorney. Growing up in Camden, New Jersey, he was first introduced to the theater at age six, when he saw a pre-Broadway version of Guys and Dolls (1950) starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. Sherman's parents encouraged his passion. In an interview with London Times writer Sheridan Morley in 1983, Sherman recalled, "At 12 I joined the Mae Desmond Children's Players and went all around Pennsylvania being a tall dwarf in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." As a young teen, Sherman despised school, but consoled himself by often taking the bus into Philadelphia to see plays. He also traveled to New York City once a year to visit an aunt who shared his love of theater. "I was the only kid in junior high school to have seen Camino Real," he told interviewer Matt Wolf.
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