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Allan Havis - UC San Diego. San Diego, CA, UNITED STATES

Allan Havis

Professor of Playwriting and Department Chair | UC San Diego

San Diego, CA, UNITED STATES

The Department of Theatre and Dance chair, Allan Havis is a playwright and novelist, and researches American cult cinema

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Biography

The current UC San Diego Department of Theatre and Dance chair, Allan Havis has had their plays produced at theaters across the country and in Europe, including San Diego Rep, Old Globe, Seattle's ACT, Odyssey, Long Wharf, South Coast Rep, American Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage, Virginia Stage, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Coral Gable’s New Theatre, Interact Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Co. and Rowholt Theater-Verlag (National German Radio).

Havis has had works commissioned by England's Chichester Festival, Sundance, San Diego Rep, Ted Danson's Anasazi Productions, South Coast Rep, Mixed Blood, CSC Rep, Malashock Dance, Carolina Chamber Chorale, National Foundation for Jewish Culture, and UC San Diego.

Nineteen full-length published plays including Morocco, Penguin/Mentor, Theatre Communications Group, Broadway Play Publishing, Smith & Kraus, Applause Books. University of Illinois Press published Havis's edited volume: "American Political Plays." Southern Illinois University Press published their second edited volume: "American Political Plays After 9/11." Harper/Collins published their novel "Albert the Astronomer." Havis's book on 90 years of cinema, "Cult Films: Taboo & Transgression," was published by University Press of America. In collaboration with renowned composer Anthony Davis, Havis's play "Lilith" was re-imagined as a chamber opera, premiering as a concert recital at UC San Diego’s Conrad Prebys Concert Hall and staged at UC San Diego’s Qualcomm Institute/Calit2 in 2015. Havis's second opera collaboration with Anthony Davis, "Lear on the 2nd Floor," was showcased at Princeton’s Lewis Center for the Arts in 2012 and staged in 2013 at Conrad Prebys Music Center, UC San Diego.

Recipient of Guggenheim, Rockefeller, Kennedy Center/American Express, CBS, HBO, National Endowment for the Arts Awards, San Diego Theatre Critics Circle 2003 Outstanding New Play for Nuevo California (co-written with Bernardo Solano) and San Diego’s 2008 Patté Best Play award for "The Tutor." Their chapter on "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" is in "Referentiality and the Films of Woody Allen," Palgrave/Macmillan 2015. They served as Marshall College provost at UC San Diego from 2006-2016.

Areas of Expertise (7)

Arts in Higher Education

American and Contemporary Literature

Fiction Writing

Theater

Playwriting

Cinema

Film

Accomplishments (2)

San Diego’s Patté Best Play award for The Tutor

2008

San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Outstanding New Play for Nuevo California (co-written with Bernardo Solano)

2003

Education (1)

Yale School of Drama: MFA

Media Appearances (5)

Victory Gardens Announces New Lily Padilla Play In 2020 In A Co-world Premiere With The Humana Festival

Broadway World  online

2018-11-15

Lily Padilla makes plays about sex, intersectional communities and what it means to heal in a violent world. They just received their MFA from the University of California San Diego, where they were mentored by Naomi Iizuka, Deborah Stein, Allan Havis and Kim Rubinstein.

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St. Francis of Assisi-inspired opera set in Tijuana's red light district debuts Friday

San Diego Union-Tribune  print

2017-03-14

Waters composed the music, Allan Havis wrote the libretto and Rodolfo Giron is the featured singer. By design, the different sections in "St. Francis De Los Barrios" cover a range of styles not usually heard in an opera.

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Storrs Native Appears in CT Rep's "Nuevo California"

Hartford Courant  print

2016-10-25

In 1998, playwrights Bernardo Solano and Allan Havis interviewed over 200 residents of San Diego, Tijuana, and Mexicali asking a simple question, "Would we be better off with or without a wall between the two countries?" The result is this prescient futuristic fantasy.

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UCSD to Hold Memorial for Alumnus, Actor James Avery

NBC San Diego  

2014-02-27

Allan Havis, provost of Thurgood Marshall College, seconds that sentiment and is proud to call Avery an alumnus. “James represents the best attributes of our college in his stellar achievements as an artist, as a social activist and Navy veteran, and as a philanthropist helping younger generations of college students in the performing arts,” said Havis...

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Watch Lewis Black Share Hopes for UCSD Grads: Relish Sense of Humor | Patch

Huffington Post  

2013-06-16

Black was introduced by Provost Allan Havis, a friend and classmate of Black 35 years ago at Yale—where the comic earned a master of fine arts degree...

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