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David Ives (born David Roszkowski July 11, 1950) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. He is perhaps best known for his comic one-act plays; The New York Times in 1997 referred to him as the "maestro of the short form".[1] Ives has also written dramatic plays, narrative stories, and screenplays, has adapted French 17th and 18th-century classical comedies, and adapted 33 musicals for New York City's Encores! series.[2][3]

Key Information

Early life and education

[edit]

Ives wrote his first play when he was nine. He attended a boys Catholic seminary. "We would-be priests were groomed for gravitas," he has said. At the end of the year the seniors could be a part of a school show called "The Senior Mock," in which the students satirized the teachers. Ives played the role of "the chain-smoking English teacher who coached the track team (while smoking)", and he wrote and performed a song. This school experience, along with seeing a production of Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance, starring Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, were two early events that inspired his interest in theatre.[4]

Ives attended Northwestern University, majoring in English. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1971. He traveled to Germany, where he taught English. Ives graduated from the Yale School of Drama with a Master of Fine Arts in 1984.[5]

Theater

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His play, Canvas, was produced in California in 1972, and then at Circle Repertory Company in New York City.[6] In New York Ives worked as an editor for William P. Bundy, the editor at Foreign Affairs magazine. Ives wrote three full-length plays: St. Freud (1975), The Lives and Deaths of the Great Harry Houdini, and City of God. In 1983 Ives was playwright-in-residence at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts where The Lives and Deaths of the Great Harry Houdini was produced.[7][8][9]

In 1987 his short play Words, Words, Words was presented at the Manhattan Punch Line Theatre, followed by Sure Thing,[9] Variations on the Death of Trotsky, Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread (1990),[10] and The Universal Language. A two-act play, Ancient History was produced Off-Broadway in 1989 by Primary Stages.[9][11][12]

Ives' All in the Timing, an evening of six one-act plays, premiered at Primary Stages in 1993,[9] moved to the larger John Houseman Theatre, and ran for 606 performances. In a review The New York Times said "there is indeed a real heart ... There is sustenance as well as pure entertainment."[13] Critic Vincent Canby wrote, "Ives [is] wizardly ... magical and funny ... a master of language. He uses words for their meanings, sounds and associations, spinning conceits of a sort I’ve not seen or heard before. He’s an original."[14] It won the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award for Playwriting,[15] was included in Best Plays of 1993 — 1994, and in 1995 — 1996 was the most performed play in the country after William Shakespeare’s plays.[9][16][17]

Ives’ full-length play Don Juan in Chicago premiered off-Broadway in New York at Primary Stages, on March 25, 1995.[18] The Red Address, a full-length drama, premiered in New York at Second Stage Theater in January 1997.[19][20]

An evening of one-act plays, Mere Mortals and Others, opened off-Broadway at Primary Stages in New York, May 13, 1997. Peter Marks of The New York Times described it as "a collection of six fast and ferociously funny comedies ... a madcap evening of one-acts", and noted that Ives has the "gratifying ability to unharness the intoxicating power of language and at the same time entertain."[21]

Polish Joke, a full-length play, has been described as loosely autobiographical. It premiered in the summer of 2001 at the Contemporary Theatre of Seattle, and then opened in New York at the Manhattan Theatre Club in February 2003, in the cast in New York was Walter Bobbie, who would later be the director of Venus in Fur.[22][23][24]

The Blizzard is a short play that was written as part of a theatrical concept that began in 1995 on the lower East Side of Manhattan, in which a group of writers, actors and directors would gather together to create a play from scratch, rehearse it, and perform it — all within 24 hours. The Blizzard, and eight of Ives' other short plays, was produced on the radio by Playing On Air, directed by John Rando and starred Jesse Eisenberg.[25][26][27][28]

Primary Stages presented a revival of All in the Timing in January 2013. This new production was directed by John Rando.[29][30]

His plays have been published in the anthologies All in the Timing,[30] Time Flies, and Polish Joke And Other Plays.

In the mid-1990s, Ives contributed pieces to Spy Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, and The New Yorker. New York magazine named him one of the "100 Smartest New Yorkers". When asked by the magazine to comment on being so listed for the same issue, Ives’ response began, "Grocery lists. Spelling lists. Laundry lists. The very idea of lists has something inherently narrow, petty, unpoetic about it. "List, list, O list!" cried Hamlet’s father's ghost in exasperation, and I couldn't agree more ..."[31][32]

His translation of Georges Feydeau's farce A Flea in Her Ear was produced at Chicago Shakespeare in 2006, and won the Joseph Jefferson Award for "new adaptation". His play, Is He Dead? adapted from an "unproduced 1898 comedy" by Mark Twain, ran on Broadway from December 2007 to March 2008.[33] New Jerusalem, concerning the excommunication of Baruch Spinoza, opened Off-Broadway in January 2008 (previews from December 2007) in a Classic Stage Company production.[34] New Jerusalem won a Hull-Warriner Award.

In 2010, he adapted Pierre Corneille's comedy The Liar for The Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C.[35][36] It won the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play at the Helen Hayes Awards in Washington the following year. In 2011 his version of Molière’s The Misanthrope premiered Off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company under the title, The School For Lies.[37] Also in 2011 his adaptation of Jean-Francois Regnard’s Le Legataire universel premiered at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. under the title, The Heir Apparent. The Heir Apparent opened Off-Broadway in March 2014 (previews) at the Classic Stage Company, and ran through May 2014.[38][39]

Venus in Fur opened Off-Broadway at the Classic Stage Company in January 2010 with Nina Arianda and Wes Bentley.[40][41][42] Venus in Fur premiered on Broadway in October 2011 (previews) at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club. Nina Arianda returned to the role she created Off-Broadway and Hugh Dancy played the role originated by Bentley. Walter Bobbie once again directed. The play transferred to the Lyceum Theatre in February 2012 for an extended run with Arianda and Dancy reprising their performances.[43]

All in the Timing was, after Shakespeare plays, the most produced play in the United States during the 1995–1996 season, and Venus in Fur was most produced, after Shakespeare plays, during the 2013–2014 season.[44]

His Lives of the Saints began in previews Off-Broadway at Primary Stages in February 2015, running through March 27, 2015. Directed by John Rando, Lives of the Saints consists of seven short plays.[45] The plays are: Enigma Variations, The Mystery at Twicknam Vicarage, Babel's in Arms, Soap Opera, Lives of the Saints, Arabian Nights, and Captive Audience. Several of the plays had been produced previously.[46] The Lives of the Saints was produced with five of the plays at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stockbridge, Massachusetts in August and September 1999.[47]

His play, The Liar, based on a 17th-century play by Pierre Corneille opened at the Classic Stage Company in New York January 26, 2017.[48]

He has continued to base plays on 17th century French plays: in 2017, The School for Lies, based on Moliere's play The Misanthrope, opened at the Lansburgh Theatre in Washington, DC.[49]

In April 2018, Red Bull Theater presented the New York premiere The Metromaniacs, his "translaptation"[50] of a rediscovered French farce by Alexis Piron at The Duke on 42nd Street directed by Michael Kahn.[51]

Musical theatre

[edit]

In the early 1990s Ives started working in musical theatre, writing the libretto for an opera based on Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden (music by Greg Pliska). It premiered in Philadelphia in 1991 at the Pennsylvania Opera Theater.[52]

He then became a regular adapter for the New York City Center Encores! series of American musicals in concert, starting with Out Of This World in 1995, Du Barry Was A Lady in 1996, and working on two or three a year until 2012.[53] As of 2013, Ives ended his writing for Encores!, saying "I've very happily done 33 adaptations for Encores! But there comes a time when it's time for someone else to have that pleasure, especially given how full my platter is these days."[54] His Encores! adaptation of Wonderful Town moved to Broadway's Al Hirschfeld Theatre in 2003, directed by Kathleen Marshall.

He adapted David Copperfield's magic show, Dreams and Nightmares, which premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre in December 1996.[55] He also adapted Cole Porter's Jubilee (1998)[56] and Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific (with Reba McEntire) for concert performances at Carnegie Hall,[57] as well as My Fair Lady for a staged concert at Avery Fisher Hall in New York in 2007.[58]

He helped to rework the book for the Broadway version of the musical Dance of the Vampires, with book, music and lyrics by Jim Steinman and original German book and lyrics by Michael Kunze.[59] The musical opened on Broadway in October 2002 in previews, and closed in January 2003 after 56 performances.[60] He co-wrote the book for Irving Berlin's White Christmas, which premiered in San Francisco in 2004[61] and then went on to tour across the United States. It had a limited engagement on Broadway from November 2008 to January 2009,[62] and also from November 2009 to January 2010.[63]

Ives began collaborating with Stephen Sondheim on a new untitled musical based on two films by Luis Buñuel, initially set to premiere in 2017.[64][65] Development on the show faltered,[66] but during a September 15, 2021 appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Sondheim announced he was working on a new musical called Square One in collaboration with David Ives.[67] Nathan Lane and Bernadette Peters were involved in a reading of the new work.[68] Renamed as Here We Are, the musical collaboration inspired by The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Exterminating Angel would have a limited engagement world premiere in September 2023, running through January 2024 at The Shed.[69]

Narrative fiction

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Ives wrote The Phobia Clinic, a full-length narrative verse-novel published in 2010. It is described as a philosophical horror novel written in verse. It is, according to the author, "grotesque, satirical, personal, sometimes funny, but mostly reflecting the mood of the title."[70] Inspired by Dante, The Phobia Clinic employs the verse form of the Divine Comedy, known as terza rima, with the lines grouped in threes, and each group, or tercet, following the rhyme scheme ABA BCB CDC DED throughout Ives' 55 cantos.[71][72]

Ives wrote a young adult book, Monsieur Eek, which was released in 2001. The book is set in 1609, and is a "fairy tale–like story full of absurd characters who make bizarre interpretations ..."[73] His next book was Scrib (2005), set in the American West in 1863.[74][75] His book Voss: How I Come to America and Am Hero, Mostly, was released in 2008.[76]

Personal

[edit]

Ives lives in New York City with his wife, Martha Ives, a book illustrator, a linoprint artist and a member of the Society of American Graphic Artists.[77][78][79][80]

Works

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Plays

[edit]
  • 1972 Canvas
  • 1975 Saint Freud
  • 1976 Boarders
  • 1977 The Conversation[a]
  • 1981 Inner Station
  • 1982 Dark Horse
  • 1983 The Lives and Deaths of the Great Harry Houdini
  • 1983 Polly
  • 198? City of God[b]
  • 1988 The Land of Cockaigne
  • 1989 Ancient History (later revised in 1996)
  • 1993 All in the Timing (six short plays)[c]
  • 1995 Don Juan In Chicago
  • 1997 The Red Address
  • 1997 Mere Mortals and Others (six short plays)[d]
  • 1999 Lives of the Saints (five short plays)[e]
  • 2003 Polish Joke
  • 2005 Roll Over, Beethoven (a short comedy)
  • 2008 New Jerusalem (The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656)
  • 2010 Venus In Fur
  • 2018 The Panties, The Partner, and the One Percent: Scenes from the Heroic Life of the Middle Class (inspired by the work of Carl Sternheim)
  • 202? The Transformations
  • 202? True to Life
  • 2024 Pamela Palmer

Operas

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Musicals

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Translations

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Adaptations

[edit]

Note: David Ives also helped mount 33 Encores! Series adaptations between 1995-2013.

Screenplays

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Television

[edit]

Narrative Fiction

[edit]
  • 2001 Monsieur Eek
  • 2005 Scrib
  • 2008 Voss: How I Come to America and Am Hero, Mostly

Published Poetry

[edit]
  • 2009 The Phobia Clinic [i]
  • 2018 Advice to the Creator [j]
  • 2018 Three Riddles [k]
  • 2023 A Pair of Glasses [l]

Short Play Collections

[edit]

Note: Plays in bold are published here for the very first time. Years listed are the date of their debut.

Four Short Comedies (1989)

Variations on the Death of Trotsky and Other Short Comedies (1992)   

All In the Timing: Six One-Act Comedies (1994)

All In the Timing: Fourteen Plays (1995)

Mere Mortals and Others (1997) or Mere Mortals: Six One-Act Comedies (1998)

  • 1991 Foreplay, or, The Art of Fugue (revised edition)
  • 1990 Mere Mortals
  • 1997 Time Flies
  • 1989 Speed-the-Play (revised edition)
  • 1997 Dr. Fritz, or, The Forces of Light
  • 1995 Degas, C'est Moi (later revised in 1998)

Long Ago And Far Away and Other Short Plays (Revised Edition) (1999)

  • 1993 Long Ago and Far Away (revised edition)
  • 1991 Foreplay, or, The Art of Fugue
  • 1989 Seven Menus
  • 1990 Mere Mortals
  • 1989 Speed-the-Play

Lives of the Saints: Seven One-Act Plays (2000)   

  • 1999 Enigma Variations
  • 1999 The Mystery at Twicknam Vicarage
  • 1999 Babel's In Arms
  • 1999 Soap Opera
  • 1999 Lives of the Saints
  • 2000 Arabian Nights
  • 1999 Captive Audience

Time Flies and Other Short Plays (2001)[m]

  • 1997 Time Flies
  • 1995 Degas, C'est Moi (revised edition)
  • 1997 Dr. Fritz, or, The Forces of Light
  • 1999 Babel's In Arms
  • 2000 Arabian Nights
  • 1999 Enigma Variations
  • 1999 The Mystery at Twicknam Vicarage
  • 1999 Soap Opera
  • 1999 Lives of the Saints
  • 1989 Speed-the-Play (revised edition)
  • 200? Bolero [n]
  • 200? The Green Hill [o]
  • 1999 Captive Audience

The Other Woman and Other Short Pieces (2008)

  • 2006 The Other Woman
  • 2008 St. Francis Talks to the Birds
  • 2006 The Blizzard [p]
  • 2004 Moby-Dude, or, The Three Minute Whale

Lives of the Saints: Nine One-Act Plays (2015)   

  • 20?? The Goodness of Your Heart
  • 1999 Soap Opera
  • 1999 Enigma Variations
  • 20?? Life Signs
  • 20?? It's All Good
  • 1999 Lives of the Saints
  • 1999 The Mystery at Twicknam Vicarage
  • 1999 Babel's In Arms
  • 20?? The End of Travel

Plays Released on Playing On Air: Short Audio Plays

  • 2006 The Blizzard
  • 20?? The Goodness of Your Heart
  • 2008 St. Francis Preaches to the Birds
  • 2017 The Mystery at Twicknam Vicarage
  • 2021 Locked and Loaded. Can I Help You?
  • 2021 Dummy Dialogue
  • 2023 Second Sight
  • 2024 Kansas Anymore

Other Radio Plays

  • 1981 Canvas [q]
  • 1983 Homo Obliteratus [r]
  • 1999 Mere Mortals [s]
  • 2000 Bartleby the Scrivener [t]
  • 2004 Rimbaud vs. Mom [u]
  • 2004 Moby-Dude, or, The Three Minute Whale [v]
  • 2005 Metro-Goldwyn-Freud [w]

Miscellaneous Plays

  • 202? The Rattigan Room
  • 202? My Name Is Legion (a monologue)
  • 2024 Emily Dickinson Enters Into Heaven

Notes

[edit]

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

David Ives

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David Ives (born July 11, 1950) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist renowned for his witty, philosophical one-act plays that explore language, time, and human absurdity.[1] Ives was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Polish-American parents, and grew up attending Catholic schools before earning a B.A. in English from Northwestern University in 1971 and an M.F.A. in playwriting from Yale Drama School in 1984.[1] His early career involved odd jobs, including work at Foreign Affairs magazine, while he honed his craft in small theaters; his first professional play premiered in a 45-seat Los Angeles storefront in 1972.[2] Over a career spanning more than five decades, Ives has become a staple of American theater, with his works frequently produced Off-Broadway and on Broadway, often blending comedy with existential themes.[3] He gained widespread acclaim for collections of one-acts such as All in the Timing (1994), which includes hits like "Sure Thing" and ran for over 600 performances, and Time Flies (1997).[1] Full-length plays like Venus in Fur (2010), adapted into a 2013 film by Roman Polanski, and The Metromaniacs (2010) further solidified his reputation for sharp dialogue and clever adaptations of classic works.[1] More recent efforts include the 2023 premiere of Here We Are at The Shed in New York and the 2024 world premiere of Pamela Palmer at Williamstown Theatre Festival.[1][4] In addition to theater, Ives has adapted 33 musicals for New York City's Encores! series since 2004 and authored three young adult novels—Monsieur Eek (2001), Scrib (2005), and Voss (2008)—as well as the novel The Phobia Clinic (2010).[1] His contributions have earned prestigious honors, including a 1995 Guggenheim Fellowship in playwriting, the 2011 Sidney Kingsley Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Theatre, and a 2016 Helen Hayes Award for The Metromaniacs.[1] Living in New York City with his wife, Martha Ives, he continues to influence contemporary drama through his innovative approach to form and content.[5]

Biography

Early life

David Ives was born on July 11, 1950, in Chicago, Illinois, to Polish-American parents—his father a first-generation immigrant who worked as a machinist at Standard Oil, and his mother a second-generation Polish-American who held various office jobs, often at night.[2] Raised in a working-class family on Chicago's South Side amid the steel mills, Ives grew up in an environment shaped by industrial labor and immigrant heritage.[6][2] Ives attended Catholic grammar schools and later an all-boys Catholic seminary through twelfth grade, where the curriculum emphasized discipline and intellectual rigor, grooming students for roles like the priesthood.[2] It was during his high school years at the seminary that he was first introduced to literature, poetry, and theater, sparking his creative interests.[6] A pivotal moment came when he saw a touring production of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance featuring Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, which ignited his passion for the stage and influenced his lifelong commitment to playwriting.[6] From a young age, Ives showed a keen interest in writing and language; he penned his first play at the age of nine, marking the beginning of his literary pursuits.[7] This early fascination with words and storytelling, honed through his seminary education, laid the groundwork for his future career, leading him to pursue higher education at Northwestern University.[6]

Education

Ives attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he majored in English and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1971, supported in part by scholarships.[8] His studies focused on literature, providing a foundational influence on his later work as a playwright through exposure to narrative structures and linguistic play. During his undergraduate years, Ives began writing plays, initiating the creative exercises that would define his style of concise, intellectually engaging one-acts.[3][9][10] After a period of professional pursuits, including a three-year stint as a junior editor at Foreign Affairs magazine in New York City, Ives enrolled at the Yale School of Drama for graduate studies in playwriting in 1981. He completed the program, earning a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1984. The rigorous curriculum at Yale, emphasizing dramatic structure and theatrical innovation, offered Ives key experiences in workshopping scripts and collaborating with peers and faculty, further refining his approach to language-driven theater.[3][11][12] No specific academic recognitions from his time at Yale are documented in available sources.

Career

Theater

David Ives entered the professional theater world in the 1980s, beginning with his first New York production, Canvas, at the Circle Repertory Company in 1972. He honed his skills through short comedies staged at intimate venues like Manhattan Punch Line and Ensemble Studio Theatre, often while supporting himself with editing work at a medical journal. These early Off-Broadway efforts marked his emergence in the New York scene, where he navigated the challenges of initial rejections and limited opportunities typical for emerging playwrights, before achieving breakthroughs with supportive ensembles such as Primary Stages.[3][6] Ives developed a signature style characterized by witty, linguistic one-act plays that probe themes of time, language, and human absurdity through clever wordplay and structural repetition. His works often highlight the quirks of communication and perception, blending intellectual satire with absurdist humor. A landmark example is All in the Timing, a collection of six one-acts that premiered Off-Broadway at Primary Stages in 1993 and enjoyed over 600 performances, establishing his reputation for turning writerly self-consciousness into engaging comedy. Critics have compared this approach to the influences of Samuel Beckett's absurdism and Tom Stoppard's verbal dexterity, noting Ives' ability to make profound ideas accessible through laughter.[13][14][15] In his full-length plays, Ives expanded beyond shorts to explore deeper narratives. New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation (2008) is a historical drama set in 1656 Amsterdam, dramatizing the philosopher's excommunication for heretical views on faith and reason. Similarly, Venus in Fur (2010), which premiered Off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company, examines power dynamics and gender roles through a tense audition between a director and an actress, blurring lines between performance and reality. These pieces showcase Ives' skill in weaving philosophical inquiry with dramatic tension.[16][17] By the 2000s, Ives' themes evolved from the lighthearted absurdities of his early comic shorts toward more serious, introspective full-length works that grapple with historical, ethical, and interpersonal complexities. This shift reflected a maturation in his oeuvre, moving from rapid-fire linguistic games to sustained explorations of identity and authority, while retaining his core penchant for sharp dialogue and conceptual depth. Primary Stages played a pivotal role in this progression, premiering several key pieces that propelled his career forward. More recent works include the 2024 premiere of Pamela Palmer at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.[13][6][1]

Musical theater

David Ives began his involvement in musical theater in the early 1990s, writing librettos that blended his signature linguistic precision with musical storytelling. His first notable contribution was the libretto for the opera The Secret Garden, based on Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel, with music by Greg Pliska; it premiered at the Pennsylvania Opera Theater in Philadelphia in 1991.[18] Around the same time, Ives co-wrote the book for Make Someone Happy, a musical tribute to songwriting duo Betty Comden and Adolph Green starring Phyllis Newman, which debuted at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, New York, in 1991. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Ives expanded his musical theater work by adapting classic American shows for New York City Center's Encores! series, completing 33 such projects over about 15 years, including Out of This World (1995, music by Cole Porter) and The Boys from Syracuse (1997, music by Richard Rodgers).[19] These adaptations modernized dated books while preserving the originals' rhythmic energy, often streamlining dialogue to heighten musical flow.[19] In 2004, he co-authored the book for the Broadway musical Irving Berlin's White Christmas, drawing on the 1942 film and incorporating 17 Berlin songs into a holiday narrative of showbiz ambition and romance.[18] Ives' approach to musical theater draws directly from his background in witty, language-driven plays, where he integrates verbal dexterity—such as puns, rapid-fire dialogue, and linguistic invention—with musical structure to create concise, song-like scenes that propel emotional arcs.[20] He has described his short plays as akin to pop songs, emphasizing tight pacing and rhythmic wordplay that mirrors musical phrasing, allowing humor and absurdity to underscore character revelations without excess verbosity.[20] This technique translates to librettos by prioritizing dialogue that sings alongside the score, as seen in his Encores! revisions where he sharpened verbal interplay to complement vintage melodies.[19] A pinnacle of Ives' musical theater career was his collaboration with Stephen Sondheim on Here We Are, which premiered Off-Broadway at The Shed in New York on October 22, 2023, directed by Joe Mantello.[21] The project originated in 2009 when Sondheim approached Ives to adapt Luis Buñuel's surreal films The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) and The Exterminating Angel (1962) into a musical satirizing upper-class excess through a nightmarish dinner party where guests are trapped by endless hunger and social farce.[22] Over more than a decade, Ives and Sondheim met weekly, with Ives viewing the films repeatedly (up to 20 times for The Exterminating Angel) to craft a book that amplified Buñuel's absurdity via escalating verbal chaos and thematic echoes of isolation.[22] Left unfinished at Sondheim's death in November 2021, the production used existing material for its second act, ending abruptly to honor the composer's intent.[23] As Sondheim's final work, Here We Are garnered mixed critical reception upon its 2023-2024 run, praised for its sparkling score—including patter songs and ensemble numbers evoking the composer's mature style—but critiqued for structural incompleteness and uneven tonal shifts from comedy to dread.[24] Outlets like The Observer hailed it as "goofy, satirical, and a joy to hear," highlighting Ives' book for its Buñuel fidelity and linguistic wit, while The New York Post found it "underwhelming" amid the hype.[24] Nonetheless, the musical's premiere marked a poignant capstone to Sondheim's oeuvre, underscoring Ives' role in bridging verbal innovation with musical legacy.[24]

Other contributions

Beyond his original theatrical works, David Ives has made significant contributions through adaptations of classic American musicals for New York City's Encores! series at City Center, where he revised 33 librettos from 1995 to 2013 to suit concert-style presentations.[19] His approach emphasized modernization by compressing verbose original books—often reducing them to two-thirds or three-quarters of their length—to heighten rhythmic flow and prioritize the scores, while restoring excised songs and adding transitional material in the style of the original authors to preserve the era's spirit as lively entertainment rather than didactic commentary.[25] Notable examples include his debut adaptation of Cole Porter's Out of This World (1995), which collated multiple scripts and reinstated the standard "From This Moment On," and revisions of Rodgers and Hart's The Boys from Syracuse (1997) and On Your Toes (2013), the latter marking his final Encores! project, where he tailored star vehicles for contemporary performers like Nathan Lane in Do Re Mi (2006).[19][25] These techniques, akin to his "translaptations" of foreign plays, involved literary ventriloquism to update dialogue for modern sensibilities without altering core narratives.[25] Ives has also ventured into screenwriting for television and film. He penned the episode "The Sunset Also Rises" for the AMC drama Remember WENN (1998), which explored radio station dynamics in a 1930s setting.[26] In film, he adapted his own play Venus in Fur into a 2013 screenplay directed by Roman Polanski, earning acclaim for its taut exploration of power dynamics in a casting audition.[27] Additionally, Ives has written unproduced scripts for television and film, extending his witty, concise style to visual media.[28] In journalism, Ives contributed humor pieces to prominent publications during the 1980s and 2000s, including satirical essays for The New Yorker's Shouts & Murmurs section, such as "Hunger Artist" (1995), and comic columns for The New York Times Magazine and Spy Magazine.[29][30] These works showcased his penchant for absurd, philosophical wit, often riffing on everyday absurdities in a manner that echoed his one-act plays.[31] A notable non-theatrical project is The Phobia Clinic (2009), a verse novella blending poetry and narrative in a philosophical horror framework modeled on Dante's Inferno, where a protagonist confronts personalized fears in a surreal clinic.[32] Described as grotesque, satirical, and introspective, the work took a decade to complete and represents Ives' exploration of dread through rhythmic, rhymed prose.[33]

Personal life

Family

David Ives married illustrator Martha Stoberock on February 9, 1997, in a ceremony held onstage at New York City's Primary Stages Theater.[34] The couple, who met in the early 1990s, have since shared a life together in New York City, maintaining a close partnership that supports Ives's creative endeavors.[35] Ives has often acknowledged the encouragement from his wife, describing how he wrote many of his early comic one-acts to entertain her during their courtship and marriage.[35] Their collaborative living arrangement in Manhattan has provided a stable environment for his prolific output as a playwright.[5] The playwright hails from a working-class Polish-American family background, which has notably shaped themes of ethnic identity in his work, such as the comedy Polish Joke.[36]

Later years

In his later years, David Ives has maintained a long-term residence in New York City, a city that has shaped much of his creative life through its vibrant theatrical scene and diverse influences.[37][38] Ives continues to engage with writing through personal routines, including maintaining detailed notebooks of ideas and observations that he has kept since his mid-20s, reflecting a disciplined habit that persists into his 70s.[2] Post-2020, he has actively updated his personal website, davidives.net, to share unpublished plays, stories, poems, articles, and archival notebooks, providing insight into his creative process and lesser-known works.[2][6] A significant recent activity was his decade-long collaboration with Stephen Sondheim on the musical Here We Are, which premiered in New York in 2023 and marked Sondheim's final work; Ives has described the process as an intense, rewarding partnership that involved refining the book after Sondheim's death in 2021.[22][6] Following the production of Here We Are, Ives retired from active theater involvement in 2023, shifting focus to more personal and archival endeavors while remaining supported by his wife, Martha Stoberock.[6][2] As of 2025, Ives leads a selective life in retirement, occasionally reflecting on his career through website content but prioritizing privacy and family.[6]

Awards and honors

Major awards

David Ives has received several prestigious awards recognizing his contributions to theater, particularly in playwriting and adaptation. In 1994, he received the Outer Critics Circle's John Gassner Playwriting Award for All in the Timing, acknowledging his innovative dramatic works. For his adaptation of The Liar (based on Corneille's Le Menteur), Ives earned the 2011 Charles MacArthur/Helen Hayes Award for Best Play.[1] In 2008, Ives was awarded the Hull-Warriner Award from the Dramatists Guild Foundation for New Jerusalem: The Privation of Saint Joan, recognizing its historical drama exploring religious persecution and intellectual freedom.[39] In 2006, he received the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Adaptation for his version of Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, as well as the Prince Prize for New Work for the same production.[1] In 2011, Ives received the Sidney Kingsley Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Theatre.[1] In 2016, he received the Helen Hayes Award for The Metromaniacs.[1] In 2012, Ives received the Honorary Miss Lilly Award.[1] These accolades have contributed to Ives' recognition in Off-Broadway and regional theater.

Nominations and fellowships

David Ives received a Tony Award nomination for Best Play in 2012 for Venus in Fur. He also earned Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Play, including for All in the Timing in 1994.[40] In 1995, Ives was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting, providing support for his work.[1] Ives was nominated for Lucille Lortel Awards, including Outstanding Revival for Venus in Fur in 2012 and for All in the Timing in 2013 (which won).[41][42] These nominations and fellowships have supported Ives' career in experimental theater.

Works

Plays

David Ives is renowned for his witty, intellectually playful original plays, which often explore themes of language, time, and human relationships through innovative structures and sharp dialogue. His works span one-act comedies and full-length pieces, frequently premiering at Off-Broadway venues like Primary Stages. Many of his plays have been published by Dramatists Play Service and Grove Press, making them widely available for production and study.[43][44][30] One of Ives' most celebrated works is the one-act collection All in the Timing, which premiered Off-Broadway at Primary Stages in 1993. This evening of six short plays, including the iconic "Sure Thing"—a comedic exploration of romantic possibilities through repeated resets—and "Words, Words, Words," a satirical take on three chimpanzees typing Shakespeare, showcases Ives' mastery of linguistic humor and absurdism. The collection was first published by Dramatists Play Service in 1994, with an expanded edition of fourteen plays issued by Vintage Books later that year.[45][44] Among his full-length plays, Ancient History marked an early milestone, premiering Off-Broadway at Primary Stages in May 1989. This two-act comedy examines a couple's relationship unraveling amid revelations about their pasts and faiths. It was published by Dramatists Play Service in 1990, with a revised edition appearing in 1996.[3][46][47] Ives continued with Don Juan in Chicago, a full-length comedy that premiered in March 1995 at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago before transferring Off-Broadway. The play reimagines the Don Juan legend across centuries, blending farce with philosophical inquiry into immortality and desire. It was published by Dramatists Play Service in October 1995.[48][49][50] In 2001, Polish Joke had its world premiere at A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle from July 12 to August 5, directed by Jason McConnell Buzas. This full-length satire follows a man's misguided attempts to woo a woman by adopting Polish stereotypes, critiquing ethnic humor and identity. The play was published by Grove Press in 2004 as part of the collection Polish Joke and Other Plays, with an acting edition from Dramatists Play Service the same year.[51][52][53] Other notable full-length plays include New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza (2008), which premiered Off-Broadway at the Culture Project and explores the philosopher's trial, earning Ives an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination, and The Metromaniacs (2010), a verse comedy adapted from a classic French play that premiered at Primary Stages.[54][55] More recently, Ives developed The Phobia Clinic as a verse play, evolving from his 2010 philosophical horror novelette in terza rima. Written over subsequent years, including a stage version explored during a 2016 residency at the Public Theater, it remains a work in progress without a major premiere as of 2025, blending grotesque satire with personal introspection.[33][56][32]

Musicals

David Ives has made significant contributions to musical theater as a librettist and book writer, often collaborating with renowned composers and adapting classic works for modern stages. His involvement spans original pieces, revisions, and concert adaptations, emphasizing witty dialogue and structural clarity to enhance musical narratives. While much of his early work focused on adapting American musicals for New York City Center's Encores! series—where he revised librettos for 33 productions between 1995 and 2012, including Out of This World (1995) and Wonderful Town (2003, which transferred to Broadway)—Ives has also crafted books for full-scale musicals that blend humor, romance, and social commentary.[19] One of Ives' most prominent original contributions is the book for Irving Berlin's White Christmas, co-written with Paul Blake. Premiering at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco on November 23, 2004, the musical adapts the 1954 film, featuring 17 Irving Berlin songs like "Blue Skies" and "White Christmas." Ives' libretto emphasizes themes of camaraderie and holiday spirit, following two entertainers who stage a show to save a Vermont inn. The production toured extensively, reaching Broadway's Marquis Theatre on November 14, 2008, for 145 performances, and has since enjoyed international runs, including London's West End in 2014. The script is published by Rodgers & Hammerstein Theatre Library and remains widely licensed for regional and stock productions. In 2002, Ives contributed book revisions to Dance of the Vampires, a musical adaptation of Roman Polanski's 1967 film Fearless Vampire Killers. Working with composers Jim Steinman and Michael Kunze, Ives helped streamline the narrative for its Broadway premiere at the Minskoff Theatre on October 5, running for 56 performances. His revisions aimed to heighten the comedic horror elements, focusing on a professor and his assistant battling vampires in Transylvania. Though the production closed quickly, Ives' structural adjustments have influenced subsequent European stagings. The libretto, credited to Kunze with Ives' revisions, is available through MTI Shows. Ives' collaboration with Stephen Sondheim on Here We Are marks his most recent and acclaimed musical effort, serving as Sondheim's final work. Ives wrote the book, inspired by Luis Buñuel's films The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) and The Exterminating Angel (1962), exploring surreal social satire among affluent friends trapped in a restaurant and later a mansion. The world premiere occurred off-Broadway at The Shed in New York City from September 28, 2023, to January 21, 2024, directed by Joe Mantello. Featuring Sondheim's score with songs like "The Shoe" and "Suddenly," the musical received praise for its elegant absurdity and Ives' taut scripting. A European premiere followed at London's National Theatre in April 2025, and the script was published by Nick Hern Books on May 22, 2025, making it available for future productions. An original cast recording was released by Ghostlight Records in May 2024.[21][57][58]

Operas

David Ives has made a limited but notable contribution to opera through his work as a librettist, leveraging his linguistic precision in crafting sung narratives that align with classical musical forms. Unlike his extensive output in plays and musicals, his operatic involvement centers on a single major project, highlighting his versatility in adapting literary sources for the stage. His primary operatic work is the libretto for The Secret Garden, an opera based on Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1911 novel of the same name. Composed by Greg Pliska, the opera premiered on April 27, 1991, at the Pennsylvania Opera Theater in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, under the direction of Bruce Coughlin.[18][31] The production featured a cast including soprano Elizabeth Hynes as Mary Lennox and baritone Eugene Perry as Archibald Craven, with the orchestra conducted by Steven Crawford.[59] Ives' libretto condenses Burnett's story of orphaned Mary Lennox discovering a hidden garden that aids in the emotional and physical healing of her invalid cousin Colin, emphasizing themes of renewal and familial bonds through lyrical dialogue suited to Pliska's score. The work received positive initial reviews for its atmospheric adaptation, with critics noting the effective integration of Ives' witty yet poignant text with the composer's lyrical melodies.[60] Subsequent performances have been sparse, including a 1995 staging by the Utah Opera, underscoring the opera's niche status within Ives' broader oeuvre focused on theatrical and musical theater forms.[60][61]

Translations

David Ives is renowned for his translations and adaptations of French plays, particularly comedies from the 17th and 20th centuries, which he terms "translaptations." These works preserve the original authors' sharp wit, intricate plots, and satirical edge while updating the dialogue to contemporary American English, infusing modern idioms, cultural references, and rhythmic verse to enhance accessibility and humor for English-speaking audiences.[62][63] One of his prominent translations is The Liar, an adaptation of Pierre Corneille's 1644 comedy Le Menteur. Ives's version premiered at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., in 2010 and was published by Dramatists Play Service in 2011. The play follows a compulsive liar navigating Parisian high society through escalating deceptions, with Ives incorporating 21st-century slang and pop culture allusions to amplify the farce.[64][65] Ives has also translated Molière's works, notably The School for Lies, based on the 1666 play Le Misanthrope. This rhymed verse adaptation critiques social hypocrisy in a 17th-century Parisian salon, premiering at Classic Stage Company in New York in 2011 and published by Northwestern University Press in 2012. By retaining the period setting but modernizing the couplets with biting, colloquial wit, Ives highlights the timelessness of Molière's misanthropic protagonist.[66][63] In contemporary drama, Ives served as the primary American translator for Yasmina Reza, including her 1994 play Art, which debuted in the U.S. in 1998 and explores friendship strained by a controversial painting purchase. His translation captures Reza's minimalist dialogue and ironic humor, contributing to the play's Tony Award-winning Broadway run. Another Reza work, A Spanish Play (originally Une pièce espagnole, 2004), premiered in English at Classic Stage Company in 2007 under Ives's translation, delving into artistic creation through a chaotic rehearsal process.[67][68] Ives's oeuvre includes additional French translations, such as Georges Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear (premiered 2006, published Dramatists Play Service 2007) and Jean-François Regnard's The Heir Apparent (premiered 2011, published Smith & Kraus 2011), each emphasizing farce and verbal dexterity through Americanized phrasing.[65][38]

Adaptations

David Ives has adapted several classic works for the stage, often infusing them with contemporary wit and structural innovations while diverging from literal translations to emphasize thematic updates or performative clarity. These adaptations highlight his skill in revitalizing older texts for modern sensibilities, particularly in farce, erotic drama, and musical theater. One of his notable adaptations is a new version of Georges Feydeau's 1907 farce La Puce à l'oreille, retitled A Flea in Her Ear, which premiered at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater in March 2006 under director Gary Griffin. Ives' rendition modernizes the dialogue for sharper comedic timing and American audiences, amplifying the original's cascade of mistaken identities, jealous intrigues, and hotel-room mix-ups involving a suspicious wife, her cuckolded husband, and a parade of doubles, all while retaining the frenzied pace of Feydeau's bedroom farce. This version, commissioned specifically for the Chicago production, earned local acclaim for its lively vernacular and streamlined action, distinguishing it from earlier English translations like John Mortimer's by prioritizing rhythmic wordplay over period fidelity.[69][70][71] In Don Juan in Chicago, premiered off-Broadway at Primary Stages in March 1995 and directed by Carolyn Cantor, Ives updates Molière's 1665 Dom Juan, ou Le Festin de pierre by relocating the libertine antihero to contemporary Chicago and intertwining his tale with Faustian motifs. The protagonist, a wealthy but sexually naive nobleman, embarks on a quest not merely for conquests but for existential fulfillment, encountering a supernatural mentor and moral reckonings amid urban grit, which shifts the original's focus from classical satire to a blend of seduction, damnation, and self-discovery. This three-act comedy, published in 1996, diverges from Molière's verse structure and philosophical underpinnings by incorporating American idioms and a more psychological depth to the title character's pursuits.[72][73][74] Venus in Fur, which debuted off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company in January 2010 and was directed by Leigh Silverman, serves as a loose adaptation inspired by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's 1870 novella Venus in Furs. Rather than a direct retelling, Ives crafts a two-character meta-play about a playwright auditioning an actress for his stage version of the novel, weaving in scenes from Sacher-Masoch's text to probe power dynamics, masochistic desires, and gender roles through escalating role-play and seduction. This structure transforms the source material's epistolary eroticism into a taut, dialogue-driven thriller that critiques artistic control and submission, earning Ives awards including the Hull-Warriner Award; the 2013 Broadway transfer and Roman Polanski's 2013 film adaptation further underscore its impact.[75][76][6] Ives also specialized in adapting musicals for New York City Center's Encores! series, contributing concert versions of 33 shows from the mid-1990s through the 2010s to suit minimalistic stagings with full orchestras. These adaptations often clarified narrative transitions and settings via enhanced dialogue, condensed extraneous plotlines, and integrated musical numbers more seamlessly, breathing new life into rarely performed works without altering scores. Examples include his 2010 take on Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents' Anyone Can Whistle, which expanded the narrator's role and tightened the cult musical's satirical exploration of mental health and consumerism for a limited run starring Bernadette Peters; his version of Rodgers and Hart's The Boys from Syracuse (1997), which sharpened the Shakespearean farce's twin-confusion antics; and Irving Berlin's Face the Music (2007), revitalizing the 1932 satire on Depression-era showbiz. After this extensive tenure, Ives stepped back from Encores! around 2010, having influenced the series' revival format.[19][25][77]

Screenplays

David Ives has extended his distinctive wit and linguistic precision from the stage to screenwriting, adapting his own works and contributing original scripts to film and television. His screenplay for the 2013 film Venus in Fur, directed by Roman Polanski, adapts his 2010 play of the same name, exploring power dynamics in a tense audition between a director and an actress. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and received critical acclaim for its taut dialogue and performances by Emmanuelle Seigner and Mathieu Amalric.[78] In television, Ives wrote the teleplay for the 1998 TV movie The Hunted, a thriller about an insurance investigator (played by Mädchen Amick) pursuing fraudulent claims in the Canadian wilderness, blending suspense with character-driven humor. Ives contributed to PBS's anthology series Great Performances with two notable scripts. For the 1997 special "Ira Gershwin at 100: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall," he crafted the narrative framework for the concert tribute, hosted by Michael York and Angie Dickinson, featuring performances of Gershwin standards by artists including Patti LuPone and Maureen McGovern to honor the lyricist's centennial.[79] In 2006, Ives provided the concert adaptation for "'South Pacific' in Concert from Carnegie Hall," a star-studded revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical starring Reba McEntire and Brian Stokes Mitchell, which aired as part of the series and highlighted the score's enduring themes of love and prejudice. Additionally, Ives penned the episode "The Sunset Also Rises" for the AMC series Remember WENN in 1998, the fourth-season finale of the period drama set in a 1940s Pittsburgh radio station, where characters navigate personal revelations amid wartime tensions.[26] These screen credits reflect Ives's versatility in translating his verbal ingenuity to visual formats, often emphasizing ensemble dynamics and sharp repartee.

Narrative fiction

David Ives, best known for his work in theater, has also ventured into prose narrative fiction, primarily targeting young adult audiences with humorous, satirical stories that explore themes of absurdity, identity, and youthful adventure. His novels often feature whimsical premises infused with linguistic play, drawing on his background in dramatic writing to create engaging, voice-driven narratives. These works, published in the early 2000s, were issued by major children's imprints and received positive attention for their inventive storytelling.[80] Ives's young adult novels include Monsieur Eek (2001), published by HarperCollins, which follows the misadventures of a chimpanzee mistaken for a French nobleman in a fictional 1609 town, blending historical satire with themes of mistaken identity and community prejudice. The story, aimed at readers aged 9–12, highlights absurdity through the chimp's attempts to navigate human society alongside a young girl and the town fool.[81] In Scrib (2005), also from HarperCollins, a 16-year-old boy flees his stifling life in 1863 St. Louis to become a traveling letter-writer in the American West, encountering danger and forging unlikely friendships while grappling with freedom and self-invention.[82] The novel emphasizes themes of youthful rebellion and the transformative power of storytelling.[83] Ives's third YA novel, Voss: How I Come to America and Am Hero, Mostly (2008), published by G.P. Putnam's Sons, is epistolary, chronicling a 15-year-old stowaway from the fictional Slobovia who smuggles himself to America in a crate, recounting his satirical exploits in letters to a friend; it satirizes immigration, heroism, and cultural clashes through the protagonist's comically exaggerated voice.[84] These novels collectively showcase Ives's skill in crafting absurd, youth-centered tales that mirror the linguistic wit of his plays.[80] Beyond novels, Ives has published short fiction and humor pieces in prestigious outlets such as The New Yorker, Spy Magazine, New York Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, and The Hudson Review, often appearing in anthologies that highlight emerging voices in literary humor.[30] These stories typically explore everyday absurdities and human quirks, aligning with the thematic concerns of his longer prose works. In a departure from traditional prose, Ives's The Phobia Clinic (circa 2010, with a full verse edition self-published in 2024) is a philosophical horror novelette written in terza rima, presenting a poetic narrative that delves into the nature of fears and the human psyche through a clinic where phobias are confronted and dissected.[32] Described by the author as a personal "folly" developed over two decades, it blends verse form with speculative elements to examine existential dread and creative obsession.[33] Available as a PDF on Ives's official website, it represents his most recent foray into experimental narrative fiction.[85]

Short play collections

David Ives has garnered acclaim for his one-act plays, which blend linguistic ingenuity, absurdity, and philosophical inquiry, often collected in anthologies that highlight his concise dramatic form. The collection All in the Timing: Six One-Act Comedies was published in 1994 by Vintage Books, compiling six comedic shorts originally written between 1987 and 1993. These plays exemplify Ives' early style of verbal dexterity and existential humor, performed frequently in Off-Broadway evenings.[86]
Play TitleYear Written
Sure Thing1988
Words, Words, Words1987
The Universal Language1990
English Made Simple1989
Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread1989
Foreplay, or The Art of the Fugue1990
Time Flies and Other Short Plays, released in 2001 by Grove Press, serves as a successor volume with thirteen one-act pieces drawn from productions like Mere Mortals! and Lives of the Saints, plus original works. The anthology emphasizes Ives' penchant for whimsical scenarios, such as insects contemplating mortality or historical figures in modern dilemmas, spanning 222 pages in its standard edition.[87][88] Key contents include: Polish Joke and Other Plays, published in 2004 by Grove Press, gathers four works that extend Ives' comedic voice into longer formats while echoing the punchy satire of his shorts through episodic structures. Though centered on full-length plays, it reflects the thematic continuity from his one-act oeuvre. Contents: "Polish Joke," "Ancient History," "Don Juan in Chicago," and "The Red Address."[52][90] In 2017, Ives issued Early Works: Act One, a retrospective anthology focusing on his initial short plays, though publication details remain sparse beyond independent theater editions.

References

  1. CV – David Ives
  2. David Ives – Works Collected and Sundry
  3. David Ives - Theatrical Rights Worldwide
  4. David Ives | Playscripts, Inc.
  5. David Ives - Primary Stages Off-Center
  6. David Ives - Grove Atlantic
  7. ALL IN THE TIMING by David Ives
  8. Theatre Conversations: David Ives - The Kennedy Center
  9. Ives: America's Best Playwright? - Shakespeare Theatre Company
  10. https://archive-publications.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&d=cr19950210-01.2.5
  11. Vignettes That Return to Tease, Touch and Jab - The New York Times
  12. Primary Stages Revival of David Ives' All in the Timing Extends to April
  13. Theater Reviews : 'All in Timing' Runs Like Fine Swiss Watch
  14. New Jerusalem - David Ives - Theater - Review - The New York Times
  15. Venus in Fur (Play) Plot & Characters - StageAgent
  16. Ives, David 1951- | Encyclopedia.com
  17. After 33 Adaptations for the City Center Encores! Series, David Ives ...
  18. David Ives's Quick-Hit Approach To Staging the Human Comedy
  19. Here We Are - The Shed
  20. David Ives On Collaborating With Sondheim On His Final Work
  21. The task? Finish Stephen Sondheim's last musical. No pressure.
  22. Reviews: Read What Critics Have to Say About Sondheim's Last ...
  23. THE CONCERT VERSION Adapting Musicals for Encores and ...
  24. David Ives - MARTIN ANDRUCKI · BATES COLLEGE ·
  25. "Remember WENN" The Sunset Also Rises (TV Episode 1998) - IMDb
  26. David Ives - IMDb
  27. David Ives Biography | List of Works, Study Guides & Essays
  28. https://www.newyorker.com/humor/shouts-murmurs
  29. David Ives Pens Philosophical Horror Novel, "The Phobia Clinic"
  30. The Phobia Clinic - David Ives
  31. Martha Stoberock And David Ives - The New York Times
  32. Playwright David Ives finds his timing perfectly
  33. David Ives: A Celebration - Commentary Magazine
  34. https://primarystages.org/david-ives-bio
  35. David Ives - Concord Theatricals
  36. David Ives – Broadway Cast & Staff - IBDB
  37. 2012 Nominees - Lucille Lortel Awards
  38. The Dramatists Guild Awards
  39. David Ives Bio - Primary Stages
  40. All in the Timing, Six One-Act Plays - Dramatists Play Service
  41. All in the Timing (Play) Plot & Characters - StageAgent
  42. Ancient History: Ives, David - Amazon.com
  43. Ancient History - David Ives - Google Books
  44. Don Juan in Chicago - Variety
  45. Don Juan in Chicago: A Comedy in Two Acts - Amazon.com
  46. The PlayFinder - Dramatists Play Service
  47. Polish Joke (2001) - ACT Theatre History
  48. Polish Joke and Other Plays | Grove Atlantic
  49. Polish Joke - Acting Edition (Acting Edition for Theater Productions ...
  50. From K'naan to The Phobia Clinic, Public Theater Residency Soars
  51. Here We Are | National Theatre
  52. Final Sondheim Musical Here We Are Script Will Be Published as ...
  53. [PDF] ACTION AISLE ............... 2 COMPOSERS' CORNER ....... 6 ...
  54. `SECRET GARDEN' OFFERS LUXURIANT TREAT – Deseret News
  55. https://www.groveatlantic.com/author/david-ives/
  56. Roundtable on Translations and Adaptations | Dramatists Guild
  57. Review | The School For Lies by David Ives | Classic Stage Company
  58. Playwright Adapts French Play 'The Liar' - NPR
  59. David Ives - Doollee
  60. The School for Lies - Northwestern University Press
  61. Yasmina Reza: 'There's no point in writing theatre if it's not accessible'
  62. A Spanish Play - Variety
  63. A Flea in Her Ear - Dramatists Play Service
  64. A Flea In Her Ear-Chicago Shakespeare Theater- Chicago
  65. Theater: A Flea in Her Ear - Windy City Times
  66. THEATER REVIEW; Don Juan With a Goal And Oddly It Isn't Sex
  67. Don Juan in Chicago - Past | Drama In The Hood
  68. https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/don-juan-in-chicago-a-comedy-in-two-acts_david-ives/936181/
  69. Venus in Fur - Northwestern University Press
  70. Venus in Fur
  71. Sondheim Guide / Anyone Can Whistle
  72. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2406252/
  73. Ira Gershwin at 100: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall - IMDb
  74. Books by David Ives and Complete Book Reviews - Publishers Weekly
  75. Monsieur Eek: Ives, David: 9780064473019 - Amazon.com
  76. Scrib: Ives, David: 9780060598419 - Amazon.com
  77. Scrib by David Ives | Goodreads
  78. https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/voss_david-ives/945330/
  79. https://davidives.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/phobiaclinicpoem.pdf
  80. All in the Timing by David Ives - Penguin Random House
  81. 'All in the Timing': A Collection of One-Act Plays by David Ives
  82. All in the Timing, Six Short Plays - THEATRE - FIU Digital Commons
  83. Time Flies and Other Short Plays | Grove Atlantic
  84. Time Flies and Other Short Plays: Ives, David - Amazon.com
  85. Time Flies and Other Short Plays - David Ives - Barnes & Noble
  86. Polish Joke and Other Plays: Including Don Juan in Chicago ...
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