Manhattan Ensemble Theater: David Fishelson, Producer, Playwright

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Dave Fishelson was the lead producer of Golda’s Balcony, the longest-running one-woman show in Broadway history (2003-5, Tony® nomination), as well as the producer of that show’s North American Tour (winner, “Best Play”, 2005-6 Touring Broadway Awards).

From 2000-2007, he was the founding artistic director of Off-Broadway’s Manhattan Ensemble Theater (“MET”, based in SoHo), whose award-winning productions included two of his own plays, all published by Dramatists Play Service.

Dave founded MET to develop and produce new works of theater ‘mined’ from the rich ore of such diverse narrative sources as fiction, journalism, film, biography and memoir. Dave’s final production ‘as MET’ was the Lortel-winning 9 Parts of Desire (about the women of Iraq), which ran for nine sold-out months, before moving on to acclaimed productions at Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, the Geffen in L.A., and Arena Stage in D.C. (from 2005-2007). In addition to the Lortel and numerous Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk nominations, Nine Parts was a runner-up for the 2005 Susan Smith Blackburn prize.

From 2002-2004, Dave produced two plays at MET that enjoyed critical and commercial success Off-Broadway. The aforementioned Golda’s Balcony (opened 3/14/03) earned a “Best Play” nomination from the Drama League, before moving to the Helen Hayes Theatre on Broadway in October 2003, where it ran for 15 months through January 2005. Hank Williams: Lost Highway (opened 12/9/02) earned an OBIE Award, as well as nominations from the Outer Critics Circle (“Best Off-Broadway Musical”, “Best Actor in a Musical”, “Best Director of a Musical”), the Lucille Lortel Awards (“Best Musical”, “Best Actor in a Musical”) and the Drama Desk (“Best Actor in a Musical”), as well as citations from The New York Times and The New York Sun as one of 2002’s best Off-Broadway productions, before moving commercially to be the inaugural production at the Little Shubert Theater on 42nd Street.

In its first full season in 2001-2002, MET produced three plays that won critical acclaim: Death In Venice (cited by Time Out as one of the “Ten Best Plays of the Year”), The Castle (which earned a Drama League nomination for “Best Play”, as well as Outer Critics Circle nominations for “Best Off-Broadway Play” and “Best Director”) and The Golem (Drama Desk nomination for “Best Featured Actor”). Both The Castle and The Golem (co-authored by Dave) were published by Dramatists Play Service in 2003.

Before founding MET, Dave was Jean Cocteau Repertory’s managing director from 1989-1992, its associate artistic director from 1992-1994, and a resident director there from 1994-1997, where he wrote and directed two dramatizations of Dostoyevsky’s novels: The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov. Both were published by Dramatists Play Service in 1995, and broadcast as radio plays on “National Public Radio Playhouse.” For the screen he wrote and directed the award-winning independent feature City News, which was broadcast on PBS’s “American Playhouse.”

In 2007, Dave sold the SoHo-based, 140-seat theater he designed — also known as “Manhattan Ensemble Theater” — to the award-winning theater company “The Culture Project” (The Exonerated, Bridge and Tunnel, Guantanamo; Producer, Allan Buchman) in order to concentrate on his own writing and producing, whether on Broadway or Off, having outgrown the MET space.

Among Dave’s current projects is a bio-drama of the life of Vaclav Havel, an adaptation of a well-known French New Wave film for the stage, and an original play about the Holocaust called The Hamlet Syndrome. Dave is a member of the League of American Theaters and Producers, as well as The Dramatists Guild. He lives in Manhattan with his wife Erana, and his two children Natasha and Max.