Deborah Brevoort

Deborah Brevoort is an American playwright, librettist and lyricist best known for her play The Women of Lockerbie. She teaches creative writing at several universities.

Early years

Brevoort was born in Columbus, Ohio, to Virginia and Gordon Brevoort. She is the oldest of three children. She graduated from Ridgewood High School in Ridgewood, New Jersey. She attended Kent State University, where she received a BA in English and political science, and an MA in political science.

Brevoort moved to Juneau, Alaska, in 1979. She worked in Alaskan politics, serving as a special assistant to Lieutenant Governor Terry Miller and Alaska State Senator Frank Ferguson. In 1983 she became the producing director of Perseverance Theatre and an actor in the company. Her first two plays were produced at Perseverance: The Last Frontier Club and Signs of Life. Signs of Life was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation playwriting grant and was later published by Samuel French.

Brevoort left Alaska to attend Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where she received her MFA in playwriting. She moved to New York City to attend New York University's graduate musical theatre writing program, where she received an MFA.

Career

Brevoort is best known for her play The Women of Lockerbie, a story about the aftermath of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, told in the form of a Greek tragedy. It was inspired by the laundry project undertaken by Lockerbie women, who washed the clothes of the victims and returned them to the families. In 2001 it won the silver medal in the Onassis International Playwriting Competition and the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award. It premiered off-Broadway in 2003 by the New Group and Women's Project. It was produced in London at the Orange Tree Theatre in 2005, at the Theater Royal in Dumfries, at the Actor's Gang in Los Angeles in 2007 and the Will Geer Theater in Santa Monica in 2012. It is published by Dramatists Play Service and No Passport Press and has been translated into nine languages. There have been over 800 productions of the play worldwide.

Brevoort's plays and musicals often use theatrical conventions and forms from around the world to explore contemporary American subjects. She wrote a Japanese noh drama about Elvis Presley titled Blue Moon Over Memphis; a musical comedy inspired by world mythology and Saturday morning cartoons titled Coyote Goes Salmon Fishing, with composer Scott Davenport Richards; and a holiday musical written in the form of an oratorio, titled King Island Christmas, with composer David Friedman, based on the Alaskan children's book of the same title. She used the methods of magic realism from Latin American novels to dramatize life in an Alaskan fishing town in her play Into the Fire.

Brevoort's other plays include the following:

• My Lord, What a Night, about the friendship between Marian Anderson and Albert Einstein. It was produced at the historic Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., to critical acclaim. It was developed through a rolling world premiere at Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Florida Studio Theatre, and Orlando Shakespeare Theatre. It was originally commissioned as a one-act play through the Liberty Live program at Premiere Stages in New Jersey.
• The Poetry of Pizza, which uses the conventions of farce and romantic comedy to explore Arab/American relations and love across cultures. It was developed in the Centenary Stage Women's Playwright's Festival and was subsequently produced at the Purple Rose Theatre, Virginia Stage, Mixed Blood Theatre, California Rep, Theatre in the Square and Stage 3.
• The Blue-Sky Boys, about NASA's Apollo engineers and the intersection of creativity and science, with a commission from the EST/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology project. It premiered at the Barter Theatre in Virginia and was subsequently produced by Capital Rep in Albany, New York, and was the winner of the Galileo Prize from EST.
• The Velvet Weapon, using the back stage farce to dramatize populist democracy movements in the US. The play was written with a grant from CEC Arts Link.
• The Comfort Team, a play about military spouses, with a commission from Virginia Stage. It received an artistic excellence grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the first-ever theatre grant from the Harpo Marx Foundation.
• Blue Moon Over Memphis, a noh drama about Elvis Presley, was published by Applause Books in The Best American Short Plays of 2004 and in the Journal of the Noh Research Archives, Musashino University, Tokyo, Japan (in Japanese and English). It has been touring internationally since 2015 in a traditional noh production by Theatre Nohgaku of Tokyo. It toured Japan in 2024, where it was performed to sold-out crowds at the Okuma Auditorium in Tokyo and the Kongo Noh Theatre in Kyoto. It was sponsored by the Yanai Initiative.
• Into the Fire won the Weissberger Award in 1999 and was published by Samuel French in 2000. It was developed at the National Playwrights Conference at the O'Neill and the Australian National Playwright's Conference.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Brevoort was commissioned by the Florida Studio Theatre to write a full-length comedy called The Drolls about the outlaw actors and blackamoors who kept the theatre alive during the Puritan crackdown in England in the 1600s.

She was also commissioned to write The Gorn Galaxy, a 10-minute Zoom play, for the Flash Acts Festival, produced by Arena Stage, Georgetown University, the Center for Global Engagement and the American Embassy in Moscow. It was produced in both the US and Russia.

Brevoort writes opera librettos and the book and lyrics for musicals. Her musical works include the following:

• Embedded, a one-act opera inspired by Edgar Allan Poe stories with composer Patrick Soluri for the American Lyric Theater. Embedded won the inaugural Frontiers Competition at Fort Worth Opera, where it was subsequently produced in 2016. It was also produced at Fargo Moorhead Opera in 2014.
• Steal a Pencil for Me, a full-length opera about Holocaust survivors, based on the book of the same title, with composer Gerald Cohen, which won the Frontiers Competition at Fort Worth Opera in 2016. It premiered at Opera Colorado in 2018. A recording was released by Sono Luminus recordings in 2024.
• Albert Nobbs, with composer Patrick Soluri. It was a finalist for the Dominic Pellicciotti Prize in Opera Composition. It was also the winner of the Frontiers competition in 2019 at Fort Worth Opera.
• Murasaki's Moon, an opera with composer Michi Wiancko, commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, On Site Opera and American Lyric Theater. It was produced at the Met Museum in 2019. It was also produced at Hub City Opera in New Jersey in 2024.
• The Knock, an opera about military wives during the surge of Iraq, was written with composer Aleksandra Vrebalov and co-commissioned by Cincinnati Opera and the Glimmerglass Opera Festival, where it was produced as a film in 2021. It premiered on stage at Cincinnati Opera in 2023 to critical and audience acclaim. It was a finalist for the Digital Excellence in Opera Award in 2023 from Opera America. It will be produced by Central City Opera in Colorado in the summer of 2025.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Brevoort was commissioned by Fargo Moorhead Opera and the Decameron Opera Coalition to write Dinner 4 3, a 10-minute opera with composer Michael Ching, inspired by a story from The Decameron, as part of a new opera web series called Tales from a Safe Distance. It was later produced on stage at Fargo Moorhead Opera and at L'Arietta Opera in Singapore.

She was also commissioned by the Chicago Opera Theatre to write Quamino's Map with Belizean British composer Errollyn Wallen, where it premiered in 2022.

Brevoort was commissioned by the Anchorage Opera to write The Polar Bat, a new adaptation of Die Fledermaus, which was produced there in 2014. In 2015, the Anchorage Opera commissioned and produced her new libretto for Mozart's The Impresario.

Brevoort wrote the book and lyrics for Coyote Goes Salmon Fishing with composer Scott Davenport Richards, which won the Frederick Lowe Award. It was produced at Perseverance Theatre in Alaska, directed by Molly Smith, and at the University of Houston, produced by Broadway producer Stuart Ostrow.

Brevoort also wrote King Island Christmas, based on the Alaskan children's book by Jean Rogers, with composer David Friedman. It also won the Frederick Lowe Award. A cast album featuring Tony winner Chuck Cooper and the late Marin Mazzie was produced by 12-time Grammy winner Thomas Z. Shepard. There have been over 50 productions of the musical in the US, Australia and Canada.

She is a member of ASCAP, the Dramatists Guild, Opera America, TCG and the National Theatre Conference. She was invited to join the Playwright's Collective at Florida Studio Theatre in 2020.

In 2023 Brevoort was awarded the Campbell Opera Librettists Prize from Opera America.

Brevoort served as the librettist mentor for the Washington National Opera's American Opera Initiative at the Kennedy Center. In 2024–25 she will serve as librettist mentor at the Seattle Opera's Creation Lab. She is also an artistic mentor to the NBO Musical Theatre Initiative in Nairobi, Kenya. She teaches at New York University in the graduate musical theatre writing program. She taught for many years at Columbia University and Goddard College.

Personal life

Brevoort is married to the actor Chuck Cooper.

List of works

Plays

• The Drolls (2020)
• The Gorn Galaxy (2020)
• My Lord, What a Night (2019)
• The Comfort Team (2012)
• The Blue-Sky Boys (2009)
• The Velvet Weapon (2014)
• The Cheechako Treatment (2008)
• The Poetry of Pizza (2007)
• The Women of Lockerbie (2003)
• Blue Moon Over Memphis (2001)
• Into the Fire (2000)
• Signs of Life (1990)
• Last Frontier Club (1987)

Musicals

• Crossing Over, an Amish hip-hop musical with Stephanie Salzman (2015)
• Goodbye My Island with David Friedman (2004)
• King Island Christmas with David Friedman (1999)
• Coyote Goes Salmon Fishing with Scott Davenport Richards (1998)

Operas

• Quamino's Map with Errollyn Wallen (2022)
• The Knock with Aleksandra Vrebalov (2020)
• Dinner 4 3 with Michael Ching (2020)
• Murasaki's Moon with Michi Wiancko (2019)
• Albert Nobbs with Patrick Soluri (2018)
• Steal a Pencil for Me with Gerald Cohen (2012)
• Embedded with Patrick Soluri (2011)
• Altezura with Aleksandra Vrebalov (2008)
• The Polar Bat, a new adaptation of Die Fledermaus (2014)
• The Impresario, a new libretto of Mozart's comic opera for the Anchorage Opera (2015)

Screenplays

• Mexico in Alaska (1999)
• Covered Dishes (1997)

Honors and awards

• Campbell Opera Librettist Prize from Opera America, 2023
• Silver medal, Onassis International Playwriting Competition for The Women of Lockerbie
• Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award for The Women of Lockerbie
• Frederick Loewe Award in Musical Theatre for Coyote Goes Salmon Fishing and King Island Christmas
• Paul Green Award (National Theatre Conference) for musical book writing
• L. Arnold Weissberger Award for Into the Fire
• Jane Chambers Award for Signs of Life
• Performing Artist/Writer Fellowship, American Antiquarian Society

External links

• Deborah Brevoort official website
• King Island Christmas Website
• MFA Faculty of Goddard College
• New York University Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program Archived 2012-05-10 at the Wayback Machine
• Columbia University Theatre Arts Program