Ken Weitzman

Ken Weitzman

Associate Professor, Dramatic Writing

BA, University of Michigan
MFA, University of California, San Diego

Ken is a playwright whose work has been produced and developed at theatres across the country and internationally.  Ken’s most recent productions include seal boy, produced in April, 2024 at Riverside Studios in London, and his solo play, Fire in the Garden,  produced digitally over the past two years at the Warehouse Theatre, and at NJ Rep and United Solo International Solo Theatre Festival (both starring actor Sean Astin).  

Previous productions include, among others, Halftime with Don, which received a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere - three different productions of the play in the calendar year, The Catch  (The Denver Center Theatre Company), The As If Body Loop  (Humana Festival of New American Plays), seal boy at American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and  Arrangements  (Atlantic Theatre Company). His collaborative/ensemble-created work includes  Memorabilia (Alliance Theatre) and Hominid  (Out of Hand Theatre/Theatre Emory/Oerol Festival Netherlands).

National awards for Ken's works include The L. Arnold Weissberger Award for Playwriting for Arrangements, a TCG Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award for The Catch, the Generations Award from BETC for seal boy, the Fratti/Newman Political Play Contest Award for Fire in the Garden, and South Coast Repertory's Elizabeth George Commission for an Outstanding Emerging Playwright.

Organizations who have commissioned Ken's work include the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Arena Stage, the Alliance Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Theatre Emory, Out of Hand Theatre, and South Coast Repertory Theatre.

Ken's plays have been published by Broadway Play Publishing, Samuel French, Playscripts, Smith and Kraus, and Blackbird.

Ken has served in many capacities for major new play development organizations across the country, including six years on the board of the New Harmony Project chairing their script selection process. 

Prior to Stony Brook University, Ken taught at University of California San Diego (UCSD), Emory University, and Indiana University (Head of the MFA in Playwriting).

At SBU, Ken received the 2023-24 Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 2017 Godfrey Teaching Excellence Award.

Areas of interest: In his writing, Ken often uses sports as a lens through which to examine issues in culture, politics, history, and current events.  Additional areas of interest in his writing include explorations into acts of extreme and/or heroic self-sacrifice.

For more information on his plays and teaching:  www.kenweitzman.com