Guest Artist of the Acuff Chair of Excellence

Five Savory Dishes is a series of short plays from the Oscar, Tony and Pulitzer winning playwright, John Patrick Shanley (Doubt, Moonstruck) dealing with the confusing sophisticated lives of modern people living in-between reality and a dream state. Like a good meal, it’s complex, savory, and a transitory state between empty and full… the state of modern existence.

John Patrick Shanley  is a graduate of NYU and a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre. He received the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for his 1987 film Moonstruck In 1990, Shanley directed his script of Joe Vs. the Volcano starring Tom Hanks and also wrote two songs for it. In 1995, he wrote the screenplay for the film Congo. In 2005 Shanley’s play Doubt: a Parable was awarded the Pulitzer prize for Drama, and the Drama Desk and Tony awards for Best Play.  He wrote and directed the film version of Doubt in 2008 starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis. This film was nominated for 5 Oscars, BAFTAS, Critics Choice Awards, SAG Awards, and Golden Globes. It won SAG and Critics Choice Awards. Mr. Shanley is the author of more than 23 plays which are frequently produced in the USA and Europe.

These World Premiere plays will be directed by Freddie Ashley. Freddie Ashley is Artistic Director of Actor’s Express in Atlanta. He has directed over 40 AE productions and is a multiple Suzi Bass Award winner (Best Play – Angels in America, The Crucible; Best Musical – Rent; Best Director – Rent, Angels in America, Grey Gardens; Best Actor – The Whale). Other directing work includes Aurora Theatre, Dad’s Garage, Jewish Theatre of the South and Atlanta Lyric Theatre. New play development work includes Playwrights’ Center, Kennedy Center, Alliance Theatre (recipient of the 2007 Regional Theatre Tony Award), Page 73 and the New Group, working with playwrights like Joshua Harmon, Lindsey Ferrentino, Michael Lew and Marco Ramirez. He has received the Elliot Hayes Award for Dramaturgy from the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Medallion of Excellence. Ashley is Vice-President of the National New Play Network. He is on faculty at Kennesaw State University and Georgia State University, and he holds an MFA from the University of Southern Mississippi.

This collection of plays is being produced by the Department of Theatre & Dance as part of the 2019-2020 Acuff season of shows which, aside from Mr. Ashley and Mr. Shanley, also features a Drama Desk nominated Director/Choreographer, a Jeff nominated Actor, and the top flying effects company in the US, for the spring musical Addams Family.