Israel Horovitz

Israel Horovitz (March 31, 1939 – November 9, 2020) was an American playwright, director, actor and co-founder of the Gloucester Stage Company in 1979. He served as artistic director until 2006 and later served on the board, ex officio and as artistic director emeritus until his resignation in November 2017 after The New York Times reported allegations of sexual misconduct. Horovitz wrote more than 70 plays, many of which were translated and performed in various languages. He was the founder of the New York Playwrights Lab, and his best-known plays include Line, Park Your Car in Harvard Yard, and The Indian Wants the Bronx. Horovitz also had a film career, with notable works including the 1982 film Author! Author! and the 2014 film My Old Lady. Throughout his career, he received numerous awards and recognitions for his work in theatre and film. However, he faced multiple sexual assault and harassment accusations from women associated with his theatre companies. Early life and career Horovitz was born to a Jewish family in Wakefield, Massachusetts, the son of Hazel Rose (née Solberg) and Julius Charles Horovitz, a lawyer. At age 13, he wrote his first novel, which was rejected by Simon & Schuster but complimented for its "wonderful, childlike qualities." At age 17, he wrote his first play, entitled The Comeback, which was performed at nearby Suffolk University. He worked as a taxi driver, a stagehand and an advertising executive before having his first success in the theatre with his play The Indian Wants the Bronx, which featured two yet-undiscovered future film stars: John Cazale and Al Pacino. The play premiered in 1966 at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut. Pacino and Cazale starred; it was the first of six collaborations between them. The play was then staged in conjunction with the playwright's It's Called the Sugar Plum and directed by James Hammerstein as the opening production of the new off-Broadway Astor Place Theatre, where it opened on January 17, 1968 and ran for 177 performances. Following his debut, about which The New York Posts Jerry Tallmer wrote "Welcome, Mr. Horovitz," Random House published a collection of four of his plays, entitled First Season (1968). Horovitz wrote two novels: Cappella (Harper and Row) and Guignol's Legacy (Three Rooms Press); a novella, Nobody Loves Me (Les Editions de Minuit); and a collection of poetry, Heaven and Others Poems (Three Rooms Press).