Daniel Therriault (born 1953)Janice Arkatov
"Therriault's Dark Side of Paradise Is 'White Death',"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', November 21, 1987.Wayne Harada
"New play: universal ideas, Isle-style,"
''

Honolulu Advertiser ''The Honolulu Advertiser'' was a daily newspaper published in Honolulu, Hawaii. At the time publication ceased on June 6, 2010, it was the largest daily newspaper in the American state of Hawaii. It published daily with special Sunday and Int ...

'', January 23, 1986. is an American playwright, screenwriter and actor. He wrote the stage play ''Battery'' and the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

films ''

First Time Felon ''First Time Felon'' is a 1997 drama film starring Omar Epps. Plot A young inexperienced drug dealer and Vice Lords gang member, Greg Yance (Omar Epps), is arrested for drug possession in his hometown, Chicago. Because of Yance having five grams o ...

'' and ''

Witness Protection Witness protection is security provided to a threatened person providing testimonial evidence to the justice system, including defendants and other clients, before, during, and after a trial, usually by police. While a witness may only require p ...

''.

Early life

Therriault was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Since 1978, he has been based in New York City.R.C. Morgan-Wilde
"Playwright visits to charge ETC production of his 'Battery',"
''

Tallahassee Democrat The ''Tallahassee Democrat'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper. It covers the area centered on Tallahassee in Leon County, Florida, as well as adjacent Gadsden County, Jefferson County, and Wakulla County. The newspaper is owned by Gannett Co., ...

'', October 25, 1984.

Career

Theatre

As an actor in Chicago's off-Loop theatre movement in the 1970s, Therriault was nominated for a 1977

Jeff Award The Joseph Jefferson Award, more commonly known informally as the Jeff Award, is given for theatre arts produced in the Chicago area. Founded in 1968, the awards are named in tribute to actor Joseph Jefferson, a 19th-century American theater star ...

for Best Actor in a Principal Role for ''Who's Happy Now?'' at the Body Politic Theatre. He portrayed

Mercutio Mercutio ( , ) is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's 1597 tragedy, ''Romeo and Juliet''. He is a close friend to Romeo and a blood relative to Prince Escalus and Count Paris. As such, Mercutio is one of the named characters in the p ...

in the

Oak Park Festival Theatre Oak Park Festival Theatre (OPFT) is a professional theatre company in Oak Park, Illinois, under contract with Actors' Equity Association. The company was founded in 1975 by Marion Kaczmar, an Oak Park resident and arts patron, and performed Renaissa ...

's open-air production of ''

Romeo and Juliet ''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...

'' in 1977, and did seasons at the

Alley Theatre The Alley Theatre is a Tony Award-winning theatre company in Houston, Texas. It is the oldest professional theatre company in Texas and the third oldest resident theatre in the United States. Alley Theatre productions have played on Broadway at L ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, Texas, in 1976–77, and at the

Milwaukee Repertory Theater Milwaukee Repertory Theater ("Milwaukee Rep") is a theater company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founded as the Fred Miller Theatre Company, the group is housed in the Patty & Jay Baker Theater Complex, which includes the Quadracci Powerhouse Theater, ...

in 1977–78. After relocating to New York City, he performed in ''The Mad Dog Blues'' at Shep in Rep Rock N' Roll Theatre in 1979. Around 1980, Therriault started writing. His first effort was the three-character stage play ''Battery'', a black comedy set in Chicago that would go on to win six

Drama-Logue Awards The Drama-Logue Award was an American theater award established in 1977, given by the publishers of Drama-Logue newspaper, a weekly west-coast theater trade publication. Winners were selected by the publication's theater critics, and would recei ...

.Alvin Klein
"'Battery,' Tale Of an Outcast Reborn,"
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', May 5, 1991. The play depicts domineering electrician Rip, who manipulates the lives of his girlfriend Brandy and manic-depressive apprentice Stan.Lawrence Bommer
"Offbeat 'Battery' A Bolt Of Energizing, Eclectic Comedy,"
''Chicago Tribune'', July 26, 1991. Its off-Broadway run at St. Clements in Manhattan in 1981 was the professional stage debut of actress

Holly Hunter Holly Patricia Hunter (born March 20, 1958) is an American actress. For her performance as Ada McGrath in the 1993 drama film ''The Piano'', Hunter won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She earned three additional Academy Award nominations for ...

, who would go on to win the

Academy Award for Best Actress The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. ...

for ''

The Piano ''The Piano'' is a 1993 period drama film written and directed by Jane Campion. Starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, and Anna Paquin in her first major acting role, the film focuses on a mute Scottish woman who travels to a remote p ...

''. The play was also produced by

The Actors' Gang The Actors' Gang is an experimental theatre and nonprofit group based at the Ivy Substation in Culver City, California. It was founded in 1981 by a group of actors, including Tim Robbins, now a member of the board and Artistic Director of the tr ...

at Second Stage in Los Angeles in 1986 and 1989, directed by Richard Olivier and produced by

Tim Robbins Timothy Francis Robbins (born October 16, 1958) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for portraying Andy Dufresne in the film ''The Shawshank Redemption ''(1994), and has won an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards for his role ...

and

Meg Ryan Meg Ryan (born Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra; November 19, 1961) is an American actress. She began her acting career in 1981 when she made her acting debut in the drama film ''Rich and Famous''. She later joined the cast of the CBS soap opera ...

. Other productions include the Cast Theatre in Los Angeles starring

LeVar Burton Levar Burton Jr. (born February 16, 1957) is an American actor, director, and television host, best known for playing Geordi La Forge in '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' (1987–1994). He also played Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries ''Root ...

in 1983, Minnesota in 1986,

Staatstheater Braunschweig The Staatstheater Braunschweig is a theatre company and opera house in Braunschweig, Germany, presenting and producing music theatre (opera, operetta, musical), Tanztheater, theatre, Theatre for Young Audiences and concerts. The ''Staatstheate ...

in Germany in 1988–89, the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

in Scotland in 1989, and Red Bones Theatre in Chicago in 1991. It was developed for the screen by

Tony Richardson Cecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson (5 June 1928 – 14 November 1991) was an English theatre and film director and producer whose career spanned five decades. In 1964, he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film ''Tom Jones (1963 film ...

and Richard Olivier, but was never produced as a film. A 1986 ''

'' review called Therriault's dialogue "a ripe blend of primitive slang and advanced metaphor." His second full-length play, ''The White Death'', premiered at Kawaiahao Hall Theatre in Hawaii in 1986, and opened at the Cast Theatre in Los Angeles in 1987. Based in Hawaii, ''The White Death'' is a murder mystery in which a priest is sent to Hawaii to investigate a murder connected with his church. ''

The Honolulu Advertiser ''The Honolulu Advertiser'' was a daily newspaper published in Honolulu, Hawaii. At the time publication ceased on June 6, 2010, it was the largest daily newspaper in the American state of Hawaii. It published daily with special Sunday and Int ...

'' deemed it "a controversial play dealing with sex, violence and God." Therriault's one-act ''Floor Above the Roof'' was completed in 1981 and premiered in Chicago in 1987 as part of the Great Chicago Playwrights Exposition at the Body Politic Theatre. It was performed in 1989 as one of four one-act plays in the Working Theatre's ''Working One-Acts '89'' at the Henry Street Settlement Arts for Living Center in New York City. Revolving around four laborers in a Manhattan warehouse, the play is concerned with "how men deal with their hunger for women." Therriault is an alumnus of

New Dramatists New Dramatists is an organization of playwrights founded in 1949 and located at 424 West 44th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues in the Hell's Kitchen (Clinton) neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The members of New Dramatists parti ...

, and received a 1991

McKnight Foundation The McKnight Foundation, a Minnesota-based family foundation, advances a more just, creative, and abundant future where people and planet thrive. Established in 1953, the McKnight Foundation is deeply committed to advancing climate solutions in ...

Artist Fellowship and residency at the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis.

Radio

Therriault's 1992 radio play ''The Hitch'', "a darkly comic road adventure," was chosen to initiate Marjorie Van Halteren's new Radio Stage series on

WNYC WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that di ...

. It is a re-telling of an autobiographical event where Therriault was hitchhiking with a female friend, and a driver tried to kill him and rape her. In 2002, it was translated and broadcast on the German public-broadcasting radio station

Westdeutscher Rundfunk Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (''West German Broadcasting Cologne''; WDR, ) is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the conso ...

. His radio play ''Romance Concerto'', about a concert violinist haunted by the memory of lost love, was performed on WNYC in April 1995.

Television

Therriault wrote the script for the 1997

film ''

'', starring

Omar Epps Omar Hashim Epps (born July 20, 1973) is an American actor, rapper, and producer. He has been awarded nine NAACP Image Awards, two Teen Choice Awards, one MTV Movie Award, one Black Reel Award, and one Screen Actors Guild Award. Epps's film role ...

and

Delroy Lindo Delroy George Lindo (born 18 November 1952) is an English-American actor. He is the recipient of such accolades as a NAACP Image Award, a Satellite Award, and nominations for a Drama Desk Award, a Helen Hayes Award, a Tony Award, two Critics' Cho ...

, and directed by

Charles S. Dutton Charles Stanley Dutton (born January 30, 1951) is an American actor and director. He is best known for his roles in the television series ''Roc (TV series), Roc'' (1991–1994) and the television film ''The Piano Lesson (film), The Piano Lesson'' ...

.Tony Scott
"First-Time Felon,"
''Variety'', September 5, 1997. It tells the story of a young African-American's trials as a first-time convict. He wrote the screenplay for the 1999 HBO film ''

'', starring

Tom Sizemore Thomas Edward Sizemore Jr. (; born November 29, 1961) is an American actor and producer. He is known for his supporting roles in films such as ''Born on the Fourth of July'' (1989), ''Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man'' (1991), ''Passenger 5 ...

as a mobster who tries to save himself by confessing to the FBI, with

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (born November 17, 1958) is an American actress and singer. She made her Broadway debut in the 1980 revival of ''West Side Story'', and went on to appear in the 1983 film '' Scarface'' as Al Pacino's character's siste ...

as his wife and

Forest Whitaker Forest Steven Whitaker (born July 15, 1961) is an American actor. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Forest Whitaker, various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award ...

as a US Marshal, and directed by Richard Pearce. ''Witness Protection'' was nominated for a

Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or Television Film The Golden Globe Award for Best Limited or Anthology Series or Television Film is one of the annual Golden Globe Awards given to the best miniseries or made-for-television film. Winners and nominees 1970s Best Television Film 1980s Best Miniser ...

, and Sizemore was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film.

Personal life

Therriault is married to Alison Mackenzie, a former stage director. They met in the late 1970s when she cast him as the writer

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful e ...

in the play ''October 12, 410 B.C.'', which she was directing at

SoHo Rep The Soho Repertory Theatre, known as Soho Rep,The official website'now use "Soho", with a lowercase h, as do most articles from th''New York Times''/ref> is an American Off-Broadway theater company based in New York City which is notable for prod ...

in New York City. From 2013 to 2017, he was an adjunct professor in film and television at the

New York University Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the ar ...

.Daniel Therriault

Broadway Play Publishing Broadway Play Publishing Inc (BPPI) was established in New York City in 1982 to publish and license the stage performance rights of contemporary American plays. The Broadway Play Publishing Inc catalog consists of over 1,000 plays and nearly 400 ...

. Retrieved March 7, 2018.

Bibliography

* ''Battery'' (

, 1983) *
Floor Above the Roof
' (Broadway Play Publishing, 1984) *
Solo!: The Best Monologues of the 80's
' (ed. Michael Earley and Philippa Keil, Applause Theatre Book Publishers, 1987, pp. 32–34) – includes monologue from ''Battery'' *
Anti-Naturalism: Six Full-Length Contemporary American Plays
' (Broadway Play Publishing, 1989) – includes ''The White Death'' *
100 Monologues: An Audition Sourcebook from New Dramatists
' (ed. Laura Harrington,

Penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

, 1989) – includes ''Battery'', ''Floor Above the Roof'' and ''The White Death''

Works

Theatre

Radio

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Therriault, Daniel Living people 1953 births 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights American male dramatists and playwrights American television writers American male television writers Male actors from Chicago Writers from Chicago Loyola University Chicago alumni Tisch School of the Arts faculty Screenwriters from Illinois 20th-century American male writers