Todd Bash (born 1965) is an
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
from
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
.
He has written more than twenty works for the theatre, many performed and published, as well as prose, poetry and film projects. He is also the creator of numerous
collages, art objects and musical experiments.
His early writing features a gritty, realistic style, and includes ''The Winning Number, Concrete'' and ''Blackouts''.
By the late 1980s, Bash's approach changed radically, moving further and further into avant-garde territory. Often shattering the conventions of traditional theatre, and featuring dream-like imagery, his current style recalls the experiments of the Paris
Surrealists
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
during the 1920s. Among his plays from this period are ''Das Nachtgespenst, Goldring, Nachthunde'' and ''The Final Thoughts Of Stanislaw Bashkiewicz''. His short opera libretto ''Seehunde'' was set to music by Japanese born composer
Shigeru Kan-no
(born May 3, 1959) is a Japanese composer and conductor living in Germany.André de Quadros ''The Cambridge Companion to Choral Music'' 2012 1107493390 p.156 "There has been a marked increase in choral compositions since the founding of the JCA ...
.
Bash has worked with theatre companies in Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia, as well as collaborations with artists from around the world. His writing has appeared in numerous periodicals, including ''Lost and Found Times, Neotrope'' and ''Gestalten'', as well as collections published by Broken Boulder Press
''Final Thoughts''; Broken Boulder Press, 2001
/ref> and Dog Ear Publishing. His book of plays ''Sanctus Fumigaci'' was published in 2007.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bash, Todd
1965 births
Living people
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
Writers from California