Ethan Silverman
Ethan Silverman (born 25 November 1959) is a writer, theatre director, filmmaker, and producer.
Early life
Ethan Silverman was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and Albany, New York. He attended Oberlin College and The Drama Studio, London. He began his professional career as Jack Hofsiss’s assistant on the Broadway production of The Elephant Man and the television play The Oldest Living Graduate with Henry Fonda. He worked for managers of The Ramones and Steve Forbert, Danny Fields and Linda Stein and was a reader for Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman.
Career
Silverman has directed at many theatres around the country, most notably his adaptation of Pete Townshend’s The Boy Who Heard Music at the New York Stage & Film/Powerhouse Theatre at Vassar College in 2007. He also collaborated with Mr. Townshend on a workshop production of Psychoderelict starring Peter Gallagher in 1999. He directed Ron Silver in Robert Greenfield’s Bill Graham Presents at various theatres around the country including the Berkshire Theatre Festival, The Cannon in Beverly Hills and the HBO Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen where it won Best Play. Other theatres include the Long Wharf, the Kennedy Center, the Mark Taper Forum, Naked Angels, La MaMa Etc., and MCC Theater.
As a filmmaker Silverman wrote and directed the short Central Park with dancers Robert LaFosse and John Kelly (1996 Sundance Film Festival and 1997 PBS) and the Documentary about Russian adoption, The Waiting Children (1997 Sundance Film Festival). As a screenwriter he has collaborated with producer Gary Foster and Barry Levinson on his original screenplay My Italian Story and with Boy George on a fantasy bio pic based on Boy George’s life. He edited and wrote the introduction for photographer Rivka Katvan’s Backstage: Broadway Behind The Curtain (Harry N. Abrams).
In 2008 Silverman was a writer in residence at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, New York, and a writer/director in residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in Manhattan, where he collaborated with director Jack Hofsiss on a one-man show titled Jack From Above.
Silverman is currently an Adjunct Professor in the MFA Design & Technology Program at Parsons The New School for Design where he teaches Thesis Writing and Research and Narrative Strategies. He created an experimental workshop between Parsons and The New School for Drama with Pippin Parker. In 2016, he led this workshop in Providence, R.I. between RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) and Brown University.
He is developing a game app for heavy metal band Judas Priest with Bill Curbishley. He is married to literary agent and producer Erica Spellman-Silverman.