Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance

Ralph Arzoomanian, 20th Century Armenian Playwright

Ralph (Raffi) Arzoomanian was born in 1937 in Providence, Rhode Island, and was educated at Boston University and the University of Iowa where he earned a Ph.D. in dramatic art. While a student at Iowa, he won first prize two years in a row in the National Collegiate Playwriting Contest with Lady Esther and The Coop. During 1965-66, which he spent as a playwriting fellow at Yale, The Coop was produced at the Actor’s Playhouse in New York. The Moths was produced in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. between 1968 and 1970. He was a professor of theatre at Lehman College of the City University of New York for 35 years, retiring in 2002. His one-act play, The Tack Room, was published in Best American Short Plays of 1992. Another one-act play, Ellis Island 101, based on a true story told to the playwright by his mother, Elmas Arzoomanian, has appeared in several collections and been produced numerous times both abroad and in the U.S.– more than once on Ellis Island itself.

PRODUCTIONS

LADY ESTHER, 1964

THE COOP, Actors Playhouse, New York, 1965

THE MOTHS, Mark Taper Forum, L.A., 1968
–Washington Theatre Club, 1969
–Mercury Theatre, 1970
– Los Angeles, 1999

ELLIS ISLAND 101

THE TACK ROOM

CARLOTTA FOUQUET

AWARDS

THE TACK ROOM, included in BEST AMERICAN SHORT PLAYS OF 1992 (Applause Books)
- Winner, National Collegiate Playwriting Contest, 1964 and 1965

PUBLICATIONS

FOUR PLAYS, Ararat Press, 1980 (includes LADY ESTHER, THE COOP, THE MOTHS, ELLIS ISLAND 101)

ELLIS ISLAND 101 in CONTEMPORARY ARMENIAN AMERICAN DRAMA, edited by Nishan Parlakian (Columbia University Press, 2004)

THE TACK ROOM in BEST AMERICAN SHORT PLAYS OF 1992 (Applause Books)