Robert Schenkkan

Robert Schenkkan was born in Chapel Hill, N. Carolina, the third of four sons to Bob Schenkkan, Sr. and Jean McKenzie. He grew up in Austin, Texas, graduated from Stephen F. Austin High School and entered the University of Texas as a double major in Plan II Honors and in the Department of Drama, Fine Arts. He graduated with a B.A. in Drama and was selected by his peers as “Best Actor.” He graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude, and was inducted into the Friars’ Society, one of the first Drama students to be so chosen. Robert attended Cornell University on a full-scholarship and graduated with an M.F.A in Theater/Acting. He then moved to New York where he began his career appearing on Broadway (GR POINT), off-Bway, (THE FOREIGNER), at iconic NYC theater institutions such as the Public Theater, Manhattan Theater, etc. as well as Regional Theaters across the country. He also did considerable work as an actor in Film (PUMP UP THE VOLUME) and Television (STAR TREK, ACT OF VENGEANCE, etc). His first play, Final Passages, received its world premiere production at the Arena Theater under the direction of A.J. Antoon, and was quickly optioned for Broadway. It also brought Robert to the attention of noted theatrical agent, Helen Merrill, and gained him entry into New Dramatists and the Ensemble Studio Theater. Robert wrote two other plays, Heaven on Earth and Tachinoki and a handful of one-acts published as Conversations with the Spanish Lady before he wrote The Kentucky Cycle. This ambitious epic, spanning two hundred years of history in Eastern Kentucky and running six hours brought him national attention. Time Magazine declared that the play, “Aspires to nothing less than the history of the United States. It strives for mythic power – and achieves it.” In Los Angeles, the play won the LA Drama Critics Award, and the Penn West Award, and Robert would be honored by separate declarations by the City of Los Angeles and the State of California. The play won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Theater, shattering 75 years of Pulitzer tradition as it became the first play to win before it received a NY production. The Kentucky Cycle went on to Broadway where it was nominated for Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, and Drama League Award. That same year, the University of Texas honored Robert with the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award. With the success of The Kentucky Cycle, Robert moved his young family to Seattle, stopped acting, and devoted himself to writing full time. Over the next 25 years, Robert would write and publish twelve other full-length plays: Old Cock, The Investigation, Building the Wall, Hanussen, Shadowplay, Handler, By the Waters of Babylon, Lewis and Clark Reach the Euphrates, The Marriage of Miss Hollywood and King Neptune; The Dream Thief; A Single Shard; and The Devil And Daniel Webster. Simultaneously, he became one of Hollywood’s most in-demand writers working with Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Oliver Stone, Robert Redford, Kevin Costner, Denzel Washington, and others. He co-authored the films, Hacksaw Ridge (6 Academy Award Nominations) and The Quiet American. For television he wrote the movie, Crazy Horse, and the mini-series, Spartacus, and The Andromeda Strain (six Emmy Nominations). In 2010 he wrote four episodes of the acclaimed HBO miniseries, The Pacific, and received two Emmy nominations and a Writers Guild Award for his work.