BIOGRAPHY

DAVID RODWIN is a Writer/Director/Producer/Actor/Singer/Composer, Avid Bowler, Professional Kite Flyer, Amateur Cellist and Certified Massage Therapist who was born and raised in Stamford, CT and currently lives in Santa Monica, CA.

As a screenwriter, David’s scripts in include: crackwhorepornstarlove: a romance for desperate times, Lenny! (a biopic of maestro Leonard Bernstein focusing on his trip to The Holy Land during the War for Independence), Release Technique (A Racy Romantic Comedy), Spalding and Me (True tale about getting stuck in a Florida swamp for a month with Spalding Gray), Remembering Grace (a Hitchcokian Thriller) and Conquistador (An Waking Life style animated Musical Epic following the Spaniards first contact with the Mayan Kingdom).

David has written and exec. produced the short films Bounty of Joy (dir. Daedra Kaehler), Strung (dir. Marta Mastferrer) and written the music and lyrics for the movie musicals Side Effects (dir. Chris Grant) and Vicious Cycle (dir. Robert Prior).

As a writer/composer/performer for the stage, David premiered his solo opera Trippin’ in New York at La MaMa ETC (2003) after developing it at Chashama(NY), Sacred Fools (LA), Dixon Place, Roulette, Lilli's (Boston), ASK Theatre Projects (LA) and Berkfest. At the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2002), David premiered Monks and Sluts and Statesmen (Oh, My!).

David launched Virtual Motion, his one-man “hyper-opera”, at Sacred Fools in LA (1998) and toured it to over 20 theatres from the "HERE"(NY) to Duke University to NewOp7 (Amsterdam). WARNING!: eXplicit Material! An “avant musical” workshopped at the Disney/ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop and at Dixon Place (2001).

David composed the score for No God But Yearning: A Prayer Cycle which was workshopped at the 2003 Public Theatre’s New Works Now! Festival as well as at Mabou Mines where he was an artist-in-residence (2001-2). David workshopped his multimedia opera ECSTATIC JOURNEY at the Aspen Opera Theatre (1995) and later in New York at American Opera Projects (1997). He also wrote the songs to STAR DREK!: A Musical Parody (which had an 18 month Seattle run before being shut down by Paramount in 1994).

David is also the Founder and Producing Artistic Director of Raw Impressions, Inc. - A non-profit company with divisions in Film (RIPFest) and Music Theatre (RIMT). In this role he designed the architecture of all events accountable for the first 4 years for selecting all participants.

RIPFest is a collaborative event in which 6 short films are made from scratch in 16 days with over 100 filmmakers who have never met before. RIPFest has produced 57 short films in 5 years with the best Broadway talent from Broadway director Lonny Price (A Class Act) to Tonya Pinkins (Tony Award Actor). CBS News said “RIPFest is remaking the magic of movie making”. Backstage hailed us “The Best of The Best” and The NY Press declared we were “A jewel of New York music theatre”.

Raw Impressions has also created 172 ten-minute stage musicals (RIMT) with artists including DJ Javerbaum (Emmy Award-winning head writer for The Daily Show) and Jeffrey Stock (Broadway composer of Triumph of Love). In 2004 RIMT became the youngest organization to win the prestigious Jonathan Larson Foundation Award.

David studied composition with Steve Mackey at Princeton University, where he was also the music director of the a cappella group, The Tigertones. He studied further at Juilliard and Northwestern where he received his masters in music. David has participated in workshops with Chuck Mee, Heather Woodbury and Spalding Gray for a long month at The Atlantic Center for the Arts. He practiced clowning at Dell’Arte in Blue Lake, CA and has trained in Suzuki and Viewpoints for many character and muscle building weeks with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company. David held a director’s observership with Liz LeCompte at the Wooster Group in 1993. He also participated in the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab 2001. He has received grants from ASCAP, ASK Theatre Projects, Meet The Composer and the American Music Center.

David as a wee lad of 30