Rob Urbinati

In New York, Urbinati directed the world premieres Staceyann Chin’s Border/Clash for the Culture Project; Eric Bogosian’s Griller for the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab; James Armstrong’s Foggy Bottom, Jan Buttram’s The President and Her Mistress and Al Letson’s Summer in Sanctuary at the Abingdon; Kirk Bromley’s Syndrome at the Greenwich Street Theatre, Bromley and Jessica Grace Wing’s Lost at the Connelly Theatre; and Anne DeSalvo’s Mamma Roma at Cherry Lane Theatre.

Urbinati has directed at universities and colleges across the country including Concordia College in Minnesota, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Doane College in Nebraska, LaGuardia Community College in New York City, Clark University in Massachusetts, University of Oregon, University of Nebraska Omaha and New York University, where he directed Jeff Whitty’s Suicide Weather

Recently, Urbinati directed Al Letson’s The Centre Cannot Hold at the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto and the Five and Dime Theatre in Jacksonville, Florida.

Urbinati’s play, As A Mighty River, which he co-wrote with Melissa Maxwell, was selected for a workshop by the 2019 Black and Latino Playwrights Celebration at Texas State University, curated by Eugene Lee.

His book, Play Readings: A Complete Guide for Theatre Practitioners (2015) is published by Focal Press/Routledge.

Death By Design (2010) written in a mash-up of styles of Noël Coward and Agatha Christie, commissioned and produced by Houston Family Arts Center; Mama’s Boy (2013), based on the lives of Marguerite Oswald and Lee Harvey Oswald, which premiered at Good Theater in Maine (2015) and Our Boy (2017) which premiered at the Minnesota Fringe Festival in 2017. Hazelwood Jr. High, Murder on West Moon Street, Mama’s Boy and Death By Design (as well as an alternate version with songs by Peter Mills) are published by Samuel French. Cole Porter’s Nymph Errant, UMW: University of Mostly Whites and The Queen Bees are published by Steele Spring Stage Rights. His plays have received over two hundred productions worldwide.

In March 2009, on the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, the United Nations, in association with the Culture Project, presented Breaking the Silence, Beating the Drum to which Urbinati contributed material. It was performed in the United Nations General Assembly Hall and directed by Kenny Leon, with Nile Rodgers as Musical Director, featuring Akon, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Izaline Calister, CCH Pounder, Toumani Diabate, Gilberto Gil, Salif Keita, Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, Bill T. Jones, Ky-Mani Marley, Phylicia Rashad, and Stew.

In 2007 the Prospect Theater Company production of Urbinati’s Murder on West Moon Street was nominated for 8 New York Innovative Theatre Awards for Outstanding Full Length Play, Outstanding Production of a Play, Outstanding Director, Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role, 2 for Outstanding Actor in a Lead Role, Outstanding Actress in a Featured Role and Outstanding Costume Design. In the same year, the Queens Theatre production of his musical Shangri La was also nominated for 4 New York Innovative Theatre Awards for Outstanding Production of a Musical, Outstanding Choreography/Movement, Outstanding Sound Design and Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role.

The Culture Project’s 2005 production of Staceyann Chin’s Border/Clash directed by Urbinati was nominated for the 2006 GLAAD Media Award, Outstanding New York Theater: Broadway and Off-Broadway.

Rob Urbinati was born in Framingham, Massachusetts and currently resides in New York City. He received a BA from the University of Massachusetts, an MA from the University of Nebraska Omaha and in 1994 was awarded a PhD in theatre arts from the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences.

Rob Urbinati (born August 12, 1952) is a freelance playwright, screenwriter, book author and theater director based in New York City. He is also director of new play development at Queens Theatre.

Plays written by Rob Urbinati include an adaptation of August Strindberg’s 1888 play Miss Julie, Miss Julie in Hollywood (1993), produced in Seattle at Northwest Actors Studio in 1994, starring Heidi Schreck; Hazelwood Jr. High (1996), about the Murder of Shanda Sharer, which premiered at The New Group and starred Chloë Sevigny; Cruel and Barbarous Treatment (1999) based on the 1939 Mary McCarthy short story, at Gloucester Stage Company; Karaoke Night at the Suicide Shack (2002) and The Queen Bees (formerly named Shangri-La) (2006) at Queens Theatre; Rebel Voices (2006), an adaptation of Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove’s Voices of a People’s History of the United States at Culture Project with a rotating cast including Staceyann Chin, Steve Earle, Danny Glover, Lenelle Moïse, Rich Robinson, Lili Taylor, and Wallace Shawn; Murder on West Moon Street (2006) which was based on Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, an Oscar Wilde short story and Cole Porter’s Nymph Errant (2001) produced by the Prospect Theatre Company; UMW: University of Mostly Whites (2012) commissioned and produced by Linfield College;