Playwright, Screenwriter Angus MacLachlan To Speak at High School Ceremony
Newswise — Chancellor John Mauceri has announced that Peter Bogdanovich, director of such films as THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, WHAT’S UP, DOC?, PAPER MOON and MASK, and Angus MacLachlan, writer of such films as TATER TOMATER, JUNEBUG and STONE (due out May 7 and starring Edward Norton, Robert De Niro and Milla Jovovich), will speak at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) commencement ceremonies for college and high school graduates, respectively, on Saturday, May 29.
Both of the speakers have ties to UNCSA. Bogdanovich recently joined the School of Filmmaking faculty at the invitation of his friend, Dean Jordan Kerner. MacLachlan is a two-time graduate of the School of the Arts, having earned a high school diploma in Visual Arts in 1975 and Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of Drama in 1980.
Bogdanovich will speak to the college graduates at the 1 p.m. ceremony on May 29. MacLachlan will speak to the high school graduates at the 9 a.m. ceremony. Both will receive honorary doctorates at the ceremonies, which will be held at UNCSA’s Roger L. Stevens Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Winston-Salem.
“Peter Bogdanovich is a Hollywood icon,” said Chancellor Mauceri. “He is an internationally acclaimed feature and documentary film director who also has distinguished himself as a superb actor. In addition, Peter has a wealth of knowledge as a film historian, having interviewed, befriended and written about the great legends of the cinema. “Of course, Peter Bogdanovich is a legend of cinema himself, and we are fortunate to have him as our college commencement speaker,” Mauceri added. “Angus MacLachlan is beloved by this school and his fellow alumni,” said Chancellor Mauceri. “It is gratifying that he is enjoying the fruits of his labors, which have produced a substantial and extraordinary body of work. We are honored to have him join us on this special day.”Perhaps best known as a film director, Peter Bogdanovich is also an actor, author and film historian. Among his most notable roles is that of Lorraine Bracco’s psychiatrist in HBO’s “The Sopranos.”
Born in Kingston, N.Y., Bogdanovich began his career as an actor, studying acting with Stella Adler and appearing on television and in regional theatre. At age 20, he began directing plays Off-Broadway and programming movies at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, where he featured the work of such prominent American directors as Howard Hawks. He turned his program notes into respected literary works about the directors, which allowed him to write a series of feature articles and profiles for Esquire.
His first work as a filmmaker was as Roger Corman’s assistant on THE WILD ANGELS (1966); Corman then financed Bogdanovich’s first film as director, TARGETS (1968), starring Boris Karloff. The next year, Mr. Bogdanovich received both critical and public acclaim with THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971), starring then-unknowns Jeff Bridges and Cybill Shepherd. The film was a brilliant look at small-town life in Texas in the 1950s, and garnered eight Academy Award nominations, including best director and best screenplay (Bogdanovich with Larry McMurtry), and won Oscars for Cloris Leachman and Ben Johnson in supporting roles. Bogdanovich followed up his success with the madcap romantic hit WHAT’S UP, DOC? (1972), starring Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal. Next up was PAPER MOON (1973), starring O’Neal and his nine-year-old daughter, Tatum, as a couple of unlikely con artists. The film received four Academy Award nominations and earned Tatum O’Neal an Oscar, making her the youngest actor ever to win an Oscar. Bogdanovich received critical acclaim for his version of the Henry James novel DAISY MILLER (1974), for which he was named Best Director at the Brussels Film Festival. SAINT JACK (1979), starring Ben Gazzara, received the Critics’ Prize at the Venice Film Festival. In 1981, he directed Audrey Hepburn in what would be her last starring role, THEY ALL LAUGHED. Another major triumph was in store when he directed the critically acclaimed MASK (1985), starring Cher and Eric Stoltz in a true story about a mother and son affected by the son’s rare, disfiguring disease. Cher received the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
In 1990, Bogdanovich directed the well-received sequel to THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, TEXASVILLE, and in 1992, he directed the film version of the classic theatre comedy NOISES OFF… with an all-star cast including Michael Caine, Carol Burnett, Christopher Reeve, and John Ritter. In 2002, he directed THE CAT’S MEOW (2002), which told the true story of a mysterious 1924 death on board the yacht of William Randolph Hearst, and starred Kirsten Dunst, Eddie Izzard, and Edward Herrmann. In 2004, he directed the hard-hitting docudrama HUSTLE, about baseball player Pete Rose, whose career was marred by gambling, and the three-hour ABC-TV special THE MYSTERY OF NATALIE WOOD.
It was in 2000 that Bogdanovich began his six-season run playing the psychiatrist to psychiatrist Lorraine Bracco on the epoch-making HBO Series "The Sopranos."
In 2006, Bogdanovich heavily revised his 1971 documentary, DIRECTED BY JOHN FORD, to include interviews with Ford fans Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg; the film had its world premiere at the 2006 Telluride Film Festival. In 2007, he directed the highly praised four-hour documentary RUNNIN’ DOWN A DREAM: TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS, and won a Grammy for Best Long Form Music Video.
Bogdanovich has written more than a dozen books about films and filmmaking. His best-selling “Who the Devil Made It: Conversations with Legendary Film Directors” (1997) including Hitchcock, Hawks, Fritz Lang, and 13 others, established him as one of the best writers ever to chronicle the art form. His companion volume, “Who the Hell’s In It” features chapters on 25 stars he knew or worked with, including Cary Grant, John Wayne, James Stewart, James Cagney, Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando. “This is Orson Welles,” published in 1992 and revised and expanded in 1998, features book-length conversations with the legendary actor and director. “Peter Bogdanovich’s Movie of the Week,” published in 1999, features recommendations for a year of classic films. His interview book, “John Ford,” has been in print continuously since it was first published in 1967. Other of his awards include a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award and nomination, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Denver International Film Institute, two Golden Globe nominations, a Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) award, the William K. Everson Film History Award, a New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) award, and nominations from both the Writers Guild of America and Directors Guild of America. He has also received two honorary doctorates, from Fairleigh Dickinson University and Emerson College.
Most recently, he received the Master of Cinema Award from the 2010 RiverRun International Film Festival.
Bogdanovich joined the UNCSA School of Filmmaking faculty in the spring of 2010. An actor, playwright and screenwriter, Angus MacLachlan was honored by his alma mater last fall when he received UNCSA’s inaugural Alumni Recognition Award.
He has acted with Charlotte Repertory Theatre, Manbites Dog Theatre, Barter Theatre, and North Carolina Black Repertory Theatre, and has appeared in Children of a Lesser God, Master Harold … and the Boys, Holiday, The Substance of Fire, and The Tempest. He won a Best Supporting Actor Award from Creative Loafing magazine for his portrayal of Louis in the landmark production of both parts of Angels in America for Charlotte Repertory Theatre. He has appeared in the films REUBEN, REUBEN with Academy Award-nominated Tom Conti, and most recently in Ramin Bahrani’s GOODBYE SOLO.MacLachlan’s play The Dead Eye Boy was selected as the 2000 Lois and Richard Rosenthal New Play Prize Award winner and was premiered by Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. It was a finalist for the Steinberg New Play Prize, presented by the American Theatre Critics Association, and, starring Lili Taylor, opened in New York at the Manhattan Class Company in April 2001. It was nominated for two Drama Desk Awards. In January 2002, it opened in London at the Hampstead Theatre, starring Olivier Award winner Brendan Coyle. It is published by Dramatists Play Service.
MacLachlan’s play Bridge won the 2000 New Works Prize presented by Actor’s Theatre of Santa Rosa. In 2001, the Williamstown Theatre Festival nominated him for the Kesselring Prize.
In 2002 he was commissioned by Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, D.C. The play, The Radiant Abyss, premiered at the Kennedy Center in June 2004, was produced by Profiles Theatre Company in Chicago in 2005, and is published by Dramatists Play Service.
MacLachlan has also written and performed three one-man shows: Bound and Gagged, Buena Vista, and Marginal Living, which was then filmed and shown on University of North Carolina Public Television and on KTEH, San José Public TV’s “video i” series.
An 18-minute short film he wrote, TATER TOMATER, directed by Phil Morrison, aired on “American Playhouse” and screened at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival. In May 2001, it was seen at the Museum of Modern Art, in First Run Features “Best of 25 Years” retrospective, and also presented there by the Sundance Institute in 2005. MOMA has requested it for their permanent collection.
MacLachlan wrote the screenplay for the feature JUNEBUG, which was selected for the Dramatic Competition at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, and won a Special Jury Citation for Acting for Amy Adams. It was also selected to be in the New Director/New Films Festival sponsored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art, and was in the International Critics Week at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, the LA Film Festival, and the Edinburgh Festival. For the film, MacLachlan was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay, and Best Screenplay by the Washington Area Film Critics. JUNEBUG was selected as Best Screenplay, 2005 by the International Cinephile Society. The film was listed on more than 50 Top Ten lists for 2005, including Roger Ebert, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and National Public Radio, and given a Special Mention for Excellence in Filmmaking by the National Board of Review. Amy Adams was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in the film. JUNEBUG also won the Lady Harimaguada de Plata at the Internacinal Festival Cine Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
In 2008, MacLachlan was commissioned by the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, Calif., to write Southeastern Center for Contemporary Arts, which had its world premiere at the Burning Coal Theatre in Raleigh (run just ended May 2).
MacLachlan’s original screenplay, STONE, directed by John Curran, is scheduled for release by Overture Films on May 7, 2010.
The University of North Carolina School of the Arts is the first state-supported, residential school of its kind in the nation. Established as the North Carolina School of the Arts by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, UNCSA opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of Arts and Innovation”) in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system in 1972. More than 1,100 students from middle school through graduate school train for careers in the arts in five professional schools: Dance, Design and Production (including a Visual Arts Program), Drama, Filmmaking, and Music. UNCSA is the state’s only public arts conservatory, dedicated entirely to the professional training of talented students in the performing, visual and moving image arts. Internationally renowned conductor John Mauceri has been chancellor of UNCSA since 2006. UNCSA is located at 1533 S. Main St., Winston-Salem. For more information, visit www.uncsa.edu.
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