# Kate Fodor

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{{Short description|American playwright and television writer}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2022}}
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| name               =  Kate Fodor
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| occupation         = Playwright, writer
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| notable_works      =  Hannah and Martin, 100 Saints You Should Know, RX, Fifty Ways
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'''Kate Fodor''' is an American playwright and television writer. Her debut play, ''Hannah and Martin'', opened Off-Broadway on March 20, 2004 by the Epic Theatre Ensemble. The play, based on the relationship between political theorist [Hannah Arendt](/source/Hannah_Arendt) and philosopher [Martin Heidegger](/source/Martin_Heidegger), received favorable reviews: Margo Jefferson in ''[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)'' called the play "thoughtful and ambitious";<ref>''[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)'', April 2, 2004</ref> in ''[Variety](/source/Variety_(magazine))'', Marilyn Stasio said, "Strong on craft, Fodor handles the structural logistics like a clever mathematician patiently working her way through a tricky formula."<ref>''[Variety](/source/Variety_(magazine))'', April 14, 2004</ref> The play won the Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays and a Joseph Jefferson Citation for New Work.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/theater/fnap/past.htm | title=Calendar &#124; Kennedy Center }}</ref> It was also a finalist for the [Susan Smith Blackburn Prize](/source/Susan_Smith_Blackburn_Prize).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blackburnprize.org/finalistsA-D.htm |title=The Prize |accessdate=2009-03-05 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090608092535/http://www.blackburnprize.org/finalistsA-D.htm |archivedate=2009-06-08 }}</ref>

Fodor followed this with the play ''100 Saints You Should Know,'' also Off-Broadway, at Playwrights Horizons, in September 2007, about a priest in the midst of his own spiritual crisis interacting with a small galaxy of people experiencing theirs as well.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-xpm-2011-may-29-la-ca-100-saints-playwright-20110529-story.html |title=Kate Fodor explores longings, religious and otherwise, in '100 Saints You Should Know' |newspaper=[Los Angeles Times](/source/Los_Angeles_Times) |first=Rob |last=Weinert-Kendt |date=1999-08-18 |access-date=2014-01-31}}</ref> Ben Brantley of ''The New York Times'' took issue with what he described as the play's "Platonic" tone that resulted in "a static collection of portraits," but acknowledged, "Ms. Fodor has a fine sense of the forms of emotional aggression, passive and otherwise, that can infuse even the most banal exchanges between parents and children" and "a good ear for the kinks and curls of speech of people of different generations and education."<ref>{{Cite news|newspaper=[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)|first=Ben|last=Brantley|title=Seeking Spiritual Bonds and Earthly Ones, Too|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/theater/reviews/19saints.html?_r=0|date=2007-09-19}}</ref> The play was called "one of the year's 10 best" by ''[Entertainment Weekly](/source/Entertainment_Weekly)'' and TimeOut New York in 2007 and went on to productions in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and St. Louis, among others. The play won the Roger L. Stevens Award from the National Theatre Conference.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/theater/fnap/past.html |title=Kennedy Center: Fund for New American Plays Grant Recipients |accessdate=2012-06-07 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120523191630/http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/theater/fnap/past.html |archivedate=2012-05-23 }}</ref>

Her next play, the romantic comedy ''Rx,'' represented a shift in tone, exploring in a satiric way the vagaries of the powers of the pharmaceutical industry; it also debuted Off-Broadway, at [Primary Stages](/source/Primary_Stages), on Jan. 24, 2012.<ref>{{cite news|last=Raden |first=Bill |url=http://www.laweekly.com/publicspectacle/2014/01/14/kate-fodors-play-rx-satirizes-your-tendency-to-overmedicate |title=Kate Fodor's Play Rx Satirizes Your Tendency to Overmedicate |newspaper=[LA Weekly](/source/LA_Weekly) |date=2013-10-03 |accessdate=2014-01-31}}</ref> Its reviews were positive, with Charles Isherwood from ''The New York Times'' praising its "winning combination of light satire and romance" and deeming the production a "Critic's Pick"<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/theater/reviews/marin-hinkle-in-rx-by-kate-fodor-at-59e59-theaters.html?_r=1& |title=Dr. Feelgood Isn't Feeling Quite Like Himself |newspaper=[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)|first=Charles |last=Isherwood |date=2012-02-07 |accessdate=2014-01-31}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Michael |last=Feingold |url=http://www.villagevoice.com/2012-02-15/theater/rx-a-prescription-for-laughter/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140131015106/http://www.villagevoice.com/2012-02-15/theater/rx-a-prescription-for-laughter/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 31, 2014 |title=Rx: A Prescription for Laughter |newspaper=[Village Voice](/source/Village_Voice)|date=2012-02-15 |access-date=2014-01-31}}</ref> Writing in ''The Village Voice'', [Michael Feingold](/source/Michael_Feingold) called ''Rx'' "a sharp, tenderly sardonic new comedy" and "a thornily funny image of today's screwed-up world." Feingold compared the play to the films of [Ernst Lubitsch](/source/Ernst_Lubitsch) "with their enchanting mixture of sweetness and sting."<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.villagevoice.com/2012-02-15/theater/rx-a-prescription-for-laughter/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140131015106/http://www.villagevoice.com/2012-02-15/theater/rx-a-prescription-for-laughter/|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 31, 2014|title=Rx: A Prescription for Laughter|last=Feingold|first=Michael|date=2012-02-15|newspaper=Village Voice|access-date=2016-10-25}}</ref>

Fodor's play "Fifty Ways" was the inaugural commission in the new plays program at Chautauqua Theater Company, the professional theater company of the [Chautauqua Institution](/source/Chautauqua_Institution). The play was produced there in 2012.<ref>[http://artvoice.com/issues/v11n28/theaterweek/fifty_ways Fifty ways] Art Voice {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227160702/http://artvoice.com/issues/v11n28/theaterweek/fifty_ways |date=February 27, 2014 }}</ref>

Fodor's plays have been published or excerpted in a number of anthologies and are published by Dramatists Play Service.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/search.asp |title=Archived copy |access-date=2014-02-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223224327/https://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/search.asp |archive-date=2014-02-23 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Fodor was a 2013 Guggenheim fellow in playwriting<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/kate-fodor/|title=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation {{!}} Kate Fodor|website=www.gf.org|access-date=2016-10-26}}</ref> and has been a fellow at the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, a resident playwright at New Dramatists in New York and a member of the New Play Frontiers program at People's Light & Theater Company in Malvern, Pennsylvania. She has taught playwriting at the University of Pennsylvania.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://newdramatists.org/kate-fodor | title=Kate Fodor &#124; New Dramatists }}</ref>

As a television writer, Fodor has developed pilots for AMC and Starz. She produced and wrote episodes of the series [The_Marvelous_Mrs._Maisel](/source/The_Marvelous_Mrs._Maisel), and produced and wrote one episode of [Julia](/source/Julia_(2022_TV_series)).

Fodor is the daughter of the cognitive scientist and philosopher [Jerry Fodor](/source/Jerry_Fodor) and the linguist [Janet Dean Fodor](/source/Janet_Dean_Fodor). Fodor has a daughter named Lucy, born in 2005, to whom she dedicated the published version of her comedy Rx, calling her "the funniest person I know."

Fodor is a graduate of [Oberlin College](/source/Oberlin_College).

== References ==
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Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Living people
Category:21st-century American dramatists and playwrights
Category:Place of birth missing (living people)
Category:Writers Guild of America Award winners

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Kate Fodor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Fodor) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Fodor?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.