Contemporary drama
Playwright, novelist and theatre director, Joe Martin's works comprise an international, searching and formal exploration into the border regions between the spiritual cosmos and the political world. (He also write on spirituality under the pen name Yousef Daoud.)
He is the recipient of various grants and awards as a writer and director--including a Fulbright Senior Fellowship in Theatre, and grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the American Scandinavian Foundation, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, among others. He has twice been rostered as a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Theatre.
His books include: Foreigners (A Novel, Hi Jinx); Parabola--Shorter Fictions (Asylum Arts); Conspiracies: Six Plays by Joe Martin (Aran Press & Press Open); Rumi's MATHNAVI--A Theatre Adapatation (Asylum Arts); Strindberg--Other Sides (Peter Lang Publishers); Keeper of the Protocols: The Works of Jens Bjorneboe (Peter Lang); The Rose and the Lotus: Sufism and Buddhism (As Yousef Daoud); and is a conributor to the Anthologies Stress City (Paycock Press, fiction) and Heiner Muller in America (Castillo). For has been a frequent contributor to SUFI, a journal of the wisdom traditions.
Also active as a translator of drama from Swedish, Norwegian and Spanish, he has translated many works of August Strindberg, as well as Jens Bjorneboe, and Juan Tovar.
A director and dramaturg of over fifty stage productions in the US, Canada and Europe, his choices have included both originals and classic works: The Ghost Sonata (Washington 1988), Parabola: Tales of the Wise and the Idiots (Washington, 1990), Anatole's Lover (Washington 1991), Woyzeck (1993), The Match Girl's SNOW QUEEN (Washington 1995), Three Plays by Brecht: The Wedding/The Chalk Cross/The Beggar (with Zeljko Djukic, 1997), Rumi's MATHNAVI (Washington and New York, 1998-2001, and the theatre for peace tour 2005), Jose Rivera's Marisol (Bucharest, 2002), and sam Shapard's Simpatico (Baltimore 2009).
He is a Lecturer in the Department of Theatre Arts and Studies, Johns Hopkins University; & Creative Writing at George Washington University.
